A Gardener's Notebook

Archive.org has a host of old gardening books (from mid-19th to mid-20th Century) available in many formats and on a host of topics. I happened across a few in my Pinterest feed and gone completely down the rabbit hole in this treasure trove of information. Sure some ideas might be out of date, but you never know what you might find when you explore these catalogs. I’ll be sharing more catalogs as I find them in the coming weeks. –Douglas

Historical Garden Books: A dissertation on oriental gardening by Sir William Chambers (1773) – 46 in a series

P R E F A C E

AMONGST the decorative arts, there is none of which the influence is so extensive as that of Gardening. The productions of other arts have their separate classes of admirers, who alone relish or set any great value upon them: to the rest of the world they are indifferent; sometimes disgusting. A building affords no pleasure to the generality of men, but what results from the grandeur of the object, or the value of its materials : nor doth a picture affect them, but by its resemblance to life : a thousand other beauties, of a higher kind, are lost upon them: for, in Architecture, in Painting, and indeed in most other arts, men must learn before they can admire; their pleasure keeps pace with their judgment : and it is only by knowing much, that they can be highly delighted.

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