Books for contemplation

We have weeded through gardening books that have been published recently to bring you our favourites. They are all so good that you might want them for yourselves but with generosity, each of them would make a perfect present.

The Garden: An English Love Affair by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall
Renowned landscape architect and garden designer, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, offers a fresh perspective on the development of the English garden over the last thousand years. There is no evidence of what gardens were like before the Norman Conquest so the book starts at 1066.

The art of garden making is told through poetry, fiction, diaries and memoirs. It also draws on the writing of satirists and philosophers, making the book a thoroughly educated and good read, without being overtly academic.

Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall traces the events which shaped the style of gardens, showing how each period was influenced by a love or hate relationship with nature, either the taming or manipulating, the romanticising and celebration of it. She explores the way garden styles have reflected political, economic, social and cultural life and how these in turn led to a change in architecture and even in clothes and manners.

Lancelot Brown, Humphry Repton, Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West are all celebrated, along with some lesser-known figures, and the author reflects on the impact they had on gardens. The book is lavishly illustrated with illuminated manuscripts, embroideries and photographs.

‘To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch their renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfying thing a man can do.'
From My Summer in a Garden, Charles Dudley Warner, 1876

Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall's conclusion is not dissimilar. The English have an abiding love of flowers, plants and pleasure in growing them. They have been our inspiration in the making of gardens that are firmly rooted in tradition.

Publication details:
359 pp. £25
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 0297843079
2002

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Gardens by the Sea by Barbara Segall

Gardens by the Sea records twenty-one of the world's most beautiful and inspiring coastal gardens. The gardens that Barbara Segall has chosen are all very different, from gardens in California to a Scottish garden on the west coast of Argyll to a relatively formal garden in Sweden. The clifftop garden in Devon is a riot of colour, which contrasts with the jungle garden in New Zealand. If you live by the sea, you won't be short of inspiration. The photographs are breathtaking.

Drawing on her experience as a well known horticulturalist and garden writer, Barbara Segall looks at the essential prerequisites for successful seaside gardening, profiling 150 plants that thrive in such conditions. She explains the specialist gardening techniques needed for coping with salt, wind, drought and sun. In the chapter on garden features, she outlines the elements that can be brought into schemes; the use of shells, driftwood and boulders. The successful use of decking, terracing and screening are characteristic of coastal gardens.

Coastal gardening is one of the most testing but so rewarding when it works. With this book by your side, your time will be rewarded ten fold with the results that will follow.

Publication details
160 pp. Photography by Jerry Harpur. £25
Published by Frances Lincoln
ISBN 0711218943
2002

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The Story of Gardening by Penelope Hobhouse
This original and absorbing account is a testament to a life's work in horticulture. Penelope Hobhouse is the acclaimed plantswoman and garden designer who has created gardens worldwide, in a career that spans several decades.

The Story of Gardening is a personal account of one of civilisation's most ancient arts and Penelope Hobhouse draws on evidence taken worldwide. The book showcases some of the world's most beautiful gardens in a lavish collection of paintings and photographs. The author describes the rich cultural and historical influences that have shaped gardens and which continue to inspire modern design. By charting the fascinating evolution of gardening over thousands of years, you can appreciate the styles and techniques, which have guided us in the making of gardens today. She also considers how the availability of plant species from around the world has played its part in garden design.

Penelope Hobhouse introduces the world's principal gardeners, horticulturalists and designers. She finds out which plants were most valuable or fashionable of their day, providing an insight into the past.

The Story of Gardening has clarity and authority, making it an engrossing read. Although similar in vein to Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall's book, they are very different.

Publication details:
468 pp. £25
Published by Dorling Kindersley
ISBN 0751333905
2002

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