The London Observes has in Victoria Sackville-West a garden correspondent whose pieces read as well this side of the Atlantic as that side. We are fortunate in having this thoughtful selection (by Hermine Popper) for the delectation of gardeners everywhere. I defy any one of them to attempt to skim it without finding himself hunting a pad and pencil for the inevitable jottings of good and useful ideas, the season round. Mine include, for example, so varied an array as names of shrubs that aren't in every garden and that go well together, suggestions for an ""Alpine lawn"" and plantings between paving stones, some additions for the rock wall and even more for the problem bank planting, some notes on shade-loving shrubs and plants to use in front of them, a reminder that artemisia makes a good companion for awkward long-stalked flowers, an answer to the yen for pinks with old-fashioned scent, a reminder to invest in a snake-irrigation canvas hose, come Spring. I can differ with her on yucca and herbaceous borders, on acanthus and funkia, but I welcome so much that it would be boring to accept it all. There's a contagious quality here that goes with the title.