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Gardeners’ World: A Year in a Small Garden
- GenresNonfictionGardening
256 pages, Hardcover
Published September 24, 2024
13 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 3, 2024
This has been my favorite gardening book so far. I love you Monty Don, but Frances has been my favorite presenter and now garden author. I guess it's because I watched the episodes where she showed her new garden and the updates. I also love that she has a small garden just like me, and that we both have to contend with lots of shade. So, I really got this book. And she didn't go on and on about other things that didn't apply to her garden unless it was inspiration. Speaking of inspiration, I only wished she had put that as the last chapter. I get why she put the chapter where she did (it sets up the actual planting), but the chapter felt so out of place. This is not a step-by-step guide to growing, but it does have instructions and tips/notes to help you. This is just what she did for her garden and the planning she took to get there. And we still have more to come.
I think if you have a small and mostly shaded garden, this is the book to read. However, her zones are VERY different to Houston zones and I can get away with growing some full sun plants due to our extreme heat. But she can grow things that I can't because it's too hot here. So, you do have to take that in consideration when reading.
I think if you have a small and mostly shaded garden, this is the book to read. However, her zones are VERY different to Houston zones and I can get away with growing some full sun plants due to our extreme heat. But she can grow things that I can't because it's too hot here. So, you do have to take that in consideration when reading.
May 9, 2024
A wonderful, inspiring book.
June 2, 2024
Really loved being able to see how a gardener approaches planning and planting their own garden. I liked the writing style too - it really felt like Frances was just having a chat with you.
December 17, 2025
Frances is just a really cool Gardener’s world host. You can hear her voice clearly in this book. It contains a very well described discovery of a new garden plus many many many tips for plants, vegetables and what to put where and when.
Very recommendable for any garden lover with green thumbs
Very recommendable for any garden lover with green thumbs
February 13, 2025
Subtitled ‘Creating a Beautiful Garden in Any Space’, A Year in a Small Garden displays Frances’ personal approach to gardening. If you like your garden to have straight lines, a manicured lawn (or, God forbid, artificial grass), flowers grown for their appearance rather than their usefulness and no sign of anything edible, then this is not the book for you. Unless, of course, you are open to persuasion that there’s a different and more sustainable way to garden. Luckily, I’m very much in tune with Frances’ approach to gardening: naturalistic, using native species where possible, growing a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, peat and pesticide free, and creating habitats to encourage wildlife.
I loved Frances’ delight at acquiring a garden of her own at last and her excitement about planning how to design it and what to grow. Her garden is relatively small and therefore her decisions about what to place where, whether that’s garden structures, seating areas or plants, will be relatable to a lot of people. It is also particularly useful for those inheriting an already established garden as many of Frances’ early decisions involve whether or not to remove existing trees and shrubs, as well as how to cope with the garden’s challenging east-facing aspect. She freely admits that she ignored the usual advice of simply observing the garden for a year before making too many changes. I’d be the same in her place!
The book contains lots of practical advice, such as choosing the right tree for your garden (with the emphasis on native species), tips for successfully propagating plants and, of particular interest for me since it’s a project I’m embarking on this year, building a wildlife pond. There are beautiful photographs and I really liked the inclusion of excerpts from Frances’ journal. I also enjoyed reading about some of the gardens she visited for inspiration, including community gardening projects.
Frances’ mantra is to use recycled materials wherever possible. Hence her wonderfully eccentric greenhouse constructed out of old window and door frames. She prioritises growing things that have either a medicinal or edible use, or are wildlife friendly, and sees no problem in combining flowers plants with fruit and vegetables.
A Year in a Small Garden is an engaging combination of down-to-earth practical advice and inspiration. It also gave me an insight into her particularly interesting and varied career. It is however a very particular approach that perhaps won’t fit everyone’s idea of what a garden should be. I confess I found myself a little dismayed at some of the changes Frances is considering which seem to me to risk losing some of its character. However, I’m sure it’s a book I will go back to time and time again when in need of encouragement or inspiration because, as Frances says, ‘no garden is ever finished’.
I loved Frances’ delight at acquiring a garden of her own at last and her excitement about planning how to design it and what to grow. Her garden is relatively small and therefore her decisions about what to place where, whether that’s garden structures, seating areas or plants, will be relatable to a lot of people. It is also particularly useful for those inheriting an already established garden as many of Frances’ early decisions involve whether or not to remove existing trees and shrubs, as well as how to cope with the garden’s challenging east-facing aspect. She freely admits that she ignored the usual advice of simply observing the garden for a year before making too many changes. I’d be the same in her place!
The book contains lots of practical advice, such as choosing the right tree for your garden (with the emphasis on native species), tips for successfully propagating plants and, of particular interest for me since it’s a project I’m embarking on this year, building a wildlife pond. There are beautiful photographs and I really liked the inclusion of excerpts from Frances’ journal. I also enjoyed reading about some of the gardens she visited for inspiration, including community gardening projects.
Frances’ mantra is to use recycled materials wherever possible. Hence her wonderfully eccentric greenhouse constructed out of old window and door frames. She prioritises growing things that have either a medicinal or edible use, or are wildlife friendly, and sees no problem in combining flowers plants with fruit and vegetables.
A Year in a Small Garden is an engaging combination of down-to-earth practical advice and inspiration. It also gave me an insight into her particularly interesting and varied career. It is however a very particular approach that perhaps won’t fit everyone’s idea of what a garden should be. I confess I found myself a little dismayed at some of the changes Frances is considering which seem to me to risk losing some of its character. However, I’m sure it’s a book I will go back to time and time again when in need of encouragement or inspiration because, as Frances says, ‘no garden is ever finished’.
December 25, 2024
Lovely read, instructive and encouraging.
January 31, 2025
I loved this book. It's encouraging and practical, and I feel excited to get stuck into gardening this spring.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews