New Country Garden: A Plant Lover's Paradise - Hardcover

Thompson, Elspeth; Eclare, Melanie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841721832 ISBN 13: 9781841721835

Publisher: Ryland Peters & Small, 2001

Synopsis

"New Country Garden" explores a style of gardening that can be adapted to a small urban backyard or a spacious rural retreat. Plants remain at the heart of these gardens, but are used in strikingly new ways - with a wild mix of height, scale, and colour that breaks all the old rules. Elspeth Thompson begins by exploring the themes that characterize the new country garden and then focuses on each of the elements, such as design, garden features, water, and perfect plants, all photographed by Melanie Eclare.

About this title

About the Author

Elspeth Thompson writes about gardening for the "Sunday Telegraph Magazine". Two collections of her work have been published as "The Urban Gardener" and "A Tale of Two Gardens". She is also the author of "New Decorated Garden" (also Ryland Peters & Small).

Review

While town and city gardens are undergoing major transformations into decked , stainless steel and concrete living spaces, a quieter revolution is taking place in rural retreats. Cottage gardens are evolving in tune with today's green ideologies and where once a metal arch or obelisk would be used they are now made of hazel or willow. Pergolas and seating too are increasingly being made from natural materials and the understanding of organic gardening necessitates the addition of wildlife-friendly boundaries and water features. These ideas tumble over into a more relaxed form of planting. No longer is there a major autumn clear-up and cut-back, but flower heads and leaves are being left for wildlife whilst at the same time enhancing the winter landscape by their skeletal forms. Planting too is changing from the pastel hues of the past to the more vibrant colours of modern plants of today such as cannas and dahlias. Formal knot gardens are becoming less formal with a loose inner planting of ornamental grasses or blowsy meadow flowers. Hedgerows are left slightly overgrown to provide homes and food for wild creatures who in turn help with the control of pests in the garden. Lawns are turning into wildlife havens, increasingly becoming wild areas of natural flora and prairie-like grasses. Elspeth Thompson, most famous for her "Sunday Telegraph" magazine features brings these new country gardens to life with her engaging style of writing whilst the luscious photographs of Melanie Eclare illustrate the variety and beauty of these bucolic havens. As the subtitle of this book so succinctly puts it, this is "A Plant Lover's Paradise".

About this edition

• Publisher: Ryland Peters & Small
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1841721832
• ISBN 13: 9781841721835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144