A Gardener's Life

by The Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury, photographs by Derry Moore

Lady Salisbury has been a gardener since, as a child in the 1930s, she cultivated tiny patches of her parents' gardens in Ireland and the West of England. Later, as chatelaine first of Cranborne Manor and then of Hatfield House, she revived two of the great historic gardens of England. Then as a professional garden designer, she created gardens for others, notably for the Prince of Wales at Highgrove and for the Museum of Garden History and Cosby Hall in London ("As a gardener who has lived the greater part of her life in Tudor and Stuart houses, to be asked to design a garden for an Elizabethan palace was an enjoyable challenge"). Renowned for her depth of scholarship and her design skill, she has also led the way as a pioneer of organic gardening ("When I began, in 1948, I was written off as a complete crank").

Now in her eighties, she not only continues to tend her garden in Provence, she is also making a roof garden ("the first I've ever done") for her house in Chelsea, and designing gardens for clients in England, Ireland, Italy and the United States. This splendidly illustrated book encapsulates her wealth of gardening experience.

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