The Next Best Thing

When the weather demands you stay inside, the next best thing to gardening is reading about gardening.

One of my favorite books … one I can read over and over, is Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols.

The very British Beverly will pull you into his world (1930‘s England) of gardening and eccentric neighbors and make you fall as in love with his garden as he is. If you are a gardener and haven’t read one of Beverley Nichols’ books, well let’s just say you should go to Amazon this minute and find one. Most are out of print but you’ll find them. It’s worth the effort. Don’t just take my word for it…Reviews…

This semiautobiographical story of Nichols’ first bumbling efforts at transforming a neglected property into a garden, was an immediate success and still rings true with amateur gardeners today. -Lori D. Kranz, Bloomsbury Review

Nichols has a wicked sense of humor. I highly recommend this book as a means of relaxing after a hard day and having a good laugh. -Bobbie Schwartz, Buckeye
Down the Garden Path has stood the test of time as one of the world’s best-loved and most quoted gardening books. Ostensibly an account of the creation of a garden in Huntingdonshire in the 1930s, it is really about the underlying emotions and obsessions for which gardening is just a cover story.

The secret of this book’s success—and its timelessness—is that it does not seek to impress the reader with a wealth of expert knowledge or advice. Beverley Nichols proudly declares his status as a newcomer to gardening: “The best gardening books should be written by those who still have to search their brains for the honeysuckle’s languid Latin name.”

Lucky for us he was a prolific writer and there is much to read! Enjoy!

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