I love gardening books. I’ve no idea how many I’ve got because they’ve never lived together – they huddle in corners of bookshelfs, under piles of college papers, under the desk or in the nursery tea room. But there’s always room for a couple more good ones and when my mum had a clear out I couldn’t resist a rummage.

(can’t get this picture to display landscape – bizarre!)
This is the first gardening book I ever read. I’d completely forgotten about it, but as I flipped the pages it all came back – the pencil drawings of a weathered pair of hands sowing seeds or gently teasing roots apart. And the occasional page of simple colour sketches. It’s dated 1968 and is organised by month. No great beauty of a book, but a pleasing general gardening book, written in a easy, cogent style.

The other book that I fell on was Beth Chatto’s Garden Notebook and it didn’t disappoint. Not only is Beth Chatto a wonderful writer, as we know, but to read first hand her everyday experiences running her nursery, re-designing the garden and fitting in family life was heartwarmingly reassuring. She talks about visiting other nurseries and swapping plant samples and the feeling of inadequacy comparing her simple operation with their sophisticated set ups. Yet by the time she wrote the book she’d been running the nursery for years and was a regular gold medal winner at Chelsea. I’ll dip into this book whenever I feel in need of a pep talk.


So thanks Mum, just like the ironing board (now in it’s 30th year with me) your book cast offs will have a good new home!

February 15, 2009