Member Reviews
So many great ideas, any of which could be incorporated into the average grower's garden. Easy to follow instructions throughout.
Some of the ideas presented here were fantastic - investigating and sourcing your garden materials and plants from proper places; soil improvement techniques; how to save seeds; etc. Some of the other ideas were a bit more impractical and decidedly stylistic (and not my style) - repurposing old bathtubs as yard planters, for example. So, a bit of a mixed bag. Also pretty text heavy (walls of text in garden books makes my eyes cross).
Sustainable Garden by Marian Boswall is a gorgeous joyfully presented gardening book. It has loads of gorgeous photos of her garden in the UK and is loaded with a lot of garden projects.
I got really excited when I saw the cover and the topic, Sustainable Garden.But as a sustainable gardener myself it wasn't what I thought it would be as far as sustainability. Yes, it does talk about a lot of repurposing and some beautiful ideas in doing so such as making your own besom broom, using a wooden box and make it a birdhouse(that was fantastic) and an herb spiral, etc. but as far as sustainability yes it talks a bit about that but when she had a gas push mower instead of a manual mower and then talked about not using other grasses such as buffalo grass, etc. the book fell short for me on a book about sustainability and more about repurposing. Marian Boswall does talk about using a soil blocker took which I use and appreciated she mentioned because that one tool can reduce a lot of plastic use in the garden while seed starting.
Again beautiful, a lovely gardening book.with good information and projects but it only scratches the surface on sustainability..
I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Frances Lincoln for the opportunity to read and review 'Sustainable Garden' by Marian Boswall.
This is a fun book! I really enjoyed the ideas, projects, and abundant use of photographs throughout. The emphasis on good soil composition and compost, including a project making a compost bin, especially appealed to me. The projects that involve taking cuttings and saving seeds would also likely be helpful for most readers. I love that the projects had step by step directions and photos. Some of the projects were a bit more whimsical too. The book is not completely comprehensive, but would be a nice start for many gardeners and the aesthetic of it may help inspire some new beautiful gardens.
This is a great resource, though I was surprised that I didn't find it more useful for myself personally. I consider myself a hard core sustainable gardener, but this is more along the lines of finding the most sustainable products, sourcing plants from good companies, etc. I tend to use recycled materials, source my plants from cuttings and divisions and friends more than nurseries, and concentrate more on making my garden sustainable in terms of being a healthy ecosystem for the nature around me than the materials building and making it. For what it is, though, it's great, and it's packed with color photos and a ton of information.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
I give this book a 3.5. While this is an interesting topic and an important message during these times of global warming, I got a bit overwhelmed with all of the information. Being a beginning gardener, I found very few of the projects easily transferred to my small urban garden space. So I don't believe that I am this writer's demographic.
Despite not being interested in many of the projects provided, the writer did a great job of getting me to think differently about my purchases this upcoming summer. I will take many of her points about searching for ethically sourced materials and creating less waste.
Wow, loved this. I recently bought an acre of land and am still looking for ideas to develop it. This book was perfect and full of great ideas mostly made from recycled products. I love some of the ideas in this book and I can’t wait to try it. If your into sustainability then this is a great read for the gardener. So many things can be repurposed to reuse and this woman makes it look simple. From furniture, mowing techniques and composting this is a great helpful guide. Five stars for some great ideas. I’d recommend to any gardener!