Practical Gardening in Two Parts. (1) The kitchen Garden or Monthly Calendar of Practical Directions for Vegetables with a Catalogue of Fruit Trees, adapted for the Climate of Ireland. Dublin: William Curry, 1841. Fourth Edition. Pp viii, 119. (2) The Flower Garden, or Monthly Calendar of Practical Directions for the Culture of Flowers. Dublin: William Curry, 1845. Fourth Edition. Pp viii, 136. Publisher’s cloth boards decorated in blind, title lettered in gilt to spine. Shelf-wear to boards, contents pages in very good condition.

The Rev. William Hickey produced this history & several agricultural pamphlets under the pseudonym Martin Doyle.

“I cannot create a florist by a stroke of my pen, any more than I can make a neat gardener in a summary way, out of a common laborer, who never had a rake in his hand. The variety of flowers must be limited to those which are most popular and most generally cultivated. That the present hints should be presented in Calendar form, appears advisable, to avoid confusion, and to bring the respective flowers, and their culture, under immediate consideration, at the precise time they ought to meet attention”

“As in the Kitchen Garden I made that form to commence with the month of November. So likewise may the Floral year, with great propriety, be considered to begin with the same month, the culture of its earliest products being then to be attended to, and preparation made for their appearance in the following spring.” (Extract from the Introduction)