ANew York TimesBestseller
There aren’t many books more beloved thanThe Tale of Peter Rabbitand even fewer authors as iconic as Beatrix Potter. Her characters—Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck, and all the rest—exist in a charmed world filled with flowers and gardens. InBeatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, bestselling author Marta McDowell explores the origins of Beatrix Potter’s love of gardening and plants and shows how this passion came to be reflected in her work.
The book begins with a gardener’s biography, highlighting the key moments and places throughout her life that helped define her. Next, follow Beatrix Potter through a year in her garden, with a season-by-season overview of what is blooming that truly brings her gardens alive. The book culminates in a traveler’s guide, with information on how and where to visit Potter’s gardens today.
Marta McDowell’swriting has appeared inThe New York Times, Woman’s Day, Country Gardening, and elsewhere. Her previous books includeBeatrix Potter’s Gardening Life,All the Presidents’ Gardens,The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder,Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life,Unearthing The Secret Garden, andGardening Can Be Murder. She consults for public gardens and private clients, writes and lectures on gardening topics, and teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. She lives, writes, and gardens in Chatham, New Jersey.
Preface
First, a confession. I did not read Beatrix Potter as a child. In fact, I learned about Peter Rabbit from a knockoff of sorts. The spoiled youngest of four, I would steadily pester my mother for books on outings to Woolworths, and one day she bought me a shiny-covered Golden Book calledLittlel“(
![Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children's Tales [Hardcover]](/itemImage/2/1/5/2/2_5393750.jpg "Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children's Tales [Hardcover]")