Margery Fish

Margery Fish (née Townshend, 5 August 1892 – 24 March 1969) was an English gardener and gardening writer, who wrote 8 books. She created at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset, a garden that has listed building Grade I listed status and remains open to the public. Quotes There are some roses that always flower late, not just in a freak year. I always enjoy November roses, whether it is 'Madame Abel Chatenay', that wreathes the dining-room window, or Rosa_%27Zephirine_Drouhin%27 'Zephrine Drouin', who pops up from behind the barton wall at a time when I thought all good roses had gone to sleep. A Flower for Every Day Capital Books 2000 9781892123251 https://books.google.com/books?id=_GqpDiBJQ_EC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=chatenay 134 (172 pages; 1st edition 1958) If the flower spikes are kept cut the Plantago major bronze-leaved plantain makes good cover because the roots are strong and the beetroot-colored leaves quite big. The plants should be put fairly close together and soon colonise if all the spikes are not removed very quickly. Ground Cover Plants 4th David & Charles 1970 https://books.google.com/books?id=BJ4lAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=bronze-leaved+plantain 52 (144 pages; 1st edition 1963) Hellebores are particularly valuable for the winter and one in particular, Helleborus argutifolius Hellebores corsicus, (now said to be H. lividus corsicus), is a good all-the-year plant for a place in the garden that is in constant use. I noticed a very happy and very natural treatment of a bed next to the porch of a front door. Carefree Gardening David & Charles 1966 9780715354001 https://books.google.com/books?id=NMI_AAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=helleborus 15 (150 pages) It is not possible to make sweeping statements about what will or will not grow in clay soil, because there are so many different types of clay. Some are much stickier and more difficult to handle than others; clay that has been made easier to handle by the addition of humus will grow most plants. I don't believe there is any soil that will not grow something. Gardening on Clay and Lime David & Charles 1970 9780715348628 52 (160 pages; 1st part of quote; last part of quote) We Made a Garden (1956) W. G/ Fish Walter believed in manuring with a very generous hand and woe betide any little plant of mine that grew nearby, as it would surely die of suffocation under the great gallops of manure that were plastered round every rose. All the manure we could get was devoted to the roses and dahlias. We Made a Garden Modern Library gardening series Modern Library 2002 9780375759475 https://books.google.com/books?id=sn1OAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=woe+betide 42 (129 pages; 1st edition 1956) London Stock Exchange Stock Exchange holidays—May Day#England the 1st of May and 1st of November—were our aim for the ceremonies of Dahlia#Cultivation planting and lifting the dahlias. p.62 All the wood ash from my open fires is shared among the plants that particularly like potash, magnolias and Iris (plant) irises particularly, and I give some to the Raspberry raspberries, and in the winter the apple trees get their share. When I grew potatoes and tomatoes they, too, were lucky. p.67 Quotes about Margery Fish If ever a garden was born of creative tension, it is the one at East Lambrook Manor in Somerset. When Margery Fish moved there with her husband, W. G. Fish Walter in 1937, she wished to fill beds with simple cottage garden plants; he desired neat lawns, straight paths and bright summer bedding. Margery went on to record their battle for control in her 1956 book, We Made A Garden; with its passive aggressive tone, it is as much about their marriage as the garden, yet it is still a horticultural classic to be read and re-read.,In the end, Margery won: Walter died in 1947, and with him the need to compromise. In 1951, she wrote her first piece on gardening for The Field (magazine) The Field, and went on to publish numerous magazine articles and eight books. Jim Cable, Gardens: the plot that packs a punch. Margery Fish was the doyenne of cottage garden style in the 1950s and 60s. Her garden in Somerset remains as a testament to her carefree style of gardening. The Guardian 20 June 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/20/margery-fish-cottage-garden-somerset The gardener Margery Fish married W. G. Fish her boss, the tyrannical editor of Daily Mail the Daily Mail, and they moved out of London to East Lambrook Manor where a regimented, formal garden was created. After he died she uprooted the lot and started again, to create a romanitc oasis, now designated by English Heritage as a East Lambrook Manor#Garden Grade I listed 'cottage garden'. Georgia de Chamberet, review of Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties by Rachel Cooke January 25, 2016 bookblast.org https://bookblast.org/blog/review-her-brilliant-career-the-1950s-woman-rachel-cooke/ Margery Fish, who published eight gardening books in the 1950s and 1960s, was, with Sackville-West and Frances Perry (gardener) Frances Perry, one of the leading English Garden writing garden writers of her day. She began late, in her 40s, and We Made A Garden tells us how it happened. James Fenton, After you'd gone. Most gardening books teach us how to plant or prune, but some of the most enduring also tell us about the author's emotional landscape. Margery Fish's 1950s classic, We Made A Garden, gives a fascinating insight into her marriage, says James Fenton 30 November 2002 The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2002/nov/30/shopping.gardens External links Cooke, Rachel A Gardener’s Revenge. Margery Fish’s popular gardening book bid farewell to her dead husband’s lawn and launched her career. March 18, 2015 slate.com https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/03/margery-fishs-we-made-a-garden-is-a-feminist-manifesto-disguised-as-a-gardening-advice-book.html (excerpted from the 2014 book Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties by Rachel Cooke, published by Harper) Category:1892 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:Women authors from England Category:Women born in the 19th century