GH Recommendations: Gardening Books for Christmas

Posted:21 November 2015

In this world of new media, there’s still nothing that beats a well-written or photo-rich book at Christmas. Our suggestions, recommended by avid readers among the Garden House Friday gardeners, are generally practical and down-to- earth and will sit well thumbed on the library shelf. Some are old favourites, others more recently published all are guaranteed to let readers escape into the glorious world of gardening.

We’ve even included two books to get us excited about our 2016 garden trips to the beautiful English county of Shropshire, and much farther afield, to beautiful Japan.

When you just want a good read by the fire after a long day in the potting shed, there are the writings of one of gardening’s national treasures, Beth Chatto, to enjoy. Garden House Friday gardener, Anne, recommends anything written by BC, books that she says are to be valued for their musings and insight The Garden Notebook, The Dry Garden, The Damp Garden, The Gravel Garden and The Green Tapestry. Anne says she especially enjoyed the letters BC exchanged with Christopher Lloyd in Dear Friend and Gardener: Letters on Life and Gardening.

Anne says she also loved reading the quirky correspondence of Roger Phillips and Leslie Land in The 3,000 Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters Between Two Eccentric Gourmet Gardeners – “food and gardening, what could be better?”

 

 

 

Anne is also about to start The Morville Hours: The Story of a Garden by Katherine Swift; a classic gardening book that takes us through the days and seasons in Swifts near perfect Shropshire garden.

Sarah recommends The Virgin Gardener Inspiration for the First-time Gardener! by Laetitia Maklouf. She says: “I love this book. The authors approach to gardening encourages and motivates me to do all sorts of lovely and interesting things with plants and flowers. The book is beautifully presented with clear text and plenty of useful and inspiring photos. All the basics are covered with understandable instructions in a chatty and humorous style. The growing of flowers and fruits is matched up with a variety of projects based around eating (pots of cascading edible flowers), drinking (recipe for elderflower bubbly) and making (twiggy grids for short-stemmed flowers in bowls).  For me it reinforces and extends much that I have learnt in various courses at the Garden House.”

 

 

 

 

Cathy recommends The Garden of Evening Mists by Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng. The protagonist of the novel is the judge Yun Ling Teoh, who was a Japanese prisoner during World War II, and later served as an apprentice of a Japanese gardener. As the story begins, she is trying to make sense of her life and experiences. The novel takes place during three different time periods: the late 1980s, when the main character writes down her story, the early 1950s, when the main action takes place, and World War II, which provides the backdrop for the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally Pat recommends The Origin of Plants by Maggie Campbell-Culver (2001) hardback but paperback came out in 2013. Pat says: “It looks at plant introductions over the last 1,000 years and the stories behind them. If you’ve ever wondered where the plants in your garden have come from or how long they’ve been grown in Britain, then this is the book for you.”

Happy reading!