In My Garden

by Christopher Lloyd, Frank Ronan (Editor)

A collection of the author's essays from "Country Life" magazine offers horticultural information and opinionated observations on gardening

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Christopher Hamilton Lloyd, OBE, was a British gardener and author. He was the 20th Century chronicler for the heavily planted, labour-intensive, country garden.[

Reviews

[Richard Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy looking at or walking through a beautiful garden, but in truth I have little or no interest in gardening itself - or plants. My reading of this book does not signal a change, merely I had nothing else to read. I forlornly looked across my bookshelves and found nothing else I had not read and did not feel like reading again. It was not a bad choice as I rather enjoyed this book.

There is of course a lot in about gardens, gardening and plants, which could have been very dull, but Lloyd's writing style makes it palatable enough even for the uninterested. It would be churlish of me to complain that a gardening book had too much about gardening!

What made the book overall so enjoyable was pieces interspersed between the parts on plants - about experiences, the personalities of gardeners and visitors to his garden, food and so on. Lloyd was a charming eloquent writer, whose pieces are often amusing and his somewhat impish personality shines through.

[Anna Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful book with wonderfuly humorous tone. It captures Christos relationship with plants and people, both on equal footing. Somehow the slightly random yet exuberant language reflects the essence of Dixter which for me is the most magical garden in Britain: whimsical, lush, never overdesigned, light with human touch but not rampantly wild and so, so colourful.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to read in the bleak of winter, when you don't think your garden could get any sadder. This compilation of essays written throughout Lloyd's 30+ years of writing for a magazine (?) are as fresh and relevant as the day they were each published. Each essay is just about 2.5 pages long, so read a couple before bedtime, and have pleasant dreams!

Christopher Lloyd is funny, dry, opinionated (he earned every one of those opinions thru experience so I'm happy he shares them, yet he doesn't begrudge one for feeling differently) and admittedly not a perfect gardener. One essay made me howl with laughter when he described some of the public visitors' comments about his garden, and just how to reply without offense... or sometimes with it.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

My mother recently gifted me this book she found in a London shop, and I thought it would be a quaint, cozy read. I’m sure for the right person, it would be exactly that! The right person is someone who knows genus/species names for every flower or plant under the moon. The entire book was written referencing plants by names only a skilled gardener would know, so every other word was gobbledygook to me! There were SOME useful tidbits, and it did inspire me to trim some ground cover plants (species/genus unknown) in my garden in the hopes of better growth.

[Gareth Schweitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this over a year, month by month.

Some wonderful insights (the accidental discovery of Jarman’s garden in Dungeness with Beth Chatto) and some funny writing - the peeling of the pear is September is a joy to return to.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I would love this book. It has all I usually require: a large British garden with a devoted gardener. Maybe the tone of the columns was too truncated, perhaps due to over-editing for space?
One magical moment, though, worth the whole book:
Reading about a trip he took to the seashore and coming across a windswept house (black with yellow trim) and knowing whose house it is, and more importantly which garden. Revealed at the end of the piece, but meanwhile evoking strong visions of Derek Jarman's unforgettable garden. Took my breath away.

[Audrey Driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from his Gardener Cook, this was the first book by Christopher Lloyd I have read. I found it as witty and opinionated as I expected to, in a pleasant way. The essays are arranged month-by-month, a style very common in books on gardening. Each one is full of ideas, observations and accounts of how Lloyd managed his garden at Great Dixter. Definitely worth reading by all serious (and semi-serious) gardeners. The illustrations by Simon Unglass at the beginning of each month are a nice bonus.

[Scott]

Purchased 12/26/08