Garden House Book Week: Part 1
Posted:22 February 2015
Leading up to our special ‘book and stories’ day, Friday 27 February, we’ve asked members of the Garden House’s regular Friday gardening group to tell us about their favourite reading inspirations.
*27 Feb morning 11am and 1pm a FREE drop-in Gardening Books/Magazines Swop, bring garden and garden related books/magazines to swop.
*27 Feb afternoon – 2pm to 4.30pm, cost £15 Make Your Own Garden Design Mood Boards – using our stack of old gardening and garden design magazines, you’ll be able to cut and paste and create mood boards for your garden – and buy tea and homemade cake to enjoy as you work!
*27 Feb evening – 7pm to 9pm, cost £25 to include a light supper and wine Tales from the Plant Hunters: an evening of wondrous storytelling round the fire with local writer Pat Bowen.
Book reviews:
The Secret Garden (by Frances Hudgson Burnett)
Friday gardener Ruth recalls this inspirational book from her childhood: “Not a how-to manual or gardening book but one of my earliest inspirations. My Grandad had a hardback Victorian edition, and I still remember the magical feeling of the neglected garden bursting back into new/renewed life. And the rest as they say is history!”
When Mary Lennox is sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody says she is the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It is true, too. Mary is pale, spoilt and quite contrary. But she is also horribly lonely. Then one day she hears about a garden in the grounds of the Manor that has been kept locked and hidden for years. And when a friendly robin helps Mary find the key, she discovers the most magical place anyone could imagine
The Morville Year (by Katherine Swift)
One of the most admired gardening writers of her generation, Katherine Swift describes a year in the life of the garden she created over twenty years in the grounds of the Dower House at Morville, Shropshire, meditating on everything from the terrain and its history, to the plants and trees, and the odd habits of the animals and humans who inhabit the garden.
Following the turning wheel of the Morville seasons, from the green shoots of spring, through summer and autumn, to the stark beauty of winter, and back to spring again, The Morville Year is a journal full of surprises and enchantments that will appeal not only to gardeners, but to all who enjoy the natural world.
Bridge says this book encompasses everything she loves about gardening: “What a magical book this is and written in such a beautiful way as it takes us through the garden year. It charts her arrival at the garden and the development of the Dower House at Morville Hall. The rich prose reminds you of the reasons you love gardening and being outside. I love the way she generously passes on her knowledge of how to prune, grow and resource plants, and also how she recommends the best varieties. It is an intimate look at what gardening brings, and is written in a style that reminds you of your roots, the earth and all the things that connect you to your place in nature. It is a book to be read over and over againan absolute joy!”
The Well-Tempered Garden (by Christopher Lloyd)
This is a classic work by a gardener who combines a passionate love of his subject with a critical intelligence and a good helping of wit. Packed with the sort of information keen gardeners crave from planting, weeding and the pleasures of propagation to annuals, water lilies and vegetables. Hailed as a masterpiece when it was first published, Christopher Lloyd’s classic is as fresh, enlightening and necessary for gardeners in the 21st century as it was when it first appeared more than 40 years ago.
Ex-Friday gardener Barbara says: “When I started gardening some 7 or 8 years ago, Christopher Lloyd’s writings were my regular ‘go to’ reading, not only for the practical and seasonal knowledge they contained, but for how it ‘feels’ to garden.”
Please note: book outlines & images are borrowed from Amazon.co.uk