Pleasures of the Cottage Garden

A beautiful book with exquisite photography, touching stories (the part about the author's mother & brother made me sniffle a bit) and amusing informative descriptions of the author's garden. May Mr Lee grow anemones someday!

A very enjoyable read. The pictures are lovely and the exercizes for determining your ruling passions for planning your garden are excellent. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves cottage gardens.

There are a lot of beautiful garden books available right now and this is one of them, but with some differences that make it well worth owning or giving. While it is filled with gorgeous color photos of flowers and gardens, it is the writing that makes it special. Rand Lee writes in an intimate, amusing style that feels like a letter from a friend - I was hooked immediately. His "Ruling Passion" exercises are a wonderful way to begin to envision your perfect garden or fine tune an already thriving one. Also of note are his sample collections of plants to create borders with various themes. My favorite chapter though is "Fragrance in the Cottage Garden". It was a delight to find a whole chapter devoted to a garden pleasure which doesn't get enough attention in either the literature or the breeding of new plants. Woven throughout the narrative is lots of information on specific plants and their cultivation. Some gardeners may be put off by the author's non-linear approach, but as with the cottage garden itself, I found that to be one of the book's charms.

At last, a cottage gardening book for Americans! (Although many of the luscious photos appear to be English.) The most valuable chapter is early on, The Ruling Passion exercise. Please take time out from reading to answer the questions and think about what you really want and need from your garden. You might be surprised by what you discover. I attended a wonderful lecture Rand gave on this topic, which generated more enthusiasm than any talk I can remember. A couple of participants were shocked to discover that what they thought they wanted was, in fact, what their friends or neighbors expected, and not what truly gave them pleasure and satisfaction. The realization was shocking, but also exhilarating and energizing, renewing enthusiasm for the hard work of gardening. This is gardening from the heart and for the soul. It also makes for entertaining reading on a snowy day.