A pair of wonderful but very different gardening books
The Thoughtful Gardener, by Jinny Blom
The Thoughtful Gardener is a thing of beauty in its own right – not your ordinary gardening book. Author Jinny Blom has been described by Piet Oudolf as: “The most romantic, creative person in garden design I know.” High praise indeed.
Jinny embraces a wide variety of styles, from formal walled gardens to contemporary installations. She shares her insight into the creative process she has developed while designing more than 250 gardens around the world.
For Jinny, the design is more a matter of intelligence and appropriateness than imposing a particular style. This means her approach can be applied to your garden. She has exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show four times and was awarded gold in 2007 for her Laurent-Perrier garden. She won a silver-gilt medal in 2002 for her ‘Healing Garden’, created in collaboration with HRH The Prince of Wales. In 2013, she designed a garden commissioned by HRH Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale.
Publisher: Jacqui Small LLP, price RRP £35.
Good Soil: Manure, Compost and Nourishment for Your Garden, Tina Råman
Now on to Good Soil: Manure, Compost and Nourishment for your Garden by Tina Råman, already a gardening bestseller in Sweden, Norway, and Germany, despite its unusual topic. Manure might be dirty and smelly, but it’s the magic ingredient to transform your garden, whatever you grow.
Like people, plants need nutrients in order to grow, flower and bear fruit. Tina Råman digs into every aspect of nurturing your soil, from chemistry and biology to history and philosophy, and the book answers all your ‘whats’, ‘whens’ and ‘hows’, giving you practical advice and masses of inspiration. She lifts the lid on old and reliable fertilisation methods and opens the doors to new resource-efficient and environmentally-smart cultivation techniques.
Publisher: Frances Lincoln, price RRP £14.99.
Read more horticultural book reviews you might like – Urban Flowers, The Salad Garden, 101 Organic Gardening Hacks, Build a Better Vegetable Garden, and The Jam Maker’s Garden.
