|
What was my inspiration for this book?
What was my inspiration for this book? It has always been my own garden, and the way it grew slowly from the small garden we inherited in 1988 to the half acre that it is today, full of the plants II love most.
Writing a weekly gardening column is quite a different challenge to writing a book. People sometimes ask how I can think of something new to write about each week and I suppose the answer is there’s always something happening in a garden. The photograph is a bigger challenge! I might have half a dozen ideas for a story but no photo. Digital cameras help and it’s amazing what you can do when you have to.
People also ask if I’ve ever thought of publishing a collection of columns. The answer is yes, and I’ve finally got around to it. I’m working on In Fiona’s Garden as a book now, taking lots of new photos and hoping to publish in 2010. Watch this space! .
|
|
There are thousands of gardening books so why did I write another one?
There are thousands of gardening books so why did I write another one? Because most of the best ones still come from the northern hemisphere! And even in Australia, the best gardening books seem to be written by people living where summers are relatively cool and the rainfall relatively high: Victoria, Tasmania, the Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains of NSW. I wanted to write a book for people who, like me, have an average rainfall that can sink to two or three hundred millimetres (8 to 12 inches) a year, with hot, where summers are always hot and dry and winters cold and frosty with occasional snow.
I’ve had to discover by trial and error which plants grow best in these conditions and I passionately wanted to share this knowledge.
|
