A Green and Pleasant Land: How England’s Gardeners Fought the Second World War

"War is the normal occupation of man—war and gardening." —Winston Churchill
A Green and Pleasant Land tells the intriguing and inspiring story of how Britain's wartime government encouraged and cajoled its citizens to grow their own fruits and vegetables. As World War II began in earnest and a whole nation listened to wireless broadcasts, dug holes for Anderson shelters, counted their coupons, and made do and mended, so too were they instructed to "Dig for Victory." Ordinary people, as well as gardening experts, rose to the challenge: gardens, scrubland, allotments, and even public parks were soon helping to feed a nation deprived of fresh produce. As Ursula Buchan reveals, this practical contribution to the home front was tackled with thrifty ingenuity, grumbling humor, and extraordinary fortitude. The simple act of turning over soil and tending new plants became important psychologically for a population under constant threat of bombing and even invasion. Gardening reminded people that their country and its more innocent and insular pursuits were worth fighting for. Gardening in wartime Britain was a part of the fight for freedom.

History

Buchan, Ursula

Europe

Hutchinson

Windmill Books

Foliage plays a key part in garden design. The colour, and therefore the effect, of the plant is determined by its foliage all the time it is in leaf, whereas the flowers may last only a few days. Choosing plants for different kinds of foliage effects can mean year-round interest in the garden. This book describes the range of colour and leaf shape available, provides a detailed plant list organized by colour, recommends planting positions and gives a list of nurseries.

Foliage Plants (Wisley Handbook)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

UNKNO

Foliage Plants

Carley, Rachel

Orion Publishing Co

Planting Your Garden (Wisley Gardening Companion)

Choosing the right plants for your garden is much easier once you know how to match your plants to the conditions you can offer them. There are many factors to take into account - soil, sun, shade, flower and foliage, colour, habit, height and spread - that all too often the beginner's uninformed choice may lead to disappointing results. This text offers a range of advice on how to use a wide choice of plants for specific positions and purposes. This is four of the Wisley Handbooks collected in a single volume to provide a convenient format at a saving in price: "The Mixed Border", "Plants for Shade", "Foliage Plants" and "Ground Cover Plants".

Sharman, Fay

Lloyd,Christopher

Bricknell, Chris

Cassell Illustrated*

A charming photographic record of the English gardening scene by one of the best-known figures in postwar British horticulture. Nancy Lancaster, society hostess and interior designer, sports an elegant straw sombrero and snips delicately at her roses, while Mr. Shepherd, her gardener, wields his shears and neatly clips the topiary at her house, Haseley Court. They and many other dedicated gardeners are captured here by the discerning eye of Valerie Finnis—with just the gentlest touch of humor—in her photographic portraits. A well-known and well-loved figure in postwar British gardening, Finnis was also a talented photographer. With great skill and verve, she took photographs of gardeners, gardens, and plants from the mid-1950s on, using a Rolleiflex camera that had been given to her by a friend. Together with her husband, Lord David Scott, Finnis traveled through Great Britain, meeting the famous—Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst, Lady Birley at Charleston Manor, Roald Dahl and his family at Great Missenden—as well as less-known gardeners, nurserymen, plant enthusiasts, designers, and artists. All are seen at home in their gardens, weeding, inspecting, watering, and standing proudly by their plants, wearing the fashions of the day, epitomizing life and society in the second half of the twentieth century. 200 illustrations, 100 in color.

Garden People: The Photographs of Valerie Finnis

Reference

Thames&Hudson

An Anthology of Garden Writing: the Lives and Works of Five Great Gardeners

A C Black Publishers Ltd

Gardening writer Ursula Buchan has combined forces with garden photographer Andrew Lawson to explore the English garden and capture its richness and diversity. Focusing on gardens that are open to visitors, she explains the historical trends and the work of garden makers of the past that have shaped the English gardens we see today. With a wealth of outstanding examples, illustrated with 350 photographs, she describes many garden styles – formality, the landscape tradition, the Arts and Crafts style, the cottage garden and recent phenomena such as New Naturalism. Color, water, ornament and foreign influences are among the themes she considers, as well as such defining characteristics as the very English urge to grow flowers and the nation's love of roses.

The English Garden

Frances Lincoln

"With the distant rumble of wars and crashing stock markets in our ears, more than ever gardening is a comforting and soul-enlivening occupation," Ursula Buchan begins her third collection of garden writings. Back to the Garden proves her words as the famed garden writer shares some of the ways in which gardening enriches, enlightens, and fascinates her. Back to the Garden covers a wide range of topics, from the agonies of entering the village flower show to the joy of the rare "Evelyn" rose, from the importance of expecting the unexpected in weather to the surprising satisfaction of growing peas. Exploring these subjects with dry wit and eloquence, and lightly imparting a great deal of information along the way, the author shows how all the big themes of life — from nature, climate, and work, to beauty, bounty, and that "ever striving for the elusive heaven on earth" — are part of this simple activity.

Back to the Garden

Visit some of the best English gardens without moving from your armchair with this best-selling classic which features over 350 colour photographs. Gardening writer Ursula Buchan has combined forces with garden photographer Andrew Lawson to explore the English garden and capture its richness and diversity, explaining the historical trends and the work of garden makers of the past that have shaped the English gardens we see today. Exploring many garden styles including formality, the landscape tradition, the Arts and Crafts style, the cottage garden and recent phenomena such as New Naturalism, the book discusses themes such as colour, water, ornament and foreign influences, as well as such defining characteristics as the very English urge to grow flowers and the nation's love of roses.

English Garden

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Buchan, Ursula. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Buchan, Ursula