With chapter headings like “On planting: shrubs,” Russell Page’s newly reissued classic on his life as a gardener and landscape architect might seem … incredibly dull. In fact, it’s a fascinating read for anyone interested in nature—or storytelling. Given to opening lines like “It must have been my father who told me of a certain elderly lady devoted to flowers who lived in a Victorian Gothic house,” Page will have you yearning for a patch of earth to call your own.
The Education of a Gardener
By Russell Page; New York Review Books; $18.95.