A Woman’s Hardy Garden, by Helena Rutherford Ely
This early 20th century American gardening book is posted online, both text and photography. John_D gave the web address on another thread. This is one historical gardening book that everyone would have access to.

Strangers in the Garden: The Secret Lives of our Favorite Flowers, by Andrew Smith
This is a new book (2004) that is mainly a social gardening history of ten familiar and popular garden plants including the Dahlia, Clematis, Crocus, Peony and Lilac.

My Garden Book, by Jamaica Kincaid
Novelist, Jamaica Kincaid is both an avid reader and gardener. Both activities intertwine in her life. When as a beginner gardener she also read a history of the conquest of Mexico the way she viewed the garden changed and the garden changed her perception of the conquest. For her the garden is "an exercise in memory, a way of remembering my own immediate past, a way of getting to a past that is my own---and the past as it is indirectly related to me." [p.8]
I believe that Garden Restoration is also an exercise in memory and whether we write about it, actively restore gardens, or plant anything at all that takes our fancy, we are engaged in this exercise.

In Search of Lost Roses, by Christopher Thomas
The story of how old garden roses that were no longer available commercially were brought back to contemporary gardens.

Gertrude Jekyll: A Vision of Garden and Wood, by Judith B. Tankard, Published in conjunction with a major exhibition of Gertrude Jekyll's photographs.
This publication gives us a chance to see Jekyll's gardening through her own eyes. Jekyll was an accomplished writer, gardener and photographer. She took her photographs to illustrate her garden articles and document her own garden.

Gertrude Jekyll's Lost Garden, by Rosamund Wallinger
This is the true story of how an ordinary private individual went about restoring an Edwardian garden. Demonstrates how patience, time and a willingness to learn are more valuable commodities than money in Garden Restoration

The Gardens of Gertrude Jekyll, by Richard Bisgrove
This is a really good overview of Jekyll’s design sensibilities. Includes reproductions of her actual design drawing and planting plans accompanied by colour photographs of contemporary replantings of the gardens. There is also an overview of the plants important to Jekyll, how she used them, and how they relate to what is presently available.

Dumbarton Oaks: Garden into Art, by Susan Tamulevich
Documentation of five decades of the development and evolution of a major American garden. Designed by renowned landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, Dumbarton Oaks is a living work of art. As well as stunning photographs this book includes historical photographs, garden plans, telegrams and correspondence.

A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and North America In The Nineteenth –Century, by Witold Rybczynsky
Known mainly for his design of Central Park and the Vanderbilt estate Biltmore, Frederick Law Olmsted had a varied career. W.R. follows Olmsted’s career from New York to California and his travels through Europe. Includes nineteenth-century photographs and design plans of several Olmsted designed parks. Plenty of documentation and analysis of his relationships with family, patrons, friends, and employees.

Not a very inclusive review--the book is so much more.

Also since we are not reading fiction and there is no plot to give away do you want to initially discuss books chapter by chapter?

Sharon

Any thoughts or interest?

Yes, Pollan's "Botany of Desire" is fascinating. I found the part on potato growing interesting, thought-provoking, and somewhat disturbing in his look at not just one perspective on the ethics of agricultural and biological technology. Disturbing because, as with most things, there just doesn't seem to be an easy get-on-the-band-wagon slogan to jump onto and be done.

Pollan has a unique talent for wordcraft. I first fell in love with his writing in reading his "Second Nature: A Gardener's Education" quite a few years back, and then (off topic here, but nevertheless quite interesting) "A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder"--an eye-opener for me on the art of architecture.

Egyptianonion

BOTANY OF DESIRE is a documentary which tells the utterly original story of everyday plants and the way they have domesticated humankind. An interpretation of the relationship between plants and people. This two-hour documentary explores plant evolution and takes viewers from the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple forests of Kazakhstan, and the tulip markets of Amsterdam.

View online in it's entirety: here

This is another related program by the same presenter on LINK TV (a cable access channel) which is timely:

Deep Agriculture
Traditional methods of agriculture in most developed nations have long ignored environmental concerns. Factors such as soil erosion, water shortage and the impact of chemicals on bio-systems have been overlooked in favour of massive crop yields and cheaper food. But what impact does this have on our health and our environment?

View online in it's entirety: here

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Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and witness the evolution of an Organic Kitchen Garden.