A Woman's Hardy Garden (American Gardening Classics) - Softcover

Helena Rutherfurd Ely

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0020318405 ISBN 13: 9780020318408

Publisher: Collier Books, 1990

Synopsis

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Excerpt: ... CONCLUSION CHAPTER XVI CONCLUSION *T^HE character of professional gardeners seems to be changing. They have become more perfunctory, more stubborn, more opinionated, until now it is a really serious question with them of "the danger of a little knowledge." To find a man who combines sobriety and a good disposition with a fair knowledge of his business and a real liking for it, is a difficult matter. Where but one man is kept to care for vegetables, flowers and lawn, he is more than likely to have little interest beyond potatoes or corn, or to be good at raising small fruits, and to consider everything else he has to do as so much waste of time. When first married, one of our gardeners was a German who took no interest in flowers, and planted half the vegetable garden with "kohlrabi" and "korn salad." We had never heard of these delicacies before, and did not care for them. I remember also his telling me that one kind of flower was enough to raise anyway. If a young man with an elementary knowledge of gardening can be found, who wants to learn, is strong, willing and intelligent, it is better to supply most of the brains yourself. You will find your own wishes more apt to be carried out than by the gardener who "knows it all," and seems to resent what he calls "interference" on the part of his employer. I remember, when a child, seeing my father's gardener walking about in the early evening after his supper, smoking a meditative pipe, tying up Roses or spraying plants, and often setting out seedlings after sundown. He was never idle; he loved his work and attended to it. But now it is rare indeed to see a gardener, after hours, going about his work; autre temps autres moeurs. Remember always that it is the overcoming of the difficulties in the gardener's way, the determination to suc...

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Through trials and tribulations and hardly learned patience, I have gained some of the secrets of many of our best hardy flowering plants and shrubs. Many friends have asked me to tell them when to plant or transplant, when to sow this or that seed, and how to prepare the beds and borders; in fact, this has occurred so often that it has long been in my mind to write down what I know of hardy gardening, that other women might be helped to avoid the experiments and mistakes I have made, which only served to cause delay." This is how Helena Rutherfurd Ely introduces A Woman's Hardy Garden, and what better reason to write - or read - a book? Those experiments and mistakes resulted in detailed advice on everything from soil preparation to garden design, all imparted with a charming style that's at once assertive and self-deprecating - a style that is the hallmark of the true expert. (51/2 X 81/4, 232 pages, diagram)

About the Author

Helena Rutherford Ely was the author of Another Hardy Garden Book and The Practical Flower Garden. She maintained homes in Manhattan and Sussex County, New Jersey. She died in 1920.

About this edition

• Publisher: Collier Books
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0020318405
• ISBN 13: 9780020318408
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140