Book Review – The Thoughtful Gardener

If there’s one book that’s come into my life in recent times that I’m inspired by it’s ‘The Thoughtful Gardener‘. Jinny Blom, quite honestly, has packed everything into a ‘style’ book here that I’ve ever wanted. I mean – seriously – the cover reflects the garden design ideas I aspire to in a nutshell.

 

 Flip to any page in this beautiful gardening design book and you’d be hard-pressed not to be inspired. There are photos that take the breath away and need careful study before your eye can even tell what it beholds. Others are so packed with ideas, it takes a minute to identify all the various components.
 

Inspiration lays on every page.

Images capture and fuel inspiration on every page.

One of the reasons that The Thoughtful Gardener speaks to me so much is due to the farm. You see, when it comes to agricultural land you have to be very careful with any form of ‘gardening’. I mean, really, you’re not supposed to have any – it is, after all, agricultural and, therefore, set for that purpose (but, as an aside, you can have a plant nursery or cut flowers which are, I would argue, still gardening but with a business element). If and when I eventually manage to head into my Suffolk oasis, any planning permission I get will come with a strict curtilage on which I can garden. The rest? Well, it’ll be agriculture.

But, getting back to The Thoughtful Gardener, amongst the pages you’ll discover that the planting is so naturalistic I could and would garden, to an extent, amongst the fields and hedgerows. It seems that Jinny’s inspiration comes from nature and so the boundaries between designed flower border and tamed wilderness begin to melt away. It means that a few climbing roses allowed to scramble up an oak at the entrance to a field suddenly becomes an idea. Likewise, interweaving wild cow parsely and oxe-eye daisies with ornamental grasses along a fence becomes an option, whilst turning a natural pond into a small, design island takes on new life.

Planting plans are ideal for capturing a true design.

This book is really inspirational, especially if you love a naturalisation of plants. The entire ethos is one of nature lending a helping hand and that, truly, a garden is never finished, it just evolves with its gardener and, indeed, the natural world around it. This is a book I’m keeping in my clutches and, not only that, taking with me on trips to the farm so I can wander the fields, look at the pages and let my imagination flow. Go. Get it. It’s wonderful.

The Thoughtful Gardener is available online at both US and UK Amazon stores.