Lady Salisbury has been a gardener since, as a child in the 1930s, she cultivated tiny patches of her parents' gardens in Ireland and the West of England. Later, as chatelaine first of Cranborne Manor and then of Hatfield House, she revived two of the great historic gardens of England. Then there the gardens that, as a professional garden designer, she has created for others, notably for the Prince of Wales at Highgrove and for the Museum of Garden History and Cosby Hall in London ('As a gardener who has lived the greater part of her life in Tudor and Stuart houses, to be asked to design a garden for an Elizabethan palace was an enjoyable challenge'). Renowned for her depth of scholarship and her design skill, she has also led the way in as a pioneer of organic gardening ('when I began, in 1948, I was written off as a complete crank'). Now in her eighties, she not only continues to tend her garden in Provence, she is also making a roof garden ('the first I've ever done') for her house in Chelsea, and designing gardens for clients in England, Ireland, Italy and the United States. This book encapsulates her gardening experience.

“An enchanting and original account of Beatrix Potter's life and her love of plants and gardening.” —Judy Taylor, vice president of the Beatrix Potter Society There aren’t many books more beloved than The Tale of Peter Rabbit and even fewer authors as iconic as Beatrix Potter. More than 150 million copies of her books have sold worldwide and interest in her work and life remains high. And her characters—Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck, and all the rest—exist in a charmed world filled with flowers and gardens. Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life is the first book to explore the origins of Beatrix Potter’s love of gardening and plants and show how this passion came to be reflected in her work. The book begins with a gardener’s biography, highlighting the key moments and places throughout her life that helped define her, including her home Hill Top Farm in England's Lake District. Next, the reader follows Beatrix Potter through a year in her garden, with a season-by-season overview of what is blooming that truly brings her gardens alive. The book culminates in a traveler’s guide, with information on how and where to visit Potter’s gardens today.

Essays about May's own garden, other gardens he has visited, and people he has met through gardening.

From the Booker Prize winner and national bestselling author, reflections on gardening, art, literature, and life Penelope Lively takes up her key themes of time and memory, and her lifelong passions for art, literature, and gardening in this philosophical and poetic memoir. From the courtyards of her childhood home in Cairo to a family cottage in Somerset, to her own gardens in Oxford and London, Lively conducts an expert tour, taking us from Eden to Sissinghurst and into her own backyard, traversing the lives of writers like Virginia Woolf and Philip Larkin while imparting her own sly and spare wisdom. "Her body of work proves that certain themes never go out of fashion," writes the New York Times Book Review, as true of this beautiful volume as of the rest of the Lively canon. Now in her eighty-fourth year, Lively muses, "To garden is to elide past, present, and future; it is a defiance of time."

Find happiness, connection, and accomplishment by cultivating your garden life every day of the week using this inspiration-packed guide that shows aspiring gardeners exactly what they need to know. Are you ready to discover your garden’s unexpected gifts? All it takes is a daily practice. In The 30-Minute Gardener, Greg Loadesreveals what dedicated time spent in the garden every day can create: a moment of solitude in a busy world, a welcoming space to enjoy with family and friends, and an increased connection to nature. In this practical and inspiring guide you’ll find advice on tasks such as pruning a rose bush and planting bulbs, inspired ideas for transforming an overgrown garden into a beautiful flower-filled haven, and hints on how best to savor your garden and enjoy your accomplishments.

Humorous and light-hearted essays about gardening. Professionally dirty clothes, The MulchMobile, The Gardener's Handshake,Thanksgiving Conversation Starters for Gardeners, and Going Steady with a Grower are just a few of the delightful subjects covered in Homegrown and Handpicked: A Year in a Gardening Life. Read it to discover if you have an eccentric gardener in your neighborhood or to see if, gasp, you are the eccentric gardener in your neighborhood. The sequel to the popular essay book, Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life, which taught us about gardening math, distance, time, and other important fundamentals, Homegrown and Handpicked is a journey through the seasons, with just as many laugh-out-loud, hey-that's-me stories as the first book. Read this to remember why you so love gardening, and keep returning to your garden again and again, despite the bugs, weeds, and marauding garden fairies running off with your tools.

Carol Michel, author of the award-winning blog May Dreams Gardens, has penned a delightful book of 36 gardening stories recounting her years speed weeding, scolding plants for their poor manners, experiencing the magic of a clover lawn, formally evicting drought from her garden, and offering advice for new gardeners.

A beautifully designed, full-color personal account of what it means to become a gardener, filled with specially commissioned color photography, watercolors, and fine art. To make her new house in Connecticut truly feel like home, Catie Marron decided to create a garden. But while she was familiar with landscape design, she had never grown anything. A dedicated reader with a lifelong passion for literature, Marron turned to the library of gardening books she’d collected to glean advice from a variety of writers on gardening and horticultural topics both grand and small. Marron’s quest to become a gardener, however, was about more than learning the basics about mulch or which plants work best in the shade. She sought something far more elusive: to identify the core qualities and characteristics that make a person a gardener and an understanding of what a garden could mean to her as it had to multitudes of other gardeners over the centuries. In Becoming a Gardener, Catie Marron chronicles her transformation into a gardener over the course of eighteen months, seeding the details of her experience with rich advice from writers as diverse as Eleanor Perényi and Karel Capek, Penelope Lively, and Jamaica Kincaid. As she digs deeper into her readings and works in the garden itself, Marron not only discovers the essence of gardening but in the words of Michael Pollan, “the endlessly engrossing ways that cultivating a garden attaches a body to the earth.” A delightful blend of informed opinion, personal reflection, and practical advice, Becoming a Gardener explores topics as varied as the composition of dirt, the agricultural wisdom of avid kitchen gardeners George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, the healing power of digging in the soil, and the beauty of finding solitude in nature. Throughout, Marron carefully plants special illustrated features, such as musings on the merits (and detriments) of the rose, essential tools, moonlight gardening, children’s books which feature gardens, and her favorite gardens around the world. Also included is an annotated list of recommended writers, books, and films related to gardens and gardening, and a monthly to-do calendar. Featuring specially commissioned illustrations by the Danish team All the Way to Paris, and stunning photographs by acclaimed photographer William Abranowicz that capture the pastoral beauty of Marron’s Connecticut garden, Becoming a Gardener is a very special and moving portrait of life and the enduring power of literature and nature that is sure to become an instant classic.

From the winner of the National Garden Club's Award of Excellence Although the garden may beckon as strongly as ever, the tasks involved—pulling weeds, pushing wheelbarrows, digging holes, moving heavy pots—become increasingly difficult, or even impossible, with advancing age. But the idea of giving it up is unthinkable for most gardeners. So what’s the alternative? In Gardening for a Lifetime, Sydney Eddison draws on her own forty years of gardening to provide a practical and encouraging roadmap for scaling back while keeping up with the gardening activities that each gardener loves most. Like replacing demanding plants like delphiniums with sturdy, relatively carefree perennials like sedums, rudbeckias, and daylilies. Or taking the leap and hiring help—another pair of hands, even for a few hours a week, goes a long way toward getting a big job done. This new edition features an additional chapter describing how Sydney’s struggles with hip and back problems forced her to walk the walk. As a friend of hers says, “Last summer you wrote the book. Now, I’m happy to see that you’ve read it.” Gentle, personable, and practical, Gardening for a Lifetime will be welcomed by all gardeners looking to transform gardening from a list of daunting chores into the gratifying, joyful activity it was meant to be.

“A visual treat as well as a literary one…for gardeners and garden lovers, connoisseurs of botanical illustration, and those who seek a deeper understanding of the life and work of Emily Dickinson.” —The Wall Street Journal Emily Dickinson was a keen observer of the natural world, but less well known is the fact that she was also an avid gardener—sending fresh bouquets to friends, including pressed flowers in her letters, and studying botany at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke. At her family home, she tended both a small glass conservatory and a flower garden. In Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, award-winning author Marta McDowell explores Dickinson’s deep passion for plants and how it inspired and informed her writing. Tracing a year in the garden, the book reveals details few know about Dickinson and adds to our collective understanding of who she was as a person. By weaving together Dickinson’s poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photography, and botanical art, McDowell offers an enchanting new perspective on one of America’s most celebrated but enigmatic literary figures.