Down the Garden Path [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Beverley Nichols (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 13, 2004

Down the Garden Path has stood the test of time as one of the world's best-loved and most-quoted gardening books. Ostensibly an account of the creation of a garden in Huntingdonshire in the 1930s, it is really about the underlying emotions and obsessions for which gardening is just a cover story. The secret of this book's success — and its timelessness — is that it does not seek to impress the reader with a wealth of expert knowledge or advice. Beverley Nichols proudly declares his status as a newcomer to gardening: "The best gardening books should be written by those who still have to search their brains for the honeysuckle's languid Latin name ... " As unforgettable as the plants in the garden is the cast of visitors and neighbors who invariably turn up at inopportune moments. For every angelic Miss Hazlitt there is an insufferable Miss Wilkins waiting in the wings. For every thought-provoking Professor, there is an intrusive Miss M, whose chief offense may be that she is a 'damnably efficient' gardener. From a disaster building a rock garden, to further adventures with greenhouses, woodland gardens, not to mention cats and treacle, Nichols has left us a true gardening classic.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This semiautobiographical story, of Nichols' first bumbling efforts at transforming a neglected property into a garden, was an immediate success and still rings true with amateur gardeners today."—Lori D. Kranz, Bloomsbury Review, March 2005 (Lori D. Kranz Bloomsbury Review )

"Nichols has a wicked sense of humor. I highly recommend this book as a means of relaxing after a hard day and having a good laugh."— Bobbie Schwartz, Buckeye, October 2005 (Bobbie Schwartz Buckeye )

"You will definitely be reminded of why you garden. No wonder this book has for so many years been one of the world's best-loved and most-quoted gardening books."—Ethel Fried, Manchester (CT) Journal Inquirer, May 17, 2005 (Ethel Fried Manchester (CT) Journal Inquirer )

Book Description

Down the Garden Path has stood the test of time as one of the world's best-loved and most-quoted gardening books. Ostensibly an account of the creation of a garden in Huntingdonshire in the 1930s, it is really about the underlying emotions and obsessions for which gardening is just a cover story. The secret of this book's success---and its timelessness---is that it does not seek to impress the reader with a wealth of expert knowledge or advice. Beverley Nichols proudly declares his status as a newcomer to gardening: "The best gardening books should be written by those who still have to search their brains for the honeysuckle's languid Latin name..." As unforgettable as the plants in the garden is the cast of visitors and neighbors who invariably turn up at inopportune moments. For every angelic Miss Hazlitt there is an insufferable Miss Wilkins waiting in the wings. For every thought-provoking Professor, there is an intrusive Miss M, whose chief offense may be that she is a 'damnably efficient' gardener. From a disaster building a rock garden, to further adventures with greenhouses, woodland gardens, not to mention cats and treacle, Nichols has left us a true gardening classic.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (December 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881927104
• ISBN-13: 978-0881927108
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars delightful reading, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Down the Garden Path (Hardcover)

A wonderful narrative about this man's first garden in England in 1932 and his various experiences with it and the people around him. A rare combination of eloquent writing and down to earth humor left me chuckling throughout the book. Wonderful language and very entertaining. Besides the charming style, there is real gardening information to satisfy the plant-person. I got it at the library, and am here to buy it for my mother, who will love the tongue in cheek, English humor. Would recommend it as a feel-good book to curl up with, with your cup of tea!

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars bautifully written,so very english, March 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Down the Garden Path (Paperback)

Nothing much happens in Beverly Nichols book.No sex, no crimes, just the miracle of growth,of life in a cottage garden.A witty,charming book that makes you look at your own garden with different eyes.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful pre-war English Charm, February 18, 2007

By 

JerseyTomato (New England USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Down the Garden Path (Hardcover)

A thoroughly charming book with a lovely pre-war atmosphere. It is about gardening yes, less about the technical than about the wonders. That weird, ratty vine you chopped down to get rid of, which bloomed like the Dickens two months later, the neighbor who knows everything, has a perfect garden, and seems to stop by just when a mystery fungus has claimed your best plants during the night. It's that kind of gardening book, about the joy of success and the deceit of garden catalogues.

Beverly Nichols bought his house for the garden he thought was there. He knew nothing about gardening. He learned through trial and error, and the man was enthusiastic and thought big. He wanted flowers in his garden in winter, and searched until he found them. He wanted to grow mushrooms. He wanted a wood in his field. You get the idea.

The writing is what makes this book. His description of the gardening books he found: "They were mostly in wrappers which showed women in obsolete hats standing with guilty expressions by the side of immense hollyhocks. They had terrible titles too..." Or perhaps about gardeners themselves, "People think that the gardener is a placid man, who chews a perpetual cud... a man whose mind moves slowly... Such ideas are very wide of the mark. A gardener is a wild and higly-strung creature, whose mind trembles like the aspen and is warped by sudden frosts and scarred by strange winds..."

Well worth a winter read!