GET GROWING!
YOUR GARDENING BEGINS IN THE DEPTHS OF WINTER
Monty Don is the UK’s leading garden writer. Image credit: THE GARDENING BOOK.
“Anyone who thinks gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with the dream.” – Josephine Nuese, in A Garden of Inspiration, Hatherleigh, $14.50.
By LADYBUG
I choose to embark on that dream with The Gardening Book by Monty Don, an accessible guide to growing houseplants, flowers and vegetables.
Don, the UK’s leading garden writer, has a chatty style that simplifies what can appear to be daunting tasks to novice gardeners and yet leave experienced ones with new ideas and ways of doing things.
For instance, in A garden to entertain in, he suggests clipped, simple topiary shapes and plants like rosemary and lavender because “it is likely that the maintenance of the garden is focused on keeping it looking as you want it rather than as a fulfilling pastime in itself”.
Gardens in which small children (or pets) will run through, a wildlife garden, even gardening without a garden, he covers them all.
Craving a freshly picked tomato or lettuce, but lack gardening space? Don shows how one can harvest a wide variety of plants grown in containers or in raised beds on concrete.
The book is filled with advice only a seasoned gardener can provide. A sampling:
• The best way to increase snowdrops is to lift and divide existing ones as they don’t grow very well from dry bulbs.
• The key to growing lilies successfully is to keep the roots shaded and moist and the flowers sunny and warm.
• Increase your dahlia stocks by taking cuttings.
• How to encourage bees, butterflies and birds to visit your garden.
Tips on how to divide herbaceous perennials, on pruning deciduous spring-flowering shrubs, tending ferns, and of course, on growing food. Everything from growing potatoes in a container to successive crops of lettuce, tomatoes, beans or cucumbers.
While the section on structure and design might be more appropriate for people with large gardens and room to play with design, there are ideas that can be incorporated into gardens of any size.
Craving a freshly picked tomato or lettuce, but lack gardening space? You can harvest a wide variety of plants grown in containers or in raised beds on concrete. Image credit: THE GARDENING BOOK.
Simple framing of a view can do the job, writes Don. A pair of pots either side of a path will always be effective, specially if planted with a structural plant like a topiary or small trees.
While he’s in favour of lawns as they “make the perfect balance between the business of borders, trees and hedges,” he has no issues with the presence of a few daisies, dandelions or moss.
“I cannot say that I share the need for a perfect lawn.”
There’s a lovely section on what he calls a tameflower meadow. “This is not strictly speaking a wildflower meadow – though wildflowers will be part of it. It is grass with as many flowers as possible – wild and tame – added to it and encouraged to thrive in that grassy environment.”
And in particularly astute words of advice for gardeners like me who never met a plant they didn’t love at first sight: Simplicity always looks best – choose a style and palette and stick to it.
Whatever you fancy growing, Don has tips for you to get the most out of your crop. Including chillies! And recipes for pesto that have me counting down to spring when I can pick fresh basil to make some.
“Think of your garden like a meal,” he writes. “When you select a recipe, you’re choosing it based on inclination, experience, and circumstance. Making a garden, big or small, uses exactly the same process.”
Isn’t that a delicious thought?
The Gardening Book by Monty Don is published by Clarkson Potter, $42.50.