The Children's Garden Book

by Percival, Olive

• ISBN13: 9780873282109
• ISBN10: 0873282108
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-17
• Publisher: Huntington Library Pr

Summary

A gardener "ought to have a little make-believe," the Southern California garden maven Olive Percival mused more than eighty years ago. Inspired by this principle, she devised plans for whimsical gardens that could be created by children and adults alike. Her delightful schemes included "The Garden of Aladdin," an enchanted, sunken orchard fragrant with kumquat, persimmon, and orange trees; "The Fairy Ring," a blue fairyland of forget-me-nots, larkspur, and borage; and "The Sliced Cake," a round, pink-and-white garden divided into wedges--the perfect setting for afternoon tea. Percival's charming illustrations and instructions for fifteen fanciful children's gardens, all selected from her unpublished manuscript in the Huntington Library, are reproduced for the first time in this volume, designed in keeping with her own arts and crafts aesthetic. Described by Percival as "a potpourri of flowery facts and garden lore," "The Children's Garden "Book shows children that the pleasures of one's own garden may be achieved through planning, patience, dedication, and imagination.

Table of Contents

Laughing Garden	p. 1
Foreword	p. 6
To the Young Gardener
If You Expect to Gardenize	p. 8
Some Flowers Will Not Like Your Garden	p. 9
Happiness	p. 9
Little Thoughts from Grandmother's Garden	p. 10
Mayflowers	p. 10
News from the Mossy Garden Seat	p. 11
Thyme by the Old Sun Dial	p. 12
Bay-berries and Bitter-Sweet	p. 13
Rose	p. 14
A Buttonhole from an Old Time Garden	p. 15
A Permanent Christmas Tree	p. 16
What an Amateur Gardener Needs	p. 17
Cats	p. 18
Birds	p. 19
A Drinking-Pool	p. 20
Garden Plans	p. 22
The Lavender Walk	p. 24
The Picture Frame	p. 26
The Sliced Cake	p. 28
The Garden of Aladdin	p. 30
The Flying Carpet	p. 32
The Cottage Window	p. 34
The Desert Garden	p. 36
The Fairy Ring	p. 38
The Kate Greenaway Garden	p. 40
The Little Theater Garden	p. 42
The Mary-Mary Garden	p. 44
The Moonlight Pleasance	p. 46
The Poppy	p. 48
The Remembrance Garden	p. 50
Rosamond's Labyrinth	p. 52
Olive Percival: A Gentle Life	p. 55
Olive Percival's Letter to Prospective Publishers	p. 60
Glossary	p. 61
Acknowledgments	p. 62
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.