Garden Monkey's Book Flange

Hedge Man

2011-01-03T11:55:00.001Z

I never read the late John Cushnie's gardening column in The Telegraph, so I couldn't resist the offer of a review copy of Hedge Man, a 'best of' volume from the publisher last year :)

It's a surprisingly thin volume (at 198 pages) for someone who was renowned for his mastery of words, but what's there is a treasure trove. I've discovered a man who had a marvellously dry sense of humour and an economy with words which still manages to be detailed. I particularly love the first couple of sentences from the first entry entitled Talking sheds:

There are a lot of things that a gardener needs, but the two most important are patience and a shed. Patience will make you a better gardener, but a shed will allow you to make a better garden.

I can imagine many of you are yelling what about a greenhouse? at this right now, but it only serves to illustrate another gift Cushnie possessed: the ability to make you think as well as chuckle, even when writing about some of the more mundane aspects of gardening.

Most of the entries sit firmly in the 'How To' camp, indeed the longest sub-division of the book is called Practical Cushnie. There's plenty more in this line to be found in the Plants and Cushnie Design sections too. However, all this practicality doesn't result in a dull book as humour and a lightness of touch win the day. It's a dippable or devour in one sitting kind of volume, depending on your mood.

The final section is called Cushnie comment and comprises two of his New Year Resolution (NYR) articles for 2007 and 2010. I'm rather concerned about the 2007 one as it hardly deals with NYRs at all: instead he muses on changes to Gardeners' World (it seems some things never change!) and what he'd like to see at Chelsea in 2005. This latter piece is a little confusing in view of the main title and did make me wonder if some of the articles are made up from a number of original entries.

I believe the 2010 NYRs should have been the book's final article instead of the penultimate one. Sadly Cushnie died before 2010 commenced and so didn't even have the chance to start on them. Surely they would have been a more fitting final tribute than the confusing 2007 entry and would leave us pondering on how the garden's looking now? It'd be a good call to action for us all as well - get going on all those dreamed of projects and ideas before it's too late.

Apart from that minor gripe (and the relatively thin volume), it's a very enjoyable read.

And for those of you wanting to know more about the man, here's the award winning Gardeners' Question Time John Cushnie tribute broadcast from last year.

Dopey me, dopey book

2010-12-12T12:15:00.001Z

I must be getting old. Not only did I buy this book recently believing it to be a Penguin Handbook - which it isn't, even a superficial examination would have told me that, but I had been reading it for a little while before I realised that the plant on the cover was cannabis.

Since the book dates from the 1970s presumably the idea was the make it attractive to hippy pot heads. It does seem rather incongruous though on a book by someone who'd been writing gardening books since the early 1930s though.

Temps Perdu

2010-12-02T19:57:00.004Z

Even though they are mostly perfunctory and quite dull (sometimes comically so), personal dedications can be a fascinating part of acquiring a second hand book.

They represent a frozen moment in time, a window onto an event long since passed and perhaps a past we can only guess at.

It may just be me, but they often seem a touch melancholy.

But this one from a copy of Garden Wisdom by Marion Cran seems to me hugely poignant

I haven't been able to work out the date of this book, but Marion seems to have died in 1923, and although she seems to have been incredibly well known in her time has faded from memory.
The book itself does seem to be posthumous, but doesn't carry a date, but does state “This book is produced in complete conformity with the authorised economy standards”, which to those ignorant on these sort of things (i.e. me) points to a 1940s vintage.

Pleasing Perennials: The Curious Gardener

2010-10-26T16:37:00.005+01:00

New gardening books come out every month, and all of them are competing for shelf space, attention and sales. I get sent a fair few to review, and most are well-written and informative and of interest to their target audience. Very few, however, have the individuality - the sense of bringing something new to the genre - that guarantees them a space on the shelf for life, and so I thought I would dig out and celebrate the books with which I have an emotional connection. These are the books I would replace if there was a fire (I don't have any books that I would rescue from a fire!).

First up is 'The Curious Gardener', which brings together three of German gardener Jurgen Dahl's works. Jurgen Dahl is (sadly) no longer with us, but I have the hardback edition of this book, which was the first place these three works appeared in English translation. A new paperback edition was published earlier this year.

There aren't that many photographs, and the ones it has are black and white. This is a book for readers - the text itself is what's important here, and it's well worth taking the time to read it.

The first work, "Gardening Virtues and Botanical Surprises", takes us through the four seasons in Dahl's eclectic garden. Dahl grew each and every plant because of a joy in all plants - he wanted to meet each species individually, get to know them and share his fascination. Some grew happily in his garden (in the author photograph he is all but hidden by an enormous gunnera). Others didn't, and Dahl kept a pot of old plant labels in remembrance of plants past.

In "The Stinking Garden" we meet all kinds of scented plants, from the common and pleasant scents of the mint family to plants that mimic body odour, or use their scents to attract prey. The same sense of wonder is present for every plant, fair or foul - Dahl certainly doesn't play favourites.

"How to eat a lily" is more concerned with edible plants, including blue potatoes, edible weeds and blackberries. There is a discussion about the longevity of seeds and notes about the beauty of faded seed heads.

His writing, even in translation, is so inspiring that it makes you want to rush out and check on whether a plant in the garden has started flowering, set seed or simply responded to a change in the weather. Your gardening To Do list will become ever longer as Dahl suggests plants to try and ideas will pop into your head whenever you dip into the book.

Everything is an experiment that can be repeated by the reader. Which is not to say that Dahl writes as a dispassionate, scientific researcher. His opinions are clear, whether he is talking about ground cover plants, weeds, or his hay collection. He obviously loved trying new and unusual plants, and spent a lot of time reading through old horticultural records.

This is not a conventional gardening book, because Dahl was not a conventional gardener. He was a man who had a life-long love affair with plants, and who tried to share some of his wonder and fascination through his writing. The photographs may only be in black and white, but Dahl's plants will shine in your imagination and send you outside to find the magic for yourself.

Book details (by request)
'The Curious Gardener', By Jurgen Dahl.
Paperback edition from Timber Press, Mar 2010, ISBN 978-1604692020
Available from Amazon UK.

Expect the Unexpected

2010-10-02T22:13:00.002+01:00

Flange Member Mark Diacono’s new book “A Taste of the Unexpected” was published last Friday.

Those, lucky enough to get their mitts on advance copies, seem wholly enamoured with it as reviews here, here and here attest.

I’ve still to have a fulsome dekko myself , but I was quite amused at the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall quote on the cover “This book will change what you grow, cook and eat forever”. I suspect Mark was too.

But it did raise in my mind the questions “Do garden books change peoples’ lives? And if so which ones? And why?”
.

Garden Book Blogs

2010-09-19T22:29:00.002+01:00

When I started this blog back in May 2008, I was unaware of any other blogs dedicated to garden books.

Since then two others have started up. One Swiss and one American.

You will find them in a new links section on the RH sidebar.

Let me know if you find any more.

The Full Christo

2010-09-18T14:34:00.000+01:00

In some ways this is a bit of a weak post to start the ball rolling for the “reinvigorated” Flange, but still, I hope, worthwhile.

If you’re like me and are a fan of a particular writer, then you probably like to have everything they’ve written. But sometimes, especially if the author is prolific and has had a long career, it can be difficult to establish all their works. For example, I know I still don’t have a full list of Graham Stuart Thomas’s books.

With that in mind here is a bibliography of the late Christopher Lloyd. I can’t claim any credit for it, because it was compiled by Erica Hunningher and I’ve lifted it from Hortus #77

The Mixed Border - 1957

Amateur Gardening Photo Album of Garden Plants (with A. G. L. Hellyer) - 1961

Shrubs and Trees for Small Gardens - 1965

Hardy Perennials - 1967

Gardening on Chalk and Lime - 1969

The Well-Tempered Garden - 1970

Foliage Plants - 1973

Clematis -1977

The Adventurous Gardener - 1983

Glyndebourne: The Gardens (with Anne Scott-James) - 1983

The Well-Chosen Garden - 1984

The Mixed Border (Wisley handbook) - 1986

The Year at Great Dixter - 1987

The Cottage Garden (with Richard Bird) - 1990

Garden Flowers from Seed (with Graham Rice) -1991

In My Garden - 1993

Planting your Garden (with Ursula Buchan and Fay Sharman) - 1993

Christopher Lloyd’s Flower Garden - 1993

Other People’s Gardens - 1995

Gardener Cook - 1997

Dear Friend and Gardener (with Beth Chatto) - 1998

Christopher Lloyd’s Gardening year - 1999

Christopher Lloyd Garden Flowers: Perennials, Bulbs, Grasses and Ferns - 2000

Colour for Adventurous Gardeners - 2001

Meadows - 2004

Succession Planting for Adventurous Gardeners - 2005

Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners - 2007

Cuttings: A Year in the Garden with Christopher Lloyd - 2007

In My Garden: The Garden Diaries of Great Dixter - 2010

Turning Over A New Leaf

2010-09-11T10:53:00.001+01:00

It has been nearly a full twelve months since I posted anything on this blog, of that I am painfully aware.

From my perspective that is regrettable for several reasons, not least of which is that a number of Flange members have had books published over the last year.

So what’s the answer?

Well, for me to get my finger out, obviously. But I always wanted the Flange to be more than me sticking things up here, the intention was for it to be an inclusive celebration of garden books and
writing.

So I have come to the conclusion that the whole thing would be much more interesting if Flange members (old and new) had the requisite blog permissions to allow them write posts directly - subject to a light editorial touch of course.

So what do you think? Interested?

Harvest Festival part two

2009-09-24T18:12:00.002+01:00

Harvest Festival part one

2009-09-23T20:37:00.001+01:00

Just a few of this summer's harvest of books - Blogger will only allow 5 pics at a time = rubbish.

Free Book

2009-09-17T12:16:00.003+01:00

Well, not quite, but certainly the chance to win one.

It's a compendium called Garden Wisdom by Leslie Geddes-Brown

Go here.

Book Review - The Alternative Kitchen Garden an A-Z - Emma Cooper

2009-09-15T14:15:00.001+01:00

Another proud moment as Flange member Emma C's book came out last month.

Many thanks to Frankie for the review and to Emma herself for organising the review copy and apologies for my tartdiness in posting it:

The Alternative Kitchen Garden an A-Z

Emma Cooper

As a not particularly successful food grower myself, I was really keen to get my hands on this book. I was not disappointed. Emma’s encouraging, have-a-go approach to gardening is evident on every page, encouraging the reader to follow suit. The introduction gives a short background on how her kitchen garden evolved from a neglected, urban Oxfordshire back garden into a productive plot and media HQ.

The A-Z itself is an eclectic collection of Emma’s interests and crops, including both her triumphs and failures, which will endear her to many other real gardeners. I could sympathise with Emma’s saffron trials and after reading her book, will never attempt to grow any Tiger Nuts! I also found a surprising amount of useful information and a desire to find out more about unusual vegetables. If nothing else, the Real Seeds Company will be added to my list of suppliers next year.

My one niggle is reserved for the publisher’s lay out. For a ‘green’ book there are far too many half empty pages, which could have been filled. I often found myself wondering if there could have been a kale or dolmades recipe to fill the blank space at the end of an entry.

With stiff competition this autumn from the likes of Nigel Slater, The RHS and Bob Flowerdew all bringing out books timed for the Christmas market. I hope that this neat little book will find a space on the bookshelves.

Veg Plot Frankie

Yesterday's paper

2009-09-14T11:29:00.008+01:00

Many years ago I used to have a collection of all the bookmarks, scraps of paper and oddments that I'd found in second hand-book. A modern artist could probably create a show from such ephemera.

Anyway, I've no idea where they are now, and in any case much as I love to find these things, nowadays I tend to leave them in the book where they were found.

This is one such find from this summer's book purchases (of which more later) and one which I find very amusing, but can't put my finger on exactly why.

PS - What is also remarkable is that a nursery still exists at that address - usually they are long gone.

Elizabeth Peplow - Garden Writer

2009-07-27T08:12:00.006+01:00

I'm honoured and grateful to be able to post this wonderful piece by the writer Sarah Salway

My Mother, a storytelling gardener

Sarah Salway

(In 1979, my mother, Elizabeth Peplow published her first book about herbs, Herbs, Country Crafts (Hamlyn, 1979). This was followed by Stay Slim with Herbs & Spices (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1981), The Herb Book, An A-Z of Useful Plants (W H Allen, 1982), Herb & Herb Gardens of Britain (Webb & Bower, 1984) and In A Monastery Garden (David & Charles, 1988). During this time, she also designed herb gardens for English cathedrals, including Peterborough and Wells, as well as the physic gardens at Westminster Abbey and Castle Acre Priory. When the Garden Monkey suggested I write something about Mum and her work, I think s/he was thinking I might come up with a few paragraphs, but in writing this piece, I found myself going on and on in a way my mother would have definitely called ‘pure indulgence’. Looking at the list of her books above though, and as a writer and mother myself, I’m amazed at how she managed to be so productive. Four children, five books, and even more gardens. I’m ashamed to say I’d never put her books together in a pile before but it shocked me because, when we were growing up, she never made it feel like she was working, perhaps because she loved what she did so much. Anyway, writing this piece of ‘pure indulgence’ has been a chance to acknowledge her work as an author, rather than just mother.)

Even before she started writing books about herbs and gardens, my mother had designed and planted her garden in the shape of narratives.

Herbs were best for her particular style of story-telling and if she had a favourite, it was simple parsley. ‘You really cannot use too much of it,’ she writes, ‘and I have yet to meet anybody who dislikes the taste.’

You could stand in front of one parsley plant for hours as my mother would talk about the myths – that it never grew in any house where the woman wore the trousers; the folklore – that it is so slow to germinate because the roots have to go nine times down to the devil before the seedlings can break surface; the recipes – with broad beans, with lemon juice; the benefits – digestive, clarity of mind, or even to add lustre to your hair.

Of course, back then, I longed for her to be normal and buy her parsley dried and tasting of cardboard in those little packets you got from the supermarket – just like everybody else’s mother.

This was the late 1970s, before herbs were as universal as they are now. When my parents opened a small herb farm on the edge of Cambridgeshire, growing and using them was still treated as suspicious. Neither had any formal gardening training but they’d been sharing dreams ever since they first met at a creative writing conference. As children, it was the other kids with fathers and mothers who went out every morning to work in an office that were the odd ones. We learnt that the two traits you had to avoid at all costs were routine and boredom. Our parents’ mantra could have been, why not try it? So, with the herb farm, it was very much a case of learning as they grew, not least in dealing with customers.

One day, a clipping in a national paper about how feverfew could cure migraines caused a period of surreal chaos. A particular buyer didn’t even turn off his car engine as he rushed over to grab a pot of feverfew. He’d driven off before my mother could begin to tell her stories about the plant’s history, and how to use it.

It felt like we had just sold him a spell. He needed us, but he certainly didn’t want to get too close. The whole witch thing wasn’t helped by the fact our house was called The Hoo and there were gravestones in our front garden, cared for by a seventy year old handyman who often wore a black leather flying cap.

About this time, my mother wrote and published her first book.

This was a mother who once sent me and my sister off shopping with a list that read ‘Nutty nuts’, ‘apply apples’ and ‘peachy peaches’, and so on for every food item we needed. I was too young to read myself, so I didn’t understand why the shopkeeper was so confused but it took a long time for my sister to forgive Mum.

Admittedly in her books she didn’t exactly write ‘herby herbs’ but her sense of humour still comes across on the printed page. My mother wrote as she talked. Even picking up one of her books now, ‘The Herb Book, an A-Z of Useful Plants’, more than twenty years after she first published it, I can hear her voice, steamrolling over any possible objection.

… even the smallest of backyards can be transformed into a
fairy-tale herb garden with sweetly scented roses climbing up
the wall and cushions of low-growing thyme and chamomile
spilling over the gaps between the paving stones.

If anything, the secret to Mum’s passion is in that word, ‘useful’, in the book’s title. She was a fen farmer’s daughter through and through, and she loved herbs because they had never – unlike exotic fruits or other expensive plant specimens – belonged solely to the aristocracy. ‘Herbs are somewhat humbler than the spices,’ she writes with approval. When she was researching into the history of herbs, she was studying what she might herself have used in different periods through out history. Ordinary people were always what interested her most.

In the novel I’m writing at the moment, my narrator is renovating an historic garden. This is how she explains her job:

Although I design historic gardens for a living, my work is never just about the past. The plans for most of the gardens I work on were first created hundreds of years ago. The gardener could have no idea how his garden would look like when it reached maturity so what I have to do is to put myself in his shoes and try to capture what he can only have imagined. In some ways, I have to dream someone else’s dreams for them.

I’m sure this was how Mum approached her herb garden designs. Although she was a stickler for historical accuracy and would spend hours in libraries and the Cathedral’s own records, she never saw herself as creating a museum piece because the plants and their stories were so completely in the present for her.

Gardeny gardens. Booky books. But always with the mission to entertain. The last thing my mother would have wanted was to have been called an expert, and especially not an intellectual. She was in awe of those around her whom she considered the real expert gardeners, including Rosemary Verey, Beth Chatto, Christopher Lloyd, Penelope Hobhouse. She would tell us about meeting them as if they were rock stars, seeing herself just as someone who loved stories, and she carried on reading and writing because she liked nothing better than to hear new ones.

It makes me smile now to turn to the introduction to one of the two books she wrote with my father, and see these lines the introduction:

If, on a warm afternoon in the summer of 1537, you had chanced to be at a certain country fair in the Cotswolds, you might have observed an authoritative but cheerful monk in a black habit talking briskly with a seller of agricultural sundries. You would have been struck, perhaps, by his eagerness to examine every item on display and to extract from the vendor every available morsel of information, news and advice. You may have smiled, as those about you would have done, when the vendor, weary of the barrage of questions, pushed a tiny pouch of seeds into the hands of his friendly but troublesome inquisitor and bade him take his enquiries elsewhere.

Although Mum was writing here about the monk-gardener Stephen, she could have been writing about herself. Her first job was as assistant to the women’s editor of Farmers Weekly and it left her with an ability to get people to tell her things. If stories came first, then people were a close second.

She’d come back from her research trips to gardens round the country for both In A Monastery Garden and her guidebook, Herbs and Herb Gardens, A Complete Guide, wishing she could write another book just about the new friends she’d met. Her favourite was the scruffy looking gardener who spent the morning showing her round one garden before she discovered – of course - that he was the titled owner. But there were plenty of others too, the more eccentric the better, and when she and Dad turned part of our garden into a series of Elizabethan-style herb gardens, they came to our home too. Far too many to count who only wanted to talk about herbs, herbs, herbs.

After we all left home, Mum continued to research, design and publish. It’s hard, I think, for children to admit their mothers may actually know anything interesting, but there always comes a time – often sudden and shocking – when we see them as a person in their own right.

For me, it took a Valentine’s card. For years, she’d made us all our own cards every 14th February with sprigs of dried herbs that had special meanings just for us. One year, she made an extra one and sent it to her main publishing love, the magazine, Amateur Gardening and its then deputy editor, Alan Titchmarsh.

Interestingly, it was Mum who was embarrassed when they photographed and printed the card as a cover story. The rest of the family thought it was funny because sending a love token to a gardening magazine summed up everything about her, and what she had become.

Yes, she was still the strange woman, often wearing mismatched Wellington boots, who had a habit of lurking in the garden and jumping out at my friends from behind a bush for a joke, and she was also definitely still the recluse who would hide in the library, pretending she hadn’t heard me calling so she could have a few more minutes with her books, but her commitment to sharing her passion for herbs through gardening, teaching and above all, writing, was something I could be proud of.

Mum died in 2003, and now, of course, books about herbs are everywhere. It’s hard to remember how groundbreaking Mum’s work seemed at the time. Some of the resistance she came across is acknowledged in this one sentence from Stay Slim with Herbs & Spices:

A few years ago we found it difficult to persuade any of our students even to try herb teas without grimacing and muttering ‘not for me’ or ‘dishwater’. But times are changing.

Changing times indeed. Writing about herb gardening was a way for my mother to let other people enjoy her excitement about traveling through time. It’s a trait shared by many of the gardeners and gardening writers she respected. By showing us how to look closely at a small parsley plant, for example - by really taking in every detail and seeing how it had been used and still could be – they allow us to see a much bigger story about ordinary extraordinary people.

The sort of stories she always loved best.

Out Soon - The Alternative Kitchen Garden - An A -Z

2009-07-25T22:19:00.003+01:00

This new book by Flange member Emma Cooper is out very soon - 18th August.

And this is what the promo has to say:

THE ALTERNATIVE KITCHEN GARDEN

An A-Z By Emma Cooper

“An indispensable compendium for a new generation of eco-conscious kitchengardeners.” Elspeth Thompson, The Sunday Telegraph gardening columnist

The Alternative Kitchen Garden is an evolving idea of what a kitchen garden could be inthe twenty first century – organic, environmentally sustainable, resilient and aboutrelocalising at least some of our food production. Its also a place not only for learning andpractising growing skills but for enjoying ourselves and having fun. Both an idealcompanion for anyone getting dirt under their fingernails for the first time and fullfascinating ideas and experiments for the adventurous gardener.

A self confessed ‘cyber geek’, Emma began to document the transformation of her ‘ropeyold lawn with potholes and brambles’ into a fertile and abundant permaculture plot viainternet radio and a popular blog site. Eight years on her postings and stories have beencollected in here, illustrated with beautiful colour photographs and arranged into easilyaccessible alphabetical order. Covering subjects as diverse as growing achocha (a lostInca crop) to zucchinis, and forest gardening to xeriscaping, Emma’s style is light andfriendly yet at the same time informative and based on personal experience – you feel youcould actually be sitting in the garden chatting face to face as she shares her knowledgeand experience, especially when she veers off into non directly garden related tangentssuch as osteopathy and freecycling. A concise and valuable practical guide, and a lovelyread that you can also dip in and out of on the deck chair or hammock!

“Emma Cooper is an unstoppable force, one of life’s positive people, and The AlternativeKitchen Garden sets out her inspiring personal vision of how to grow own.” Emma Townshend, The Independent on Sunday gardening columnist

I hope to have a review of it up soon - GMx

Flange

2009-07-24T22:24:00.003+01:00

It seems the YouTube Flange vid has been pulled. I'll try and find another.

Meantime this is what a Flange is

STOP PRESS - Now fixed - click on "Don't you know" to the right

Guest Blogger Goes Bookaging

2009-07-23T20:13:00.003+01:00

A while ago I went to the Hay Festival to see Dan Pearson's talk called Inspiration - the title of his forthcoming book in September - and to devour all the gardening books in this fantastic secondhand bookshop town. It even has one devoted to natural history and gardening titles and so - I thought - would easily supply me with enough reading matter for the rest of the year at least. How wrong I was. All I came home with was a history of the Chelsea Flower Show - a meagre haul from such a promised land.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to Norfolk. I was desperate for a view, any view after being surrounded by so much flatness and so pitched up one day in the slightly decaying seaside town of Cromer. A sharp shower sent me scurrying for cover and I was surprised to find myself in a secondhand bookshop sheltering from the rain. I was even more surprised to find the anticipated riches of Hay on Wye transported to this quiet little backwater. It wasn't a one-off phenomenon either. A quick search of the three other secondhand shops in the town all had rich seams of gardening books to plunder. However, the first one was the best by far, staffed by an enthusiastic lady who was delighted 'her' books would be going to a good home. Here's my haul:

Not one but two Vita Sackville-West first editions - In Your Garden and In Your Garden Again

Ground Cover Plants by Margery Fish. A pristine Garden Book Club edition

Gardening on Chalk & Limestone by E. Bertram Anderson. Another pristine Garden Book Club edition

PH19 The Flower Garden by E.R. Janes

All are in good nick complete with their dustcovers. How much did I pay? Just under 50 quid with a book on needlepoint cats thrown in for free. Apparently a couple of weeks earlier a woman interested in garden history had hoovered up a number of titles in that genre, so I dread to think what the damage to my purse would have been if she hadn't been there before me.

(thanks VP - bookaging is like foraging, but for books - GMx)

Review - The Angel Tree

2009-07-21T21:28:00.005+01:00

For summer holidays when I was a kid I used to pack more books than clothes – at least one for every day of the trip.

Earlier this year, as a gardening obsessed adult I packed only six books to last six weeks.

The first one I opened was a 'gardening travelogue', which seemed appropriate. Alex Dingwall-Main's 'The Angel Tree' follows the author on his travels across the Mediterranean as he tries to find the oldest living olive tree and bring it back to France for a very rich client.

Alex Dingwall-Main is an English garden designer, living in France. At the beginning of the book he has a serendipitous meeting with a local chateau owner. In what is written as a rather haphazard attempt to design something impressive enough to win the client over, Alex suggest an ancient olive tree for the courtyard. The idea of owning something so noble proves irresistible, and Alex is hired to track down the oldest olive tree that will survive in the local climate (Provence not being the ideal location for olives because of the cold winters), uproot it and bring it back.

You're then taken on what is meant to be an entertaining romp as the author travels across France, Spain, Italy and Greece in search of a 'millÈnaire' – an olive tree over a thousand years old. There are certainly plenty of characters to meet along the way, although the only likeable ones are the trees themselves.

I won't spoil the ending for anyone who wants to read the book – the quest is finally successful, but not in the way that you would expect. In fact, in the final chapters the author and his client redeem themselves slightly; most of the time they come across as entitled buffoons who don't give a monkey's for anything other than making an impression.
With its open-ended budget and a lavish carbon footprint, I found this story to be unrealistic and very annoying. If you added in some high-end CGI and a car chase in the closing scenes then it would make a passable Hollywood blockbuster. The author rarely remembers that this is a gardening travelogue, but occasionally throws in the Latin names of some of the plants he walks past on his travels. There is a separate section at the back with details about olive cultivation and the production of olive oil, but there's very little useful information here for people attempting to grow olives in the British climate (although it's heartening to read that olive trees seem to be virtually unkillable).

All-in-all I would classify this as a book to be read while the sangria is making your head fuzzy and you've got sand between your toes. Leave it in the hotel when you leave. Better by far was my second choice – Elspeth Thompson's Urban Gardener.

Emma Cooper

Flange activity

2009-07-20T22:41:00.004+01:00

Not only is it a busy time (hence lack of bloggage), but also an exciting one

- with lots* of books coming out from members of the Flange no less.

Watch this space

*OK - so I say lots - I mean some. We have Emmat T's but there are at least three more.

Look at that pipe!

2009-05-27T10:02:00.005+01:00

I have recently acquired a later edition of the Gardening Expert which I blogged about a while back and this new one is in REALLY good nick.

I have no idea of the date, other than it's still pre-decimal.

It seems odd they changed the cover simply by redrawing what they had before and the contents are identical (older one top RH).

I also got these two old versions of Hessayons dating from 1980 & 1978 respectively.

Definitely Mabey

2009-05-27T09:59:00.004+01:00

Feeling a bit down, I headed off in search of books. I know I have plenty to be getting on with but that's not the point.

It may have been my jaded state, but nothing I found really grabbed me. Not even in my favourite second hand bookshop. I picked up a couple of things, but put them back down after a couple of minutes.

Just as I was about the leave I spotted this tucked away.

It's a book I have wanted for a long time and even though it is an enormous tome, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it new (bad I know).

Quickly, I snatched it up, paid the 12 quid asking price and scuttled off grinning.
.

A Touch of the Oscar's

2009-05-26T21:40:00.003+01:00

That's a phrase I sometimes use to denote a complete cave-in on the resolution front.

"I can resist anything, except temptation."

You may, if you have very, very good memories recall this post.

I lasted six whole months after that, until I buckled and bought the book.

Darwin's Dogs

2009-05-16T12:25:00.003+01:00

Flange member Emma T, not only has a book coming out .

But she also, I hope, has her life back after being holed up for what seems to me absolute aeons, writing it.

Hopefully she will be back regularly blogging soon.

Moonlight shadow

2009-05-10T21:43:00.004+01:00

It's nice to have a ... what's the phrase?... I guess a shadow blog.

A blog that is something different to one's main blog and about some small (perhaps obsessive) part of one's make-up.

I have this book blog - and although I would welcome all and every contribution from others - it is largely a window on my OGBCD (Obsessive Garden Book Collecting Book Disorder).

Likewise Sarah Salway has a blog about benches as well as her main one.

Her latest post is about a book.

One I sent her as it happens.

If you knew how much it pained me to part with it, you would realise her refusal to send me another Mirabel Osler book in return is just plain ungrateful, even if it is was worth £100 and then one I sent her just a few quid.

(sobs theathrically in the manner of Heather Mills)

Around and about

2009-04-23T20:14:00.003+01:00

Just a couple of bits

Cut-price shed book via Alex The Shed. The RRP is actually £25 not £20 - so even more of a bargain, for a book with a title made up of two words that don't immediately appear to go together.

And a review of one of my heroes Ken Thompson's latest from Emma "Muppet" Cooper. Em has quite a lot of booky stuff if you put book into her site's search bar.

Why she's not a Flange member I really don't know

X

Strange habits

2009-04-10T17:44:00.001+01:00

I know that I have previously mentioned my terrible habit of having several part-read books on the go at once.

I’m not sure what that says about me. A butterfly mind? An inability to commit? Someone who takes on more than they should? Who knows.

Sometimes this worries me a little and I make a concrete effort to get the number of “ongoing” books down. However this then makes me think that I’m not doing so bad and so I start adding to the “ongoing” pile all over again.

It is, I admit, a bad habit.

But I know someone who has a much odder bookish foible. He can’t go to bed if he has just finished reading a book, unless. He has to start another one before he can go to sleep.

Now that’s just plain weird.

Advertisement Feature

2009-04-02T15:25:00.002+01:00

Kelmarsh at Home
Sunday June 14th

A Book Festival Celebrating
Home and Garden Writing

Kelmarsh Hall welcomes guests who treasure fine interiors and beautiful gardens to its first Book Festival. The event explores good living, good design and the personality of home.
Once the residence of Nancy Lancaster, society decorator and owner of Colefax and Fowler, Kelmarsh Hall still bears the imprint of her shabby-chic flair and gardening panache. The elegant Palladian Hall with its virtuoso gardens is the perfect country house retreat to host a book festival.
Speakers include:

a) Professional gardener turned award-winning author Stephen Anderton on his latest passion, Discovering Welsh Gardens, and a sneak preview of his work in progress: a biography of gardening doyen Christopher Lloyd.

b) Celebrity Granny, cookery writer and gardener, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, talks on her latest foray into generational perfection, The Good Granny Companion.

c) Decorating expert and Farrow & Ball consultant Joa Studholme guides listeners through the opportunities Colour offers to transform your living environment.

d) Prolific author and academic Katie Campbell’s Paradise of Exiles revivifies the eccentric Anglo-Italian set of Tuscany as they gardened and gossiped their way through the dying years of the nineteenth century.

e) Acclaimed biographer Martin Wood ranges through the tradition of country house decorating and previews his next subject, Laura Ashley, designer and brand queen.

f) Columnist and anthologist Ursula Buchan surveys the bygone post-war gardening scene and its true characters – including Nancy Lancaster in Garden People: Valerie Finnis and the Golden Age of Gardening.

g) Andrew Wilson, Chelsea Flower Show judge and designer, Tim Richardson, landscape critic and historian, and Stephen Anderton debate what makes gardens personal and how they bear the character of their makers.

h) Geffrye Museum deputy director, Christine Lalumia, speaks on the representation of interiors and gardens in painting.

Ticket prices £8.00

To register for a booking form, email enquiries@kelmarsh.com or call 01604 686543

Notes to Editors:
Location Kelmarsh Hall is on the border of rural Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, 5 miles South of Market Harborough and a 20 mile drive from the M1 and M6.
Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens are owned by The Kelmarsh Trust, a registered charity. The Gardens are Royal Horticultural Society recommended.www.kelmarsh.com
For press enquiries and images, please contact: Lesley Denton at the Estate Office on 01604 686543 or lesleydenton@kelmarsh.com

Poo

2009-04-02T09:27:00.002+01:00

I'm sorry.

I've been really crap at putting posts up here.

I will try harder.

Promise.

What a snip!

2009-03-14T11:32:00.003Z

I'm a sucker for a secondhand gardening book, preferably at least as old as me.

No glossy images for me - give me a line drawing any day of week. Add in a vaguely chucklesome author name and some old-school horticultural advice and I'm happy as a sandboy. No surprise, then, that Pruning in the Fruit Garden by F Hilkenbaumer caught my attention in the £1 rack outside my favourite bookshop.

Fruit tree pruning's one of those skills that, try as I might, I can't get the hang of from a written guide. This is where Mr Hilkenbaumer's book comes in. There's very little in the way of words, because it's the line drawings that communicate the art and science of the job of pruning. The lines of the tree's branches are rendered in black, with red lines showing what should be cut back: it couldn't be clearer.

The book was published in 1976, but as the back cover says, "fashions in pruning come and go, but the basic techniques remain the same". The only mystery is a pruning timetable on the last page that's got me completely puzzled, but no matter, the rest of it is pure gold. Thankyou, Mr Hilkenbaumer.

With any luck, my plum and pear tree will thank you, too.

Jane Perrone

Horticultural - The organic gardening blog

Thanks for the Guest Blog Jane - GMx

Child's Play

2009-03-14T07:32:00.004Z

Last year an anthology of writing from Hortus came out. It wasn‘t the first - there were two previous anthologies “By Pen & By Spade“ (1990) and “The Generous Garden (1991). Both are no doubt no longer in print, but still available from secondhand bookshops, Amazon, Ebay etc..

Whilst looking through the first of them recently (for something unrelated), I found the following opening line to the essay “Gardening for and by Children” by Will Ingwerssen.

“To my knowledge there is no gardening magazine or periodical that includes a page to encourage an interest in gardening directly to children.”

What a great idea, and surely a point more valid than ever.

Spooky

2009-03-08T14:18:00.004Z

In a slightly alarming piece of synchronicity just a couple of days after posting that I had two of this series of books I came across another one for sale.

As it only cost a few pence I couldn't not buy it.

Now I have three and hence a collection.

Luckily they are very slim and won't take up much space.

2009-02-14T21:40:00.005Z

The more eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted the addition of a few new Flange members.
Firstly Graham Rice, who I trust needs no introduction, and in addition to writing the things clearly in the advanced stages of book addiction, as these posts testify. Graham also DJ's, so I imagine his place is also awash with CD's and vinyl.

Next up is Sue “Trillium” Beasley. Well known in the UK for winning the BBC’s Gardener of the Year, her RHS show gardens at Tatton Park and her nursery.
Sue says she was sagging off from doing RHS Diploma revision as she’s reading
but Maggie Campbell-Culver's 'The Origin of Plants'. I reckon the revision must be deadly dull, because I found that book a bit dry and am still only about halfway through it, having picked it up and put it down a few times. Mind you in my case that it true of far to many books.

Lastly, but by no means least, we have one of the stars of the UK garden blogging firmament the blogger formerly known as R Pete Free.

Welcome to the Flange, book lovers.
.

Love is blind.

2009-02-08T20:09:00.003Z

I say that because I have yet to come across a Penguin Handbook on horticulture who’s cover I didn’t adore - even this one which is ‘orrible.

It is PH 50 - The New Vegetable Grower’s Handbook [1962], was written by Arthur J Simmons who wrote the earlier Penguin Handbooks, The Vegetable Growers' Handbook Vol I & II and was published 4 years after his death.

Report report

2009-02-05T22:05:00.006Z

Following New Shoot's comment on the last post, I feel I should explain that I bought the RHS Council Reports solely for the amusement of looking at the 20 to 30 pages of adverts at the back, featuring such things as boots for horses (so that they wouldn’t damage the turf as they pulled enormous lawnmowers), since the rest seemed to be a list of RHS members (all 170 pages of them).

But I've since had a closer look and the results are, I have to admit, mildly interesting. As I have said the last 30-odd pages are ads, and the first 8 pages are also ads, but imbedded within them are such things as Notices to Fellows, including offers of free poppy seeds from the RHS's then Secretary Rev Wilks (breeder of the Shirley poppies no less).

There is then the 10 page annual report, plus accounts. After that there is a list of the RHS council and officers, followed by a list of the Victoria Medal holders

Strange how some of the names like Gertrude Jekyll and Ellen Willmott, have remained well known, but others such as Rev Charles Wolley Dod, a hugely well known horticulturalist in his day, are not familiar to most gardeners today.

On closer inspection, even the list of members is vaguely interesting, including as it does the likes of Reg Farrer.

It does emphasise how, in many ways, the Edwardian period represents a high-water mark of British Gardening.

What Have I Done?

2009-01-22T20:20:00.002Z

I can usually justify a purchase - somehow.

But these I cannot.

They are RHS Council Reports and serve no useful purpose.

I bought them all the same.

What bothers me most is that I only have to come across another one to be able to invoke the Siadwell Principle, and then I shall have to collect the whole blessed lot.
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Pre-Spring Clean

2009-01-18T20:21:00.003Z

I have been tidying my books. I would say organising, but in truth they were no more organised when I finished than when I started.

In the process I did discover that I have a pair of books from the Studies in Biology series.

As Flange members will know this is according to the Siadwell Principle dangerously close to the beginning of a collection.

Anything except temptation

2008-12-10T23:10:00.002Z

I love Timber Press books. If you have any sort of garden book collection you surely have at least one of their titles.

I don’t look at their website very often. Not for any other reason than that of temptation. It’s a bit like offering the late Ollie Reed the keys to a branch of Threshers off-licence.

Of course they have oodles of info about all their books, but they also have a daily horticultural question competition that enters you for their monthly book draw.

I do find the questions are generally very interesting, stroke, challenging in their own right, even if you don‘t enter.

I have entered this a number of times, because I do not have enough books, but have yet to win.
Which is probably God’s way of telling me I have plenty of books.

Book Clubbed

2008-12-07T21:27:00.003Z

I should have mentioned this a while ago when I discovered it.

But if you pop over here, there is a Garden Book Club.

Undoubtedly of interest to all garden book lovers, but possibly more so to the Stateside bloggers as it would be easier for them to take part.

It seems to have gone to sleep, but will I guess spark back into life now winter is almost upon us.

If I had anything about me I would have started a UK oriented Garden Book Club.

That said, my experience of book clubs is that they involve a vociferous argument over what books to chose, a prolonged period of silence, followed by a round of mild-bulling dirceted at those members who have signed up and not actually read the book yet.

Or in some instances even remembered what it was, much less bought it.

I bet they do these things properly in the States.
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Free book!!

2008-12-03T22:18:00.006Z

Win a free book!!

Oh Yes!!

Go here to find out how.

Humby, like the Wolfe

2008-12-03T22:13:00.003Z

As I mentioned yesterday over on my eponymous blog, I have just acquired a copy of Kensington Gardens by Humbert Wolfe.

I bought it largely because it had a poem in it about the Hawthorn, my favourite tree, but it does also have quite a number of others about trees and flowers and also this which I like a lot:

Lupin.

Said the old deaf gardener
"I'm wore out with stoopin'
over them impident
sword-blue lupin

Look at 'em standing,
as cool as kings,
and me sopped to the middle
with bedding the things."
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Mmmmmm!

2008-11-28T22:12:00.005Z

Mmmmmm!

(in the manner of a M & S advert)

This isn’t just a Penguin handbook

This is a King Penguin book,

This is Flowers of Marsh and Streams

by Iolo A. Williams, with drawings by Noel Rooke.

And it‘s completely marvellous.

Oooh!

Hybrid Vigour.

2008-11-25T21:30:00.001Z

We use hybrids in the garden without even thinking about them. The successful ones of course, have the best characteristics from both parents and give us a much better plant. Those which don’t tend not to make it past the plant breeders’ selection process and the few that do, usually don’t become best sellers, so naturally fade away with time.

That made me muse a little about hybrid gardening books.

I joined a craft bookclub a while ago and bought Jan Messent’s Knitted Gardens book out of curiosity. It’s most eccentric, offering lots of ways of representing flowers, vegetables and garden structures in a knitted form. For a while I thought that was the only hybrid in my collection. But the addition of Kaffe Fassett’s Country Garden Quilts last Thursday made me look at my garden books with fresh eyes.

I have at least two other hybrids: gardens and cooking are an obvious pairing and I have both Christopher Lloyd’s Gardener Cook (a necessary purchase after reading Dear Friend and Gardener as he a Beth Chatto were always citing recipes which made me extremely hungry) and Monty/Sarah Don’s Fork to Fork.

My other hybrid is Painting Flowers & Gardens in Watercolour and Pastel by Alison Hoblyn, a necessary purchase via Amazon second-hand as I’m struggling with the sketchbook aspects of my gardening course. Having discovered I have several hybrids in my collection, I’m surprised I don’t have more – gardening and photography is an obvious one which springs to mind, but I don’t have a single example, unless you count all the gardening books I have using sumptuous photography as illustration.

Do you have any hybrids in your garden book collection? What’s the most unusual hybrid you’ve seen irrespective of whether or not it’s in your garden book collection? Which ones have the best characteristics of their parents and therefore flourish, and which ones should be left to fade away?

VP

Sheer Deer!

2008-11-23T20:34:00.003Z

I have quite a few books which relate to single items, like a particular genus.

But I think this takes the biscuit for the most specific subject.

Showtime

2008-11-17T11:10:00.004Z

Another of my recent purchases was one of the Penguin Handbook series.
As is the way with collecting anything, one starts to gets one’s eye in, with prices, what‘s common, etc.
It seems to me that this is one of the rarer gardening titles among the PH’s, and for my money it has, so far, the best cover.

It is PH 42 - Flower Growing For Shows - E R Janes [1959]

Blue Prints

2008-11-14T09:53:00.003Z

I was of course being saucy with my previous mention of blue gardening books.

It would be interesting to discover that there is such thing as horticulturally themed erotic fiction, but in the meantime here then, for Zoe, is the bluest garden book I own.

Dearly Beloved

2008-11-13T11:08:00.001Z

These are just a few of the books I've acquired in the last couple of months.

I must confess to have been a little put off posting some things here by Helen's comment that there were rather a lot of old books featured. She was entirely right. It would be too easy for this blog to be just a load of photos of old book covers, which would actually be fine, but I'd like it to be a mix of old and new.

Continuing the nuptial theme, there is perhaps also scope for something on borrowed books, though I can't imagine there are many garden books that are blue in content.

Blog Book News

2008-11-11T14:41:00.002Z

There are a small number of blogs that can be relied upon to have garden book-based posts on a regular basis.

Amongst them are two American ones which, between them, cover two ends of the spectrum. Garden History Girl has items from, as you would expect, the classic history of garden books, whilst my friend Amanda at Kiss My Aster covers more recent, but to me, just as interesting publications. In fact recently she has been having a small flurry of posts about loads of them.

Another blogger of regular acquaintance, Mrs Be features Elspeth Thompson's new book on both her blogs.

And on a less familiar note, I recently came across a blog called The Bookish Gardener. Curiously it has little content relating to garden books, except on Henry Mitchell, where there is rather a lot (in itself no bad thing).

But the most exciting news is surely on Emma Cooper's blog where you will find the opportunity to actually take part in writing a book.
.

VP's writing SP

2008-11-08T13:26:00.002Z

Now the nights are drawing in, it’s time to snuggle in front of the fire, have a warm drink or nice tot of something to hand and to really start getting to grips with the vast (in my case) pile of books that’s been growing over the past few months.

However, from reading the blogosphere, it's become clear to me November's NOT the month for such activities. Writing’s the thing! Emmat’s furiously scribbling away to fulfil her 1,600+ words a day target for the National Novel Writing Month.

If this makes you feel exhausted just thinking about it, then like me you can have a go at National Blog Posting Month – the theme for November is: there is no theme, so you can get away with writing about anything, just do it daily. If that’s too much, then you can have a go at Your Messages, just like our simian friend here.

Or, you could just go back to your fire and get reading. Yet the blogosphere has designs for you in this area too. Where there’s gardening, I believe thoughts of food are never too far away and Joanna on her food blog has winkled out the fun Food Quote Challenge, where there's a copy of The Food Lovers' Treasury up for grabs. All you have to do is recall the finest piece of fictional writing about food you know of and tell the Almond and the Hazelnut blog about it by the 21st November. You'll find full details of what you have to do via the link. However, Joanna's already come up with some rather yummy stiff competition.

Alternatively, how about telling the Flange about your favourite fictional garden in the Comments below? Go to it book fans!

VP

Tempted

2008-11-07T20:25:00.005Z

I continue to be seduced into buying books just because of their cover.

This one dates from 1961, and cost a matter of pence.

I love the cover design so much I am thinking of cutting it up and framing it.

That is no doubt an act of sacrilegious vandalism, but it was very cheap and if I did destroy it then it makes the remaining ones more valuable I guess - so it’s not an entirely wanton act.

Book Review - Gardeners’ World Top Tips – A Treasury of Garden Wisdom

2008-11-01T13:52:00.003Z

Victoria contacted me earlier this week – would I like to have her review copy of the latest Gardeners’ World book published last week? She suggested it would be a suitable prize for my Open Garden fundraiser, so how could I refuse such an offer? I also rather liked the idea of reviewing the book for Flange readers seeing The Garden Monkey’s rather busy at the moment.

First impressions are favourable. It’s hardback with a rather jolly dustjacket harking back to simpler times in the garden. Even the snail on the cover looks friendly. It’s written by Louise Hampden – Gardeners’ World’s producer and announces itself as ‘Hints, tips and wisdom from TV’s longest running and most popular gardening programme…’ I met Louise very briefly at Gardeners’ World Live in June when we exchanged pleasantries during the filming of Gardeners’ World. She’s worked on the programme for the past 10 years, so knows the programme and the last few crops of presenters inside out. According to the press release that came with the book, it’s a tie-in with a 20 part daytime TV series due to start on 1st December. However, there’s no mention of this fact in the book itself.

It’s divided into 5 chapters – Flower Power, Food, Design, Pots and Gardens. Flower Power is further divided by season and looks at how to ensure year-round floral interest in the garden. Several of the book’s shortcomings quickly become apparent: a lot of the content whilst interesting, isn’t really tips at all – there’s potted histories, quotations from famous gardeners (not necessarily Gardeners’ World presenters) and plant trivia. The ‘Top Tips’ themselves (helpfully boxed, with a different font and background, so you can’t miss them) are often pitched at the pre-beginner level. I suspect most of the gardeners whom I believe this book is aimed at will feel a bit short changed. For a book that’s meant to be culled from 40 years of Gardeners’ World wisdom, it’s strange there’s not more tips to share, nor is there much in the way of anecdotes or content attribution to the presenters. I often found the best ‘Top Tips’ were in the non-boxed sections, for example there’s an organic slug repellent recipe I’d love to try using garlic. And that’s when I met another of the book’s shortcomings – there isn’t an index to find the useful bits at a later date. So if I want to return to the book in the spring to cook up my garlic slug repellent, I’ll have to remember the recipe’s in the Flower Power chapter, in the Summer section and somewhere in the part called Dealing with Slugs and Snails. Hmm.

The chapters on Food, Design and Pots are in a similar vein. I thought the Design chapter was the strongest and most coherent in its content and advice – probably because it’s documenting a journey from start to finish with some clearly signposted ‘things to think about’ along the way. In contrast, the Gardens section was woefully inadequate at just 4 pages. This is the chapter meant to reflect the hundreds of gardens and nurseries Gardeners’ World has visited and should give readers some must-see places to explore later. However, there’s no mention of Kew, nor the National Trust or English Nature. You could argue these are obvious, but if that’s so, then why mention the RHS gardens or the Yellow Book? The NCCPG is mentioned fleetingly, but no contact details are given if anyone wants to find out where to visit a garden with a specific plant collection. There’s two pages of suggested gardens to visit and I liked the way this is divided into places reflecting the other chapters of the book. However at two pages in length and with 10 sub-headings it means many readers won’t have anywhere to go nearby if they want to visit one with for example, Winter interest. Simply doubling the length of this chapter, with a better researched set of websites and contact details would have made it a much more useful resource.

You may think I don’t rate this book from what I’ve said so far. However, much of it is utterly charming. The plentiful line drawings are lovely and much of the information is interesting. I did have quite a few ‘Oh I didn’t know that’ moments which kept me turning the pages. It would have been so much better if the book had tried to be good at one thing instead of two. As a reference book it fails, but as a miscellany to dip into at bedtime, it works.

Guess what I've been up to?

2008-10-20T09:54:00.003+01:00

I really should get out more.

I find the fact that it's so difficult with gardening books stangely compelling.

BTW - missed this one from yesterday's round-up as it went up just after I'd posted.
.

Blog Book News

2008-10-19T09:09:00.002+01:00

Another quick round-up of garden book goings-on, many of which I‘m sure you will have seen.

Highlight for me was Kate‘s eloquent review of James Alexander-Sinclair‘s. book.

Also fellow flange members Helen and VP have a go at the Sorted Books thing.

I think I mentioned the free E-Books here before, but they weren’t actually available at the
time.

And if you are in the market for freebies, pop over here.
.

Book Review - The Thrifty Gardener – Alys Fowler

2008-10-16T21:23:00.006+01:00

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. My expectations were of a book full of sensible, down to earth advice and ideas and I wasn’t, in the end, disappointed.

The book is divided into 9 chapters which lead the novice gardeners from ‘No garden gardening’ to pruning and propagating and includes a directory of easy veg and flowers to grow. However, unlike other gardening books I have encountered this one had a very urban and modern feel and certainly engaged with society’s current preoccupation with recycling and sustainability as shown in the section on ‘skip diving’ which rather surprised provincial me!! At first I though I wasn’t going to be able to engage with the book, being naturally drawn to those coffee table books with lots of sumptuous English country garden. I thought, as it was aimed at beginners, it couldn’t teach me anything new – how presumptuous of me!

Alys’ wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm shines through on every page as does her non-nonsense personality which is humorously demonstrated in the section about DIY tools ( I told you it wasn’t your normal gardening book!). Alys says that you need to find someone to teach you how to use tools and in her experience this shouldn’t be someone who "complain(s) about your driving skills" but rather "someone you are never going to go to bed with" – such sensible advice!

Whilst the book contains a number of DIY projects such as building your own compost bin and wormery, it also contains a lot of sensible gardening advice – some of which goes against everything else you will have read, such as her opinion that shop bought soil testing kits are a complete waste of time and money, the alternative either send a soil sample to a lab or use a home grown test kit complete with red cabbage leaf! I found Alys’ honest approach very refreshing and humorous.

Having encouraged the novice gardener to move from container gardening (which includes tips on growing Avocado and Papaya plants) into garden gardening the books then gives some tips on preparing soil, sowing and propagating and concludes with coping with gluts and how to make herb teas. This last section came as a surprise and this was one element of the book which I found frustrating. It touched on many subjects but not in great detail and you were left turning the page and finding yourself going in a totally different direction. I think there is a huge potential for Alys to develop some of the smaller sections in the book into a range of excellent companion books.

Although this book claims to be aimed at beginners, and it certainly doesn’t assume any pre-knowledge, taking trouble to explain various terminology, I do think that most gardeners would find it a welcome edition to their literature collection. If nothing else it makes you re-look at things you have taken for granted and introduces you to new points of view which can never be a bad thing.

Having started thinking I could learn nothing new from the book I am now itchy for spring to arrive so I can have a go at growing my own chickpea plant and I don’t even like chickpeas.

Helen

Blog Book News

2008-10-12T10:03:00.005+01:00

I apologise once again for the lack of bloggage on these pages. As things go to sleep outside I will try and make Flange entries a bit more regular.

So by way of recompense - a bit of a round up of a few garden booky items.

The idea behind the picture comes from the Sorted Book Project, which I discovered via Musings from a Muddy Island, a site that VP tipped me off about.

It’s not easy to do the “sorted book” thing with garden books, for the simple reason that they pretty much all seem to have garden or gardening in the title.

Musings from a MI is completely booky, but as far as I can ascertain has only one garden book on it. Nevertheless it looks like a delicious book and it is a fine blog.

Next, the prodigal blogger returns and EmmaT champions Charles Dowding’s Salad Leaves, on her day-blog.

Then a serious recommendation from Mrs Be on a subject she knows all about.

A nice book pic crops up on Pictures Just Pictures.

Garden Bookcases get a feature from The Garden History Girl.

Finally, I came across this old review of Hortus and Slightly Foxed.

Now I had never come across the latter, but it does look like it might have some interest to the horticulturally minded. Does anyone know it?

Lost Cause

2008-09-27T20:57:00.001+01:00

It's not just printed books I'm a bit over-stocked with.

I have recently realised that I have quite a few notebooks - not all of which are in the photo.

And I still didn’t find the one I’m looking for.

Autumn Leaves

2008-09-18T20:53:00.004+01:00

The more eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a new Flange member, blogger and fellow garden book enthusiast.

Coming with the advent of autumn this is very exciting news.

I am off to lay in a good supply of seasoned logs, stilton and port (I actually typed that as pot - not a bad idea, but not conducive to reading) ready for long winter's nights filled with wonderful reading.

Book Review - On Guerilla Gardening

2008-09-13T16:49:00.007+01:00

I suspect Richard Reynolds would be a formidable opponent at Risk. His - is it too early to use the term ‘cult book’ yet? - On Guerrilla Gardening is certainly a valuable vade mecum for anybody interested in illicitly improving the local landscape, but it also contains the kind of tactical and strategic savvy that you normally associate with a Garry Kasparov or a Ferdinand Foch.

Indeed, while growing things is at the heart of what Reynolds is writing about (“politics and sustainability aside, the reason I became a guerrilla gardening is because I love gardening”), there is a very strong emphasis placed on the ‘guerrilla’ aspect of his sallies: the book is liberally strewn with canny quotes from fighting folk such as Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara, he talks knowledgeably about fellow ‘troops’ making ‘sorties’ and ‘strikes’ in the middle of the night to cause ‘shock and awe’, and he recognises the vital importance of propaganda – especially blogging and other social media – in winning hearts and minds.

The book - a comfortable size which uses photographs well and has attractive endpapers - is divided into two sections, The Movement and The Manual. The first part explores the philosophy behind nipping out in the middle of the night to turn untended urban roundabouts, unloved medians and even Guantanamo Bay into small oases of delight. Reynolds also gives us a whistlestop tour through the movement’s history from the time of the 17th century Diggers (hats off to Gerrard Winstanley) through the turbulence of flower power to the posturing of millennium protestors.

In part two he gives general advice on what to plant, where to plant it (or in some cases, lob your homemade seed bomb) and what to wear. I suspect much of the horticultural part of this section will not be a revelation to most of the Garden Monkey’s readership, but for the many quite keen yet spectacularly ignorant gardeners such as myself it is very useful indeed.

There’s much more to this call to arms though. Despite largely positive notices in the national press, reviewers seem to have largely missed or ignored a central aspect of this book. Reynolds himself claims that guerrilla gardeners’ main enemies in the 21st century are scarcity and neglect, Dickensian evils not usually associated with gardening handbooks but which he believes require radical solutions. While he specifically states that his warriors should act legally, On Guerrilla Gardening feels like a handbook to non-confrontational campaigning and a manifesto for social change. What we plant is important, he argues, but so is why we plant it, whether it’s for aesthetic, economic or health reasons. It’s not surprising to discover the title and chapter headings are set in a type designed by William H Page, not only a lover of ornamental gardening but also a community activist. For this reason, it’s likely to find a place on my bookshelf between Tom Hodgkinson’s How To Be Idle and Antonia Swinson’s You Are What You Grow.

Alex

Thanks Alex - More on Guerilla Gardening can be found here

Arrows of Desire

2008-09-07T14:57:00.001+01:00

Is there a book that you really covet?

The target of my longing is Mabberley’s Plant Book.

Why don’t I buy it? Well it is £50, which is quite a lot of money. But it isn’t a huge amount of money like say , this one.

And if I stopped buying books for a couple of months (as if!) I could easily put the necessary McGarrett aside.

And it certainly not really a lot of money compared to the amount I want it.

So why don’t I just buy it?

Well sometimes the pleasure is all in the desire.
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Bag, Book and Handle?

2008-09-01T21:54:00.005+01:00

Laetitia Maklouf, one of the team in C5's new garden programme is described as an author.

Her book isn't out yet (unless she has an earlier book on handbags that I'm not aware of).

Which made me wonder at what point do you become an author, or entitled to call yourself one?

After publication sure, but what about during, or before?

I really don't know.

What are your thoughts?
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Guilty Treasures

2008-08-31T20:09:00.005+01:00

From Flange member Helen:

Thought I would bring the book flange down market for a change. Although I have enjoyed reading about the various ancient gardening literary finds, I thought something more up to date would be good.

This is my most recent purchase

Now before you leap in and ask why I should buy such a book, I would state that in my defence I haven't had my greenhouse for long and I want to do more with it than grow tomatoes and raise annuals so was looking for some inspiration. The book has delivered this albeit it in simplistic terms.

I wondered if members had gardening gems that they wouldn't necessarily rush to own up to but find very helpful.

Helen (aka patientgardener)

E's are good?

2008-08-29T21:45:00.004+01:00

Given that this blog is a child of the internet, it's perhaps surprising that, thus far, it has only once had a link to, or mentioned an E book.

There are two free E books here.

I haven't looked at them yet, but will do so.

In the meantime if anyone does and wants to tell the Flange about it - be our guest.
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Books my Bean-counter left me

2008-08-28T21:56:00.003+01:00

This post is from Flange-member James who says :

My accountant gave me a 1951 copy of this fine publication. I particularly like the fact that it is described as an "intimate" magazine for garden lovers. This title promises more than it delivers (although Gladioli for Gaiety is a start). Sadly, not one to go in the private reading stash down at the allotment.

There are some cracking advertisements in the publication including one for The Cornish Flexible Earth Company which includes this limerick:

There was a young lady from Ealing
Who had a peculiar feeling
For our Flexible Earth
Gave rise to great mirth
When her daffodils reached to the ceiling

Blog Book News

2008-08-27T21:55:00.002+01:00

One of my favourite blogs Garden History Girl has a nice garden piece by Saki, who rather coincidentally, was the feature of this piece in a blog I was perusing at the weekend.

The blog is about the second hand and rare book trade, and thoroughly interesting, with some posts that are more, or less horticulturally themed.

I have also blundered across a blog featuring natural history writer, Henry David Thoreau.

Returning to Garden History Girl, she also has a link to the garden History Society, who have lots of booky stuff.

And finally Flange member James Alexander-Sinclair has a post on books, which will lead you back here.
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Britain In Pictures

2008-08-25T09:50:00.004+01:00

The books in the photo on a recent post were:

English Garden Flowers - Harry Roberts 1944,
Wildflowers in Britain - Geoffrey Grigson 1944 and
British Garden flowers George M Taylor 1946.

They are part of a series called Britain in Pictures which covers a wide range of subjects in the arts, sciences, history and geography. The ones I have each has 8 colour plates and 22 -26 black and white illustrations. They are all just under fifty pages in length which makes them ideal to spend an hour or so perusing on one of the rainy afternoons, that have plagued us of late.

Books from the series can be bought quite cheaply online, although the usual warning applies here that you have to be wary of a vendor offering a book at a low price, whilst at the same time inflating the postal costs.

Others in the series that would be of interest to gardeners are:

British Herbs and Vegetables George M Taylor.
Trees in Britain - Alexander L Howard
British Botanists - John Gilmour and
English Country Houses - V. Sackville-West.

I personally will also be looking out for another called British Orientalists, in the hope that it will include something on Edward Pococke, a very distant relative, who some credit with introducing the cedar to this country.

P..P..P..Pick up a Penguin

2008-08-24T16:06:00.003+01:00

Do you recall my post about Penguin Handbooks, following some photos that Flange member VP supplied?

Well, I have been putting together a list of PH's of interest to the gardener. It is currently quite ropey, and can only improve, but for what it's worth here it is:

S145 - Trees and Shrubs (and how to grow them) - W H Rowe[1944]
S146 - The Vegetable Growers' Handbook Vol I
S147 - The Vegetable Growers' Handbook Vols II.
PH1 - Soft Fruit Growing - Raymond Bush
PH2 - Tree Fruit Growing Part I (Apples) - Raymond Bush
PH3 - Tree Fruit Growing Part II (Pears, Quinces and Stone Fruits). - Raymond Bush
PH19 - The Flower Garden. Penguin Handbook - E R Janes [1953]
PH 23 - The Vegetable Garden - E R Janes
PH 37 - Roses - Fred Fairbrother [1958]
PH 44 - Rock gardens - E B Anderson [1959]
PH 51 - Hardy Herbaceous Plants - Lanning Roper. [1960]
PH59 - Dahlias - Stuart Ogg [1961]
PH73 - House Plants - Margaret E. Jones [1962]
PH82 - Water Gardens - Francis Perry [1962]
PH127 - Garden Design - Kenneth Midgley [1966]
PH?? - Annual and Biennial Flowers - A P Balfour
PH?? - Chrysanthemums - E T Thistletwaite
PH?? - The Cool Greenhouse - G W Robinson [1959]
PH?? - Lawns - R B Dawson
PH?? Delphiniums - Ronald Parrett [1961]
PH?? - Cacti & Other Succulents - R Ginns
PH?? - Gardening The Modern Way - Roy Hay

I have also as you may have guessed been putting together my own collection of them, which includes most, but not all of the above.

Gone Gerritsen

2008-08-23T21:46:00.004+01:00

Gardens Illustrated is my favourite garden magazine, although I have occasionally been rather rude about it in the past. In truth I have calmed down a lot since they off-hired Hugh Jampton.

Unsurprisingly when I get the latest issue, one of the first bits I check out is the book reviews.

This month I see that they are giving away two copies of Henk Gerritsen's new book Essay on Gardening. They are actually limited edition English language copies of the book, which is published in Dutch.

I am quite excited at this prospect and utterly convinced that I will win one.

On which note, I would tell you how to enter the draw, but you will have to buy the mag to find out. That isn't down to altruism on my part, just an attempt to limit the amount of other entries.
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The Siadwell Principle

2008-08-20T21:46:00.003+01:00

The title of this post does admittedly sound a bit like one of those brick-like books by Robert Ludlum, or someone, that you see all manner of sad bastards clasping under their arms at airports.

Anyway - it isn’t.

The Siadwell Principle is something altogether more profound.

It is an age-old concept, but one most recently demonstrated by Siadwell, a gormless Welsh geek created by John Sparkes, in an eighties comedy series I only dimly remember.

The sketch in question opened with Siadwell admiring his “Collection” - which was two pens and a comb. The joke was that he had just three things, only two of which were the same, but laugh not - this is a Damascene moment.

It not only establishes the principle that you need only three things to have a collection [two is merely a pair], but also if you have only two things that are the same, you can still create a collection if you can find something made of the same material and approximately the same length.

This is a vital dictum to the budding collector.

Imagine my joy when I bought this ready made collection yesterday. Not only that, the second-hand bookshop had a half price sale on and they cost me just £4.50 for the lot.

I will of course post about these books in due course, but right now I need a lie down - I am as excited as a paparazzo who has just photographed Amy Winehouse, using a pooter to blow Class A drugs up her mimsy.

Blog Book News

2008-08-16T21:53:00.002+01:00

Another quick breeze through the garden book bits and pieces that I have happened across recently.

The big news is of course the free books up for grabs at VP's Virtual Open Garden.

Meanwhile Emma Townshend is still reading anything with a vaguely horticultural link - this time strawberries.

Again more groovy stuff from my fellow vintage book fan Amanda - although the featured garden looks quite contemporary.

I am in a total green eyed frenzy over a new book R Pete Free has acquired, less so about the gay Alan Titchmarsh book.

And finally a blog I found that has a free E-book for download, and some book reviews [plus a certain measure of cat-nutterdom]
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Handbags and Gladrags

2008-08-14T20:52:00.001+01:00

What’s your funniest garden book moment - if indeed you have one.

Mine was seeing a pile of one of Diarmuid Gavin's books - I think it was Outer Spaces - in Poundland, alongside boxes of Colgate toothpaste with Turkish writing and packs of 48 AA batteries.
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We the people...

2008-08-13T21:19:00.003+01:00

Like Jane Perrone I'm working my way through (and aquiring) the complete works of Christopher Lloyd.

Last week I saw his Exotic planting for adventurous gardeners” in an Oxfam bookshop for £6.99. As the retail coverprice is £20 I thought "Way-hey!" and bought it straight away.

But now I find that The Book People have it for £6.99. I know that is what I paid for mine, but hell, I could have got a brand new one.

Still it was for charity.

Blue Remembered Hills

2008-08-12T20:45:00.002+01:00

I know this is a mug, but it has the picture of a book on it.

I think it’s rather fab. I want one.

Available from Tree House Blue.

To Dave...

2008-08-11T10:17:00.003+01:00

Following on from the previous post - there is a hazard to buying book from say eBay, which have been signed by the author. What is described as a signed copy might also have a dedication the vendor failed to mention. This might limit it’s potential as a gift.

Of course “Best Wishes” is fine whatever the case, but if it’s a newish book that you are trying to pass off as a first hand-purchase then “To Jim” might necessitate a lie of two about the author getting the name wrong and you being too embarrassed to point it out.

However there is no way in the world that you are going to be able to bullshit your way out of a book bearing the inscription “To Betty , good luck with the geraniums”

How do I know this you ask?

Well it’s absolutely not because I bought a signed copy of Kim Wilde’s "Gardening With Children” for a female friend with small kids, only to find it was signed “To Dave.."

Signed Copies

2008-08-10T08:20:00.002+01:00

Gardening writer Martyn Cox has sent me some photos of books from his own bookshelves, which feature the authors signature and wonders has anybody else got any signed copies to beat these?

I have a few myself, but one less that I would like. You see, last year I bought a Graham Stuart Thomas book from eBay for a friend who loves roses. It wasn’t till it was delivered that I realised that it was signed by the great man. Needless to say my friend very nearly didn‘t get her present.

Blog Book News

2008-08-07T21:20:00.002+01:00

Just a quick trot through some of the garden book things cropping up lately.

Firstly an article from last weekend's Telegraph about David Wheeler, the editorial brains behind Hortus, staving off the worst of horticultural deprivation with the books of Margery Fish.

That author, along with Christopher Lloyd, forms a pair of writers whose complete works Jane Perrone is working her way through.

Emma Townshend is (temporarily one hopes) eschewing such worthy stuff in favour of charity books that simply have garden in the title.

And finally, I hope I'm not giving away too much of a secret when I tell you that there may be the odd garden book to be had at VP's Virtual Open Garden shortly.

Vintage ads

2008-08-06T09:51:00.005+01:00

These pics of some vintage adverts were kindly supplied by VP from one of her Penguin Handbooks.

Since my last post on the subject I have been looking at Penguin Handbooks in an "Oooh, what a great idea for a collection" sort of way, and will be doing a post on them soon. VP, what have you started?

A blog I can recommend for vintage stuff from books and magazines is Kiss My Aster.

The author, Amanda, has 3 issues of a book from the 60s called Better Homes & Gardens New Garden Book, which she posts on from time to time and which I covet deeply.
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Thin as a rake

2008-08-03T15:42:00.001+01:00

I must apologise for the rather thin number of posts here in recent weeks.

Life has been a bit mad, to say the least.

I shall do my best to rectify the situation.

It's only money

2008-08-03T15:39:00.003+01:00

The book shown in my previous post was The Week-End Gardener by C S Goodman, FRGS, and like another book featured here, published by Crowther and subject to “War Time Productions and Costs”.

(I didn't actually click on to this when I bought it. )

It was “Written specially for the National Allotments Society, this book contains may hints for the amateur gardener and people whose permanent interest is horticulture.”

The reason I asked how much the book was, was because I think I paid too much (£12.50).

I am hearted by VP’s comment that it is going for between £5 & £40 on Amazon, although my copy is the 1945 fifth issue and so probably not at the top of that scale, even though it in good condition..

Mind you, I can’t believe that Monty Don’s book of the same name goes for so much. I can’t believe that anything he has produced (excluding his children) is worth anywhere near 76 quid.

Whilst in my heart of hearts I thought the Goodman book was a bit steep, it was one of those occasions where I picked it up and put it down several times.

In those sort of situations it seems, to me at least, that if you don't buy the item then you always regret it afterwards.

But I suppose if one were to take that line of logic to it's conclusion, I'd nip over to Ivelet Books and buy the copy of John Evelyn they have for sale.

Can anybody lend me £2,750?

How much?

2008-07-28T22:29:00.002+01:00

Do you like this book?

How much do you think it's worth?

Guerrillas across the water

2008-07-23T22:02:00.002+01:00

Now while I try and organise a copy of Richard Reynolds’s book On Guerrilla Gardening for Alex to review, I thought you might like to read a write up of another book on the subject - Guerrilla Gardening by David Tracey.

This was featured on Melanie Rimmer’s Bean Sprouts blog, which has quite a few booky bits.

I must ask her if she wants to join the Flange.
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Tie me up, tie me down

2008-07-20T21:55:00.002+01:00

On the subject of a previous post - it seems that James the Hat was nearly "Trussed".

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You say Guerilla, I say Gorilla...

2008-07-19T21:14:00.003+01:00

Does anyone fancy reviewing Richard Reynold's "On Guerilla Gardening" for the Flange?

I have it, but even am less impartial than normal where GG is concerned.

If you don't have a copy, I could probably organise one for you.

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A sign of madness

2008-07-18T22:02:00.001+01:00

It seems to me a sign of obsession with a subject, when you have items relating to it, which are of no possible use to you.

I have a number of garden/gardening/horticulture books, which I am sure I will not derive the slightest practical use from.

That is not to say that they are without any use - they give pleasure.

This is, I think, the book I own which is the least useful, but I love it.

It is by E St Clair Morford and is the 1946 reprint of the 1926 original.

It bears the following heartrending inclusion in the revised foreword:

“Since 1926, when this book first appeared, much has happened. The writer returned in1945 to a garden completely destroyed; borders turned into sweet potato beds, lawns a waving sea of lalang and “forestry”. Fern and plant houses pulled down; shrubs and trees cut down by vandals, who cut the trees to get the fruit!…standard hibiscus and orchids - the collection of 30 years - thrown on the rubbish heap!…”C’est la guerre”!...

Penguin Handbooks

2008-07-13T21:28:00.003+01:00

VP has sent some more pictures for posting, of some more vintage books, saying:

“It's actually a set of 3, all by the marvellously named Raymond Bush. 'Soft Fruit Growing' + 'Tree Fruit Growing Part I (Apples)' and II (Pears, Quinces and Stone Fruits). They all bear the classic Penguin cover that's now gracing many a literary mug. I think these must have been the first 3 books in the Penguin Handbook series as they have the serial numbers PH1, PH2 and PH3 on their spines.”

She adds that she has Penguin Handbooks S146 and S147 - The Vegetable Growers' Handbook Vols I & II.

Now this fired my inner trainspotter. Why did some Penguin Handbooks have the serial number PH and others S?

So I dug out three Penguin Handbooks of my own.

I have Tree and Shrubs (and how to grow them) - which is definitely a Penguin Handbook, but is S145 [pub October 1944]

And 2 others
PH9 - The Penguin Handyman
PH13 - Your Smallholding.

They are published 1945 & 1947 respectively, and so the PH numbering must have started in late 1944/1945.

This still raised a number of questions, such as when exactly did the S pre-fix change to PH and why?

And also what is the full list of the PH series?

If you haven’t yet fallen asleep, I can report that I spent an hour and a half searching the net for answers to these questions. I did discover a wealth of fascinating information about Penguin Books, but drew a total blank on the answers that I was after. maybe someone will read this and enlighten us.

I should have known better really, I had a similar fruitless quest for the definitive list of Wisley Handbooks a while back.

Blog Book News

2008-07-10T21:07:00.002+01:00

Here's another brief round up of some garden book goings on from the internet.

Alex continues with his Shedworker’s Bookshelf each and every Friday (get ready for tomorrow’s) and this week had a post on the Art & Artisan bookshop.

Also from a shed source is a review of Growing in the Community by Simon Kirby, who is the chap with the rather wonderful shed built entirely from pallets.

The last review is rather preconceived one of Richard Reynolds’s book On Guerrilla Gardening
from a little while back. As a supporter of Guerrilla Gardening I had to stick my oar in.

There’s news of a couple of new books are in the pipeline one from Emma Cooper and another from Gayla Trail.

And finally some photos of Lloyds of Kew (as recommended by EmmaT). Sadly the shop doesn't seem to have it's own site.

With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed

2008-07-09T10:47:00.003+01:00

I only recently discovered that Lynne Truss had written a book with a horticultural theme.

In fact, in my ignorance I did not know that she had written anything other than Eats Shoots & Leaves.

I found this information recently, whilst perusing a 1994 copy of Gardens Illustrated, in which she was interviewed. Yes, as well as old books, I read old magazines as well - I should get out more.

Such is the power and wonder of the internet that I was able to get hold of a copy not only very quickly, but also very cheaply, although I got stung a bit on the postage.

The book itself (a 2004 reprint of the '94 original) is an amusing comic novel, ideal for a holiday and was a welcome piece of froth when I had some dead time to fill and wasn’t in the mood to concentrate intensively.

It's not perhaps as good as the master of the field Carl Hiassen (what is?), but it put me in mind of the books by that author, being populated as it was by all sorts of loonies, which is quite surprising since it revolves around the staff of a gardening magazine.

Ooh hang on, I must go and check if Lynne Truss ever worked for Amateur Gardening.

Gardeners’ Brains Trust

2008-07-08T13:39:00.004+01:00

VP’s photos of her wartime book reminded me of this little hardback I have on my shelves.

I bought Wild Flowers and Weeds by G.H. Copley N.D.H., Gardeners’ Brains Trust, etc, largely because of the cover, but also because inside the dust jacket it states “War Time Productions and Costs 8/6” - which seems a bit steep to me.

All of which reminds me - I must look up what the Gardeners’ Brains Trust was.

Dig For Victory

2008-07-07T10:59:00.004+01:00

VP has supplied these pictures of her copy of Practical Gardening & Food Production In Pictures, a book clearly intended to help the wartime Dig For Victory campaign.

Excessive

2008-07-06T18:50:00.003+01:00

Earlier, I was looking at my garden book wants list.

It reaaly is ridiculously large - it could just as well be “Every garden book that I haven’t got” and then added top that “And also some that I have but in better condition, or first editions”.

It’s not going to be an easy job to prune it back into shape.

Whilst I attempt it - what’s on your wants list?

The picture is a pencil rubbing of the cover of Practical Home Gardening Illustrated, a book I referred to recently (it's embossed and doesn't show in a photo).

Cover Lover III - the eye of the tiger lily

2008-07-03T21:08:00.004+01:00

This wonderful image has been provided by James the Hat, who says:

"One of the extraordinary things about these old books (this has no date but judging from the clothes and title must be around the turn of the 19th century) is that their planting was extremely dull. Great hedges, perfect maintenance, immaculate lawns but pretty uninvigorating borders.

The cover art is signed Will Jenkins about whom I can discover nothing. It is something the modern parent should remember: if you wish your child to be easily discoverable through Google then for goodness sake call them Montmorency of Alfalfa or Nickynackynoodle."

Cover Lover Redux.

2008-07-02T22:35:00.003+01:00

Isn't this a great cover?

I love looking at it.

It is however a bittersweet experience, as it’s a single volume of Commercial Gardening, edited by John Weathers , ( A Practical and Scientific Treatise For Market Gardeners Market Grower fruit Flower and Vegetable Growers Nurserymen etc.) and there are three more, which I don't have.

The fact that it's volume two, rather than volume one, or volume four, the latter of which presumably contains the index, somehow makes this worse.

Sigh.

Cover lover

2008-07-01T22:00:00.006+01:00

Of course, these days it is de rigueur for books to attempt to seduce us with an attractive cover, but I must confess to buying this old book largely because of it's cover illustration.

Although the purchase was also, in part, because of the subject of “Art Out of Doors” (it's about garden design and is subtitled Hints on Good Taste in Gardening) and, in slightly larger part, because it was written by one Mrs Schuyler Van Renesselaer. What a great name.

It's an American book and mine is the 1925 reprint rather than the 1893 original.

It did however once belong to a lady called Barbara de Quincy., which I find strangely marvellous.

Old Soot Secrets

2008-06-30T22:08:00.005+01:00

Following a plea for soot advice from aged tomes by Flange member VP I can provide this from The New Illustrated Gardening Encyclopedia by Richard Sudell, F.I.L.A., A.R.H.S., (the book is not dated but the inscription is 1932).

"There are 3 reasons why soot is valuable to the gardener: it contains a little nitrogen; it is a good insecticide; it darkens the soil surface, and therefore makes the soul warmer by retaining solar heat. Soot should always be stored dry and can be used in making liquid manure, or as a surface dressing along the rows of growing crops, either alone, or mixed with lime. If mixed with lime it makes the best insecticide, as the fumes are objectionable to insects of all kinds."

He also has a diagram (see pic) to show how to make soot-water - a sack full of soot, plus a brick to keep it submerged, hung from a rope in a butt of rainwater - with light excluded.

Practical Home Gardening Illustrated (1949) by the same author adds no more information but does include a very similar diagram in the month of March. The diagram bears the legend "Soot water stimulates pot plants", and I'm unclear whether March is time to make, or to apply soot water.

It does have rather lovely pictures inside the cover of Garden Friends & Foes which I’ve posted for purely gratuitous reasons.

My copy of The Complete Gardener first published 1950 (and heavily reprinted) by W.E. Sherwell-Cooper (a man with a formidable array of credentials after his name) has this -

"Soot is a nitrogenous manure which darkens soils and so enables them to absorb and retain heat better. More generally used as a top dressing in the spring. Suitable chiefly for all members of the cabbage family. Usually applied at 5ozs. to the square yard."

I'm the Firestarter

2008-06-29T10:16:00.002+01:00

Flange Member VP asks:

What's the strangest thing you've been asked to do in the pursuit of further book perusal or purchasing?

In order to gain access to the hallowed portal of the Bodleian Library in Oxford (not as a student I hasten to add but in my then career of mad scientist grant provider), I had to sign a declaration I wouldn't set fire to any of the books. I think this was in response to a real incident that happened centuries ago; I'm sure there's a proper Oxford grad out there who can enlighten me further or even furnish a copy of the declaration. It was in ancient English too, so you weren't quite sure exactly what you were signing up to at the time either.

Book'em Danno

2008-06-27T21:22:00.001+01:00

There's been a fair amount of booky activity amongst garden bloggers recently, so in the manner of one of Alex's shed round-ups here goes:

Firstly said sheddista continues his Friday Shedworker’s Bookshelf strand with A Place of my Own by Michael Pollan. A great writer, but not one of his books I've read. Another for the wants list I think.
Over at Carrots and Kids, Dominic Murphy's Playground Potting Shed - which I'm currently reading myself - gets deserved praise.
Last week VP went to the Welsh hills with a mountain of books.
And at the Beholder's Eye blog Deb created a lovely post about succession book-reading.

Modern Love

2008-06-24T19:06:00.003+01:00

I wanted to share with the flange members my latest acquisition. I was today given 'The Modern Greenhouse' by J S Dakers by a work colleague who is having a clear out. Now you need to understand that by modern we mean 1955 and this is an update on the original version of 1938. In a charming foreword the author says that the 1938 edition has been updated to take into account changes in horticultural practice. I have only had a quick flick through but had to smile to myself at a section which describes how to make up a general mix compost:

4 parts yellow loam, 2 parts peat-moss (from bales), 1 part course river sand.

The mind boggles - what is yellow loam? what bales? and do I need to go wading in the river!

Then to each bushel of compost add: one andhalf ounces superphosphate of lime, three quarters of an ounce of potash and two ounces of horn or hoof manure - I have too many questions to this part to list!

All I can say is thank goodness for John Innes!!!!!

Will peruse the book further and let you know if I find any more gems - no doubt I will

Helen (aka patientgardener)

Hard backed danger

2008-06-22T11:56:00.002+01:00

I spent a couple of hours recently kiting round second hand bookshops and charity shops. Both can be rich hunting grounds for garden books, although sometimes one can, quite inexplicably, draw a blank.

Charity shops are a bit odd in that way, some have no garden books out unless it's summer, presumably on the basis that no-one wants to know about gardening in winter. My marketing strategy would go the other way somewhat, but I assume, that theirs is tried and tested. My best ever charity shop purchase was a brand new, mint copy of the Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs (RRP £20) for a quid.

Anyway, whilst trolling around I saw this sign on the door of a charity shop. Now I can understand the potential dangers inherent in second-hand electrical goods, but I can't imagine why hardback books are also verboten.

This is your life

2008-06-18T21:30:00.003+01:00

James has suggested a topic for the Flange - Biography.

His top three (in reverse order) are:

Sally Festing - Gertrude Jekyll
John Dixon Hunt - William Kent
Kate Colquhoun - A Thing In Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton

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Always Allways?

2008-06-16T15:29:00.004+01:00

I've just finished re-reading Beverley Nichols' A Village in a Valley.

Towards the end of the book Miss Hazlitt, one of the spinsters in the village of Allways passes away.

No doubt pondering his own mortality following this event, the author spends the last section of the book imagining a spectral visit to his Allways cottage many years in the future.

In his mind's eye the cottage has been neglected to the point that the roof has fallen in and ivy is growing inside the walls. It struck me that it would be interesting to learn what has actually become of the cottage.

All I know is that the fictional village was actually Glatton in Cambridgeshire.

This made me think of another of his books that I own. Inside which I found an old yellowing newspaper clipping, with a grainy black and white photo, underneath which was printed

"This quaint old entrance belongs to Beverley Nichols' cottage".

I love finding things like that in old books, don't you?

But what of the cottage?

Shed Books

2008-06-13T19:16:00.003+01:00

Flange member Alex has a new strand on his fabulous Shedworking blog.

It's called The Shedworkers Bookshelf and will appear every Friday.

The first book featured is Garden Buildings by Alistair Rowe.

Check it out

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Blog Book Reviews

2008-06-11T21:23:00.002+01:00

I was sent this link to an interesting piece on blog book reviews by Flange member Alex