The Illustrated Garden Book: A New Anthology by Robin Lane Fox (editor) [B0030]

1986 HCDJ. Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962) was an English author, garden designer, and a renowned writer about gardening. This book is an anthology of articles she wrote for The Observer from 1946-1961, which, according to Anne Scott-James, "did more to change the face of English gardening than any other writing since Robinson's The English Flower Garden." Vita's personal garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent is now owned by the National Trust and has become the most visited garden in England. The Observer articles in this anthology are arranged by month, with each chapter opening with one of V. Sackville-West's poems and a photograph of Sissinghurst.

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "The writing is unpretentious, informal and informative. Reading it was rather like accompanying an old friend around her garden. Except that the garden is Sissinghurst Castle. Vita was never a stand back and direct operations gardener, even in the days before WWII when she had a staff. As she said to a reader who dismissed her as one of those, she had "broken her back, her nails, and her heart" as a gardener. In these columns she shared her good ideas, not so good ideas, and failures, things that worked for her no matter what the professionals claimed, the plants she loved and the plants she didn't. She asked for advice from her readers and told them when she didn't know something. There are several versions of "The Garden Book", with different editors and different column excerpts - someday I hope someone will publish the whole collection so I can spend more time with Vita."