photos and books
By lilycoton
15 comments
(I have no idea why some lines are “crossed out”…)
Hello to all!
Hope you are keeping warm (those of you in the northern hemisphere)!
I joined on December 30, 2008, so I’ve been here a VERY short time! Thank for the warm welcome! This group is very rewarding, and ‘m glad I discovered it (quite by accident). I’ve been gardening “alone” for 30 years with only my books for company, so it is wonderful to be with like-minded people at long last!
Because I joined so recently, I will ask you to bear with my comments here, which may be due simply to not having seen enough of your photos and blogs yet! :-) But it has occurred to me that the great majority of the photos here (mine included) are of individual plants and flowers, and that very few are of gardens as a whole. As though we were all “plantsmen” first and makers of “garden pictures” (garden landscape) second. I think it was Gertrude Jeckyll who talked about this, but I wouldn’t swear to it. There are those whose first love is the plants themselves and those who are more interested in the overall picture they are creating with plants. I belong to both persuasions, as I am sure that probably most of us here do. I have been through many of your photos (meaning, of course, a fraction of the total number of photos available here!), longing to see views of the whole garden (or as much of it as one can manage to show in a photo), and I found very few photos like this. Winter is certainly not the ideal season for photos of this kind, but when spring comes, I’d love to see more of your gardens as YOU see them! :-)
Another thing I feel would be fun and valuable is to talk about books by great garden writers such as Vita Sackville-West, Russell Page, Marjory Fish, Beverley Nichols etc. These were my original mentors, and I have a bookcase full of their books. What books have been your guides? Whose writing do you enjoy?
Have a great day! My garden is frozen solid, and this year, I don’t think my beloved Rosemary is going to survive the winter. :-(
Nancy
9 Jan, 2009
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Lilycoton, I agree with you, gardening is my life I adore plants and spend a fortune on them, but I do enjoy looking at the garden as a whole, you may find a lot of my pictures have whole parts of the garden and plants included. This is how I appreciate the garden, is to look at the plants together sharing space and be happy with them that they get on. Sometimes I take individual plant pictures to show the beauty of it close up to the camera.
9 Jan, 2009
Lilycoton, I also agree looking at a whole garden is enjoyable. I love to see how gardeners have combined their plants. This is where I get some great ideas which I can then hopefully try myself. Thank you for putting the names of some garden writers in your blog because I have been looking for new authors.
9 Jan, 2009
Hello lilycoton. In answer to your question if you use the - character before and after a sentence it applies the strike through/ crossed out formatting to that sentence.
In this case I think you inadvertently used it in your smiley faces :-)
9 Jan, 2009
I'm glad Ajay has explained that. Thanks. :o)
Hello Lilycoton ~
I guess you have seen the photos of Four Seasons ?
They take pictures of their whole garden from time to time.
You raise good points about those people whose main love is plants, and those more interested in garden design.
Interesting blog. Thank you.
I hope your beautiful Cotons de Tulear are all well, despite the cold weather ! :o)
9 Jan, 2009
ooohhhh winter wonderland....have you discovered your 'Garden' page yet? it's on a tab at the top of your home page, it's a really useful way of storing info about each plant in your garden, including pictures of different times of year etc...and you can set reminders to do things at the right time of year, eg pruning, lifting moving etc...many of us use this section to catolouge our plants, and every time you load a picture to go with the info it goes directly onto the main streem photo section, and i think given the its the winter season a lot of members have been catching up with this, hense so many plant pic's. but there are lots of garden photos on here too, infact i have in my garden pages several sections on full or part views of my garden, as i know some other members have too. why don't you try typing in 'garden views' into the top search box and i bet you will get loads come up, you can also use the tab system to find the times of year that you are looking for. hope this helps, it does take a lot of getting used to, but once you do there'll be no stopping you lol
9 Jan, 2009
hello again, if you type 'back garden' into the search box in the top right hand corner, loads come up.....happy brousing
9 Jan, 2009
I know I've got an awful lot of photos to wade through, but I do post photos of beds and borders, too, not just individual flowers.
Good luck in finding them, though!
By the way, I enjoy Christopher Lloyd too, and also Beth Chatto - any of her books are fascinating! There's even one called 'Dear Friend and Gardener' where they chat to each other.
9 Jan, 2009
I think you are correct in that a lot of members are not posting full garden shots right now because it is winter. I can recall many beautiful shots of lots of fabulous gardens over the summer. You can go back and look at these or wait and look forward to the shots to come this spring.
Welcome to GOY and I'm sure you will find a few members whose interests meld with yours!
9 Jan, 2009
Hi Nancy, I have some photos of my garden as I'm developing it.
I'm going to tag them later so if you go to my photo page and press the tag that sais ' garden ' you'll be able to see them.
I'm going to do it tonight.
They're not photos of lovely finished gardens but you'll be able to see more than just plants..
Hywel
9 Jan, 2009
Hello Nancy, I too love viewing and reading about other people's gardens. Beverley Nichols has to be one of my absolute favourites. A lot of his books seem to be out of print but my local library found most of them in the archives. I'm glad they did because his last home, a lovely cottage, is within the borough and only a few hundred yards from my own home. I walk past it most days with my dog.
9 Jan, 2009
I have garden shots for every month. Not sure if I have loaded all of them on here but if you do as Majeekahead says type in 'back garden' or 'front garden' you will be amazed at what you find.
I have lots of old books such as the Oxford book of .....
along with an old readers digest book Principles of horticultre 1961.
9 Jan, 2009
You might want to try typing in 'back yard' and 'front yard' for the North American gardens.
I most post pics of individual plants because I'm not good at garden design and I don't have a great looking garden. I guess I'm more interested in the plants as individuals. However, I am hoping to learn more about designing beds from this site and these wonderful people on here. :o)
10 Jan, 2009
If you are a veg grower try 'The Cook and the Gardener' by Amanda Hesser. It's a gardening/recipe book that follows a cook and the aged French gardener in a French chateau garden. The recipes are in calendar order with ones for the sort of veg we all grow but can't find recipes for the end product! Each chapter starts with a section on that month in their garden.
27 Jan, 2009
Hello Lilycoton. I know that this is not a recent blog but understand what you are saying. I am a relatively new member and have posted pics of both individual plants and small sections of border. The truth is 1)I really enjoy looking at individual plant in detail and 2)that my garden is very small and there are areas which could do with a bit of design improvement, to say the least. I fully intend to tackle this when time, money and children allow. I have spent hours reading garden design books and visiting other peoples gardens for inspiration. The super thing about this web site is that you can save pics of everyones "best" plant combinations and areas that have inspired and hopefully will corporate them into my own garden. I too am very fond of garden books and read nothing else during the months of October to March. My favs are Christopher Lloyd, Beth Chatto and Monty Don. For design I like the traditional approach George Plumptre has written Classical Planting featuring gardens by two of the above plus Rosemary Very and Penelope Hobhouse. I also like to read old gardening books, the one without the beautiful photos as the are a historical record of gardening fashion, plants and techniques which I find facinating. I would be interested if you have any comments on any new publications although I do find we buy more bookcases than any other type of furniture! lol
6 Jun, 2009
Recent posts by lilycoton
- Just wanted to say...
6 Jun, 2009
- New Book
20 Mar, 2009
- Adding a little "charm"
6 Mar, 2009
- Greetings!
27 Jan, 2009
- This group is great!
3 Jan, 2009
- Happy New Year!
31 Dec, 2008
If you go to 'Garden Pictures' then to 'Garden Ideas' you'll find lots of pictures of members' gardens. Trouble is they put me to shame, but I enjoy looking at them.
My favourite books are by Christopher Lloyd - always an inovative gardener and a thoroughly good read, Great Dixter is a wonderful garden to visit, too.
9 Jan, 2009