Book offers insights for new gardeners on using permaculture techniques
If you’re a gardening novice, you have no bad habits to unlearn, so start growing using permaculture techniques with The Regenerative Garden.
I know that many gardeners get a bit panicky at the P-word. It’s been described to me as something for cranks and hippies, for communes and New Age homesteaders. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Permaculture is simply working with nature, instead of against it, creating a functioning ecosystem. We’re all for organic gardening and permaculture is just an extension of this.
By working with your soil, climate and plants’ strengths, you’ll end up with a beautiful, productive garden that’s resilient and requires much less care in the long run. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a huge plot – permaculture principles can be used in the smallest of gardens.
The Regenerative Garden’s ethos
Author Stephanie Rose, who runs the website Garden Therapy introduces you to basic permaculture concepts in six chapters. Each one represents an element of the garden – soil, water, plants, climate, ethics and community.
The 80 DIY projects include step-by-step instructions on how to:
- Use intensive planting to reduce weeding and watering
- Create living mulches
- Build self-watering planters and wicking beds
- Install a rain garden
- Plant a wildlife hedge to create a windbreak and noise buffer
- Make a butterfly migration station.
Stephanie uses the system of good, better, best (or even better, as she puts it) to create your garden. Each chapter links into other concepts – the more you do, the more self-reliant your garden will be.
I’ve reviewed a lot of gardening books and The Regenerative Garden has some of the most innovative and attractive projects I’ve seen. Basically, if this is your first gardening book, you won’t need another one. However, you may need more to read on those summer days when you’re not weeding and watering…
The Regenerative Garden, published by Cool Springs Press, is available now, RRP £18.99. For more information, visit QuartoKnows.com.
If you like this book, try I Want To Like My Garden by Rachel McCartain.
Read more horticultural book reviews you might like – The Thoughtful Gardener and Good Soil; Urban Flowers; The Salad Garden; The Jam Maker’s Garden and Charles Dowding’s latest No-Dig volume.
