Vintage Gardening Books

Second to my addiction/weakness/vice for cookbooks is my addiction/weakness/vice for gardening books.  Vintage gardening books are prone to make my knees weak and my heart race.  If they have spidery handwriting or pressed flowers left between pages by previous owners, well, that's grounds for being overcome with the vapors.  The down side to this love of books is space to put them.  We just don't have room.  Not with 4 children under 7 and their requisite toys, my aforementioned cookbooks, Sweet Hubby's theology and church history books, and furniture.  

A few weeks ago, Sweet Hubby found a new old gardening book for me, "The Scots Gard'ner in Two Parts" from 1907.  The book was originally published in 1683 at the foot of Heriot's Bridge in Edinburgh by David Lindsay (as listed on the face plate).  It's available at archive.org for free. 

Here is a sampling of one of the interior pages on how to make a kitchen garden.  I admit to getting a bit of a headache with translating the vintage vernacular into my vernacular but it's so much fun to read and see what was growing back then.

 

As he read bits to me, I was swooning.  Then he showed it to me on his e-reader.  That took the cake, so to speak.  It was free and digital.  Takes up no space.  I was addicted.  I had the most fun reading this old book.  My favorite section is at the very end.  It is called "The Gard'ners Kalendar" by John Reid.

Included is a monthly breakdown of what to grow and what maintenance items need to be done in the garden.  I was enthralled with how much had changed and yet how much had stayed the same.  But the real thrill was the "Catalogue of Dishes and Drinks".  He lists what drinks and foods are in season each month from the garden. 

This book was a delight to find.  As I uncover more of these vintage books, I'll share them.  I have so much to learn about gardening.  These books are a perfect way for me to learn gardening and the heritage of gardening.