The author not only trained at RHS Wisley, but was a head gardener in places such as Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds; so the man knows his stuff. However he is modest enough that for Roses, he sought advice from David Austin roses.
He writes in a readable and approachable style - even the always dreaded chapter on lawns wasn't as bad as expected (I love grass, but not lawns!). Illustrations are provided when necessary and the book provides many colour photographs.
The advice is basic, but purposely so. I imagine the author could have written an epic on gardening in and managing the joys of clay. I read this book because I have a clay garden (accurate at the time, see note below) and was happy to see that the majority of the plants I grow are listed in this book.
The book has chapters including trees, herbaceous plants, annuals, and roses. It would have been easy to list off many long lists just to show the extent of his knowledge, but the author restricts plant lists for each chapter to around 20 and provides advice for each.
The only thing that would have made the book better, personally speaking, would have been a more encyclopaedic layout of the plant lists with photographs for each plant - which would have saved me time searching on the Internet for examples of plants I didn't know. However, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone struggling to plant up a clay garden.
(Note: I seem to have a few posts that were still in draft after being written a while ago. This post was written in November 2015 - about time I posted it!)
Sounds like a good resource. I can't imagine gardening in clay! That's one aspect of gardening that I totally take for granted. I live in the part of the U.S. that has some of the best soil in the world. A hearty silt/loam that needs very little amendment.
ReplyDeleteGardening in clay is truly a nightmare. We don't have soil as good as yours in our new garden, but much better than the last one!
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