A Year at Kew

Kew is one of the great gardens of the world and there is no better way to learn about it than to read what each of twelve of the "curators" of its natural treasures has to say about the portion of the garden for which they are responsible. The book is organized so that during each month one of the experts who create and maintain the various portions of the garden discusses their area of responsibility, the work they do and their own career at Kew. Obviously each season of the year involves different tasks and while we look for Kew's famous blue bells in May and rhodys in June and July, the curators are just as busy in October, planting for the coming year and organizing the pumpkin festival. The experts focused on the Kew's unmatched array of trees, its arboretum, talks about maintaining its many ancient trees as well as planting its newest additions, preparing for the next generation's enjoyment. Caring for aquatic plants inside the garden's glasshouses requires an entirely diffent expertise. Many of the men and women actually running the garden have fascinating jobs; they all seem to love what they do and we get to learn about it in their own words. Experts go abroad to gather seeds from the furthest reaches of China, of example. The seed project at Kew is helping to maintain biodiversity and having native gathered plants -- seeds actually taken from the wild -- is essential to this critical work. In the U.S. we count of the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, the New York Botanical Garden and the Huntington in Pasadena for this vital role; but the world counts on Kew, which has been doing this for well over 200 years, stretching back to when the garden belonged to the royal court. The structures shown include the home of George III, featured in the film, "The Madness of King George", and the book has a good description of the challenges current garden workers face in maintaining all of the garden's features. Economy suggests that the garden recycle all of its cuttings for example, so a large composting site is now essential to maintaining Kew's ecosystem. We learn about he critical role of beatles and other natural creatures in the garden and read about their cultivation and uses. There are plenty of photographs and each month features one of the great ancient trees of the garden, some three centuries old and all wonderful to see. This is an excellent way to learn about Kew and would make a wonderful gift for anyone interested in gardening.

I enjoyed this book - it reminded me of my trip to Kew gardens a few years ago. It is amazing to read about the changes as the year goes by, and all the activities behind the scenes Highly recommended!!