Gardens Of Wales

Gardens of Wales (2005) by Carys Howell
Premier Gardens Wales | ISBN: 0955006902
Condition: Good
As sold by Crappy Old Books

There are books about gardens that make one feel faintly inadequate within three pages, chiefly by presenting immaculate borders, heroic herbaceous planning, and the sort of lawns that appear never to have met a dandelion. Gardens of Wales takes a more appealing route: it offers the reader the rich and varied pleasure of Welsh gardens themselves, which means beauty, history, atmosphere, and the occasional reminder that gardening in Wales involves negotiating not only soil and design, but weather of a distinctly opinionated sort.

Carys Howell’s book is a celebration of Welsh gardens in all their cultivated charm, from grand formal settings to more intimate and characterful spaces, each shaped by landscape, climate, and that very British conviction that a properly arranged border is one of civilisation’s more solid achievements. Wales, of course, is peculiarly well suited to garden romance. The scenery is already doing half the work. Hills, valleys, old stone houses, coastal light, damp generosity of growth: one begins with excellent raw material before a single rose has been persuaded into position.

Books like this are satisfying because they operate on several levels at once. For the practical gardener, they offer ideas, inspiration, and perhaps a fresh sense of what can be done with structure, planting, and setting. For the armchair reader, they provide a guided tour through some very lovely places without any need to put on waterproofs or wonder where the car park is. And for the incurably nosy, they offer that uniquely British pleasure of looking at other people’s gardens and judging, admiring, and mentally redesigning them in equal measure.

There is also something especially attractive about a book devoted specifically to Wales. Welsh gardens have their own distinct atmosphere. They are rarely just about horticulture in isolation. They sit within a larger texture of place: old estates, market towns, rugged landscapes, hidden valleys, and the soft but relentless influence of rain, which in gardening terms is either a blessing or a plot twist depending on the day. The result is often a kind of lushness that feels less arranged than negotiated with nature on civil but not entirely equal terms.

Published in 2005 by Premier Gardens Wales, this has the feel of a handsome regional gardening book produced because the subject genuinely deserves it. That always gives a volume a certain integrity. It is not trying to become a global lifestyle phenomenon. It is simply presenting the gardens of Wales to readers likely to appreciate them, which is a much more civilised ambition. Such books often age well because they are rooted in actual places rather than transient fashion.

And there is, naturally, a quiet irony at the heart of all garden books. They present order, design, and floral achievement as though beauty might permanently be held in place by willpower, while every actual gardener knows the truth involves slugs, weather, pruning mistakes, and a running battle against entropy. That tension is part of the charm. Gardens are among humanity’s loveliest attempts to impose elegance on chaos, and books about them preserve the moment when the roses behaved and the borders looked exactly as intended.

This copy is in good condition, showing the expected signs of age and reading but remaining sound, presentable, and entirely ready for another tour through Welsh horticultural pleasures. It is the sort of book that belongs equally well on a coffee table, beside a gardening chair, or in the hands of someone planning a few strategic visits when the weather behaves itself.

A lovely choice for gardeners, lovers of Wales, admirers of landscape and design, or anyone who enjoys the deeply restorative act of looking at beautiful gardens from a safe and dry location. Gardens of Wales is part inspiration, part regional celebration, and part reminder that when the Welsh climate chooses to cooperate, it can produce something very close to enchantment.

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