A Southern Garden

By Elizabeth Lawrence

288 pp., 5.5 x 9.25, 19 b &w illus

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4930-9
    Published: February 2001
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-1705-3
    Published: January 2015
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-7526-6
    Published: January 2015

Buy this Book

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Awards & distinctions

Named one of the '75 Great Garden Books' by the American Horticultural Society and chosen one of the ‘100 Best Gardening Books’ by Horticulture magazine

When Elizabeth Lawrence's A Southern Garden was first published in 1942, it was the only book to address the needs of gardeners in Zones 7 and 8—an area that ranges from Richmond to San Antonio and on up the West Coast to Seattle. Although many books are now available for this region, gardeners frequently return to A Southern Garden for inspiration.

More than eighty years later, Lawrence's information is still fresh, her style of writing still delightful. She not only gives practical advice but manages to convey what it is about gardening that draws so many people to it. This new edition of A Southern Garden will be treasured by all who love gardens and good writing.

About the Author

Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-85) was the first woman to receive a degree in landscape architecture from the North Carolina State College School of Design. Her gardens in Raleigh and Charlotte, where she always welcomed visitors, provided the background for her books and newspaper columns. Through the Garden Gate, a collection of her newspaper columns, was published in 1990, and A Garden of One's Own: Writings of Elizabeth Lawrence was published in 1997.
For more information about Elizabeth Lawrence, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"The best written advice on landscaping and gardening in the Southeast."—Fine Gardening

"Lawrence's exceptional gift for writing about plants puts this volume in the category of fine literature, so even if you aren't a gardener, you'll still enjoy it. Be forewarned, though: If you aren't a gardener before reading A Southern Garden, chances are you will be when you finish."—Southern Living

"Continues to be the best book about gardening in the South today. Technology and lifestyles have changed greatly since [Lawrence] wrote the book in 1941, but plants have not."—Gwinnett Daily Post

"I have learned more about horticulture, plants, and garden history and literature from Elizabeth Lawrence than from any other one person."--Katharine S. White, Onward and Upward in the Garden

"It's no surprise that the influence and reputation of this book have spread far beyond North Carolina, where Lawrence gardened, for she is one of those rarities: a writer at once elegant and accessible, learned and down-to-earth. A consummate plantswoman, she could quote from the ancient Roman authors as easily as from the local market bulletins."—Horticulture

"An extraordinary evocation of the actual joy of handling plants and working the soil."—Penelope Hobhouse, Garden Style