gardens

COMPILED BY/CINEAD MCTERNAN EXTRA CONTENT BY/RACHEL CROW
WHAT I’M READING...
CAROL KLEIN
What’s on your bedside table?
A rather bashed-up but beautiful copy of William
Robinson’s classic, The English Flower Garden - an
encyclopedia of the best flowers, trees and
shrubs for the garden, published in 1883. It’s
amazing it’s still so relevant. I bought it for 50p at
a car-boot sale and love to pick it up every so
often. I also have a treasured copy of Clare
Leighton’s Four Hedges, which I was honoured to
be asked to write the foreword for, as well as
Gardener’s Nightcap by Muriel Stuart, given to me
by a very dear friend, Sue Rees. It has been
republished by Persephone Books, and features
their trademark endpaper taken from ‘Fritillary’,
a 1936 block-printed linen designed by Margaret
Calkin James. I was given a Kindle for my last
birthday by my youngest daughter, Alice, and I
am juggling reading The Grapes of Wrath by John
Steinbeck and Graham Greene’s The Third Man.
BOOK REVIEW
Plants for Bees
by W. D. J. Kirk and F. N. Howes
(IBRA, £25)
In recent times, with the surge of interest
in beekeeping, there has been an increased
realisation that what we plant is
imperative to keeping healthy and
productive bees. In London, however,
there is a debate raging about whether
there are too many bees or too little
forage. It is therefore refreshing to receive
What’s on your book wishlist?
- Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s latest
cookbook, Jerusalem.
- Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of Our
Forests and Fairytales by Sara Maitland.
- A Year in the Life of Beth Chatto’s Gardens
by Fergus Garrett.
Whose blog are you following at
the moment?
I think Arabella Sock’s The Sea of Immeasurable
Gravy is utterly entertaining. Go to
sea-of-immeasurable-gravy.blogspot.co.uk
Who’s your favourite columnist?
Steve Bell’s cartoons in The Guardian
always make me laugh and manage to
put everything into perspective, even if
they are unrelated to gardening!
a book like Plants for Bees. Written
initially by Dr F. Norman Howes, a
professional botanist and member of the
scientific staff at Kew Gardens, it was first
published back in 1945. Although there
was a second edition in the late 1970s,
after Dr Howes passed away, this is the
latest amendment, which has been
modified and expanded by Dr W. D. J.
Kirk, a senior lecturer at Keele University.
There are chapters written by other very
established names in the beekeeping
world, including David Aston, a Master
Beekeeper and Chair of the British
Beekeeping Association. The authors lend
their knowledge to explain which flowers
reviews: february
Don’t miss Carol’s new regular column in the
Sunday Mirror. You can also see her on BBC2
with the revised series of Life in a Cottage
Garden, which started on 11 January 2013.
Her new book Wild Flowers (above) is available
from all good bookshops.
are good for honey bees, bumblebees and
solitary bees. Previously, I would have
grouped flowers together and planted
accordingly. These chapters have changed
my mindset completely as they discuss the
There are chapters written by other very
established names in the beekeeping world
fundamental differences in the way
that we should plant our gardens.
A particularly good aspect of these
chapters are the top 10 lists, which give
a great precis of what you need to know.
This is a fantastic book if you would like
to consider bees more when planting.
Reviewed by James Dearsley, author of
From A To Bee (Summersdale, £8.99)
www.surreybeekeeper.co.uk
More books with the bee buzz: if you’re keen to have
a well-stocked bookshelf of bee-related books then
don’t miss out on James Dearsley’s From A to Bee
or Keeping Bees in Towns & Cities by Luke Dixon.
February 2013 the english garden 107