The Urban Gardener Book

Since 1996 Elspeth Thompson has chronicled the successes and disasters that beset her tiny London garden and her newly acquired allotment in a regular column in the Sunday Telegraph. These articles are gathered together in Urban Gardener which not only makes fascinating reading but proves that however small and depressing a garden appears, it can be transformed with a bit of imagination and determination.Thompson admits to being an amateur gardener when she started but her enthusiasm shines through the book. Yes, she has always dreamed of a large garden with trees and a vegetable plot with views of fields beyond, but when all there was at the back of her house was a twenty-two foot square of "wall-to-wall red concrete with a fine crop of chickweed coming up through the cracks", she saw the challenge.Thompson's writing is not confined to her own garden either. She travels around, talks to experts and includes a practical index on places to visit, books to read, plant and seed suppliers and other useful addresses.This is a book that will make you laugh, feel Thompson's frustrations and give you many ideas. As she discovered, even in a small garden you can have a statue and even in London you can be an organic gardener. Dip into it or read it from cover to cover. If you have an impossible town garden this is a book that will gently show you how to deal with it.--Judy WylesRead More