An allotment is a small area of land, let out at a nominal yearly rent by local government or independent allotment associations, for individuals to grow their own food. However, the humble allotment has a surprisingly turbulent history. Initially the right to an allotment was proposed as a charitable means by which the poor could grow their own food and stave off starvation, but it quickly entered political and social debate. During the World Wars the allotment became the focal point on the home front, as families took part in the 'Dig for Victory' campaigns.
The post-war years saw a decline in the popularity of the allotment as the supermarket took over from home-grown produce. Successive governments condemned allotments in favor of new housing. Recently, however, with increased concerns about the environment and the organic movement, allotments are in vogue once more. This book charts the rise and fall of the allotment - and the factors behind its most recent resurgence. Drawing on original documents and illustrations the author explores the fascinating and surprising history of the allotment within the context of its social and political history.

Allotments (Shire Library)

History

Way, Twigs

Europe

Shire Publications

This is the intriguing story of garden gnomes and how they have come to reside in the flowerbeds of gardens across Britain. Originating in Europe, gnomes made the leap across the channel in the nineteenth century, where they were welcomed warmly by wealthy Brits who saw them as the must-have garden accessory. But the fortunes of the humble gnome were not to last, and they soon found themselves sneered at by serious gardeners. Turned away from fashionable gardens, the little gnomes found a friend in many a working class gardener, who adopted them in increasing numbers, and in a variety of humorous poses. Today, gnomes are as popular with the masses as ever, and this entertaining illustrated history will appeal to those who love, and hate, these small bearded characters.

Garden Gnomes: A History (Shire Library)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

Topiary, the art of creating sculpture in clipped plants, originated with the Romans, who employed 'toparii' to clip their hedges. The fashion traveled throughout Europe in the Renaissance, using rosemary, lavender and hyssop as well as the more traditional evergreens of yew, holly, myrtle and box. Louis XIV's Versailles was a triumph of art over nature, and in the low countries cone and lollipop shapes formed, and soon hopped around the globe to populate the gardens of England and America.
However, as the fervor for 'natural' landscapes swept through Europe, eighteenth century nurserymen were left with serried ranks of overgrown topiary figures. Fashion mocked the few gardeners who continued to clip, and in 1890 William Robinson claimed that 'a man with shears in his hands is doing fool's work. But as 'ye old Englishe garden' found favor again, so the chess pieces, crowns and artful peacocks broke cover, often claiming an unbroken history of clipping by generations of gardeners. Even Gertrude Jekyll, that doyen of the flowery border, had her favorite topiary yew cat. Despite box disease and labor shortages, topiary has seen a revival in the twenty-first century, and amateurs in the art can purchase 'preformed' rabbits and deer to graze suburban lawns.

Topiary (Shire Library)

Hollyhocks and cabbages, roses and runner beans: the English cottage garden combines beauty and utility, pride and productivity. Immortalized in images of thatched cottages with flower-filled borders and ducks on the path, what was the reality of the cottage garden? For many the garden was essential to keep food on the table. For those more fortunate, the garden was a blaze of color and a status symbol. Gardens did not just appeal to the senses, however; they played a philosophical and moral role in British society, and thus in British social history. Visions of the rural cottager were never far from the mind of the Victorian middle classes, whether as a shining example to the indigent urban poor, or as an aesthetic and social ideal of a utopian 'merrie England'.

The Cottage Garden (Shire Library)

Almost eighty years after her death, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) is still one of the most influential of all English garden designers. Best known for her superb use of colour schemes in her hallmark flower borders, she combined an early training in art with self taught horticultural skills. Early influences included William Morris, John Ruskin and William Robinson but it is her partnership with the architect Edwin Lutyens that produced some of the most distinctive of Edwardian houses and gardens. From her house (and nursery) at Munstead Wood, Surrey, Jekyll designed over 400 gardens across Britain and Europe, and some in America - where her archive of designs and drawings is now held.
Alongside her close friend Ellen Willmott she was one of the first women to gain the coveted RHS Victoria Medal. Through her articles and books she became the defining voice of early to mid 20th century garden design, creating a style many gardeners still aspire to today. This book will explore her life, influences on her early work in art and crafts, the transfer to Munstead Wood and working relationship with Edwin Lutyens, as well as her own writings and achievements. Her involvement with early women?s gardening schools, and worker?s movements will also be examined afresh. A final chapter will examine her legacy and recent re-assessments and restorations of her work in England and abroad.

Gertrude Jekyll (Shire Library)

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Shire

Contrived, colourful, and cultured, the garden of the Tudor period was a paradise on earth, given over to pleasurable pastimes. Artificiality was the fashion of the age, with clipped and twined plants vying for space between brightly painted woodwork, and patterned beds of coloured soils. Renaissance discoveries reared their head in royal gardens, as traditional gold and green heraldic figures mingled with fantastical sundials and glittering fountains. Walls kept out the wild world beyond, whilst mounts permitted glimpses to new parklands, and provided raised platforms for the banqueting houses of the wealthy. Ever-changing with newly introduced exotic plants and yet never changing with year round knot gardens, the Tudor garden was an exciting pageant which this book seeks to explore.

The Tudor Garden: 1485-1603 (Shire Library)

Perhaps one of the less known facts about the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti is that he kept wombats in his garden at Cheyne Walk, London, to whom he and Christina addressed poetry (he also kept zebu - a type of cattle). This is just one of the stories in this entertaining book, which brings together two of the Englishman's great loves: animals and the garden. Taking the reader on a journey from the armadillos owned by merchants in the City of London in the 18th century and nourished on garden earthworms, to Queen Charlotte's zebra, which was accommodated close to her house at Buckingham Gate and renowned for its filthy temper - perhaps caused by nicotine addiction: it was fed on bread, meat and tobacco - here are quirky tales of animals in the garden through the centuries.

A Crocodile in the Fernery: An A–Z of Animals in the Garden

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Sutton

Produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, the "Allotment and Garden Guides" were issued monthly throughout 1945. Aimed at the amateur gardener, they were to be the final rallying call in the wartime campaign to Dig for Victory. Concentrating on the productive garden, the guides were designed to take the amateur gardener through the basic tasks of each month. Many of the subjects tackled are as relevant now as they were then. How to make a compost heap, when to sow marrow seed, which seeds are they easiest to save, are still popular topics in the modern gardening media. However, other subjects convey the wartime difficulties: seed shortages due to enemy occupation in Europe, regulations on flower growing, and the very real prospect of running out of food next winter. Packed with additional photographs and illustrations, Twigs Way gives an historical overview to gardening during the Second world war and comments on each month of the guide. Many people still work allotment or vegetable plots that were first established during the war years, 'inheriting' them from a generation that used these guides as their gardening bibles. To read the Guides now is to experience a sense of both the urgency of the wartime garden, and the timelessness of the processes of gardening.

Allotment and Garden Guide: A Monthly Guide to Better Wartime Gardening

Military

Sabrestorm Publishing

Beans as bullets', 'Vegetables for Victory' and 'Cloches against Hitler': these slogans convey just how vital gardening and growing food were to the British war effort during the Second World War. Exhorted to 'Grow More Food', then to 'Dig for Victory', Britain's 'allotment army' was soon out in force, growing as many vegetables as possible in suburban allotments, private gardens, even the grounds of stately homes. Richly illustrated with contemporary photographs and ephemera relating to the 'Dig For Victory' campaign, this expertly researched, highly engaging and informative account also includes archive images of home front gardening, garden produce and advertisements.

Digging for Victory: Gardens and Gardening in Wartime Britain

Brown, Mike

Americas

The allotment is a much-loved part of every British city, town and village. At their height in the years around the Second World War, and increasingly neglected towards the end of the twentieth century, Allotments are now in the throes of a full-scale revival. Many allotments now have long waiting lists, and allotment keeping has become a fashionable hobby across society. This book explores the fascinating social history of the allotment from its roots in the 17th century Digger movement, through religion, protest and war, to the influence of food miles’ and GM. It includes insights into quirky rules and regulations, murder and looting, and even art and opera on the allotment. Drawing on archival and contemporary material, this heavily illustrated book considers both the history and the future of the not so humble allotment.

Allotments (Britain's Heritage Series)

Amberley Publishing

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