Tag: gardening

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

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About the Book

Front cover of A Year in a Small Garden by Frances Tophill featuring the authot standing in a lid garden

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

Find A Year in a Small Garden on Goodreads

Purchase A Year in a Small Garden from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

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

About the Author

Author and gardener Frances Tophill

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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Book Review – Hortobiography by Carol Klein @eburypublishing

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About the Book

Book cover of Hortobiography by Carol Klein

Carol Klein is one of Britain’s best loved horticulturists, and for decades gardening has been at the heart of her extraordinary life. From her childhood adventures in Manchester to her first experiments in plantswomanship at Glebe Cottage, and from training as an artist and a teacher, and then finding an entirely unexpected career as one of Britain’s most beloved television presenters, in this long-awaited memoir Carol tells the story of the people, places and plants that have shaped her life.

Exploring why our relationship with the natural world is so important, and how it brings joy, creativity and good health to our lives, Carol also offers irresistible insights on her favourite flowers and plants, and how to help them flourish. A story of a life lived happily amongst the greenery, this book is the perfect companion for anyone who has sought solace in the natural world.

Format: Hardcover (336 pages) Publisher: Ebury Press
Publication date: 5th September 2024 Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

Find Hortobiography on Goodreads

Purchase Hortobiography from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

Hortobiography certainly lives up to its clever title (thought up by Carol’s husband) being a combination of revealing memoir and passionate case for the importance of gardening as a way of keeping us in touch with nature and promoting wellbeing.

In the book Carol describes her childhood in Manchester, her adventures abroad as a student, her career as an art teacher, the founding of her own nursery business – Glebe Cottage Plants – and exhibiting at flower shows, including the Chelsea Flower Show.

Her memoir is surprisingly revealing describing the failure of her first marriage, struggles with depression and her recent experience of breast cancer. In between, there are sections on groups of plants – poppies, lilies, foxgloves, lupins, etc – with advice on their cultivation. Most of these have previously appeared in other publications such as Gardeners’ World magazine. Some have clear links to episodes in her life. For example, her wedding bouquet was made up of lilies – although there’s a story behind that as well. Others less so and, at times, they did feel like fillers. Having said that, if you’re hunting for the perfect variety of a particular flower or tree you will find them immensely useful. As someone trying to tame their own ‘mature’ garden, I loved the sections describing how she and her husband Neil created their garden at Glebe Cottage from pretty much nothing.

Many of us will know Carol from her TV series – my favourite being Life in a Cottage Garden – or her appearances on Gardeners’ World. The passion for plants and the joy of gardening that she displays on the screen comes across in spades (pardon the pun) in the book. She is a strong advocate of including gardening in the National Curriculum and, knowing her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets her way. She’s less keen on presenters of gardening programmes who are merely ‘presenters’ rather than true gardening experts. And since she says that, for her, gardening is a process and something that can never be considered finished, I think we can probably hazard a guess about what she thinks of the current vogue for garden makeover shows.

If, like me, you’re a fan of Carol Klein, you will love Hortobiography. Her unceasing passion for gardening and for passing that love on to others oozes from every page. Carol narrates the audiobook version and I can imagine that would be a wonderful way to consume the book. I’ll leave you with this quote: ‘Gardeners need to be optimists’. I think we could all do with a dose of that at the moment and what could be more optimistic than sowing a seed or, if you’re thinking really longterm, planting a tree that will outlive you but give pleasure to future generations.

Signed copy of Hortobiography by Carol Klein

I was lucky enough to hear Carol talk about her book at Henley Literary Festival on 4th October and, even better, to exchange a few words with her as she signed my book. (Trevor is my husband and fellow gardener.)

In three words: Authentic, fascinating, inspiring
Try something similar: A Fenland Garden by Francis Pryor

About the Author

Carol Klein is one of the most familiar gardening experts working in the media today, famous for her regular role as a presenter on Gardeners’World since 1998. Her natural, down-to-earth approach has made her a popular and trusted figure amongst the British (gardening) public. Carol originally studied fine art and spent many years teaching art in schools and colleges. She started gardening and running a nursery from her home in Devon, which became internationally renowned. She began exhibiting at RHS shows in 1990 and went on to win multiple gold medals at Chelsea, Hampton Court, Westminster and Malvern.

Her acclaimed TV series include Wild About the Garden, Grow Your Own Veg, Plant Odysseys and Great British Gardens. In 2011, a 6-part seriesbased on a year in her own garden at Glebe Cottage, Life In a Cottage Garden, was shown and accompanied her book of the same title. It has been repeated every year since. It won TV Broadcast of the Year at the Garden Media Guild, as did ‘Scent’, Grow Your Own Veg, and Great British Gardens. In 2019 the GMG awarded her their Lifetime Achievement Award. Most recently, she has presented Gardening with Carol Klein, Spring Gardening with Carol Klein and Summer Gardening on Channel 5 filmed at Glebe Cottage.

In 2018 the RHS awarded her their highest accolade The Victoria Medal of Honour. In 2023, Carol was named Iconic Horticultural Hero by the RHS.