Product Description

Chris Beardshaw shows readers how to develop gardens that are in tune with nature, where plants will flourish with minimum effort. The book is based on his TV series, The Flying Gardener, in which Chris looks at plants in different habitats and discovers how nature achieves what the gardener strives for. He reveals how to put this knowledge into practice when selecting and cultivating plants for a domestic setting. The book begins with a chapter that enables gardeners to understand the conditions in which they garden and how these will affect their choice of plants. Chris identifies five types of garden ? rock, water, wood, wetland and meadow gardens - and explores each in detail in the following chapters. He includes practical information on plant selection, maintenance and pruning, and the book is peppered with fascinating facts about both domestic and wild gardens. The Natural Gardener proves that the best gardeners are those who understand the importance of the conditions in which they garden ? and that the best teacher is nature itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #353759 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Even the most committed of gardeners must occasionally straighten their aching back and wonder if it couldn't be a bit simpler. The enlightened message of The Natural Gardener is that it can. Attend properly to soil, climate and aspect, suggests Chris Beardshaw, and the gardener is in possession of enough information to begin to establish the kind of self-perpetuating environment nature achieves so effortlessly. This might seems obvious, but, as Beardshaw points out, it's surprising how many gardeners ignore the qualities of their soil, for example, planting anything they fancy and hoping for the best. He begins, therefore, with a chapter on Understanding Your Environment, which looks at the varieties of physical condition under which most of us garden, then groups these into five basic natural garden types towards which they seem to tend: rock, water, wetland, meadow and woodland. These terms suggest, perhaps, a scale beyond the gardener without access to a couple of acres of bog or mountainside, but this is not necessarily the case. Nature is infinitely scalable, and its equilibrium may be introduced into the smallest garden. Even a couple of small trees can create enough broken shade to establish a community of woodland plants; and an exposed, stony corner can stand in for an upland limestone pavement. This kind of gardening is all about plants and planting, and the care of plants, and paying attention to their needs; and in that sense (a very good one) is deeply traditional. --Robin Davidson

Review
Back to basics in the garden. Back to nature too. Not all gardeners are as tuned in to the rhythms of nature as they could be, and they make gardening much harder than it needs to be as a result. They are up against it a lot of the time, trying to grow the wrong plants in the wrong conditions. The principle here is that nature will complete what the gardener strives for, providing the gardener works with and not against garden type, setting and climate. This is above all a practical gardening book filled with details (and illustrations) about how to grow plants successfully in the right conditions. Gardener, know thy garden, is the message. The author has his own BBC2 series The Flying Gardener and is a presenter on Gardener's World.

Chris Beardshaw is well known to the nation's gardeners as the Flying Gardener, and as Alan Titchmarsh's side-kick on Gardener's World. Part of the new, young and hip generation of gardening experts, he has worked on four series and three books for the BBC. Loosely based on The Flying Gardener television series, this is a superb reference work as well as a beautiful book to adorn any self-respecting coffee table. Glorious full-colour photographs of nature doing her best are sure to inspire us to recreate, or at least emulate, such splendour in our own gardens. For this is what the book is all about. Chris Beardshaw looks at how soil, rock, climate and vegetation combine to produce different types of garden without the intervention of man. He examines how rock gardens, meadows, wetlands, woodlands and water gardens have come to exist 'in the wild', with stunning illustrations. He then shows how to identify potential for, create, plant and care for such gardens or garden elements in our own back yards. And he really does make it sound very possible. At the end of each chapter is a handy reference table of plants for each type of created environment, their habit, position and more, plus a season-by-season guide to keep your garden thriving. Even the novice working through this book should find it useful and readable. A thorough index makes for easy access for information on a particular plant or technique, which will prove beneficial to the more experienced gardener. Beardshaw's writing style is relaxed and easy, conveying a great deal of information with an infectious enthusiasm and impressive breadth of knowledge. His aim in the book is to encourage us to create gardens that are in sympathy with the landscape, soil and conditions we have available: to work with nature, not against it. This book will give you the means and inspiration to get out there and learn to be a natural gardener. (Kirkus UK)

Customer Reviews

The Flying Gardener does it again!
Anyone who is a fan of the BBC television programme "The Flying Gardener" will be aware of Chris Beardshaw's absolute passion for plants. This is reflected in his book "The Natural Gardener - Lessons from the Landscape". Beautifully illustrated with stunning photographs, this book is a joy to behold.

The book is divided into 6 sections - starting with the important foundation of "understanding your environment" and then moving on to discuss how to create natural rock, water, wetland, meadow and woodland gardens.

Unlike many books on the market today "The Natural Gardener" steers well away from the "Makeover" theme and instead shows how to take cues from nature promoting working in harmony with your environment describing underlying geology and biology rather than trying to cheat nature. In each section informative lists of plants which will thrive in the given environment have been provided along with useful propagation, growing and maintenance tips.

This book will appeal to both the experienced and novice gardener alike and I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone.