RECOMMENDED GARDENING/HORTICULTURAL/BOTANICAL BOOKS AND PERSONAL STUDIES INTO THE SUBJECT

@Tinkerbelle61 good choice.
@Mike Allen yes Tony Kirkham and I have The Victorian Kitchen Garden.

 

Now then. So we have opened up a bit about our books etc. Now then. I am approaching a kind of special time of the gardening year to me. I wonder if anyone cares to share their thoughts, experiences and memories.
To help set the scene. For those who have perhaps lived through an era, and those who have seen the TV series, the Victorian kitchen garden etc.

Now as the end of the year draws closer, and generally speaking. What a year it has been. Sadly so many lives have been lost to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is still raging on. Nevertherless, it has been said, that Britain is a nation of shopkeepers and.....don't forget it. A nation of gardeners. So friends, an I am so grateful that I have many here on Gardeners Corner. Pleas just take a breather, grab a mug of tea. Survey your garden/plot and tell us all. What you see. What is going through your mind. Now what are you going to do? etc. All in preparation for a wonderful new year in the garden.

 

In an attempt to de clutter I recently gave most of my gardening books to a charity, agonising to do. It took me weeks to finally let them go. I have kept a few, namely my first ever gardening book asked for when I was around 11 or 12 yrs old. Enid Blyton's Let's Garden, and recently bought some Beverley Nichols books to cheer myself up. Not quite what I should do! There are a few more of his books for me to acquire, not exactly gardening books in the true sense of the word but a joy to read.
A long time ago I found a "book" in a charity shop, it is a collection of scientific papers printed possibly on a weekly basis, collected together from around the world and bound. My copy is falling apart and I discovered recently there seem to be several pages missing, The title is Hardwick's Graphic Microscopy, dated 1884? I have always wondered about having it rebound but never done anything about it. There are fascinating colour plates and black and white illustrations of minute cells, insect parts, plants etc. It is possible to buy modern reproductions but my copy feels and smells different. Now that I know some pages are missing there doesn't seem to be any point in having it repaired sadly.

 

Wrong title. It is Hardwick's Science-Gossip. It should have 288 pages But I only have 263.

 

There are no long technical treatises on how to do anything connected with gardening but his comments still ring true today. He had a childlike wonder of nature which my grandfather had and instilled in me as a child, something I seem to have passed on to my daughter happily, and a naughty sense of humour. He also introduced me to a love of winter flowering plants.