An economic history of the English garden - Roderick Floud

At least since the seventeenth century, most of the English population
have been unable to stop making, improving and dreaming of gardens. Yet
in all the thousands of books about them, this is the first to address
seriously the question of how much gardens and gardening have cost, and
to work out the place of gardens in the economic, as well as the
horticultural, life of the nation. It is a new kind of gardening
history.

Beginning with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660,
Roderick Floud describes the role of the monarchy and central and local
government in creating gardens, as well as that of the (generally
aristocratic or plutocratic) builders of the great gardens of Stuart,
Georgian and Victorian England. He considers the designers of these
gardens as both artists and businessmen - often earning enormous sums by
modern standards, matched by the nurserymen and plant collectors who
supplied their plants. He uncovers the lives and rewards of working
gardeners, the domestic gardens that came with the growth of suburbs and
the impact of gardening on technical developments from man-made lakes
to central heating.

AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH GARDEN
shows the extraordinary commitment of money as well as time that the
English have made to gardens and gardening over three and a half
centuries. It reveals the connections of our gardens to the
re-establishment of the English monarchy, the national debt, transport
during the Industrial Revolution, the new industries of steam, glass and
iron, and the built environment that is now all around us. It is a
fresh perspective on the history of England and will open the eyes of
gardeners - and garden visitors - to an unexpected dimension of what
they do.