Down the Garden Path

Down the Garden Path has stood the test of time as one of the world's best-loved and most-quoted gardening books. Ostensibly an account of the creation of a garden in Huntingdonshire in the 1930s, it is really about the underlying emotions and obsessions for which gardening is just a cover story. The secret of this book's success — and its timelessness — is that it does not seek to impress the reader with a wealth of expert knowledge or advice. Beverley Nichols proudly declares his status as a newcomer to gardening: "The best gardening books should be written by those who still have to search their brains for the honeysuckle's languid Latin name ... " As unforgettable as the plants in the garden is the cast of visitors and neighbors who invariably turn up at inopportune moments. For every angelic Miss Hazlitt there is an insufferable Miss Wilkins waiting in the wings. For every thought-provoking Professor, there is an intrusive Miss M, whose chief offense may be that she is a 'damnably efficient' gardener. From a disaster building a rock garden, to further adventures with greenhouses, woodland gardens, not to mention cats and treacle, Nichols has left us a true gardening classic.

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Media reviews of this book:

"This semiautobiographical story, of Nichols' first bumbling efforts at transforming a neglected property into a garden, was an immediate success and still rings true with amateur gardeners today."

—Lori D. Kranz, Bloomsbury Review, March 2005

"Nichols has a wicked sense of humor. I highly recommend this book as a means of relaxing after a hard day and having a good laugh."

—Bobbie Schwartz, Buckeye, October 2005

"You will definitely be reminded of why you garden. No wonder this book has for so many years been one of the world's best-loved and most-quoted gardening books."

—Ethel Fried, Manchester (CT) Journal Inquirer, May 17, 2005

Customer reviews of this book:

"A great read from a fantastic author!"

—Susan B. from Plattsmouth, Nebraska, March 30, 2007

"Addictive, hilarious, informing."

—Zoe T. from Seattle, Washington, March 29, 2007

"Very entertaining and funny. I could identify with several of his expressions of love for his flower gardens!"

—Gloria S. from Concord, California, February 28, 2007

"What a wonderful book!"

—Beach T. from Acton, Massachusetts, February 17, 2007

"Read one of the series, then I bought all of them at one time. Talk about witty — the guy is hilarious!"

—Sally C. from Ventura, California, August 25, 2006

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An excerpt from this book:

Mrs. M. stared at me with undisguised suspicion. 'Rock garden?' she cried. 'What do you mean ... rock garden?' 'By a rock garden,' I replied, 'I mean a garden containing a quantity of rocks.' 'But you haven't any rocks.' 'Not yet ... no.' 'Where are you going to get them?' I had not the least idea where I was going to get them, so I said, in a sepulchral voice, 'They Are Coming,' rather as though the skies might open at any moment and deluge us with a cascade of boulders. 'Yes ... but where from?' 'Yorkshire.' This was partly guess-work and partly memory, because I remembered reading in some book of a man who had a quarry of stone in Yorkshire which he used to export ...

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