The Education Of A Gardener

Russell Page, one of the legendary gardeners and landscapers of the twentieth century, designed gardens great and small for clients throughout the world. His memoirs, born of a lifetime of sketching, designing, and working on site, are a mixture of engaging personal reminiscence, keen critical intelligence, and practical know-how. They are not only essential reading for today's gardeners, but a master's compelling reflection on the deep sources and informing principles of his art. The Education of a Gardener offers charming, sometimes pointed anecdotes about patrons, colleagues, and, of course, gardens, together with lucid advice for the gardener. Page discusses how to plan a garden that draws on the energies of the surrounding landscape, determine which plants will do best in which setting, plant for the seasons, handle color, and combine trees, shrubs, and water features to rich and enduring effect. To read The Education of a Gardener is to wander happily through a variety of gardens in the company of a wise, witty, and knowledgeable friend. It will provide pleasure and insight not only to the dedicated gardener, but to anyone with an interest in abiding questions of design and aesthetics, or who simply enjoys an unusually well-written and thoughtful book.

Russell Page (1906—1985) is considered one of the leading British landscape architects and garden designers of his time. He designed both private and public gardens, most famously the gardens at Leeds castle and the grounds of PepsiCo’s world headquarters in Purchase, New York.

Robin Lane Fox is a University Reader in Ancient History at Oxford University. His previous books include The Classical World, Alexander the Great, Pagans and Christians, and The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible. He writes the weekly gardening column in the Financial Times. He lives in Oxford, England.