The 3,000 Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters on Gardening, Food, and the Good Life

by Roger Phillips, Leslie Land

The correspondence between a world-renowned gardener and nature photographer from London and a food writer from New England exchanges ideas on horticulture, pest control, gardening techniques, landscape design, and recipes. Reprint. TV tie-in.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Biography Memoir, Plants, Horticulture

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 1992

About the author

In 1975 Roger Phillips began his life’s major work of photographing and publishing pictures of the World’s garden plants. Using modern photographic techniques, Roger set out to develop an encyclopedic collection of books to show the difference between plants as diverse as mosses, roses and annuals. His first book Wild Flowers of Britain was a huge success, selling 400,000 copies in the first year. He has since written 20 additional volumes (often with his co-author Martyn Rix) selling over 4.5million copies worldwide.

Roger has written and presented two major six-part TV series on gardening (BBC & Channel 4). Famed for his ebullient personality and garish red glasses, he has become a well-recognised figure in the world of gardening.

Roger trained at Chelsea School of Art from where he entered a career in advertising culminating in the position of art director at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. He left O&M to start a career as a freelance photographer, winning many awards before turning his photographic talents to the world of natural history.

Reviews

[Teri-K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should have hit a lot of my sweet spots - an epistolary book about gardens in the US and UK, with cooking and bits of ordinary life thrown in. But somehow it just felt flat. The American writer, especially didn't manage to interest me in the goings on. So, after almost a month of trying to make myself like it, I finally decided to DNF. I'll give it two stars, because it's not a bad book, I just can't bring myself to enjoy it. Sadly.

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this years ago, donkeys years ago infact but it's one of those rare books that sticks quite vividly in your mind. A lovely exchange of letters between Lesley Land and Roger Phillips about their totaly different gardens, Lesleys a fantatsic 'wilderness' garden in Maine and Rogers part of a a formal London Square. Magical and fantastical>

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two distinct voices emerge from this nonfiction work, the prim and proper Englishman who writes about his garden in sentimental terms and the brash New Englander who comments on leeks making her fart! What a pair.

[^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first saw this serialised on television by Channel 4; then later found and read the book (a US edition). It’s an absolute goldmine of plant lore and habitat; but one from which it is relatively easy to absorb ideas and learn. In the UK it may just be that I’m unlikely to ever have cause to need to remember Leslie Land’s field observation that raccoons and skunks displace woodchucks (let alone what impact which animal has on a garden); but that would be to miss the point; that this book makes for such riveting and compulsive reading because it is such a warm and affectionate correspondence between two friends, who also happen to be experts in their fields, and highly skilled writers and communicators.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book sat on my bedside table for almost 2 years. I would occasionally read a letter or two and then set it down for a few weeks. But something kept me reading. Perhaps it was the idea that real people took the time to write actual letters -long letters- and mailed them across the ocean, building a friendship while exchanging garden ideas.

[Mimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a treasured book of mine. Mix a love of gardening, a love of one's place,whether it be rural Vermont or urban London and the joy of listening into a conversation about same and you will understand the pleasure of this book. I have seen the PBS series,loved it and would love to find on DVD. Alas, no luck so far.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by a pen pal. Sadly, I cannot say I loved the exchange of letters between the two American and British gardeners. Leslie's letters were the most interesting of the two to me. She wrote with such ease.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second reading of this book, published in the 1990s.

It was interesting to learn how some things have changed in the gardening world-others not.

[NativeDCer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really 3.5. I very much want to read more by Roger Phillips.

[Esther Dushinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and light read. I love gardening, and so, really enjoyed some of the details.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would like to see the series that went along with this book - I don't know many of the plants they mention in the letters, so it would be good to have a visual to connect the names to the actual flowers/plants. Got some neat ideas from the book, however.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasurable peak into the ways of viewing and shaping the world in two different gardens by two gardeners who share some great passions - gardening, mushrooming, and cooking. May it inspire others to write long chatty letters.

[Kbg503 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading to build up my vocubulary for plants again and for the love of letters.

[La Cranberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and inspirational, to a garden at least.

[Nancy Shaner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this exchange between two very different gardens. The style, climate and things grown for their country were very interesting.