Your favourite garden writers

[PeggyGuggenheim]

I was given In Your Garden by Vita Sackville West years ago before I even had a garden; she taught me so much. The book is a collection of her Observer columns from the 1940's / 50's. I have since got hold of In Your Garden Again which is the follow up. Beautifully written, as one would expect, but also absolutely cast-iron tips and advice.

I also really love Robin Lane Fox's Variations On A Garden for the same reasons. He is also quite entertaining.

The Morville Year by Katherine Swift. Although sometimes a little too mannered / consciously erudite but it might just be that I am envious of her life and garden.

Dan Pearson writes very well on a blog.

Any other suggestions for beautiful garden writing?

Christopher Lloyd! I’m a rubbish and uninterested gardener but I love his books.

I’ve been listening to Edward Enfield’s Growing to a Ripe Old Age on audible, which is well-written and gently funny. It’s more about gardening experiences than how to garden though there is some useful information too.

I like Monty Don a lot - his books are a nice balance of constructive information and personal reflections.

Alan Titchmarsh’s How to Be a Gardener was a helpful starting point for me, though perhaps too basic for those who are already enthusiasts.

I’m ploughing through The Well Tempered Garden by Christopher Lloyd at the moment. It’s very informative, and witty in places, but I’m finding it a bit dense. I think it would be a great resource for a more knowledgeable gardener, but I’m coming across chunks of pages of plant names and descriptions I don’t recognise, which is hard going.

Lovely thread

Yes! Just what I need - will look up the audible rec, another great one in the hidden life of trees. Fascinating.

I tried The Well Tempered Garden years ago, but I think I also found it a bit hard going. Funnily enough, Robin Lane Fox devotes a chapter to Christopher Lloyd in his "Thoughtful Gardening" including this anecdote

Thanks buckeejit I’ll look that one up

Oh how funny 😂

Oh, goodness - Vita S-W is sublime.

The Virago Book of Women Gardeners came out not long after I caught the horticultural bug and it's good to see there's a new edition. I've just skimmed the intro - I'd forgotten how good it is I also very much like The Essential Gertrude Jekyll - it's an anthology drawn from her various books.

Elizabeth and her German Garden is a classic, though a bit of a marmite book - I love it. Flora Klickmann's The Flower Patch Among the Hills (free at Gutenberg) has lovely descriptions of a cottage garden.

Persephone has reprints of a couple of gardening books - Gardeners' Niightcap is very slight but very charming.

I've only read a tiny bit of Rosemary Verey but liked her a lot - have a look at the sample of A Countrywoman's Notes at Amazon.

Mrs Miniver caught the gardening bug as an adult - her description of her epiphany is great fun. Diana Athill has a lovely little piece about gardening in great old age.

Watching this with interest. I have one called the ornamental kitchen garden which I really like leading through.

Apologies, I do seem to be a thread killer. But Christine Walkdens container gardening book also gave me a lot of inspiration when I had a back yard.

Cwg1, I’ve been meaning to read Elizabeth and her German Garden - hope I fall on the love it side of marmite 😊. I’ll take a look through your other suggestions too. Thank you ☺️.

I like the idea of an ornamental kitchen garden, Neilsfavouritechilli. I have a dvd of a series presented by Geoff Hamilton on the same theme that I’m waiting for a quiet time to start watching. It’s an old bbc one.

Some great suggestions here, cwg1 I am particularly excited at the thought of reading Gertrude Jekyll, I don't think it's ever occured to me to seek out her writing.

I got Down To Earth Women by Dawn MacLeod from a charity shop and I must say it's been a revelation. Amazing chapter on V. Sackville West and also on Inverewe Garden. The front cover illustration is of Jekyll digging but I think it looks like a man in a dress having a wee

Joy Larkcom for all things veg. She's great. 'Grow Your Own Vegetables' is a classic and really useful.

Val Bourne for flowers. Paints pictures with words but does it with practicality in mind. Great. One of her best is 'Colour in The Garden'.

I am on the youngish side and whilst i have A Well Tempered Garden, and i know the plants and methods written about, i find it dreadfully dull and sometimes completely out of date - i think weed killer and digging the beds completely was mentioned and it put me off as it is so old fashioned.
Vita Sackville West is much better, as she is wittier, but i prefer books such as James Wong on how to grow things better, and John Lewis Stempel where wildlife gardening is at the forefront. Also Alys Fowler because her knowledge is so fascinating.

I also couldn’t get through Elizabeth and her German Garden because there is so little gardening- the point of the book is the constant and tiresome interruptions to her enjoyment of her garden and the Prussian stiffness is also dreary.

Sorry this is an old thread - but I wanted to plug Margery Fish’s memoir “we made a garden” - and absolute classic, and very amusing. Her “cottage garden plants” is also v good.

I’m also struggling through “The Well Tempered Garden”, but don’t let that put you off Christopher Lloyd’s other books - his cookery book, The Year At Great Dixter, The Mixed Border and Gardener Friend with Beth Chatto are great.

Christopher Lloyd's 'Cuttings' (collection of his articles for the Guardian) is an excellent, easy read. Quite witty too, in places.

Graham Stuart Thompson I found an easy and interesting read.

A bit off the beaten track, and certainly not a "how to" - Virgil's Georgics. We did it at school in Latin and I loved it then, so having promised myself for years that I would brush up my Latin, I finally bought an English translation. Very restful and calming.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Beth Chatto yet - although her books suffer from having black and white photos (!) I think they are very informative and well written.

The Garden of Evening Mists. Tan Twan Eng. It's a beautiful novel that garden lovers would enjoy.

We made a garden by Margery Fish - lovely read