Thursday, June 12, 2008

Book review: Intimate Secrets of a Flamboyant Gardener


I recently finished reading this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's written by an Australian author, Babs Corbett, and talks about all of the gardens she has lived in through out her life (all 90-odd years of it!). It intersperses amusing anecdotes about each garden and the people she met there, with practical gardening tips. Each garden includes a sketch / map of how it was laid out.

She mainly talks about trees, and flowers, not much on the vege side, but it's encouraged me to add a touch of whimsy to the garden amidst the practical side.

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Speaking of the garden, I took a trip to the nursery today to buy some potting mix - ended up bringing home 6 herby ground covers (2 types of thyme, feverfew, chamomile, pennyroyal and spearmint) and a couple of flowering plants that Billy took a fancy to! Also some more seeds arrived from Diggers this week, so this afternoon we planted radish, carrots, wild arugula and spring onions.



The strawberry plants that we planted last week are going great - they all have new leaves on them and look very happy :)

I've added a list in my sidebar of what is growing in my garden atm and what we are eating from it.

3 comments:

Bel said...

Looking good! There are varieties there I've never heard of! Just keep planting, huh? ;)

Anonymous said...

Kez,

I just bought that book from the Lifeline Bookfest! Glad to hear it's worth a read - I'll line it up in my book queue!
Speaking of gardeners with personality, I really enjoy anything by Jackie French.

Kez said...

Jess, I'm a huge fan of Jackie French as well - both her gardening books, and her kid's books! (I get to indulge myself in kid's books legitimately now I have a kid lol). I have both Backyard Self-Sufficiency and Household Self-Sufficiency out of the library again atm - for the umpteenth time!