I saved this video to enjoy today so I wouldn’t feel rushed, yesterday being a little busy. I smiled when you and Donna spoke about not being gardeners as I am not either. In all truth, I can kill silk, so plants and gardens are loved and appreciated from the distance of a book page or window. 😊 as always, I enjoyed this video and thank you both 💕💐💕

I bought this book for a friend who loves her garden when it came out. It’s a really interesting read and a perfect choice for garden lovers 🌸📚

Thanks

I was busy all day yesterday, but I've been looking forward to watching this ever since the notification went up! This morning, I was able to sit down with a nice hot cup of tea and enjoy. I absolutely love reading about gardens, so I loved this book. It made me extra aware of some of my neighbors' gardens as they started blooming this spring. I really enjoyed the discussion, too! Thank you both for choosing this book.

If you are interested in Edith Wharton's gardens - then you should also read about her niece - Beatrix Jones Farrand, a gardener and garden architect.

So lovely❤ Thank you, dear Miranda!📚🌹🌻

Lovely video!. Thank you!❤❤❤

Dear Miranda and Donna, thank you so much for this wonderful video. I always enjoy these videos so much where you to talk so fondly of inspiring books. Have a wonderful weekend❤

Loved this one especially and all your thoughts on it. There is an interesting story centred around the healing and spiritual aspects of plants and gardens by Titania Hardie called The House of the Winds.

I look forward to getting this book! I am just starting to watch your videos, and love the books you are recommending because I’m a book lover and a gardener. I just wanted to mention that I am related to Willa Cather by blood and Mark Twain by marriage so books are in my blood and am contemplating writing one of my own. I obviously live in the States (Minnesota) but I’m a definite Anglophile as most of my ancestry is from England, Ireland and Scotland. I love you ladies and wish you were my next door neighbors!

I plan to reread Elizabeth and her German Garden and Pride and Prejudice next month. :) I look forward to the Pride and Prejudice discussion next month!

Thanks for the lovely discussion ladies!

Lovely chat - you're both so sweet together. Your mum is so cozy and warm:) ❤

Interesting and lovely as always!

So lovely. I spent one brief day in Bath some years ago. I would love to return. But only if I could wear your lovely clothes! 😊

Penelope’s opinion of The Secret Garden is probably the source of her robin’s disapproval 😉. I am envious of English gardens and so agree with you Donna that prairie gardeners cherish the garden season and don’t take it for granted. The frost-free season where I live usually runs from May 25th to September 12th, and I have seen snow in every month except July. We pack in a year full of garden love into those few months of joyous colour and scent. I agree with the author that gardens are very personal. I have memorial plants/trees chosen to reflect the personality of the person I am remembering - turning sadness to beauty. I do keep a garden journal as well which helps me to appreciate the garden even more (photos included)!

I stabled over this book a year a good and adored it the first time I read it and it holds up for a second read. I now live in California and it is, for me, too warm and dry in the summer we do have a garden with tomatoes, oranges, figs, avocados, rhubarb (they need soooo much care and love to survive in this climate) raspberries, blueberries and some flowers but the watering take up much time. We collect rain water in the winter and have a tons of different system to conserve water - I wish I lived in England so I could have a really GARDEN!!!

A wonderful book,beautifully written.

Wonderful discussion! Always, I tend to look forward to the non fiction choices less, and then proceed to enjoy the books thoroughly. So lovely to read about gardens and gardening in May. Especially, I enjoyed the chapter, " Time, Order, and the Garden". Lively's thoughts about probable Neolithic gardening, and her facts about the oldest trees in the world are fascinating. Also, I learned that certain plants proliferated via railway lines, and how bombed areas encouraged the growth of other plants. Captivating stuff!

Hello Miranda & Donna, this was such an interesting discussion. Like you, I’ve never managed to get to a National Garden Scheme garden, though I’m always fascinated to see what other gardeners are growing. I agree with Donna about the quote I chose…I’m off to discover Tom’s Midnight Garden, as I’ve never read it. Really looking forward to next month’s discussion of Pride & Prejudice.

So enjoyable to sit and chat with you two and the MM Channel friends.

I'm part way through Life in the Garden but still enjoyed the discussion. It's not a book I would have picked up so thank you for another great suggestion. I love visiting gardens especially the Yellow Book (National Garden Scheme) open gardens as they are so interesting and vary in size, design and variety and are often just literally a small back garden of a normal sized house, so informal. I agree with Penelope Lively about the Secret Garden, sorry! I enjoyed it as a child but not on my recent read 🌻🌹🌳

Thanks!

I really found Life in the Garden a very interesting book. I enjoyed learning about the history of gardening. Roman box hedges and the gardens designed by Capability Brown for the rich really did remind me a bit of Pemberley all those impressive grounds, trees grouped together and the lake which Mr Darcy made famous by his swim in the television version all those years ago. The hard work and the planning of the gardens by Monet were in themselves a work of art by the sounds of things and I have seen photographs of Monet in his garden who must have felt really proud of what he achieved. Penelope Lively is straight forward and uncomplicated to read and I could imagine the gardens she described so well. Thank you Miranda for introducing me to this lovely book and hello to Donna who spoke so nicely about paintings of gardens.

I love these book chats with your Mum and another book to add to my growing TBR pile thanks to your wonderful vlog. I am watching this with a coffee on a sunny Friday morning in Melbourne

I turned this on this morning. Then had to leave. Now,remembered to come back. Never want to miss your Vlog. Your mother here too.

Thank you for your recommendation. I will definitely buy as I am passionate about my garden. It kept me sane during COVID and it’s helping through a difficult time now with my husband.

That book is lovely and very comforting. The Spanish edition was published in tandem with Roger Deakin's Waterlog and they complement each other so well.

Thank you both for the lively discussion! So uplifting as always enjoyed listening to everyone’s thoughts on the book too😊

I love to get up early. I start the day by walking my beloved Jack Russell Miss Edie Sedgwick 🐶💗 then back home for a green tea, overnight oats followed by Earl Grey tea or coffee ☕️ I love your collection of Emma Bridgewater mugs, those rabbits 🐰 are gorgeous. Best wishes Karen 🌺

I am new to your channel. Really enjoyed this vlog regarding your visit to Bath with your mum. Loved learning about Frome too, what a sweet place with very cute shops. Thank you for sharing the lovely Lisa Eldridge lipsticks 💄too, beautiful colours. I would like to try this brand. The little stamps in the books you purchased were a lovely touch. Best wishes Karen 🌺

Aww... I love your discussion about gardens and in particular artists gardens. I have visited Monets garden and it is truly spectacular. I would also recommend you check out Max Libermanns stunning paintings of his garden near Berlin.. He is perhaps lesser known but his paintings are as beautiful ❤ Thank you for the work you put into this channel it brings me so much joy, bless you both xx

Another winner, thank you! As a professional gardener for 30 years, I admit to being ever so slightly cynical when someone suggests a nonfiction garden book but my trust in you is obviously complete because here I am thoroughly enjoying this. I would love to read a Wharton work with you! Thanks Miranda and Donna. What a delight!

Lovely discussion on a book I've still to read, but it has whetted my appetite. I am a nominal gardener in possession of a lovely big garden which was lovingly tended by my in laws and Sister, and was a great playground for small boys with Nerf guns 😂. With the exception of the plants originally put into the garden, the rest is made up of plants that nature herself has chosen to plant 😉. An inexpensive climbing rose is enjoying the natural trellis it makes it way around giving off the most beautiful scent. Anyhoo, I must order this book from the library, as I do enjoy a book on gardens and this one sounds delightful. Thank you both again for the interesting discussion. x

It sounds good, I will try and get a copy to read soon, thanks

I really enjoy these book discussions, Miranda and Donna! I am a garden admirer and love reading about gardens. I've tried over the years to become an actual gardener, but I need to be honest with myself that I would much rather be writing a poem about a garden than digging in the dirt. :) My husband is an actual gardener, though, so I can admire his work.

Excellent choice for this month. I really enjoy Penelope Lively's writing, and I've been a keen gardener since early childhood when I would trail after my mother as she gardened. Tending a garden can be like being the steward of something for future generations to enjoy. I tended a garden in the churchyard of a historic church, and that was a source of great pleasure and great stories. Brides chose to be photographed in front of peonies I'd planted, and peonies last about fifty years in Virginia, where I live. Tourists wandered over to ask questions like Are those graves real. While I've never had the luck to see Arcadia staged, I have read the script. Stoppard is brilliant! The format is beyond innovative, and his stage directions wonderful. Oh, how I would have loved to have attended the London premiere, with the cast that was perfect for their roles.

🤦🏾‍♀️Miranda, I have this book!!! I purchased it a few years ago when I first subscribed to your channel… how did I miss the comfort book club pick.. I’m going to start reading it now.. so I can throughly enjoy this video…Hello Donna🥰..,,By you both being former teachers.. I want you both to know.. I feel like that student who shows up to class for an open book test WITHOUT the book🤨🤦🏾‍♀️

The Gardener’s Year by Karel Capek. Hilarious.

Dear Miranda I'm watching your videos the last three years or so. You are such an inspiration for my readings. Many of your suggested books have been a real delight. Compliments for the fabulous aesthetic and warmth of your videos and vlogs! And of course, i always enjoy the presence of your lovely mom! Thank you❤

Thanks!

Hello Miranda and Donna. I love gardens, but not gardening. Donna, your description including dirt under the fingernails described my sentiments perfectly. I appreciate formal gardens but my heart is with the whimsical gardens filled with colorful and rather haphazardly planted blooms. I was especially interested in the topics of gardens in art and literature. Thank you for this chose for May.🌸🪻🌷

“Life in the Garden” is one of my favourite Comfort Book Club choices of all time. Thank you! 🌻I agree with Donna that it leads you down many a rabbit hole.🐇 I enjoyed researching every little gem of information that Penelope Lively sprinkled throughout the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves gardening or spending time in gardens. It would also make a thoughtful gift to the gardeners in your life.

I'm just about to order this book!! New subscriber here and absolutely loving your content. May I also say your dresses are all so beautiful!! Where is your dress in this video from plz?

Edith Wharton had beautiful gardens at “The Mount” - we drove out that way from Boston many times, as the summers in that area was also the summer home of the Boston Symphony - and living in Boston all our lives - we took advantage of so much and happy memories. The snow chased us out upon retirement.

I borrowed and read the ebook of this and loved it so much that I bought the hardcover. Thank you for introducing this to me. (I love Tom’s Midnight Garden too.)

I've just ordered 'Life in the Garden'....sounds very down to earth - 'scuse the pun! I too keep a Garden Journal....always so much to write about daily! :)

What a wonderful surprise to go into the evening....📖

So glad I turned in - Nick of time. I wasnt sure with the new schedule what time on the last Thursday it would be with our time differences 💕☺️Thank you for opening us to this wonderful book about gardening and you are correct, you are so lucky with your weather for the gardens - I am now in a hot climate so, it is limiting to what can weather the heat. Enjoyed this book , thank you again!!

I love Persausion too. My daughter bought me that copy for Mothers Day. Its so beautiful.