Ex Libris....

These are some of gardening books that I read in 2011.

Some are new and glossy and full of photographs. Some are older, with few photographs from second-hand book shops. Some were presents which makes them just a bit more special.

Rough Patch by Richard Bell is subtitled "A Sketch book from the Wilder Side of the Garden" It's written in the form of a notebook and provides a peek into part of his garden known as the "Rough Patch". Richard Bell shares tips on topics as diverse as composting, keeping hedgehogs safe, and making nettle soup. 

It has well observed fun drawings of the wildlife and plants that he has watched in his garden. The prose is full of information and humour. I think we should all have a "Wild Patch" somewhere in our gardens.

Richard Bell's Blog "The Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary" is also well worth a look.

                                           

We've had the "One Straw Revolution" by Masaobu Fukuoka  for some time. When I say "we" it was bought  by P who found it a fascinating read. 

Two things prompted me to take it down off the shelf and read it. One was Elaine at " A Woman of the Soil" who recommended it and the other was a visit to the HOPE gardens in Arbroath. There they practice the principals laid out in the book by Masanobu Fukuoka.These are mainly along the lines of permaculture as we understand it in Britain. 

After years of experimenting with growing rice in the mountains. Mr Fukuoka concluded he best way to produce a crop was to keep it as simple as possible. Among his "natural" farming methods were that the ground should not cleared of crops but a clover grown as a green manure between the rows and in the orchard. No chemicals should be used or other modern agricultural practices.

I'm sure that there is a lot to be learned from this book, although I have not (so far) been very successful with green manures, for example, although I like the theory.

I hope to go back to the HOPE Garden in Arbroath next year to see this philosophy in action again.

The Thrifty gardener.

I like the idea that “gardening is something you do, not something you buy”
My mother would have loved Aly and her ideas from the growing of veg in among flowers to the idea of working with what you have. You don’t need to throw money at the garden to get things to grow. Alys illustrates the point that gardening is a process and the garden should evolve... it’s mainly a "how to" book and is very pertinent for these austere times when more people want to grow their own. It’s also got several projects in the DIY dept. Growing and making your own is not only fashionable but very satisfying. Did you know that you can even make your own PH tester using red cabbage? Alys is a mine of useful information and has a quirky approach to  gardening that appeals to me.

Cleve West is best known for garden design (Best in Show winner at Chelsea in 2011)
Cleve West and his partner Christine are serious allotment holders. They got their first plot in 1999 long before it became fashionable. What it is not is a definitive guide to growing vegetables (look to the excellent Joy Larkcom's “Grow Your Own Vegetables” for that) but there is more than enough practical advice to interest most veg growers.

It is full of very seductive photographs of plentiful crops. But the book isn’t just about what Cleve and Christine grow on their plot. It takes in the whole culture that goes with having an allotment from the ubiquitous garden shed to the social events and the friendship forged over the runner beans. The cooking the meals and family social events seem to feature prominently.  Cleve doesn't ignore the difficulties associated with allotment gardening.  Disputes can arise,  finding enough time to garden can be problematic as can what to do when things go wrong.

Cleve has written about allotment growing in both Gardens Illustrated magazine and the RHS magazine “The Garden”. What a pity the BBC didn’t get him to do the allotment feature on Gardners World rather than Joe Swift....

This is a book to drool over and although verging on a coffee table book it does give the reader an insight into some of the landscapes, places and objects that inspired and influenced Dan Pearson, the landscape designer. Many are natural ocurrances but there are also many that have been influenced or built by man.

  Amongst these are some that I recognize. I too saw Amish Kapoor’s “Marsyas” in Tate Modern. It was a monumental installation that filled the main space. The red funnel was almost overwhelming in it's scale. Could I have been unwittingly standing next to Dan Pearson at some point and never noticed?!!

He also mentions the work of Richard Serra. Dan saw his work in a private garden in the States and I went to an exhibition of his work at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. His work involves enormous steel sculptures often side by side which encourage the visitor to test the acoustics as they walk between the two pieces of metal.

Dan Pearson's choices are very diverse with an amazing array of photos from his travels. Many of the places are now on my dream travel list....

Piet Oudolf is a renowned author and plant designer and highly influential in the new Perennial Planting movement.  His latest book "Landscapes in Landscapes" is a glorious full-colour volume and features twenty-three of Oudolf's  public and private gardens, including his own evolving garden in Hummelo in the Netherlands, The text is provided by gardening author Noël Kingsbury who had collaborated with Piet Oudolf on other books, notably "Designing with Plants" . 

The outstanding garden for me in this book is "The High Line" in New York . Originally it was a railway line used to carry freight across the city. To make it into a garden was an inspired use of the space. This garden also features in the latest Gardens Illustrated Magazine.

The photographs that fill the book are stunning and highlight the use of perennials throughout the year. The gardens themselves vary in scale and geography. One drawback is the size of the plans. They are so small and detailed as to be impossible to read without a magnifying glass. It's frustrating and slightly overwhelming.
                                           
 Landscapes in Landscapes looks as if it should be on a coffee table rather that crammed in with other books on a shelf. It's the sort of book that I would want to dip into again and again rather that read from cover to cover.