Book Review - The Jewel Garden by Monty and Sarah Don

I came across this book in a local second hand book shop and added it to my pile of purchases. It has lived since in the book mountain on my desk until at last it reached the bottom of the pile. Yes the bottom, for in true Rona style I have a system, sometimes back to front from the way any one else works. New books go on the top and every time I am ready to read another I take it from the bottom, the oldest ones in the pile and so at last it was the Jewel Garden's turn.

I love Monty's style of gardening, his relaxed, hands on often traditional approach but with an acceptance of the new and keeping that balance. It very much reflects my gardening style and way of working. What I hadn't realised before reading this book was his journey from the heady 80's and a successful business to crashing and coping and surviving that with his family and finally his journey into gardening as a career. 

The thing that resonated with me most in this book is Monty's depression, how he deals with it and how gardening and having his hands in the soil really helps him cope. The link between winter and this being the worst time of year for his depression is also very close my own depression and it's links to the seasons. I spent a lot of the book where he talks about those times going yes, yes, I know, yes and nodding when he describes how he feels.

The book has a wealth of lovely photos of the garden and the creation of the Jewel Garden and it's evolution over the years to what it is now. The story is told by both Monty and his wife Sarah and makes an interesting narrative and both tell the same story from different perspectives. Gardening books are often those that you dip in and out of, but this one I thoroughly enjoyed reading from cover to cover and am off in search of more books by Monty to add to my gardening bookshelves.

The first half of the book titled "Getting Here" covers how Monty and Sarah got to Longmeadow, reclaiming and creating the gardens and in particular the Jewel garden. The second half "Being Here" is dedicated to following the jewel garden through the four seasons of the year. It illustrates that gardening is never still, that gardens are for ever changing or need tweaking and are never finished. Sometimes a planting scheme doesn't work, a chosen plant refuses to thrive or paths and hedges don't function as was hoped. 

I'd really recommend this book for many reasons, it's an enjoyable read, it's uplifting and inspiring and really made me think about my own life journey so far. From a disintigrated life and rock bottom and how I put my life back together and become a different, stronger and much better person in the end and how that journey has taken me somewhere completely different from where I thought I was going. 

The Jewel Garden by Monty and Sarah Don. Hodder and Stoughton, 2004.
ISBN - 0 340 826711
£20.00



Previous book reviews:

Gardens in Time and Space by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury

The Well Tempered Garden by Christoher Lloyd 

Hummelo by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury

RHS Botany for Gardeners

If you are interested to see what else is on my garden book shelves have a look at this blog

My Gardening book shelves. Happy reading!

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