Today we celebrate the gardener who turned his farm into a picturesque wonder and the Swiss botanist who survived a fall from a mountaintop that foreshadowed a life of highs and lows. We'll learn about the American botanist Darwin confided in two years before he shared his theory with the rest of the world and the pop star who found restoration and health through gardening. We'll hear some beautiful verses on gardening and the season from several writers associated with today's date. We Grow That Garden Library with one of my new favorite books on the writer and gardener who wrote, There’s a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons – That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes – I'll talk about how you can repurpose a boot tray to great effect, and then we'll wrap things up with the fruit that was selling for around $6 about this time of year in 1843, and the sellers couldn't keep up with demand.   But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. The 15 best pictures from the National Trust's photo competition to find a cover for its 2020 member handbook    Les Lockhart’s photo of the Newtown Nature Reserve on the Isle Of Wight won the @nationaltrust photo competition. @Countrylifemag shared the top 15 photos - proving that the beauty of nature is unbeatable. The National Trust manages over 600,000 acres of gardens.     The Forgotten Feminine History of Botany   Here's a great post by Sienna Vittoria Lee-Coughlin on @verilymag called The Forgotten Feminine History of Botany. Throughout history, women collected specimens & seeds, mastered botanical illustration (vital to scientific study), and were patrons & promoters of botany.   Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck - because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So there’s no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.     Brevities   #OTD  Today is the birthday of the poet and Landscape gardener William Shenstone, who was born on this day in 1714. In the early 1740s, Shenstone inherited his family's dairy farm, which he transformed into the Leasowes (pronounced 'lezzoes'). The transfer of ownership lit a fire under Shenstone, and he immediately started changing the land into a wild landscape - something he referred to as an ornamented farm. Shenstone wisely bucked the trend of his time, which called for formal garden design (he didn't have the money to do that anyway.) Yet, what Shenstone accomplished was quite extraordinary. His picturesque natural landscape included water features like cascades and pools, as well as structures like temples and ruins. What I love most about Shenstone is that he was a consummate host. He considered the comfort and perspective of the garden from the eye of his visitors when he created a walk around his estate. Wanting to control the experience, Shenstone added seating every so often along the path to cause folks to stop and admire the views that Shenstone found most appealing. Then, he incorporated signage with beautiful classical verses and poems - even adding some of his own - which elevated the Leasowes experience for guests. After his death, his garden became a popular destination and was even visited by William Pitt, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It was William Shenstone who said,   "Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former."       #OTD   Today is the birthday of a son of Switzerland, Charles Leo Lesquereux, (pronounced "le crew"), who was born on this day in 1806.   Leo was born with a naturalist's heart. A self-described dreamer, Leo loved to go out into the forest, and he collected all kinds of flowers and specimens for his mother. Yet, when