Book Review – A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill #ReadNonFicChal

About the Book

A Year in a Small Garden follows Frances Tophill as she creates her new garden in a terraced house in Devon. Working in a small space, the book documents her journey to bring life to her garden, including tips and tricks for you to achieve similar results in whatever spaces you have at home.

The book is structured around the stages of building her small garden, and branches out to include small community gardens Frances works with, as well as projects to create in small spaces at home – with a focus on growing food and planting in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way.

Featuring new photography shot throughout the year, as well as Frances’s own journal and garden notebooks, this book will not only give you an insight into Frances’s journey creating her first garden – but will help you create a beautiful, productive, garden at home.

Format: Hardcover (256 pages) Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Publication date: 25th April 2024 Genre: Nonfiction

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My Review

Gardening is my other passion aside from reading and Frances Tophill is one of my favourite presenters on BBC’s Gardeners’ World programme. The book was a birthday present from my husband.

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’.

A Year in a Small Garden fits the ‘Garden’ category of the 2025 Nonfiction Reader Challenge.

In three words: Practical, inspiring, authentic
Try something similar: Hortobiography by Carol Klein

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About the Author

Frances started her love affair with plants doing an NVQ and apprenticeship at The Salutation Garden in Kent followed quickly by a degree in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Her practical gardening experience is extensive, she worked a season at Monet’s garden, has worked at the Andromeda Botanical Garden in Barbados and has done WWOOF work at a number of different locations including work on vineyards and in viticulture.  Frances has spent many years working in gardens with vulnerable adults, including adults with learning disabilities and mental health challenges.  She is passionate about conversation and sustainability and has worked in native tree planting for the Conifer Conservation Project in Edinburgh and for Moor Trees in Devon.  Frances is the Patron of Thanet Urban Forest and works with the RHS on the Campaign for School Gardening.  She is currently Head Gardener and Grower at Sharpham Trust.

In 2022 Frances was awarded best show garden for a sustainable garden design and build at Gardeners’ World Live. On screen Frances is know for her work with Gardeners’ World and Love Your Garden.  She is the author of four books and her down to earth nature make her a popular speaker at garden events. (Photo: Amazon author page/Bio: Arlington Talent Agency)

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