All gardeners know that gardening is good for you. We can feel it. Any skeptic can check out the oodles of studies about how gardening can benefit your physical health and mental wellbeing. There’s even been recent research involving a group of seniors in or around their seventies that revealed gardening activities (digging, fertilizing, raking, planting, watering and cleaning up) can impact brain nerve growth factors and help fight cognitive decline and memory loss. And then there’s all the positive news coming from the field of horticultural therapy. All good when the sun’s shining.

But what do you do when winter takes over and your gardening grinds to a halt?

Photographed on a garden tour in southwestern Ontario in July, 2015.

You can always go take a forest bath, of course–assuming you’re close enough to a forest or park of some sort. The next best thing might just be reading about gardens. After all, reading is a proven stress-buster, providing a healthy escape and the chance of learning something. One of the best books for relaxing, learning and, crucially, escaping, in my opinion, is The 3,000 Mile Garden.

The 3,000 Mile Garden by Roger Phillips and Leslie Land is one of those magical books that really does transport you. Surprisingly, the entire book is simply a series of letters written by the two: British author, botanist and photographer Phillips and American cookbook author and garden writer Land. As you hop, via letter, from Phillips’ garden in London, England, to Land’s garden in rural Maine, U.S.A., you feel like the proverbial fly on the wall at a smorgasbord of ideas, experiences, insights and empathy. Most vividly, you’re privy to a most wonderful friendship. I guarantee you that you really won’t want the correspondence to end.

Unfortunately, you might find it a challenge to actually get your hands on a copy. The book was first published in 1992. After a little Googling, I found you can get a used copy through Amazon.

If getting the book is impossible, there’s still hope for a taste of this magical relationship forged by a mutual love for gardening, cooking and writing. In 1996, PBS aired a filmed adaptation of the book. You can watch a chunk of it on YouTube.

Land passed away in 2013 but her delightful website, Leslie Land: In Kitchen And Garden, is still available to peruse and I highly recommend that you do. Phillips died in 2021 but his robust YouTube page, highlighting his passion for food foraging, will have you thinking he’s just nipped out into the English woods and should be back shortly.

Winter may throw a wet blanket (quite literally if you live in snow country) on your gardening but those feel good vibes may only be a click or a page flip away.