A Tale of Two Gardens

by Elspeth Thompson

Since 1996, Elspeth Thompson has chronicled the successes and disasters that beset her tiny London garden and her allotment in a regular column in the "Sunday Telegraph". In this second instalment of columns, Elspeth charts the trials of gardening in the country at weekends, having taken on a potter's cottage in Winchelsea, East Sussex, the development of her allotment and the onggoing joys of ther itny back garden in Brixton.

Elspeth Thompson has been delighting readers of the "Sunday Telegraph Magazine" since 1996 with her weekly column "Urban Gardener". The transformation of her miniscule town garden has been acclaimed in gardening magazines and journals alike, opening to the public under the National Gardens Scheme on an annual basis. Her acquisition with friends of a couple of allotments taught her the rudiments of fruit and vegetable production ensuring that when she was lucky enough to acquire a weekend house in the country, she was well-primed for the trials and tribulations that would ensue. This is a collection of "Urban Gardener" gems, wittily written, covering topics as diverse as slug control and aloes, auriculas and onions, town gardens and rural gardening, US gardening, window box gardening and more. Elspeth offers an informative and entertaining read, well-known to "Telegraph" readers and a rare treat for those uninitiated in her horticultural charms. - Lucy Watson