Summer Garden Reading

“OH LORD, MAKE MY garden sustainable and eco-friendly – but not yet!” runs the cry of so many gardeners, worrying that their practical and aesthetically pleasing garden may be A Bad Thing. Absolution is at hand in Ken Thompson’s reissued No Nettles Required: The Truth about Wildlife Gardening (Eden Project Books).

Thompson is a scientist, and in his amused and ironic style he debunks so much of the tosh written about wildlife gardening, substituting common sense backed by research. “All gardens are good for wildlife, and encouraging wildlife is entirely compatible with ordinary gardening, costs next to nothing and is completely effortless,” he says. The main principles? No chemicals, plenty of trees and berries, and plenty of insect(as opposed to wind) pollinated plants.