Wood and Garden
Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur

Influential gardener Gertrude Jekyll published her first book, setting out her philosophy of gardening as an art form, in 1899.

Gertrude Jekyll (Author)

9781108037198, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2011

396 pages, 46 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm, 0.5 kg

"Jekyll’s writings take a familiar approach, like a confidential chat with a friend. This reprint will be of special interest to scholars, educators, and all those who love to garden."
Marilyn K. Alaimo, Chicago Botanic Garden Current Books on Gardening

Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932) was one of the most influential garden designers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Skilled as a painter and in many forms of handicrafts, she found her metier in the combination of her artistic skills with considerable botanical knowledge. Having been collecting and breeding plants, including Mediterranean natives, since the 1860s, she began writing for William Robinson's magazine, The Garden, in 1881, and together they are regarded as transforming English horticultural method and design: Jekyll herself received over 400 design commissions in Britain, and her few surviving gardens are treasured today. Like Robinson's, her designs were informal and more natural in style than earlier Victorian fashions. In this, the first of fourteen books, published in 1899, she stresses the importance of being inspired by nature, and sums up her philosophy of gardening: 'planting ground is painting a landscape with living things'.

Preface
1. Introductory
2. January
3. February
4. March
5. April
6. May
7. June
8. July
9. August
10. September
11. October
12. November
13. December
14. Large and small gardens
15. Beginning and learning
16. The flower-border and pergola
17. The primrose garden
18. Colours of flowers
19. The scents of the garden
20. The worship of false gods
21. Novelty and variety
22. Weeds and pests
23. The bedding fashion and its influence
24. Masters and men
Index.

Subject Areas: Botany & plant sciences [PST]