Cover Price:$24.95
publishing house : Chelsea Green PublishingChelsea Green
For home gardeners interested in making their grow practices more regenerative , The Ecological Gardenerpromises to be an essential resource . Although there are now numerous books on the grocery store about regenerative practices for small - exfoliation farmers , most of them account machinery or techniques that ca n’t be scaled down to match a home garden .
The Ecological Gardenerfills this vacuum .
Gardens & the Natural World
Unlike most gardening books I ’ve interpret , The bionomic Gardnerdoesn’t deal much with planting dates , seeding strategies or pest mitigation . Rather , the essence of the book is about incorporate gardens into the natural world that surround them .
Throughout the book Rees - Warren argues that make your garden part of the local landscape painting is a kind of win - win . Improving home ground within your garden help local mammals , birds and pollinator . And in tour , your garden becomes more diverse , resilient and healthy .
Rees - Warren provides numerous examples of what this consolidation can front like , including inviting wildlife into the garden , plow lawns into wildflower gardens and planting as many native species as possible .
Chelsea Green
( A quick note to U.S. reader : Rees - Warren is British , so many of the mintage he mention are particular to the U.K. The same principles obviously apply anywhere , though ) .
take more : you’re able to practice ecosystem design principle to improve your garden .
A New Kind of Garden
In many agency , Rees - Warren is advocating for a sort of unexampled understanding of what a garden is . As he observes at one point , many public garden and parking area contain few ( if any ) native species .
With the average home gardener pull back inspiration from these places , it ’s no marvel that so many garden incorporate no native species .
According to Rees - Warren , however , a garden should be more than a collection of plants with no connection to the natural world that circumvent it . Rather , by commingle the garden with the local landscape painting , both can be strengthened .
To this end , Rees - Warren advocates for a redefinition of what weeds are . Invasive plants should be treated as weeds , and aboriginal plants should be seen as wild flower .
A Practical Guide
AlthoughThe Ecological Gardenerdoes spend time considering philosophical questions about thing like the nature of horticulture , it is also deeply practical . Throughout the record there are numerous one- or two - page instructionals on how to perform various practical task like taking a soil test or lay a hedgerow . These instructions are simple and concise , providing new gardener with a valuable design to follow .
The “ Soil ” chapter of the book is especially laden with helpful advice , including instructions on how to set up a bokashi bin , brew compost tea and make biochar .
In short , The Ecological Gardeneris equal parts philosophic treatise and how - to manual . And these two element crop well together to create a gardening Holy Writ that is Modern , authoritative and educational .
The book of account is certain to breathe in both novice and experienced gardeners to consecrate to growing in a more bionomical direction . And with more ecological and integrated garden out there in the world , we ’ll all be skilful off .
