Autumn Gardens

Ethne Clarke, photography by Jonathan Buckley

Editions

Review

Though autumn is the season of greatest activity in the garden, with digging, dividing, planting and planning all making demands, it is the least well served in gardening literature.  With this attractive and well-researched volume, Ethne Clarke sets about rectifying this state of affairs.  She begins by turning her attention to form and colour in plants, showing us how to maximise their basic architectural merits, whether evergreen or deciduous, and exploring the effects of the soft moist air and low light at this time of year.

She investigates the foliage effects of ferns, grasses and vines, and those plants which are at their prime in autumn: the flowering Michaelmas daisies, colchiums, cyclamens, dahlias, gentianas and heathers - that last crop of annuals and biennials so highly praised by Ms Clarke in her Three Seasons Of Summer: Gardening With Annuals And Biennials .  The reader is given sound practical advice on the planning of beds and borders with tips on digging and double digging (to a depth of at least two spade-blades), and also offered help on the sometimes tricky topic of propagation.

However, the greatest thrill for the author in this, the harvest season, comes when she lists and extols the virtues of a wide range of vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts and hips, and she gives us her recipes for Harvest Soup and Pumpkin Pie, among others.  Finally, in the index of “Great Autumn Plants”, Clarke gives us descriptions and advice on the care of many high performance plants, and suggestions on how to keep life in the garden through to the first frosts. - review by Stewart Grimshaw