Gertrude Jekyll On Gardening Author:Penelope Hobhouse Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) is generally acknowledged to be the first lady of modern garden design. An artist whose failing eyesight forced her to give up painting, she turned to gardening when she was in her fifties and designed more than fifty gardens as well as writing a number of books on the subject. This representative collection of her wr... more »itings, taken from all her works, was made by a distinguished contemporary gardener who has specifically kept in mind today's garden needs and interests. While some of Jekyll's grand schemes for country estates, her plans for steps, terraces and water canals may now seem impractical, her knowledge of plants and planting and of the uses of color in a garden assuredly do not, and it is these subjects that this volume emphasizes. Like her first book, "Wood and Garden", it is arranged chronologically, following the months of the year.« less