Monday, March 12, 2012

Down The Garden Path

The Cotswolds, England
June, 2010

Right now I am reading books about gardens.  More specifically, I am reading books about gardeners and garden dreamers.  These are books about the intrepid souls who dream about having a garden and their dreams become a passion.  In these books the garden lovers go on to create the garden of their dreams.  I have written before (you can read it here) that these kind of books seem so hopeful to me because the garden is often a metaphor for discovering meaning and hope in one's own life.  Somehow the garden helps the garden dreamer get there.  And in the case of English writer Beverley Nichols, there is a healthy dose of humor thrown in to the mix that makes the reading experience so delightful.


I have read several gardening books by Beverley Nichols, but not his very first one "Down the Garden Path," which is considered a true garden classic.  I opened this gorgeous book recently (the illustrations are by Rex Whistler) and read the introduction and the foreword.  I began to get a sense of what a delicious reading experience this is going to be.

 The Cotswolds, England
June, 2010

From the foreword I learned that Beverley Nichols was a prolific writer on subjects ranging from religion to politics and travel. He wrote six novels, five detective mysteries, four children's stories and six plays.  He lived in London and was a successful writer and a dapper man about town.  In the 1920's he appeared  to be the epitome of the Jazz Age playboy, an image he was eager to change.  In 1928 he bought a beautiful Tudor cottage built in 1520 in the village of Glatton, England with a garden that had been badly neglected.  Working in London on a musical show and other writing projects at the time, he could only get away on the weekends to work on the restoration of the cottage and garden.  But his weekend hobby became his passion.

He decided to write a book about his experience and thought his readers would enjoy this tale of a "playboy-turned gardener." He took less than three weeks to finish it.  As he said, "It was hardly like writing a book at all, it was more like arranging a bunch of mixed flowers."  This book "Down the Garden Path" came out in 1932 and was a huge success.   

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The book opens with these words:

"I believe in doing things too soon.  In striking before the iron is hot, in leaping before one has looked, in loving before one has been introduced.  Nearly all the great and exciting things in life have been done by men who did them too soon.  It was far, far too soon for Columbus to set out on his crazy trip to the New World.  The ether was not ready for Beethoven when he began a symphony on a dominant seventh.  Shelley, long before the appointed time, unloosed, with trembling fingers, the starched ribbons which bound the dress of Poetry.  'Too soon...too soon...' it is the snarling sleepy cry which greets all new-born beauty, all flights of the spirit.
 
I know that unless I write a gardening book now...swiftly, and finish it it before the last bud outside my window has spread its tiny fan...it will be too late to write it at all.  For shortly I shall know too much...shall dilate, with tedious prolixity, on the root formation of the winter aconite, instead of trying to catch on paper the glint of its gold through the snow, as I remember it last winter, like a fistful of largesse thrown over a satin quilt.  Just as the best school stories are written by boys who have only just left school, so, I feel, the best gardening books should be written by those who still have to search their brains for the honeysuckle's languid Latin name, who still feel awe at the miracle which follows the setting of a geranium cutting in its appointed loam.

That is why I have written this book.  You must not look to it for guidance.  It will not tell you how to prune a rose-bush...No...I fear that this book holds little practical wisdom.  But if any gardeners should honour me by turning its pages, idly, after their day's work is done, I hope that from time to time they may be tempted to smile, not unkindly, at the recollections of their own early follies.  And I hope that there may come to them, once more, a faint tremor of that first ecstasy which shook them when they learnt that a garden is the only mistress who never fails, who never fades..."

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Have you ever dreamed of starting a garden from scratch?  Or redoing your garden?  Maybe reading about someone who did it would be enough.  Beverley Nichols book "Down the Garden Path" is considered a garden classic.  It is a magical place to start your journey.  

19 comments:

  1. I am just now starting the plans for a garden from scratch. Tearing down an existing guest house and one of the three garages, to makes lots of room. It's really exciting for me, to plan exactly what we want, and how our family will use it.

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  2. My garden is in desperate need of some TLC and the weather is just not cooperating yet...so reading about other gardens and their garden dreams is a perfect way to stoke tie fires of inspiration for when the weather does behave!

    Those images...are they from your garden? They are beautiful!

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    1. I'm so glad like those photos. They are not from my garden. They are photos I took on my garden tour of the Cotswolds in England. That garden tour of the English countryside in June produced many idyllic garden images and I look at them all the time for inspiration!

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  3. Hi Sunday, This looks to be a beautiful book of garden love. My MIL is this type, she finds a beautiful book with ideas she likes and she then makes a plan carries it through. Her home is surrounded with beautiful gardens. My home is smaller with not so much room for a garden dreamers passion but I do love my rose gardens. "Down the Garden Path" sounds like a visual feast and great story. Thanks for the review.

    ~Emily
    The French Hutch

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  4. This is uncanny but i'm just reading my first B. Nichols book Merry Hall.It's a thrill to see you blogging about this man. I'm half way through and love his style. I can't wait to get this classic Down the Garden Path!Thankyou!Megan

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  5. It is truly remarkable how many shared interests we have. Every time I see a new post pop up from you, my heart sings.
    Yes, I adore Beverly!!

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  6. I would love to plant more flowers in my little garden. I love all the different colours and scents that flowers have to offer.

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  7. Sunday, A wonderful post. I will most certainly look for this book. I am hoping to get outside and putter around this weekend. I am afraid though, my gardens are and will always be a work in progress. The pictures are lovely. Hugs, Bonnie

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  8. Are you the designer of your own garden? I assume your garden has been on the Robinsons Garden Tour? I go on the tour every year! Do you 'get in there' and do the work? I love that about gardening!

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    1. I had a vision for my garden and then hired a professional landscape designer who designed it. No, it has not been on the Robinson Garden Tour. I go every year also, and it is really a highlight of the spring season. I'm so glad you enjoy it.

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  9. Sunday, this looks like a wonderful book, and frankly a fascinating man. I must look into acquiring a few of his books.

    I cannot wait to see photos of the boutique you are setting up for the garden show, I am sure it is going to be beautiful. The photos from the Cottoswalds are beautiful, I have enjoyed two visits there and cannot wait to go back to the area again.

    Have a wonderful week, elizabeth

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  10. I have been reading so many wonderful gardening books lately and have more still on the nightstand, including Nichols' Laughter on the Stairs. We've just added a few new beds to our garden and are in the process of planning the planting. Whenever plant discussions come up, out of all the gardening books I've read over the past few years, Nichols' enthusiasm for barberries (expressed loudly in Merry Hall) is what sticks out the most in my mind.

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  11. "Playboy-turned-gardener" love it! I always have garden aspirations--I want to grow dozens of different herbs and have an orchard someday--but, if I tell the truth, I hate gardening. I love the planning and the produce, but the work--ugh. I need a gardener!

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  12. I have heard of his books and this one sounds delightful. I must try to find it. The photos you feature are wonderful: beautiful and bountiful in only the way that english gardens can be. Lovely post.

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  13. I am always dreaming about having a garden. When I grew up my parents had a wonderful enchanted garden with blooming trees, old stone statues and hideout places. I actually dream a lot about that garden. One day I will have one just like that. My own wonderland.

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  14. This book sounds so wonderful. I love the excerpt you chose; I was sorry when the post was over. I'll have to get the book & read it right away. It sounds like one of those reads that is destined to become one of my bosom friends.

    I am starting a garden from scratch, & it's such fun. I keep a motto in mind that I heard, "We gardeners never make mistakes; we just try different things." It gives me courage. My favorite inspiration gardens are those in the Cotswolds, & your photos are just beautiful. I love the mix of structure & free form in these gardens. They are, to my eye, simply the best!

    Have a fantastic weekend!
    Keri

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  15. I haven't read this and am so delighted for your recommendation, I have just ordered it. I had a gorgeous weekend in the Cotswolds the weekend before last, I was in dire need of some R&R so my sweet boyfriend booked us in to an Inn and I had a massage at Daylesford Gloucestershire and we wandered the gardens similar to those in your photos, it was heavenly. We also visited Swinbrook - once home of the Mitfords who I am sure you are familiar with - a whole family of wonderful writers. I look forward to getting my copy of this book.

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  16. I have designed and built a garden from scratch, and I've read Down The Garden Path. I own all his other gardening books but haven't read them yet. I loved Garden Path. He does have a wonderful sense of humor, doesn't he?

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