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This is a 1938 book that is perfect for the keen
gardener or, in fact, for the aspiring, to buy for
oneself or to give as a present.
Muriel Stuart was a
successful and well-known poet during and just after the
First World War. She then had two children, gave up
writing poetry and took to gardening with enormous
enthusiasm and dedication. She wrote only two books,
Fool’s Garden (1936), about creating a garden in Surrey,
and Gardener’s Nightcap. After the war, for thirty
years, she was a well-known columnist for gardening
magazines.
This work of hers is indeed a ‘nightcap’:
a soothing tonic to take in small doses just before bed.
The subjects covered are many and variegated. They
include: Meadow Saffron, Dark Ladies (‘fritillary to me
spells enchantment’, which is why we have chosen them
for the endpaper), Better Gooseberries, Good King Henry
(‘quite a good substitute for asparagus’), The Wild
Comes Back and Phlox Failure. Each of these pieces is
only a few lines in length yet tells the gardener far
more than extensive essays or manuals. Gardener’s
Nightcap, a bestseller in its year of first publication,
is illustrated by charming Rex Whistler-type drawings.
We end with the opening sentence: ‘There is an hour just
before dark, when the garden resents interference.
Its work, no less than the gardener’s, is done. Do
not meddle with the garden at that hour. It demands, as
all living creatures demand, a time of silence...’
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