We Made a Garden (Modern Library Gardening) Paperback – February 19, 2002

Aside from being the history of the development of a wonderful garden I found this book to be a disturbing memoir of a controlling husband and an unquestioned emotionally abusive marriage in a sexist era where the woman gained power by subterfuge.Walter deadheads roses, carelessly ignoring the trail of fallen blooms leaving Margery to pick them up like a servant. Walter cuts down her long awaited budding new flowers with a scythe without consulting her and she thinks he is teaching her a important lesson about not experimenting with new plants.In spring Walter plants high growing pole climbing roses in a garden bed that Margery spent a cold, wet winter preparing alone for her favorite low growing plants. Walter "allows" her one clematis of her choosing and buys five of the color he wants to decorate the famous front door with their blue blooms. He likes neat walk ways and she likes plants trailing over the edges which she plants after his death. In one scene they are putting in a paved walkway and she asks the workman for holes to be left for the small sprawling plants she loves. Water becomes furious and deems her greedy when she asks for "too many" and her holes are filled in with concrete. The sad thing is that she believes that she is greedy and that Walter is right.I know this book is from another time, but reading it gave me a stomach ache at Margery's acceptance of her domination. She is a horticulturist of high intellect and personal opinions living in a sexist world who found insidious ways to get her way. She constantly defers to Walter, rationalizing that since he is the more experienced gardener, he must be right, but she orders new plants in secret and fears his noticing their arrival at the door. Walter purchases gaudy dinner plate dahlias that she hates, leaving her the work of meticulously planting, watering, digging up, cleaning and storing them. Margery takes her revenge, eventually letting all but a few die during their over wintering rest in the guest room.My husband thought the book was hysterical. I first read it aloud to him as a joke but the more I read the more I got upset. Margery and Walter disagree on hydrangea colors, she like pinks, he likes blues, so they buy all blues until he dies when she replaces them all with pink. I guess she did finally get her way.

Very good book

A gardening classic, We Made a Garden details the creation of a cottage garden in the UK by Margery and her husband Walter. She recounts everything from creating walls to trying to create a water garden. She refers to plants by both their common and Latin names. Some of the names have changed over time and there is a large list in the back giving both old and new names for reference. I am a gardening novice, but have found that I really enjoy it. However, I think this book would be more readily enjoyed by someone with quite a bit of gardening experience. Not knowing many of the plants she lists made for some dull reading. An edition with pictures would have kept my attention better. Still, some of her advice is helpful, especially when she talks about deadheading and cutting plants back. I am always afraid that I will kill my poor plants if I am too ruthless with my cutting. I’m glad I read it, but I probably won’t read it again.

Beautiful and inspiring! Full of useful gardening information.

The gardening part was interesting and her family maintained this historic home, later sold. I got the feeling her marriage was not easy.

Lovely tale of a garden. I bet she was liberated by the death of her husband--what a tyrant.

an interesting story about the making of a garden by a pretty famous lady. I am enjoying reading this book.

Quite good, though I did not get as much gardening advice as amusement on her relationship with her late husband. A classic that I am late coming to, as a result of a recommendation on Slate.

There is no subtitle to this book, but this is what Margery Fish became in the process of making her garden. For years, I had assumed that because it is an old book, it would be dry and 'learned'. It is neither. It could be my gran or aged aunt, writing me letters about what they found when they bought the house, early plans which proved to be mistakes, learning by experience, quietly going against the 'better judgement' of an older husband who had had a garden before and preferring her outcomes, growing to love plants, working out their different needs in terms of site and conditions, and above all, loving the doing of it.There are make-over gardeners, low-maintenance gardeners, spend-to-impress gardeners. I'm not sure that this book would appeal to them, even though they would learn things. The people who will love this little book are the ones who have discovered a love of plants for their own sake. Who enjoy the small and delicate, the humble as well as the tricky. Who are either taking tentative steps towards something they think they might come to really love, or who already love it, and can say "Yep. We did that. Ended up moving ours, too."I regret not reading this book years ago. I too had a husband who would say "What are you bothering with that for?" Margery Fish would have understood!

I enjoyed this book immensely. It is written in a lovely informal style discussing her successes and failures as she created her garden. As I have been doing the same in my garden it fitted the bill nicely. As my garden evolves over time I'm learning a lot along the way - and this lady was the same. There are many plants discussed and thanks to being able to search through kindle books it will now be a reference book.

The story of a middle-aged couple's foray into creating a garden together. As a gardening book, it is relevant only to those who own a garden of clay soil in the British Isles; as a memoir, it presents itself a kiss-and-tell story of a female writer married to a grandiose narcissist.

If you are a cottage gardener, then this is a treat; it was hard to put down. The writing style is absorbing and the plant descriptions really useful.

I have just started the book and it is wonderful but spoilt by the publishers decision to use such a small font. (I have twenty twenty vision and my eyes were recently tested! ) It just makes the book less relaxing. A poor poor choice and unfair to Margery Fish. Will not buy any Batsford books in future.