There are plenty of books out there about shady gardens, but this one actually tells you how to create a woodland if you want one and don't have one. In Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden: Plants and Combinations that Thrive in the Shade
(Timber Press, 2014), British author Keith Wiley guides you through the process of planting an existing woodland site, or creating one from scratch.
What I liked about this part of the book is that he shows you how to design a small woodland side yard or corner if you don't already have one. Beyond that, there are detailed chapters on woodland plants - trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and corms, ferns and grasses. There's something in this book for everyone, and a nice find under any gardener's Christmas tree.
Scent always seems to be an essential part of any garden, but there never seems to be enough of it around. This new book is more or less an encyclopedia by British garden designer and writer Stephen Lacey. In Royal Horticultural Society Companion to Scented Plants
(Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2014), Lacey profiles more than 1000 garden plants that can be grown for fragrance -- in hedges, on walls, in borders, in vertical gardens, in herb gardens and under glass. Moreover, he offers chapters on planting with scented trees and shrubs that give the garden its basic structure. There's a very useful calendar section in the back of the book that lists the plants that are in scent by the time of year, making planning quite easy. There are also several "plans" of scented gardens in the beginning of the book to get the design juices flowing.
And ... for the person you know who's into garden club doings and flower arranging ... they would certainly like Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden Journal: A Year of Beautiful Cut Flowers
(Frances Lincoln, Ltd, 2014). Raven, a writer and broadcaster who is married to Adam Nicolson (Vita Sackville West's grandson) ... and who has lived at Sissinghurst with her family, offers a beautiful format, with entries for each month (along with a blank page for notes) ... with tips on what flowers to grow, how to grow them, and how to use them in cut flower displays. Great tips as well on cutting garden "plans" and flower arranging. Also, see Sarah's book on Sissignhurst in my Christmas Books II post on November 16th.
For an all-American experience, you'd certainly want a copy of "A Rich Spot of Earth": Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello
(Yale University Press, 2012) by Peter J. Hatch, director emeritus of the gardens and grounds at Monticello. Originally published two years ago, it's now out in a paperback version, identical to the hardback. With gorgeous photos, illustrations, and plans, Hatch tells the story of Jefferson's one thousand square foot terraced vegetable garden that has now been restored to its state in 1812. Jefferson himself planned the garden and planted it, experimented with different kinds of plants and introduced many species that we now eat every day: eggplant and okra, lima beans and tomatoes among them. It's a great book for anyone interested in history or veg gardens -- and sustainable gardening today.
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