A Little History of British Gardening

A Little History of British Gardening PDF

Author: Jenny Uglow

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2012-10-31

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1448104963

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Get out in your garden and discover the history hidden in the hedges. Did the Romans have rakes? Did the monks get muddy? Did potatoes seem really, really weird when they arrived on our shores? Drawn from Jenny Uglow's own love for plants, this lively 'potted' history of gardening in Britain takes us on a garden tour from the thorn hedges around prehistoric settlements to the rage for ornamental grasses and 'outdoor rooms' today. Tracking down the ordinary folk who worked the earth - from weeding women to florists - as well as aristocrats and grand designers and famous plant-hunters, A Little History of British Gardening is brought to life by gorgeously vivid illustrations and Uglow's insightful wisdom. Not only dealing with flowery meads, grottoes and vistas, landscapes and ha-has, parks and allotments, Uglow explains, for example, how the Tudors made their curious knots; how housewives used herbs to stop freckles; how the suburbs dug for victory in World War II. With a brief guide to particular historic or evocative gardens open to the public, this is a book to put in your pocket when planning a crisp, winter's day out - but also to read in your armchair with a well-earned glass of red, after a hard day's graft in your own garden. 'Enchanting, stirringly evocative and fascinating' Daily Mail 'This book will be a joy for any gardener' Independent

Old Herbaceous (Classic Reprint)

Old Herbaceous (Classic Reprint) PDF

Author: Reginald Arkell

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780243386246

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Excerpt from Old Herbaceous It was one of those mild autumn mornings when early mist had turned to soft rain and water dripped from everything. N 0 real touch of winter yet; just a soft pause between the seasons, giving you the best of both. Not 1 too warm, as it had been; not too cold, as it would be. This was the time of year and the time of day that the old man loved best. He couldn't get around so much now, but they had made up his bed by the cottage win dow, and there he would sit, half waking and half sleep ing, dreaming of this and that. From where he sat, propped up among his cushions, he could see into the Manor gardens. Not what they were - not by a long chalk. Mind you, it was only fair to admit they were still a bit short-handed, and you had to take the dry summer into account, but these young fellows ought to have made a better job of it than that. When he was a young chap, he had to move at double their pace. No slipping off when the clock struck for him. Hours he'd spent watering when the sun was off the borders. But not today. That meantovertime, and where was the money to pay for that? So the old garden wasn't what it had been when he was in charge. Everything was different to what it was in his day. They earned more money, and that was only right. But the more they got, the less they seemed to care. You had to be proud of a garden to do any good with it. Gardening was a whole-time ob, like the cows or the sheep. Cows had to be milked, whatever happened; and who thought of stopping in bed when the sheep were lambing? In a garden, you had to work with the seasons. There were slack times, when you could take an easy with a pipe behind the tool shed, but when the grass started growing and the weeds were getting on top of you, there was an end to all that nonsense Hours he'd spent watering. But these young fel lowm.. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.