There is no subtitle to this book, but this is what Margery Fish became in the process of making her garden. For years, I had assumed that because it is an old book, it would be dry and 'learned'. It is neither. It could be my gran or aged aunt, writing me letters about what they found when they bought the house, early plans which proved to be mistakes, learning by experience, quietly going against the 'better judgement' of an older husband who had had a garden before and preferring her outcomes, growing to love plants, working out their different needs in terms of site and conditions, and above all, loving the doing of it.
There are make-over gardeners, low-maintenance gardeners, spend-to-impress gardeners. I'm not sure that this book would appeal to them, even though they would learn things. The people who will love this little book are the ones who have discovered a love of plants for their own sake. Who enjoy the small and delicate, the humble as well as the tricky. Who are either taking tentative steps towards something they think they might come to really love, or who already love it, and can say "Yep. We did that. Ended up moving ours, too."
I regret not reading this book years ago. I too had a husband who would say "What are you bothering with that for?" Margery Fish would have understood!