The 3,000 Mile Garden

One of my favorite places to buy used books is at the Goodwill. Their book prices are very affordable (read cheap) and they are a great source for out-of-print books. I am always finding wonderful vintage, and not so vintage, cookbooks, decorating books, and gardening books. Recently, I found a delightful gardening book, The 3,000 Mile Garden.

The book is a collection of letters exchanged between Leslie Land, an American food writer living in Maine, and Roger Phillips, an English writer/garden photographer, who has a garden in Eccleston Square which is in the heart of London. Leslie and Roger met at a mushroom foray in New Hampshire, hit it off, and started corresponding about gardening, recipes, and other thoughts on their lives. The letters are flirtatious, witty, humorous, and very entertaining and gives a vivid picture of gardening in America and England.

When I did a little research on them before doing this post, I discovered that Leslie has a Web site, that she wrote for numerous publications, including The New York Times and was Senior Editor for Yankee magazine. I also learned that she was once a chef at Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley. Roger is an expert rosarian and has encyclopedias on mushrooms, roses, and trees and shrubs available online. Also, the Queen of England just this month honored him for his work for his "service to London Garden Squares." 


I also found out that The 3,000 Mile Garden was made into a PBS series in 1995-1996. I would love to see it, but I couldn't find it available anywhere online.

You can find a used copy of The 3,000 Mile Garden book at barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.