A Handbook For Young Gardeners

A Handbook for Young Gardeners (1937) by Martin A. Fayers – Oxford University Press

There was a time when children were not merely expected to avoid trampling the flowerbeds.

They were expected to know what was growing in them.

A Handbook for Young Gardeners, written by Martin A. Fayers and published by Oxford University Press in 1937, belongs to that wonderfully practical tradition of educational books designed to encourage younger readers to get outside, get their hands dirty and learn that carrots do not, in fact, arrive naturally washed in plastic bags.

This is gardening taught the old-fashioned way.

Soil matters.

Seeds matter.

Weather matters.

Timing matters.

And if something fails to grow, there is no customer-service department to contact.

Fayers introduces the fundamentals of gardening with the expectation that young readers are perfectly capable of understanding real horticulture rather than merely being given a brightly coloured plastic watering can and told to have fun.

That gives the book considerable charm today.

It comes from an era when practical knowledge was treated as part of ordinary education and when learning how to sow, plant, weed and care for a garden was considered a useful skill rather than an eccentric hobby involving expensive raised beds and several specialist podcasts.

Published in 1937, the book also has the extra interest of coming from just before the Second World War, when gardening would soon become far more than a pleasant pastime for many British families.

Within a few years, food growing would become a national necessity.

That makes a handbook like this feel almost like a small prelude to the Dig for Victory generation.

The book is aimed at younger gardeners, but the advice is grounded in proper practical experience.

There is something reassuring about that.

No gimmicks.

No “life hacks”.

No suggestion that you can grow a complete vegetable garden in three days using five household objects and a viral video.

Just soil, seeds, patience and work.

Which, inconveniently, is still how gardening operates.

The great pleasure of an old gardening book is that it reminds us how little the basic problems have changed.

Plants still need water.

Weeds still appear uninvited.

Slugs still behave like organised criminals.

And the weather continues to disregard every carefully made plan.

This copy is in Good condition, which is impressive for a practical handbook now well over eighty years old.

Books like this were meant to be used, not admired from a safe distance.

They were carried around, consulted outdoors, handled with grubby fingers and occasionally left perilously close to damp soil.

So finding one that has survived in good shape is rather pleasing.

Ideal for collectors of vintage gardening books, educational history, schoolbooks, social history or anyone interested in the practical upbringing of children before indoor entertainment became quite so dominant.

Also suitable for younger gardeners today, especially those who might enjoy discovering that children in 1937 were trusted with actual tools.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where we fully support teaching children to garden, provided they do not start reorganising the stockroom with a hoe.

ISBN: None
Condition: Good

Keep browsing: See more Gardening books Other books by Martin A Fayers