I often find myself getting to a point in my gardening where I need some new challenges or inspiration. It usually comes after walking around some of the big-box nurseries where everything soon becomes blah! The same plants. The same features. Even gardening tools can become a little boring – and that’s saying something.
So, it’s about time to take a look at some fresh gardening books that have just hit the shelves.
On Guerrilla Gardening
Richard Reynolds
Reynolds is the founder of GuerrillaGardening.org a daily blog devoted to encouraging others to take up arms in the fight against urban blight. His book On Guerrilla Gardening hit the shelf this month and is sure to secure a cult following amongst those who love to beautify their concrete jungles.
Reynolds has researched the subject with guerrilla gardeners from thirty different countries and compiles their advice on what to grow, how to cope with adverse environmental conditions, how to seed bomb effectively and to use propaganda to win support.
On Guerrilla Gardening gives entertaining inspiration, practical reference and no excuses for not getting out there and gardening.
On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries
Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition
Robert Pogue Harrison
Harrison takes a very poignant view of gardens and their role within culture. It almost borders on the philosophy of gardening rather than the art and Harrison delves deep into religious, cultural and economic stimulants to our ways of methods of gardening.
One reviewer wrote;
Harrison is a cultural historian alive to the poetry of science as well as insights poetry offers to the natural history of humankind. In Gardens, he explores the meanings of gardening, from the lofty height of Homer and the Bible to the poignant plots tended by homeless people in New York. Our fascination with gardens endures, even as the gardens themselves come and go with the seasons. They”re not meant to last, Harrison reminds us; it’s their job to ‘re-enchant the present’.
Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition
Avant Gardeners
Tim Richardson – Foreword by Martha Schwartz
If you’re looking for some serious landscaping eye-candy then this book is going to be your perfect coffee table accompaniment. Featuring 50 of the most exciting contemporary landscape design practices from around the world this offering should be able to stir some creative juices within.
Like most gardeners, I do really well with pictures moreso than with words so ogling some garden photos is usually very helpful to pick out ideas that may work in our gardens. Sure, these are high profile landscapes and most won’t work in the suburban backyard but there is much to gain from simple ideas throughout this book.
Avant Gardeners
Creative Vegetable Gardening
Joy Larkcom
Joy Larkcom is no new-comer to vegetable gardening and has numerous books already written on the subject of her passion. This new issue is sure to be a best-seller with great ideas to incorporate vegetables into your garden beds in creative ways. It even comes with 5 plans for potager gardens that you can start building in your yard.
Working from the belief that a vegetable garden, whatever its size, can be as beautiful as a conventional garden of flowers and shrubs, this colorful guide shows how to apply the principles of good design to a kitchen plot. Find out how to use the vibrant texture, colors, and forms of vegetables, herbs, and fruit to create glorious effects and intriguing patterns without jeopardizing their productivity. A range of gardening techniques are described and illustrated with full-color step-by-step images, and an A-Z directory includes more than 150 edible plants to work with.
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