Product Description

In this exchange of personal letters two of Britain's leading gardeners - Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto - share their successes and failures, and learn from each other's experiences in their two very different gardens.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20215 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
... a delightful collection of letters ... offers a unique insight into their successes and failures. Candid, amusing, revealing and informative (Daily Telegraph )

My favourite read of the year is this entertaining correspondence between our two greatest living gardeners (Sunday Telegraph Magazine )

What links and distinguishes (in both senses) these two writers is that they never pass on a received opinion about a plant or gardening practice or theory. Everything they say is rooted firmly in observation and experience so their thoughts and opinions carry weight and value (Hardy Plant )

It is this book, I suspect, that many gardeners would most like to find at the ends of their beds when they wake up on Christmas morning (Independent on Sunday )

From the Publisher
Recent reviews for DEAR FRIEND AND GARDENER
"essential bedside reading for any keen gardener" Alan Titchmarsh "Dip into any page : the writers' vitality and sparkle is immediately captivating. As is the eclectic wealth of gardening information....filled with insight, compassion and gentle English humour, this is the book to curl up with in front of the fire..You'll be in excellent company..." RHS The Garden "beguiling, informative and..instructive ; a source of joy and an excellent present - not just for gardeners but for anyone who has ever looked with love and longing at the view from their window". House and Garden

About the Author
Beth Chatto (born 27/06/1923) is a plantswomen, gardener and writer. Whilst having no formal horticultural training, she was inspired by her parents' enthusiastic gardening, her husband's lifelong study of natural associations of plants, and friendship with the great plantsman and artist Sir Cedric Morris. The Beth Chatto Gardens began at Elmstead Market, Essex in 1960. By applying the principles of ecological gardening, she transformed an overgrown area of wasteland into informal gardens that harmonise with the surrounding countryside. Complementing the gardens is a large plant nursery producing a wide range of unusual plants, which attracts thousands of visitors each year. She has won ten Gold Medals the Chelsea Flower Show and was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour (1987), the Lawrence Memorial Medal and an honorary doctorate from Essex University. She is the author of many books including her classics The Dry Garden (1978) and The Damp Garden (revised 2004) as well as Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden (2000) and Beth Chatto's Woodland Garden (2002). An engaging exchange of letters with Christopher Lloyd, Dear Friend and Gardener, was published in 1998. In 2002 she was awarded the OBE for her services to horticulture. A keen advocate of organic gardening, she has lectured worldwide.

To visit the Beth Chatto Gardens website click here

Christopher Lloyd was among the best informed, liveliest, most worthwhile gardening writers of our time and the author of a host of classics. He lived in Northiam, East Sussex and died in January 2006.

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Customer Reviews

Enjoyable for anyone interested in gardening and plants
I am only half way through this book, but I have no reservation in recommending it. It's a book to dip in and out of, to pick up and read for a short break from the daily grind. It is amusing and informative.

The book contains a collection of letters exchanged between Beth & Christopher over the course of a year. The letters are about their lives in relation to their gardens and contain details of outings and visits to other gardens and countryside, as well as their day to day gardening activities, and what is in flower as they write. They exchange views on different plants, planting combinations and on the shared experience of running a garden that is reknowned and open to the public. Through their letters we are given a glimpse into their lives,their friendship and their opinions, and their quest for beauty and colour in the garden throughout the year.

My only critism is that unless you are a very learned gardener, some of the latin plant names may be outside your knowledge and therefore some of the planting combinations will be a mystery to you. However, this is encouraging me to try and find out the plants common names and appearance.

In the words of my friend who gave me this book as a present, "the title says it all".

An informative gardening manual in letter form.
The title of this book,'Dear Friend and Gardener' should immediately alert the reader to its logical content. 'Social: They were like - minded people enjoying each other's company and 'Horticultural'. For any keen gardener or anyone wishing to become one, it is a 'MUST' to be given to charity only when one knows as much as its authors. True, I am only part-way through, but after the first 4/5 letters I felt a need to thank them. Sadly Christopher Lloyd has recently died. The comments made by each, are first and foremost, about the beauty THEY see in the form and colour of plants and the 'planting -artistry' they both appreciated. The highs and lows of their work, so vulnerable to the elements, are treated with a shared humour with which the reader could easily identify; The artist within them, appreciated equally, 'singers and actors' whether on a stage, or in the form of flowers on a garden hillside. I doubt if many would think to stop to admire 'snow flowers' i.e. snow, settled on top of flattish heads of plants and, have the ability to 'take in' their suggested form perhaps for re-use in another way later on in gardens they have made for all to wander through and be refreshed. Above all, their words have already taught me that after 70+ years of (I called it gardening) I actually know very, very little. Finally, I suggest a look at the index pages will point the reader to a page where it does not just say (e.g.) 'Crocus': Yellow, Opening early spring! NO, instead, it tells of a tiny blush or a line or a colour, deep in its base; where it is growing, and whether or not it is doing well. Without exception each plant is given the same loving and minute attention. I suggest any keen gardener will do well to treat this most informative book, similarly.

Diary between two gardeners
I looked forward to reading this book, but after a short while found it somewhat boring.I am a very keen gardener and was eager to learn more from their letters, however I felt as if I was reading someone's diary of social events.Interest was totally lost when comments were made about Geoff Hamilton who apparently only succeeded at a "mundane level".It has been consigned to the charity bag.