Monday, August 3, 2015

A Garden Book Club


When a friend asked me if I would like to be in a garden book club, my answer was a resounding yes! After all, I have been collecting garden books forever but must admit to not reading any of my most recent finds, such as Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life, Virginia Woolf's Garden, and In the Garden with Jane Austen. Yes, I thumb through and read passages and drool over the photos, but don't read them from beginning to end. Not for lack of desire. In fact, I used to read a lot of garden books, especially when we were designing our garden. In recent years it seems that I read mostly novels and don't always make the time for a good garden book. But if I am reading it for a book club, I will get it done.

I don't mean garden how-to books. These books are obviously a must for anyone who gardens. The genre that has always interested me is garden literature -- the stories of people who create a garden -- who they were and why they did it. (Go here to read more) The story of the garden will often tell a bigger story since the creation of the garden yields so many personal rewards. First, there is the finished product -- a garden to experience and enjoy; second, the therapy of tending to it -- having the sun on one's back and being outside in nature; and third, often finding the answers to life -- "Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow."  

These books also contain practical information for gardeners: discoveries and knowledge, what worked and what didn't, the trials and tribulations of that particular garden. It's always interesting to learn about gardening in another part of the world. These are often garden tips we can apply to our own gardens. There is so much for the reader to learn. Our book group is starting with one of the most famous gardens in the world and its fascinating creator: Sissinghurst and Vita Sackville-West. The book is Vita Sackville-West's Sissinghurst, The Creation of a Garden by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven. It contains many quotes from Vita's garden column that appeared in the Observer from 1946 to 1957.

Vita Sackville-West bought a dilapidated castle in the English county of Kent in the 1930's and set about restoring it. Everyone thought she was crazy. She was the only one who could see the promise in the ruins. The idea of restoring a castle appealed to her romantic imagination and was impossible for her to resist. She was enchanted by its Elizabethan history. As she set about restoring it, she also began creating her famous garden. I can imagine that the process calmed and grounded her while she lead her very tempestuous personal life.

An only child from an aristocratic family, she was disinherited from her childhood home Knole because she was a woman. The estate went instead to her uncle. She spent many years searching for a replacement. After her marriage to the politician Harold Nicolson, she found that replacement in Sissinghurst Castle. Their marriage was an unconventional one as they both had avant-garde attitudes towards marriage and monogamy. They had numerous extramarital affairs and yet remained devoted to each other and never divorced. Vita's most famous affair was with the writer Virginia Woolf. Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson tells the fascinating story of his parents' marriage.


The rose garden at Sissinghurst Castle

Vita was a gifted writer of poetry, novels, essays, travel books and, not surprisingly, a gardening column for the Observer. Many of her books were published by Virginia and Leonard Woolf at the Hogarth Press. But her most famous legacy is the garden she created at Sissinghurst. I suggested that we also read one of her novels for our meeting and we chose All Passion Spent. I can't wait for our discussion in September. In the meantime I am enjoying Sarah Raven's book about Vita's garden.

My favorite passage so far is from the chapter called "Cram, Cram, Cram"

"In her planting, the filling and flowering up of her spaces, Vita had a clear and individual style. It is 'Cram, cram, cram, every chink and cranny,' she wrote on 15 May, 1955. You have plants popping up in the paths; you have plants trained over almost every square inch of wall; and where there's a gap, Vita encourages plants to grow in the walls. As she says of herself, 'My liking for gardens to be lavish is an inherent part of my garden philosophy. I like generosity wherever I find it, whether in gardens or elsewhere. I hate to see things scrimp and scrubby. Even the smallest garden can be prodigal within its own limitations...Always exaggerate rather than stint. Masses are more effective than mingies."

A garden tip I would like to apply to my own garden! 

Have you ever thought of starting a book club with a theme? I would love to hear about it.

16 comments:

  1. I belong to a quarterly book club in Nashville - about a four hour drive for me. We meet in pubs and tea rooms and read only British classics. However, after this current list is done, we are embarking on Southern classics. I suppose we'll start meeting in pancake houses now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pamela, I would love to see your book list for the British Classics club. If only I could convince my book club to read these!
      xx Sunday

      Delete
  2. This all sounds amazing Sunday. I'm sure your new book club will be a joyous undertaking with like-minded readers who are inspired by gardens and gardening. The photo of the white roses is glorious - and makes my garden, which has just about fried to a crisp in the NC torrid heat with very little rain, look very sad. When in England in June I saw beautiful gardens - even my own childhood one - when I walked past the house and reminded my granddaughter that is was where I grew up and gardened with my mother, her great-grandmother!
    Thanks for sharing the book links - I may be buying several of those.

    Mary -

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary, after visiting your blog I see that you are from Devon. Last fall we went to Cornwall and Devon and I fell in love! Such a glorious part of the world. We walked from our hotel to the village of Chagford and couldn't believe how gorgeous the scenery was along the way. It was as if time had stood still and a Thomas Hardy heroine could come striding across the countryside at any moment. Our gardens here in Los Angeles are also suffering as we are in an historic drought. They are not exactly looking like Sissinghurst! But that's what garden books are for, to take us away...

      Delete
  3. Thanks for your fine blog about garden books, I loved the book Virginia Woolf's Garden and are looking forward to read the book about Sigginghurst.
    I attend a book club, but with no theme, but I would love to start a book club with the theme "freedom and self chosen loneliness" ;) Have just read a marvelous book of LInda Olsson "The kindness of your nature" with that specific theme.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a fabulous idea Sunday.....a 'themed' book club. And what a glorious garden book to start with! I've visited Sissinghurst and, of course, was swept away by its beauty. I'm sure her white garden has launched a million other white gardens around the world! And I like the advice about cram, cram, cram! Masses are indeed much more enchanting than mingies!

    Lovely post (again).

    Ciao

    Robyn

    ReplyDelete
  5. It has been so long since I've been in a book club. I'm vicariously enjoying yours.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love the idea of a themed book club, I think it would add so much richness to the discussions. I agree with the passage above about cramming. I'm trying to do more of that in our garden, I love the lush feeling it creates.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can only imagine how beautiful the garden at Sissinghurst must be. I absolutely love English garden but the weather there seems to make plants thrive and grow. Of course, pretty gardens do take a lot of work too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am enjoying catching up after a busy summer. I love gardening books and will add these to my reading lists. It would be great to have a gardening book group. Love reading about your summer favorites. I suggested "Euphoria" for my book group, and was voted down. It remains on my list. Happy to read you enjoyed it. Have a wonderful weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  9. How wonderful to have my own gardening philosophy be affirmed by such an illustrious gardener! I wrote about just this today on my own blog - how we have crammed so much into a tiny, oddly shaped space and cannot decide at this stage whether to expand it, cut back, or just let it be. http://artjournaler.typepad.com/pomegranatesandpaper/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful posting! Thank you.
    I would love to be in a themed book group, but can barely handle the books I read for my longtime book group (more than 26 years). My garden club does read a garden related book each year and discusses it. Always a delight and often challenging.
    I hope you won't mind my suggesting two of my favorite books that your newly formed club might consider. "The Invisible Garden" by Dorothy Sucher and "One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place" by Susan Haltom and Jane Roy Brown, the latter was one of my Garden Club's selections a few years ago and we had a lively discussion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Penny, thank you for your suggestions! I will be sure to bring these up at our meeting.

      Delete
  11. What a fun idea. I would love a themed book club, especially a British classics one as mentioned above!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Many thanks for mentioning my little book about Beatrix Potter, Sunday. My book group likes themed events, so we read Frida by Barbara Mujica then went to the current show about Frida Kahlo at the New York Botanical Garden. If you are interested in more on Vita (and Harold, who gets short shrift on the credit for Sissinghurst IMO), I'd suggest Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Awesome and interesting article. Great things you've always shared with us. Thanks. Just continue composing this kind of post.
    composit

    ReplyDelete