What do you think?
Rate this book
A Year at Brandywine Cottage: Six Seasons of Beauty, Bounty, and Blooms
“If you've been looking to be inspired by nature and everything your garden gives you, you'll be enriched by the tips and wisdom presented in this book.” —Garden Design Magazine There has never been a better time to dedicate yourself to a life enriched by nature. In A Year at Brandywine Cottage, David Culp inspires you to find that connection in the comfort of your own backyard. Organized seasonally, A Year at Brandywine Cottage is filled with fresh ideas and trusted advice on flower gardening, growing vegetables and herbs, creating simple floral arrangements, and cooking seasonally with home-grown produce. You’ll find suggested tasks for each month, including advice on when to plant and harvest, how to weed and water, and what to plant for year-round beauty. Packed with glorious photography by Rob Cardillo and brimming with practical tips, A Year at Brandywine Cottage is your guide to living your best life in—and out—of the garden.
- GenresGardeningNonfiction
296 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 31, 2020
18 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 26, 2020
Heaven. I absolutely adored this beautiful garden book that takes us month by month through Culp's exquisite gardens. I love it as a gardener, I love it as an environmentalist, I love it as someone who just wants to look at beauty and blooms in January in Minnesota. It's just phenomenal in every way.
Culp gives us photo after photo of his gardens and then tells us about his favorite plants and how to care for them, with stories and tips and a warm, conversational tone. Each month also offers recipes related to the garden one way or another. Most use plants from the garden but a few are just well-loved family recipes (generally from his husband's mother) that fuel his leaf raking or the garden work that month. Think gooseberry fool, dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing (and a vegetarian version) and watercress tea sandwiches. All are simple but decadent.
It's the plants that star in this book though, and I am now destined to go broke seeking some of these out. They are beautiful and whimsical and his love of them (and use of them) will make most gardeners want all of them for their own gardens.
I also appreciate that Culp gardens organically and doesn't try to sacrifice the rest of nature for his garden. He talks openly about his battles with deer and groundhogs (he says he live traps the groundhogs but once had a season where he bribed one with peanut butter sandwiches to leave some loved garden plants alone), and his hope that his neighbor's chemicals don't kill off the rest of fireflies that decorate the land at night. He gives advice for providing not just food for the birds but habitats and water. He talks about climate change and its effect on the seasons, and about how we as gardeners can be stewards of the earth.
This is just a beautiful book, the kind I'd flip through all year round and leave out to ogle. Highly recommended.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
Culp gives us photo after photo of his gardens and then tells us about his favorite plants and how to care for them, with stories and tips and a warm, conversational tone. Each month also offers recipes related to the garden one way or another. Most use plants from the garden but a few are just well-loved family recipes (generally from his husband's mother) that fuel his leaf raking or the garden work that month. Think gooseberry fool, dandelion salad with hot bacon dressing (and a vegetarian version) and watercress tea sandwiches. All are simple but decadent.
It's the plants that star in this book though, and I am now destined to go broke seeking some of these out. They are beautiful and whimsical and his love of them (and use of them) will make most gardeners want all of them for their own gardens.
I also appreciate that Culp gardens organically and doesn't try to sacrifice the rest of nature for his garden. He talks openly about his battles with deer and groundhogs (he says he live traps the groundhogs but once had a season where he bribed one with peanut butter sandwiches to leave some loved garden plants alone), and his hope that his neighbor's chemicals don't kill off the rest of fireflies that decorate the land at night. He gives advice for providing not just food for the birds but habitats and water. He talks about climate change and its effect on the seasons, and about how we as gardeners can be stewards of the earth.
This is just a beautiful book, the kind I'd flip through all year round and leave out to ogle. Highly recommended.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.
April 17, 2020
I love this time of year where everything starts to come to back to life after what always seems to me to be a winter that went on way too long. As I start getting restless for the weather to turn warmer, I love turning to books that inspire the inner gardener in me to start dreaming and that is exact what A Year at Brandywine Cottage did.
Filled with numerous pictures of the gardens at Brandywine Cottage, I very much enjoyed the time I spent in the book, growing more and more envious with each page of the beauty and tranquility created. The book is broken out into 6 seasons of his garden (The six seasons include early spring, late spring, early fall, and late fall) and then chapters by month. In each chapter are descriptions about what grows and blooms that month and what is done in the garden or what is focused on. Then, at the end of the chapter is a recipe that fits the month. Two of my favorites were February’s chapter that includes a very tantalizing heart-shaped dessert and August’s Summer Squash pizza – both of which I am fairly certain I am going to have to try.
I now have several new plants I want to try and find for my own garden as well as reminded me of a wonder flower I had at a previous house and absolutely loved, but haven’t yet planted at my current house: Snowdrops. This dainty white flower is so beautiful and I always loved looking at it every time it bloomed. Plus, it's one of the first blooms of spring, which is always a welcome sight. I immediately had to look up where I can purchase it when it is time to order bulbs.
Thanks to Netgalley and Timber Press for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.
Filled with numerous pictures of the gardens at Brandywine Cottage, I very much enjoyed the time I spent in the book, growing more and more envious with each page of the beauty and tranquility created. The book is broken out into 6 seasons of his garden (The six seasons include early spring, late spring, early fall, and late fall) and then chapters by month. In each chapter are descriptions about what grows and blooms that month and what is done in the garden or what is focused on. Then, at the end of the chapter is a recipe that fits the month. Two of my favorites were February’s chapter that includes a very tantalizing heart-shaped dessert and August’s Summer Squash pizza – both of which I am fairly certain I am going to have to try.
I now have several new plants I want to try and find for my own garden as well as reminded me of a wonder flower I had at a previous house and absolutely loved, but haven’t yet planted at my current house: Snowdrops. This dainty white flower is so beautiful and I always loved looking at it every time it bloomed. Plus, it's one of the first blooms of spring, which is always a welcome sight. I immediately had to look up where I can purchase it when it is time to order bulbs.
Thanks to Netgalley and Timber Press for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.
February 18, 2021
Absolutely loved this book! It wasn’t just a gardening book, but a wonderful guide to the development of a wildlife friendly garden along with tips on plants to use for beauty as well as food and shelter for the animals. There were also interesting recipes for garden produce with stories behind their acquisitions .
February 25, 2020
I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book is going to be a great gift for all the gardeners in my life. Lots of ideas and lovely photos too.
July 26, 2021
I truly enjoyed reading this book and taking a virtual walk through the author's extensive gardens at his Brandywine Cottage property.
The feeling tone of the manuscript is warm and welcoming. The tone combined with the lovely photos of the different seasons at this property make this book a unique volume compared to the other gardening books I have read in the past.
One thing I appreciated about the author's narrative was that he told not only what flowers/shrubs/trees he likes to grow, but he tells the reader why he likes each species, etc.
The recipes included in the book are mostly old family favorites. I particularly liked the Squash Pizza and other dishes featuring produce fresh from the garden!
I borrowed this book from the 'New Arrivals' shelf in our local public library.
#####################
The feeling tone of the manuscript is warm and welcoming. The tone combined with the lovely photos of the different seasons at this property make this book a unique volume compared to the other gardening books I have read in the past.
One thing I appreciated about the author's narrative was that he told not only what flowers/shrubs/trees he likes to grow, but he tells the reader why he likes each species, etc.
The recipes included in the book are mostly old family favorites. I particularly liked the Squash Pizza and other dishes featuring produce fresh from the garden!
I borrowed this book from the 'New Arrivals' shelf in our local public library.
#####################
October 27, 2024
Culp has a gorgeous garden in nearby Downingtown, and this is him talking through which plants are the stars of each month and a few of the tasks he does in that month. It seems to be aimed at a gardener who already has quite a bit of knowledge of zone 7 garden plants, both native and non. Since I know mostly about natives, I had to look up many of his selections.
Unfortunately he's a somewhat awkward writer, and the simplistic, stiff sentences sound a bit like a fourth-grade essay. An example: "I love to force branches for winter color indoors. It's rewarding to have flowers and fragrance in the house when nature outside seems frozen--and it's easy to do. You are probably already forcing such plants as narcissus, amaryllis, and tulips to bloom early indoors. Forcing branches significantly increases your winter-defying arsenal. Even before it flowers, a branch can be appreciated for its natural beauty." (p. 30)
Side note: Nope, I am not already forcing narcissus, amaryllis, and tulips.
There's also very little of the humor evident in some of the best-loved garden writing. There are a lot of beautiful photos of the garden but then also a lot of photos of leaves arranged together, which I found odd and not particularly helpful. He also cannot stop talking about his "tabourets," and it was really getting under my skin. Oh my God if I ever hear someone in real life call something a tabouret, I am going to go batty.
I am now interested in giving Hamamelis a chance, and I feel like I should plant more bulbs. His obsession with Galanthus seems absolutely ridiculous to me, but then again I am weirdly fascinated by Carex, so who am I to judge. There are also Pennsylvania Dutch recipes, which I was not expecting, many for some very questionable pies that sound like pecan pies without the pecans.
I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone not in the area, and I definitely would say you need to be super into plants and interested in specific cultivars. I might try his earlier The Layered Garden, since that seems designed to be instructive rather than simply aspirational.
Unfortunately he's a somewhat awkward writer, and the simplistic, stiff sentences sound a bit like a fourth-grade essay. An example: "I love to force branches for winter color indoors. It's rewarding to have flowers and fragrance in the house when nature outside seems frozen--and it's easy to do. You are probably already forcing such plants as narcissus, amaryllis, and tulips to bloom early indoors. Forcing branches significantly increases your winter-defying arsenal. Even before it flowers, a branch can be appreciated for its natural beauty." (p. 30)
Side note: Nope, I am not already forcing narcissus, amaryllis, and tulips.
There's also very little of the humor evident in some of the best-loved garden writing. There are a lot of beautiful photos of the garden but then also a lot of photos of leaves arranged together, which I found odd and not particularly helpful. He also cannot stop talking about his "tabourets," and it was really getting under my skin. Oh my God if I ever hear someone in real life call something a tabouret, I am going to go batty.
I am now interested in giving Hamamelis a chance, and I feel like I should plant more bulbs. His obsession with Galanthus seems absolutely ridiculous to me, but then again I am weirdly fascinated by Carex, so who am I to judge. There are also Pennsylvania Dutch recipes, which I was not expecting, many for some very questionable pies that sound like pecan pies without the pecans.
I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone not in the area, and I definitely would say you need to be super into plants and interested in specific cultivars. I might try his earlier The Layered Garden, since that seems designed to be instructive rather than simply aspirational.
March 22, 2020
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
A Year at Brandywine Cottage is an inspirational technique and selection guide by David L. Culp. Due out 31st March 2020 from Timber Press, it's 336 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.
This is a beautifully formatted and well written book following a calendar year through the seasons (there are 6 chapters, summer and winter by themselves and early and late spring and fall treated as 4 distinct entities). Between the photographs and descriptions of different aspects of the cottage gardens the author and his partner have developed over the past 3 decades are naturalistic arrangements of flowers and greenery for inspiration as well as simple and elegant recipes.
The photography by Rob Cardillo is top notch and beautiful. This would make a superlative coffee table book for gardeners, especially those from the eastern continental climate in North America.
Really lovely book, five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
A Year at Brandywine Cottage is an inspirational technique and selection guide by David L. Culp. Due out 31st March 2020 from Timber Press, it's 336 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.
This is a beautifully formatted and well written book following a calendar year through the seasons (there are 6 chapters, summer and winter by themselves and early and late spring and fall treated as 4 distinct entities). Between the photographs and descriptions of different aspects of the cottage gardens the author and his partner have developed over the past 3 decades are naturalistic arrangements of flowers and greenery for inspiration as well as simple and elegant recipes.
The photography by Rob Cardillo is top notch and beautiful. This would make a superlative coffee table book for gardeners, especially those from the eastern continental climate in North America.
Really lovely book, five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
February 27, 2020
A Year at Brandywine Cottage by David L. Culp. It covers six seasons of beauty, bounty, and blooms. Six seasons include winter, early spring, late spring, summer, early fall, and late fall. For me, the key to the book is again the cultivation of a garden over a prolonged period of time. In this instance, Culp spent more than 30 years cultivating this two-acre space. It is an intimate beauty. Culp guides you through the property, walking down paths and pointing out details along the way. Extra attention is given to specific plants, such as hellebores in early spring and irises in late spring. Around every corner is thoughtful color or interesting texture. The great addition to this book is recipes. Every month features seasonal delights from Sautéed Fiddlehead Ferns in April to Butternut Squash Risotto in November. And Rob Cardillo’s photographs are amazing!
A more detailed blog about this book can be found at https://patch405.com/2020/02/27/seren...
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
A more detailed blog about this book can be found at https://patch405.com/2020/02/27/seren...
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
March 14, 2020
A Year at Brandywine Cottage: Six Seasons of Beauty, Bounty, and Blooms
by David L. Culp
I felt like this was a love letter to the author's garden. It read like a journal of a year's activity in the garden with additions of recipes, in-depth studies of some of the plants and their varieties, and beautiful photos.
This book is specific to the author's climate and region and not everyone will be able to use every bit of advice. Who cares! When I visit gardens, I marvel at the design and diversity. I do not expect to replicate it at home.
This is the kind of book I like to have during rainy days, hot afternoons, frosty mornings and lazy weekends. It is best enjoyed a few chapters at a time. It is inspirational and lovely and reminds me why I love to garden.
Fans of Dulcy Mahar and Margaret Roach will want to add this to their bookshelves.
Thank you to NetGalley and Timber Press for this eARC in return for an un-biased review.
by David L. Culp
I felt like this was a love letter to the author's garden. It read like a journal of a year's activity in the garden with additions of recipes, in-depth studies of some of the plants and their varieties, and beautiful photos.
This book is specific to the author's climate and region and not everyone will be able to use every bit of advice. Who cares! When I visit gardens, I marvel at the design and diversity. I do not expect to replicate it at home.
This is the kind of book I like to have during rainy days, hot afternoons, frosty mornings and lazy weekends. It is best enjoyed a few chapters at a time. It is inspirational and lovely and reminds me why I love to garden.
Fans of Dulcy Mahar and Margaret Roach will want to add this to their bookshelves.
Thank you to NetGalley and Timber Press for this eARC in return for an un-biased review.
November 27, 2021
This was a beautiful book, but I think I was looking for something a bit more instructive and practical than this second book from Culp. (I was trying to find The Layered Garden but was able to get a copy of this one first.) I definitely appreciate the overall themes in this book--that gardens should be thought of from different perspectives including time of year, scents, flower types/families, as well as the layering the Culp is good at. If you are a very experienced gardener (and much more familiar with the latin names of plants) then this is probably an easier and more useful read. I spent most of my time looking up the latin names of plants and figuring out how they fit together in his layout. Still, I really appreciated the little personal anecdotes he included about how we was given certain plants from friends and thinks of them every time he sees the plant in flower, or the recipes he included for each season to reflect freshness and seasonality from the garden. I would have loved a layout of the garden to help guide my reading, or a list (even a partial list) of plantings and chores that he does each month--this information is included in chapters, but is woven throughout and is less clear for someone who is looking to create their garden.
February 2, 2020
Absolutely stunning photographs of the various plants and foliage around the cottage. The addition of the recipes highlighting the produce and leafy greens was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the writer went into too much depth as he ruminated about the various sub species of the same type of plant for me to enjoy reading it. He lost me around the 25% mark and I couldn’t finish reading, just skimming the rest, stopping to read the recipes and really take in the beauty of the pictures. I’m sure that better gardeners than me will find this book fascinating as I am just happy to occasionally weed my garden after the initial spring planting. This being a “me” problem, not the author’s. I would like to thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.
March 6, 2020
We have now made it to March, so spring is not too far away. Still, where I live, it is rainy and gray today. What a perfect day to spend time in the gardens of Brandywine Cottage.
The photographs throughout the book are just gorgeous! The text is very informative as well but I think that I spent more time admiring the photos as I read and browsed. There are recipes, practical tips, information about plants and much more to read.
The gardens are organized by six, not four, seasons. After reading what the author has to say, this made sense.
I dreamed about gardens in all seasons after reading this delightful volume. Many thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to spend time at the cottage. All opinions are my own.
AYearatBrandywineCottage #NetGalley
The photographs throughout the book are just gorgeous! The text is very informative as well but I think that I spent more time admiring the photos as I read and browsed. There are recipes, practical tips, information about plants and much more to read.
The gardens are organized by six, not four, seasons. After reading what the author has to say, this made sense.
I dreamed about gardens in all seasons after reading this delightful volume. Many thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to spend time at the cottage. All opinions are my own.
AYearatBrandywineCottage #NetGalley
May 8, 2020
A good read when you’re sitting in your house, looking at the snow falling down all around you. People who would appreciate this book the most, I believe, would be advanced gardeners. Beginning gardeners won’t find many “starter” tips on how to start a garden, planning and design concepts, and what regular maintenance is like. However, if you’re looking for a book that presents from an aesthetic viewpoint around texture and more unusual plants,this may be a book to peruse. There were many close-ups of single stems or details within the garden but didn’t always provide you with a whole picture scenario. The author discusses many plants I was not real familiar with, which in itself provided me with something to take away from this book.
April 16, 2020
This is a glorious book, full of wonderful photographs and good information, all written in an easy to read and capturing style.There are even recipes from wild and grown foods.
Unlike other book this is divided into 6 areas of Early Spring, Late Spring, Summer, Early Fall, Late Fall and winter. all have fabulous photos of plants that are special - I did not know there were so many cultivates of the snowdrop. Wonderful section on Witch Hazel, hellebores and much more. This book is a walk in this fabulous garden with the maker, sharing experience and good advise along the way on seasonal know how
A book to read through, and pick up again and again.
Unlike other book this is divided into 6 areas of Early Spring, Late Spring, Summer, Early Fall, Late Fall and winter. all have fabulous photos of plants that are special - I did not know there were so many cultivates of the snowdrop. Wonderful section on Witch Hazel, hellebores and much more. This book is a walk in this fabulous garden with the maker, sharing experience and good advise along the way on seasonal know how
A book to read through, and pick up again and again.
January 29, 2020
This book has tons of info about the best plants to feature in your garden for which season, but you know what it also has? Recipes. I was not expecting recipes, but I do love some recipes squirreled in with my gardening tips and plant lists. Give me daffodils and a dandelion salad recipe one after the other and I’m one happy nerd. Suggestions for summer plants followed by summer veggie recipes? Yes, please. Can I live at this Brandywine Cottage? It looks awesome. I don’t know if I want to move to Pennsylvania, though…
April 2, 2021
David Culp's first book, The Layered Garden, is my favorite gardening book, full of useful ideas on how to build garden with year-round interest. This book also looks at his personal garden at his home in Pennsylvania month by month, but with more of a focus on plants - particularly herbaceous perennials. I really liked A Year at Brandywine, but I loved The Layered Garden for its broader approach, beautiful photos, and glossy pages.
February 10, 2020
A lovely garden book that's more an inspirational, whimsical tour than a how-to/plant-specific guide. I love how Culp describes his garden and the various plants in it - you can tell how much joy and passion he has. The garden is lovely as well, though I would've liked to see an overview or diagram of the whole thing. My climate (Colorado) is quite different from the one Culp's cottage is in, so I can't use many of the plants he showcases, however I will definitely take inspiration from how he plans and lays things out.
March 26, 2020
This is an excellent book, a mix of recipes, life and ideas and the amazing pictures made me wish I was there.
I loved it and I think it's one those book that makes you feel better and happy to see so much beauty.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
I loved it and I think it's one those book that makes you feel better and happy to see so much beauty.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
May 18, 2020
I volunteered to read this book in exchange for an honest review through netgalley. This book is well written. If you want information about what kind of perennial flowers to plant during which season. Or wether to plant them in red mulch or fertilized soil this is the book for you. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
February 25, 2021
I am so disappointed with this book.
Principally with the photos.
The subject, composition and colour are good but they are soooo out of focus. Is this fashionable?
I prefer crisp clear photos.
With the majority of these there isn't even one part of the image that's clear.
I have David's previous book which I loved.
I hope I'll enjoy reading this but the photos are very frustrating.
Principally with the photos.
The subject, composition and colour are good but they are soooo out of focus. Is this fashionable?
I prefer crisp clear photos.
With the majority of these there isn't even one part of the image that's clear.
I have David's previous book which I loved.
I hope I'll enjoy reading this but the photos are very frustrating.
August 3, 2020
Lovely photography, a charming book to read on a non gardening day. It’s not one, however, that I see myself picking up more than once
August 6, 2020
A fantastic look at a garden I wish I owned. Garden 'porn' at it's best.
September 9, 2020
Beautifully done!
November 17, 2020
Gorgeous photos!
January 9, 2021
The best review... I’ve completed the book but plan on leaving it in my book pile all year to revisit it every month to reread the correlating month.
January 18, 2021
So much great info. Drool-worthy garden photos. Want my own copy of this book!
February 9, 2021
lovely book and wonderful photos, as well as good ideas for garden
February 27, 2021
Lovely! Like getting a private garden tour from a dear friend when you have all the time in the world.
August 11, 2021
Beautiful photos and descriptions. I want to visit!
September 15, 2021
Gorgeous gardens, so much inspiration. Great ideas and philosophy about gardening.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews