Hedge Man

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.

Pleasing Perennials: The Curious Gardener

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.

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

VP's writing SP

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