Friday 30 May 2014

Vintage Gardening Guides

In my bid to find out what would have been planted originally in the garden of my 1935 house, I've come across some super vintage gardening guides.  Alas, none yet from the actual 1930s!

These first ones are from a series printed in the 1950s, 'Mr Cuthbert's', and I love his personal introduction.  I wonder if I can get hold of the rest of the series?  These are ones kept by my mother.

Vintage Gardening Guides



Vintage Gardening Guides

This next guide is from 1925, and my Dad has kept hold of it from his own Dad.

Vintage Gardening Guides

Vintage Gardening Guides

Aren't these old books wonderful?  As for our own garden, we've had the most amazing peonies in flower, they're stunning!  The bluebells have all gone, and mystery fruit trees are producing shiny little fruits.  Indoors, courgettes have been growing too big for their pots.

My Garden

My Garden

My Garden

I can't wait to see what those fruit turn out to be.  Plums maybe?  How exciting!  And I really hope the courgettes survive to produce vegetables once we transfer them outdoors.  The weather's not been that warm, they might get a fright outside! 

Are any of you growing things indoors?  And what do you think those mystery fruits will be??

9 comments:

  1. Love those books I have a few of my own Mr Cuthbert lurking somewhere, they are lots of fun to read! Those peonys are gorgeous!! I planted some in our garden a few years ago called Sarah Bernhardt, picked for the name obviously, and this is the first year they have flowered they are so pretty!

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    1. Oo that's great that you have some of those guides too! I wonder if they were really popular? The peonies have all shed their petals this weekend, so am waiting to see what else flowers next, it's all a bit green and lush after the wet Spring but not many flowers. Well, a rhodedendron is out, but that's about it. Just looked up the Bernhardt peony variety, what a stunner! P x

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  2. Beautiful books! And I bet filled with oodles of information you can't find today.

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    1. Any info is good for a novice gardenere like me Debra!! x

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  3. These books look so fascinating! I love that huge window in your house!
    Baci,
    Coco
    Coco et La vie en rose / Bloglovin / Facebook
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  4. I love peonies, they're so lush.

    Watch out for slugs on your courgettes - you could end up with veggies full of holes!

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    1. Today I constructed a spiky barricade all around the courgettes, made of cut-off sections of rose stems, and I've been liberal with the slug pellets also. Praying the courgettes will survive better than my herbs have!!! x

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  5. Those books are so cute - the kind I'd happily put on display. Ah, I so want a proper garden! I have a dream of growing tomatoes... Surely there's nothing better than super fresh tomatoes - the smell... My 'garden' is a small paved courtyard, but as of the weekend I am now the proud owner of my first 'grow your own' pot. Maybe I'll get one fruit before the plant inevitably dies from not being planted :S CC x

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  6. Such a great idea to try to grow things in your garden that would have been grown when the house was originally built! Also, I love it when plants mysteriously pop up in the garden! At our house we have had a row of roses mysteriously pop up as well as gladiolas, wild flowers, and other things which we suspect was planted at one point by the previous owner. :)

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