Embrace Your Space
Janet Luke
New Holland Publishers
RRP $45.00
Reviewed by Dawn Forbes
Reviewed by Dawn Forbes
This book follows last year’s instructive
Green Urban Living by Janet Luke but
this one provides advice and ideas for gardening in small spaces such as a
patio, balcony, roof, windowsill, or even when you have no space – true, check
out chapter eight.
Embrace
Your Space is divided into two sections. Part one covers Your Space which includes most small
garden situations and the challenges of living in cities and Part two covers More on How & What to Grow.
Each chapter has all the
information and tips you need for plant selection and their suitability for
your own particular space, whether it is windy, sunny, shady, wet, dry, tiny or
not so tiny. You will enjoy the “Top Tips” that appear all through the book,
and the lists of suitable plants such as “edible plants that can tolerate wind”
or “window boxes through the seasons” and “vines for screening a shady
boundary”. Every possible garden
situation is covered. The author
discusses pot and container types and many of these will surprise you, although
I don’t suggest you follow her meals-on-wheels suggestion using a discarded
supermarket shopping trolley.
The chapter on how and what to grow
when you have “no space” includes a piece on what has become known overseas as
guerrilla gardening which means using community neglected or under-utilised
urban spaces. This could be a good solution for council-owned grass berms, or
verges, which are becoming uncared for. The
advice is very responsible and calls for the location of all underground
services to be checked first, ensuring the plantings do not obstruct the view
for cars reversing out of driveways and that they are kept tidy and properly
maintained. It could also provide fruit
and vegetables for the neighbourhood, an idea worthy of more discussion.
There is far more useful
information in Embrace Your Space
than I can summarise here so find a copy and enjoy for yourself.
Dawn Forbes is a
space-challenged-inner-city gardener and a regular reviewer on this blog.
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