Synopses & Reviews
Out of print since 1856 and now rediscovered for us by Verlyn Klinkenborg and Michael Pollan, The American Gardener is perhaps the very first work of American gardening literature. Many know William Cobbett as the greatest polemical journalist of early-nineteenth-century England, but he also spent several years in America, both as a soldier in his youth and during a two-year exile in the 1820s on a Long Island farm. Full of practical advice memorably imparted with Cobbett's gift for the indelible phrase, The American Gardener discusses all aspects of gardening, with special attention to those plants newly successful in America, such as the artichoke ("indeed, a thistle upon a gigantic scale") and the increasingly, and ubiquitous potato. Always one for a fiery judgment, Cobbett has as much to say on the conduct and character of gardeners in the young country as on the best means of tailoring principles developed in wet, drippy, weed-prone British gardens to their fine, sun-drenched counterparts on the American side of the Atlantic. Newly published for readers 180 years after it was written, The American Gardener is evidence of a great mind and pen at work in the earliest days of American gardens.
Synopsis
William Cobbett, born in Surrey in 1762, was the most prolific muck-raking journalist of his age and the
Table of Contents
On the situation, soil, fencing, and laying-out of gardens -- On the making and managing of hot-beds and green-houses -- On propagation and cultivation in general -- Vegetables and herbs -- Fruits -- Flowers.