The planning, planting, growing, and tending of a garden may be intimidating to the average person, but the pleasures of a garden need not be. Illustrated throughout, this delightful book demonstrates that we can create our own kingdom and do precisely what we want within the garden — it's not about gardening but about what we do when that is done (or not done). In Everything You Can Do in the Garden Without Actually Gardening, Philippa Lewis looks at how people have spent time in the garden. We can all be tempted by the idea of reading or dozing (or maybe even smoking) in a deckchair, or taking a gentle walk, or perhaps even playing tennis or croquet. But some people are considerably more imaginative. the poet Blake and his wife liked to lie naked in their summerhouse, reading aloud to each other from Paradise Lost. Lawrence of Arabia rode a camel in his Northumberland garden. Menageries, parties, shooting, follies, grottoes, drawing — the notion of what a garden can be used for is endlessly various.

The planning, planting, growing, and tending of a garden may be intimidating to the average person, but the pleasures of a garden need not be. Illustrated throughout, this delightful book demonstrates that we can create our own kingdom and do precisely what we want within the garden — it's not about gardening but about what we do when that is done (or not done). In Everything You Can Do in the Garden Without Actually Gardening, Philippa Lewis looks at how people have spent time in the garden. We can all be tempted by the idea of reading or dozing (or maybe even smoking) in a deckchair, or taking a gentle walk, or perhaps even playing tennis or croquet. But some people are considerably more imaginative. the poet Blake and his wife liked to lie naked in their summerhouse, reading aloud to each other from Paradise Lost. Lawrence of Arabia rode a camel in his Northumberland garden. Menageries, parties, shooting, follies, grottoes, drawing — the notion of what a garden can be used for is endlessly various.