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Books > Health, Home & Family > Gardening > General
First published in 1929, The Gardener’s Bed-Book is a much beloved gardening classic by the renowned editor of House & Garden magazine in the 1920s and ’30s. Each of its 365 perfectly sized little essays is meant to be read in bed at night after a long day’s work, either real or imagined, in the garden. A charming and mischievously funny companion to curl up with, Wright ranges comfortably—and lyrically—from giving gardening advice to meditating on such topics as antique collecting and travel, great literature and architecture. He is an addictive delight, as memorable describing the challenges of growing plume poppies as he is the simple pleasure of hanging up the dish towel once the housework is done. Written in language that is as timeless as it is seductive, The Gardener’s Bed-Book will appeal to gardening experts and armchair enthusiasts alike.
This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Dominique Browning, the editor in chief of House & Garden and author of Around the House and in the Garden and the forthcoming Paths of Desire: The Passions of a Suburban Gardener.
A privileged tour of a lavish estate in Greenwich featuring an
abundance of garden experiences - formal boxwood and undulating
hornbeam hedges, dense woodland, reflecting pools, arbors and
follies - and a ferme ornee offering organic produce to the
community. Sleepy Cat Farm is the vision of one man, Fred Landman,
who acquired the handsome Georgian Revival house and grounds in
1994. Deeply committed to the concept of harmony between house and
garden, he has dedicated himself to the landscape to create a
garden of which the house could be proud. Collaborating with
Greenwich architect Charles Hilton and noted landscape architect
Charles J. Stick and drawing inspiration from travels in Europe and
Asia, Landman has done just that. The landscape unfolds in a series
of garden rooms and pavilions, pathways and pools, statuary and
staircases, trees, shrubs and flowerbeds, hillsides and vistas that
change daily, monthly, almost minute by minute, as the visitor
explores this undulating landscape of surprises, intrigue and
unexpected beauty. Names were given to the various aspects: The
Golden Path, the Grotto, The Iris Garden, the Spirit Walk, the
Perennial Long Border Garden, the Pebble Terrace, the Woodland
Walk. Buildings and follies were added, also with storybook
names--the Celestial Pavilion, the Barn, the Limonaia, the Chinese
Pavilion, the Cat Maze and Arbor. Down the hill from the main house
is an working organic farm that supplies produce to the community,
a project of Landman's wife, Seen Lippert, a professional chef who
worked with Alice Waters in California before moving East. Landman
and Lippert are committed to sharing the beauty that they have
created. They are generous in opening the property for charitable
events and tours of gardeners and horticultural enthusiasts,
particularly through the Open Days program of the Garden
Conservancy. As Landman says, One of my greatest joys is when other
people come here and get to experience what I experience every day.
The most important thing is that they leave happy.
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