Page 12 - ALG Issue 3 2022

book reviews
snippets
Could you be a show
volunteer?
Up and down the UK, hundreds of fabulous horticulture shows take place each year and we are looking for volunteers for 2023.
Volunteering to help man the NAS stand at one of these is a wonderful opportunity to chat all things allotments with the general public and experience the buzz of a big gardening show firsthand.
This year we have had stands at Malvern Spring Show, Gardeners World Live, Beaulieu Show, Tatton Show, The Royal Welsh Show and many more.
Meet new people with similar interests, spend the day talking about something you love, travel and some expenses are paid.
If you are passionate about allotment gardening and would like the opportunity to volunteer at a show within your region, email marketing@nsalg.org.uk.
Our Dad
He smelled of the garden, our dad.
Of the high-rising damp from the richly turned soil, an earthy infusion in the sweat of his toil.
I recall it since I were a lad.
He smelled of the garden did dad.
Of the pungency of brassicas after the rains and the long-legged runners on overused canes. Our keen-fingered, green fingered dad.
He smelled of the garden did dad.
Of the bitter-sweet apples that, caught by the breeze surrender to gravity’s call to the trees
and fall to the earth around dad,
Where his ashes lie silent and sad In the garden that smells of our dad.
Copyright, Philip Whitehead. June 2006
The Physick Garden: Ancient Cures for Modern Maladies
By Alice Smith
ISBN: 9780711266339
The intriguing tales of the plants that have been used to heal and cure our bodies – from ancient superstitions to old wives’ tales that worked. Here are the ancient cures for modern maladies...
Plants have been used for centuries for their healing powers –to both positive and deadly effect.
Through the ages, these herbal remedies have become enshrined in folklore, and so too the names we have given the plants and the old wives’ tales we continue to tell our children. Many have also found their way into modern medicine cabinets.
But were the Victorians dicing with death when they dropped angel’s trumpet in their tea? Can comfrey really be used to heal broken bones? And can St John’s Wort scare away more than bad spirits? Taking you around the body, from the brain to the bowels, The Physick Garden introduces 80 plants with curious medicinal pasts.
With surreal illustrations and lively tales, The Physick Garden will show that sometimes there is method in the madness.
12 Allotment and Leisure Gardener
The Hidden Horticulturalists: The Working-Class Men Who Shaped Britain’s Gardens
By Fiona Davison ISBN: 9781786495082
In 2012, whilst working at the Royal Horticultural
Society’s library, Fiona Davison unearthed a book
of handwritten notes that dated back to 1822. The
notes, each carefully set out in neat copperplate
writing, had been written by young gardeners in
support of their application to be received into the Society’s Garden.
Amongst them was an entry from the young Joseph Paxton, who would go on to become one of Britain’s best-known gardeners and architects. But he was far from alone in shaping the way we garden today and now, for the first time, the stories of the young, working-class men who also played a central role in the history of British horticulture can be told.
Using their notes, Fiona Davison traces the stories of a selection of these forgotten gardeners whose lives would take divergent paths to create a unique history of gardening. The trail took her from Chiswick to Bolivia and uncovered tales of fraud, scandal and madness – and, of course, a large number of fabulous plants and gardens. This is a celebration of the unsung heroes of horticulture whose achievements reflect a golden moment in British gardening, and continue to influence how we garden today.