A Gift For The Gardener

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A few Decembers ago my friend Stephen gave me a great gift – a little book called Down The Garden Path, written in the 1930's by Beverley Nichols. Mr. Nichols spent the winter describing the gardens he was creating at his country house in England.

The book has enough horticultural information to hold the interest of serious gardeners; hilarious tales of amateur bumbling to comfort the rest of us fools with a shovel out there planting bulbs upside down; embarrassed anecdotes of trying to plan and plant with snoopy neighbors stopping by to tell him the better way to do everything they're sure he's doing wrong; and some spectacular successes to give us all hope.

So many gardening books are huge and heavy, but this a perfect little book for curling up in a cozy chair on a cold winter's day – which is how I read it and pretty much how he wrote it. If you're looking for a gift for any gardeners, I'd be surprised if they wouldn't enjoy a copy of Down The Garden Path by Beverley Nichols.

Reported By Phran Novelli, KYW Newsradio