Product Description

One of the great gardenong writers of our time shares the hope and successes - and sometimes failures - of her work and reveals what is really involoved in maintaining a unique and flourishing garden.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #282514 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Beth Chatto runs her own Garden and Nursery for Unusual Plants at Elmstead Market near Colchester. Winner of ten Gold Medals at Chelsea, she also holds the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour and an honorary doctorate from Essex University for her services to horticulture. She is the author of a host of gardening classics and is also co-author of Dear Friend and Gardener, written with her long-standing friend and fellow gardener, Christopher Lloyd.

Customer Reviews

Lost in Essex. In a good way.
This is such a great read, whether you've been to Beth Chatto's wonderful garden and are already a big fan, or even if you've never heard of her before today.

Beth Chatto started a nursery and garden with her husband in 1960, on land in Essex he used to farm for fruit. It has become one of the most famous spots in England due to her wonderful books, which preach a message of planting according to the situation you have, not according to what you wish was there. This forethinking message might seem familiar to us today, but in her own time it was revolutionary and influential - if you have a damp garden, or a dry garden (she had bits of both) accept it and work with what you have instead of against it.

This is not to say that her style of gardening is somehow lacking the colour and texture of more extrovert planters. She is an expert plantswoman and walking round her garden you stop every ten metres to take a photo or wonder at a plant.

This book is a whole year's worth of diary, detailing her love for her grandchildren, her delight in her potting compost mixer, and her interesting visitors, ranging from the Japanese work experience boy to nosy parkers who don't believe she actually is Beth Chatto. And that's before you get started on any of the writing about plants, which is just delightful.

I mostly read this book on the tube and it was completely involving, I often totally forgot where I was, I was so lost in Essex and her brilliantly-put insights and thoughts on gardening. 100% enjoyable, and a great gift for any gardener.