Diary of a Keen Gardener
On sale
6th November 2025
Price: £20
Genre
‘A gem of a book. Full of wisdom, warmth and inspiration. I learned something from every page’ NIGEL SLATER
‘A delightful book – warm, witty and wise’ ALAN TITCHMARSH
‘A beautiful refraction of a year, encounters with plants and friends and gardens in the terrific company of Mary Keen. Her diary is a pure delight’ EDMUND DE WAAL
‘What’s your favourite garden?’ people ask. And when I answer, ‘Mine, of course,’ they look surprised.
Over her long career, Mary Keen has created some of the finest gardens in England. But rather than tell the story of those paradises, this is the diary about everyday watchfulness in the places Mary loves best – her own back garden and allotment nearby.
Beginning at the lowest ebb of the grower’s year – when November leaves are falling and flowers in retreat – Mary shows us how one’s perspective of time changes in the pleasure of nurturing plants. Time can slide to a standstill as you stop to stare at a flower, or flash to the past when another triggers a memory. As the diary records the ordinary, the ephemeral and the horticulturally useful, in a patchwork of life and tasks, we also witness the little dramas in the village where she lives and meet her family and friends who are an integral part of her gardening community.
By the time Diary of a Keen Gardener reaches back to November again, the reader has gained much practical knowledge and come to understand Mary’s gardening philosophy, and what she continues to learn about plants, ecology and life. Her diary is an essential book for anyone with an interest in gardening.
‘Mary Keen is the Annie Ernaux of the herbaceous border. She has vast reserves of knowledge, an exemplary eye and best of all a roving curiosity and rare openness to experiment and change. A gorgeous, constantly thought-provoking book, beguiling for gardeners and readers alike’ OLIVIA LAING
‘A delightful book – warm, witty and wise’ ALAN TITCHMARSH
‘A beautiful refraction of a year, encounters with plants and friends and gardens in the terrific company of Mary Keen. Her diary is a pure delight’ EDMUND DE WAAL
‘What’s your favourite garden?’ people ask. And when I answer, ‘Mine, of course,’ they look surprised.
Over her long career, Mary Keen has created some of the finest gardens in England. But rather than tell the story of those paradises, this is the diary about everyday watchfulness in the places Mary loves best – her own back garden and allotment nearby.
Beginning at the lowest ebb of the grower’s year – when November leaves are falling and flowers in retreat – Mary shows us how one’s perspective of time changes in the pleasure of nurturing plants. Time can slide to a standstill as you stop to stare at a flower, or flash to the past when another triggers a memory. As the diary records the ordinary, the ephemeral and the horticulturally useful, in a patchwork of life and tasks, we also witness the little dramas in the village where she lives and meet her family and friends who are an integral part of her gardening community.
By the time Diary of a Keen Gardener reaches back to November again, the reader has gained much practical knowledge and come to understand Mary’s gardening philosophy, and what she continues to learn about plants, ecology and life. Her diary is an essential book for anyone with an interest in gardening.
‘Mary Keen is the Annie Ernaux of the herbaceous border. She has vast reserves of knowledge, an exemplary eye and best of all a roving curiosity and rare openness to experiment and change. A gorgeous, constantly thought-provoking book, beguiling for gardeners and readers alike’ OLIVIA LAING
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Reviews
Mary Keen is the Annie Ernaux of the herbaceous border. She has vast reserves of knowledge, an exemplary eye and best of all a roving curiosity and rare openness to experiment and change. A gorgeous, constantly thought-provoking book, beguiling for gardeners and readers alike
In her diary of a year in her Somerset garden, Mary Keen is an utterly beguiling mixture of the expert, the enthusiast and the evangelist
A gem of a book. Full of wisdom, warmth and inspiration. I learned something from every page
A delightful book - warm, witty and wise
A beautiful refraction of a year, encounters with plants and friends and gardens in the terrific company of Mary Keen. Her diary is a pure delight
A sparkling gem, an exquisite, intimate joy of a book! To be immersed in Mary Keen's gardening year, guided by her expert and passionate voice, is a gateway into a profound celebration of the magic of the earth and the deepest kind of happiness. I lingered over every sentence, and then went back to read it all over again
An engaging and evocative distillation of a lifetime's experience in the garden
Funny and honest, written in prose as dazzling and meticulous as her garden-making, Diary of a Keen Gardener celebrates the ephemeral while addressing big ideas with analytical intelligence. It is a book I love and that will reward constant revisiting - a treasury
Beginning in November and continuing month by month for a year, [Mary Keen] shares her growing know-how and celebrates plants and the people that grow them in this gorgeous, informative book.
This year-long diary of [Mary's] own plot in Somerset is irrestistably charming. It is useful too as a guide to small garden management, with its assessment of the best cultivars, what to grow where and how to balance reliable performers with rarities
Top of my Christmas list is Mary Keen's Diary of a Keen Gardener, published by John Murray. A wise and gentle guide of a book, it takes you through a year of delightful close observations of her own garden, sharing practical knowledge and valuable philosophy. Like the best classics it welcomes one into the community of those who grow since as she reminds us, taking care of the "oikos" in ecology must necessarily begin at home
She retains an open heart for keen gardeners of all backgrounds . . . an excellent starting point for new gardeners