Anastasia Abboud
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Garden Warrior
Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.
​-- Gibran Khalil Gibran

A Writer in the Garden Book Review: Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life by Marta McDowell

8/19/2021

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I’ve loved Beatrix Potter’s books ever since I was a child. I have no doubt that her descriptions of Peter Rabbit, Mr. McGregor and the wood, of Squirrel Nutkin and Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, encouraged the future gardener and naturalist in me. I read the stories to my own children, too, and more recently to my grandchildren.

You can imagine how happy I was to come across Marta McDowell’s book, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life. It’s a beautiful book, filled with stories and photos of Beatrix Potter, images of her original artwork and writings, and photos of Hill Top Farm, her home and garden in England’s Lake District.

Her illustrations of Peter Rabbit and friends are engraved on my heart, but I’d not realized that she painted numerous, beautiful landscapes and botanicals.

Beatrix Potter was a preeminent gardener and naturalist. Throughout the book, amidst every sort of wonderful image, Marta McDowell tells the story of the gardener and her garden, and of the plants and animals within it. She is a knowledgeable and thoughtful guide. It is the sweetest sort of garden read.

Towards the end of the book, just when you think you couldn’t ask for anything more, she provides an appendix of all the plants in Beatrix Potter’s garden, which the author left to the UK's National Trust, and all of the plants in her books. She also offers notes and suggestions for further reading.

Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life by Marta McDowell is a wonderful, joyful book. Highly recommended.
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    Our Garden

    For years, my husband and I worked at creating a series of gardens on our four-acre lot in a rural, Texas subdivision west of Houston. I have to say, it was a fantastic experience. Now, I have a pocket garden on a golf course.

    I’ve learned that a small garden is as much a balm to the soul as a large one and can keep the gardener just as busy. 

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    While every garden is different, they all offer challenges, pleasures, time with nature.   Much like people, they have their good days and bad days, high seasons and low; and they can all be fun and beautiful if you love them enough.  
      

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  • Home
  • Tremors Through Time
  • All Shook Up
  • If Only You Knew
  • My Books
  • A Little Romance
  • Garden Warrior
  • Grains of Sand
  • About Me