The 30-Minute Gardener

I must admit I am addicted to books on gardening and this is one of my all time favorites. Reading this book is like having a friend who is determined to inspire you and help with guidance and experience. The photography is gorgeous.

I want to live in these photos! Beautiful flowers and garden! I’ve been into gardening books every since I got my new house. I can’t wait to start planting. This books has a lot of tips and tricks. The flowers in the photos look so so pretty! I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

I enjoyed this book of practical gardening tips. The photos complimented the text very well. This book includes many tips that any gardener could put into practice immediately!

A few things I loved about this book was the entire concept of 30 minutes a day. We love being outside anyway, so instead of thinking the garden is a chore or so much work to do, in thinking we can overcome and be successful with consistency and “finding peace in the repetition.” The photos of the flowers just are inspiring as ever to get started. Counting down the days until planting season is here.

I am a new and excited gardener, but I've found winter to be incredibly frustrating. This lovely book offered some great ideas for how to keep up the garden practice even when digging in the dirt is not possible. I'm excited to take on more of the projects and ideas as the weather gets warmer. This is a lovely companion to a more in-depth guide to gardening with lovely little tips for keeping a practice.

Packed full of gorgeous pictures, both of plants and garden in progress, “The 30-Minute Gardener” is more of a philosophy than a how to manual.

Loades speaks movingly and lovingly of the process of gardening, taking you through a year in the life. Tips and lists for each stage of the garden are laid out and explained well, and Loades never assumes your level of expertise. I found this inspiring for my upcoming move and have taken note of rose varieties he particularly recommends. (Princess Anne, Felicia, Lady of Shalott, Roald Dahl, The Lady Gardener)

I appreciated his way of writing as he lives in Britain and I live in Southern Alberta (as I write this, there is a good 18 inches of snow and it's been well below freezing for the last month) and I find it not discouraging exactly, but a little disheartening when I get into a gardening book and realize part way through that the author lives in such a different climate than I do that there's no way I can grow what they do.

“The 30 Minute Gardener” is well worth a read, it's a lovely soothing book that makes you think that yes, you can do this!

#The30MinuteGardener #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced readers copy.

This is going in my next engagement/newhome/wedding gift basket along with a nursery gift card.
Simple to read wonderful photography and so many great ideas. Well done!

Gorgeous photography inside and out warms garden-lovers souls. Even gardeners starting with brambles are encouraged to dig in and savor their garden time without stressing about the work needed to achieve their vision. The 30-Minute Gardener contains some how-to and plant recommendations but its main value to me is developing the habit of meditative work in my garden and enjoying my garden as it is as well as for what it will become.

I adored this book. The format was inviting and the whole book evoked joy.

Greg gave a gift for busy people who think gardening has to be put in a less priority just make it a short jot instead of a marathon. Many of us work this way in our gardens either because of energy, time, finances, etc. but Greg puts it all out there and gives inspiration, ideas, and encouragement.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Timber Press for the opportunity to read Greg Loades book The 30-Minute Gardener.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The 30-Minute Gardener by Greg Loades! Thank you Timber Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The 30-Minute Gardener is a beautiful introduction into gardening and carving time out in our busy lives for it.

My absolute favorite parts of this book is the vivid photography and the lovely poems speckled through out.

Any book that I can read to help with my garden, I will! This is such a unique and fun way to change the way you garden. As gardening season is getting started this year, I am excited to implement some on these new techniques and mind set.

The weather has warmed and time to get outside. The thoughts of summer BBQs and pool parties get you through the work week, but then you look at your yard - do you see a paradise, a personal oasis from the world? Or do you see endless hours of mowing, watering, pruning? In his new book, Greg Loades walks you through a way to cultivate a 30-minutes a day gardening habit that will have you finding daily respite.

I've always enjoyed being outside but I haven't always been a gardener and often have a love-hate relationship with my yard. I picked up Greg Loades's book because I was hoping to find tips on how to get to only 30 minutes of gardening a day. However, this book is more about starting a gardening habit. So if you are wanting to get outside more, find enjoyment in your yard, and connect to nature, then this book would be great for you.

As a new gardener reading this book, you should keep in mind a few things - some Loades mentions and others I think he should have.

One, remember that geography matters. Loades is in England - the multiple mentions of courgettes should clue you in since in the U.S. we call the summer squash zucchini. If you are in the northern portions of the states then your climate might be similar to his. However, for me in the deep south, I would have to shift some of the things he mentioned up a few months (we don't grow beets in the summer in the South - we plant them in either April or September).

Two, the size of your yard also matters. He advocates using a manual-powered push mower but does recognize for large yards that it isn't feasible. It can take me 2 hours to mow and that isn't even mowing my entire property. Watering my garden which is just a small portion of my front yard took 45 minutes.

Three, some projects in the garden take time to set up so you are going to want to spend more time doing them than 30 minutes a day - it takes me 15 minutes to get the saw and extension cord set up when I cut bamboo which has taken over about half of my property. I tackle this project when I have a few hours to devote to it.

That being said, Loades gives some great advice for getting started in the garden even if it does seem overwhelming. During the first year of the pandemic, I saw how much progress could be made with just 30 minutes a day. I cleaned the English ivy out of my side yard by going out every day and pulling it up for 30 minutes.

Another piece of advice that I wholeheartedly agree with is treating your gardening as an experiment. My failed attempts at gardening such as the time (also during that first year of the pandemic) I built a raised bed with cement blocks and filled it with expensive soil only to have the bamboo that I thought I had dug out re-grow. I decided that I just wouldn't ever have a vegetable garden after that (I had grand plans of adding 7 or 8 raised beds in that area of my yard). But then, as Loades advises, I started viewing my garden as a science experiment. As I'm a scientist so this came naturally to me. It looks a lot like trial and error but no experiment is truly a failure if you can learn something from it.

If you liked me rambling about my garden adventures in this review, then you will probably like Loades's book. Garden people can't help but talk about their gardens. And Loades shares plenty about his own garden adventures.

There are also plenty of pretty pictures of beautiful plants. The chapters are short so you might consider starting your 30-minute gardening habit by sitting outside reading a chapter or two of this book.

Chapters 4 through 7 are focused on the season. As this book comes out at the end of spring, you might want to skip winter and spring and start right with summer as Loades provides suggestions for seasonal tasks that you might want to do. And then read the chapters for Fall, Winter, and Spring so that you will be prepared as we enter those phases of gardening.

While this book is geared for the new gardener, as someone who already has a 30+ minute garden habit I found validation in my methods as I had already discovered many of the things Loades includes in his book. So whether you are just getting started or wanting encouragement on her journey, you will find The 30-Minute Gardener useful.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Saturday, May 13 - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2023/05/the-30-minute-gardener-by-greg-loades.html

I really enjoyed this little book and learned plenty as I flipped through! It's colorful and attractive to keep your attention, and the information is clear and well-laid out. In a world with a million gardening books, this one definitely still has a place.

This book was a how-to of sorts, with personal stories by the author. It tells what garden tasks should be done in each season. It also covers how to transplant things, how to separate things and even how to take cuttings from bushes, so that you can have new plants for free or buy using seeds. The photos are absolutely magnificent.

I was slightly disappointed that this mostly focused on flowers. I’d been hoping for more info on veggies and fruit. There was a little about it, but not a lot.

I’d recommend this book to anyone looking to clear out an overgrown yard, or just trying to better manage the time in their garden. It’s easy to read with loads of info.

I am a newly sprouted thirty-minute gardener with effusive, rambunctious thanks to Greg Loades and his beautiful, informative, and entertaining THE 30-MINUTE GARDENER. With pictures, encouragement, practical advice for those of us timid about garden design, making mistakes and having to transplant mistakes, Loades demystifies and makes possibly a daily relationship with nature, no matter the season, the challenge (I'm talking about you poison ivy), and the size of the project. With rare genius and poetry, Loades offers ways to make the gardening fun and the daily celebration of the sprouts, the quiet place to enjoy, and have confidence in your ability to grow and thrive along with your garden. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

The 30-Minute Gardener by Greg Loades is a superb book about learning one's garden, listening to it, reveling in it and being in it. One can learn a lot in thirty minutes a day from season to season. My first assumption was this book would be mainly about "working" in the garden thirty minutes a day for the sake of maintenance. But that's not really what it is. Garden chores are part of it, of course, but there is so much more. To me the book is about extending your home into your garden, only better. Though peaceful, gardens can be busy places with so much to experience every day.

I am a master gardener who lives in two countries on different continents, one with a hardiness zone 2a (only 85 frost-free days per year with deep snow on the ground for six months) and in zone 8b in the Mediterranean. Worlds apart. Obviously the latter is a gardener's dream! But the former in Canada has its beauty, too. When in Croatia we spend nearly all our waking hours outside, mostly in our delightful garden which brings such joy. Countless pinch-me moments. It forces us to inhale deeply and just be. I plunk away on my laptop as we inhale nature around us and watch animals stroll by in what we call our outdoor office. As we are so in tune with it we know when the newest rosebuds unfurl, watch tiny figs grow, marvel at evergreen olive leaves and run our fingers through aromatic lavender. We are learning which insects and birds gravitate towards which plants. We need to be comfortable in our gardens and pay attention. This is the premise of the book.

One can glean so much happiness from learning where plants are happiest. The author mentions being rebellious in ways...planting what we love and pushing the sun/soil requirements without being foolish about it and forcing sun-loving plants to grow in dark shade. He also gives examples of how to practically work the garden (seeding, moving plants, the art of watering, preparing ground, mulching, revamping patios, harvesting) without it being a chore. I like that he discusses growing food (talk about gratifying!) and experimenting. The sections on winter gardening will not apply to everyone (no such thing in my zone 2a home) so these short parts are more of a dream for those who live in cold climates. And the photography is glorious! The magnificent roses particularly grip my heart.

Those who may be overwhelmed by their overgrown garden, think they lack a green thumb or only have a balcony available, this book is for you. In fact, it's for anyone for any stage of gardening, even experts who merely need to be reminded of the power of nature and beauty.

My sincere thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this stupendous and inspiring book. I adore it!

I have high hopes that this book with its beautiful photographs and great writing will continue to inspire me and other readers to dive into gardening and treasuring outdoor spaces