Thoughtful Gardening

An award-winning historian of antiquity, Robin Lane Fox is also one of Britain's foremost gardening experts, and in Thoughtful Gardeninghe takes readers on a varied and highly enjoyable journey through each season of the gardening year. From a tender eulogy for one of his landscape design mentors to a candid consideration of global warming's effects on his lupins or the perfect shrub to grow in shade along a path, Fox brings his trademark wit, wisdom, and charm to bear on the art and experience of gardening. Essential reading for anyone planting a new garden or taking stock of one after several years, this collection offers valuable critiques of horticultural trends and traditions, and essential insights into gardening practices and philosophies. Taken together these essays form--season by season--a rich reflection on the lessons, challenges, and absurdities of life with a green thumb.

Robin Lane Fox is an emeritus fellow at New College, Oxford. He's the author of many books on ancient and classical history, including Augustine, Alexander the Great, and The Classical World, which was named one of the Top Ten Nonfiction Books of 2006 by the Washington Post Book World. He lives in Oxford, England.