The books that taught me how to garden
Classics, essentials and under the radar gems...a bonus post just for you
I have been thinking about gardens a lot recently. Mainly because I’ve been missing mine so much whilst I’ve been away. (Currently writing this while boarding a plane to San Francisco for work, so we won’t be reunited for another week!)
I reckon gardening is a bit like writing, in so much as you feel a fraud calling yourself a gardener, especially in the early days when you have zero idea what to do with a hoe and think worms are the devil’s creatures. But nowadays I think this: if you garden, you are a gardener. It’s that simple.
In which case, I have been a gardener for 10 years now. I went from knowing less than nothing, if you can imagine such a state (actually, let me help you imagine: I literally threw out all the bulbs in the garden as I thought they were giant weeds!) to next year having my garden photographed for a special coffee table book. (I’ve probably jinxed this now, but I’m so excited I had to share this).
So what have I done in those ten years that has made the difference? Well, lots of gardening for a start. Huge amounts of trial and error. Courses- bundles of courses in fact (both in person and online) and books. Lots and lots of books. In fact books really have made the biggest difference to how and why I garden. And so, because TWK member
asked, I am sharing with you the ten books that totally changed the way I garden. They are not all the books I have on gardening (that would take too long to list) but these are the ones I return to time and again.So here goes…enjoy! (And do mind the pictures- not the greatest quality and some are a bit battered/grubby from over-affection)