Gardens: A Literary Companion Book

Introduction by Merilyn Simonds

1. Ernest H. Wilson, "Bringing Home the Regal Lily"
From Plant Hunting, 1927

2. Vita Sackville-West, "The Transvaal Daisy"
From Some Flowers, 1937

3. Jamaica Kincaid, "Monet's Garden"
From My Garden (Book), 1999

4. Tim Smit, "The Green Shroud,"
From The Lost Gardens of Heligan, 1997

5. Douglas Chambers, "On Reading a Garden"
From Stonyground: The Making of a Canadian Garden, 1996

6. Midge Ellis Keeble, "The First Garden"
From Tottering in My Garden, 1989

7. Pliny the Elder, "Right good ground"
From The Historie of the World, 1634

8. Karel Capek, "Preparations"
From The Gardener's Year, 1984

9. Elizabeth von Arnim, "A German Garden"
From Elizabeth and Her German Garden, 1900

10. Colette, "Captive Gardens"
From Le Voyage Egoiste, 1949

11. Lewis Gannett, "Blitz Flowers"
From The Gardener's World, 1959

12. Francis Bacon, "The Purest of Pleasures"
From The Essays: or, Counsels, Civil and Moral of Francis Bacon, 1625

13. Elizabeth Smart, "On Supplanting Rampant Nettledom"
From Elizabeth's Garden: Elizabeth Smart on the Art of Gardening, 1989

14. Emily Lawless, "A Snake in the Garden,"
From A Garden Diary, 1901

15. Allen Lacy, "Invasion of the Sumac"
From Farther Afield: A Gardener's Excursions, 1981

16. Germaine Greer (as Rose Blight), "The Revolting Garden"
From The Revolting Garden, 1979

17. Jennifer Bennett, "On the Rootedness of Plants"
From Our Gardens, Ourselves, 1994

18. Bertie Norman Stephens, "Thomas Hardy in his Garden"
From Thomas Hardy in His Garden, 1963

19. Henri Cueco, "On Beauty"
From Conversations with my Gardener, 2005

20. Sharman Apt Russell, "Sex, sex, sex"
From Anatomy of a Rose: Exploring the Secret Life of Flowers, 2001

21. Eleanor Perenyi, "Peonies"
From Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden, 1981

22. Des Kennedy, "Poppycock"
From An Ecology of Enchantment, 1998

23. Catharine Parr Traill, "A Few Hints on Gardening"
From The Canadian Settler's Guide, 1855

24. John Gerard, "Skyrrets of Peru"
From The Herball or general Historie of Plantes, 1597

25. Katharine S. White & Elizabeth Lawrence, "Letters to a Gardening Friend"
From Two Gardeners: A Friendship in Letters, 2002

26. Stanley Kunitz, "The Lamentation Tree"
From The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden, 2005

27. Patrick Lane, "Patience and Grace"
From There is a Season: A Memoir in a Garden, 2004

28. Gertrude Jekyll, "A Gardening Credo"
From Wood and Garden: Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur, 1899