I’m a city girl, dear reader, and as such I naturally dream of moving to the countryside, where the air is fresh and the view is unending, and the garden is, well, a bit bigger maybe?

Gardening for me thus far has always happened within an urban space, so it was a particular delight to receive Tamsin Westhorpe’s first book “Diary of a Modern Country Gardener”, not only because, well Tamsin has such a massive wealth of horticultural knowledge, but also because this book is a veritable treasure trove of bite-sized nuggets of information, conveyed in a relaxed, un-stuffy and thoroughly modern manner.

For example, I now know when winter barley is cut (end of July…you’re welcome), and that too much rich grass will give a horse something horrible called laminitis. I know that if I want a rabbit-free garden I must first install a fence that goes underground as well as above it, and that a bottle-fed lamb (or ‘tiddler’) is always recognisable because it’s always friendly and impossible to herd.

Oh, and look at this brilliant page about keeping hens which has saved me SO much future heartache and hassle… I will leave hen-keeping to those who are okay with MITES.

I love these little snippets of information - they are fascinating to me and underline the huge differences between urban and country gardening.

The horticultural element of this book is equally rich. Tamsin manages to tread that fine line between providing a LOT of information and plant suggestions all within her approachable, chatty prose. Full disclosure; I know Tamsin a bit - she interviewed me for her podcast ‘Fresh from the Pod’ and have met her many times at events, and let me tell you, her writing really is exactly how she talks. I love this about the book because it’s like sitting with an actual person.

It’s laid out in diary format, with a few entries for each month, chronicling snippets of Tamsin’s extremely busy life as head gardener at her family garden at Stockton Bury (which is open to the public) and also as a regular speaker and RHS judge. It’s split up into three sections: Late Winter And Spring, Summer and Early Autumn and Autumn and Winter. This is genius (as a garden writer I always struggle with the ‘in-between bits’ - when does late summer become early autumn? When does winter actually end? etc.) So the book actually begins in February, which, let’s face it, is the month most of us start thinking about poking our noses outside.

Each month has a Tool Kit list (eg ‘A tin of biscuits in the tool shed for those low-sugar moments’)

A must-have plant list

A things to do list

A country project - eg how to grow onions and make an onion plait, or saving seed (below)

And then at the end of each section is a list of seasonal treats.

This is essential reading for anyone gardening outside of the city, but it is also a really useful (and dreamy) one for urban gardeners too. Perfect bedside or bath time reading.

Highly recommended!

Diary of a Modern Country Gardener by Tamsin Westhorpe is published by Orphans Publishing

x Laetitia