I am often asked this time of year: “What would be a good garden book to gift?”
As my mind wandered to this latest inquiry, I caught one of those annoying advertising strips that flit across the computer screen. Electronic books are a good gift for … or at least that is what the advertisement said.
I find joy in discovering gardens in my mind through beautiful, descriptive words.
Really? Where the heck am I going to press plant leaves on a Kindle™—I like pages, I like opening a book, and the musty smell of old paper. I love it when a dried leaf flutters out – a reminder of a day in the garden identifying plants. I find joy in discovering gardens in my mind through beautiful, descriptive words. There is something about reading a garden book the real way… turning paper pages and getting crumbs in the center crease from eating lemon verbena sugar cookies while reading.
Who can resist the floriferous words of Constance Spry in her Garden Notebook; “Perfection in living seems to me to consist not in the spending of large sums of money but in the exercise of a selective and discerning taste in the use of what we may possess, and flowers and plants can in their judicious use contribute in a high degree to the elegance and graciousness of life.”. There is also the matter-of-fact verbiage of Gertrude Jekyll, the humor of Beverley Nichols, and the realism and wit of Henry Mitchell in his pursuit of a garden in The Essential Earthman.
Yes, they take up more space than a stream of electronic pages, but I feel surrounded and comforted by bookcases, double-layered and overfilled. I have gone (a bit kicking and screaming) into the electronic age and have books I listen to or read electronically, but I still cling to the earthy smell of my garden library. The colorful book covers and spines that line the shelves are like old friends.
On a past foray to Goodwill, I found a book dug from the bottom of a bin. The green fabric cover was a bit tattered, and there were scribbles from a tiny hand learning to explore with an unwarranted marker. The title… Making things grow outdoors…catchy? Not really, but the words on the pages drew me in. I tend to flip through, read at random, and then go to the last page of the last chapter to decide whether it will come home to my overburdened bookshelves. Here is a quote that made me take this one home: “…A tennis victory is forgotten, a golf card torn up, and your past triumphs in those fields are remembered mainly by yourself. But a garden ….stands as a monument to what you have put in it as well as your involvement with nature in an era of ever-increasing divorce from wild things…” Thalassa Cruso. Now, how would I have discovered the “Julia Child” of horticulture without a treasure hunt at the bottom of a bin of old books? Read more about her at https://lostladiesofgardenwriting.substack.com/p/thalassa-cruso
But I digress…
Going back to the original subject, gifting books for a gardener.
Take a journey to your local hometown used bookseller and haunt the shelves. Dig into anything by Beverley Nichols, Henry Mitchell, Vita Sackville-West, Gertrude Jekyll, Christopher Lloyd, and Rosemary Verey first, and then journey to lesser-known authors. They may not have glossy photos of modern garden books, but the words will paint the pictures for you. As you peruse the shelves, take a moment just to read the names of the books: A Feast of Flowers, The Language of Gardening, The Adventurous Gardener, The Complete Book of Garden Magic… you get the picture without even needing a photograph.
And of course, I won’t forget to mention , if you are an herb lover or need a gift for one, stop by my online shop!
The Herb Lover's Garden 