An Ear to the Ground
Understanding Your Garden
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Transworld Publishers Ltd
Published:4th Oct '11
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Garden questions answered; horticultural myths debunked; upmarket, witty literature for gardeners.
How did plants get to be the way they are?
In this new edition Ken Thompson grabs the opportunity to explain why any old plant will do for companion planting - but also that it can do as much harm as good - and why planting by the moon is complete and utter nonsense.
How did plants get to be the way they are? Why do they have pretty flowers? How different would things have been if the wrong kind of pollinators had got the upper hand? Why are Latin names so complicated, and why Latin anyway? Why is a weed-free lawn an ecological impossibility?
This entertaining book gives the answers to these questions and many more. It shows how a little botanical knowledge can bring not just better results but peace of mind, and that losing sleep over such traditional gardening bogeys as weeds, pests and pruning is not necessarily the best course.
In this new edition Ken Thompson grabs the opportunity to explain why any old plant will do for companion planting - but also that it can do as much harm as good - and why planting by the moon is complete and utter nonsense.
An excellent read for the beginner gardener who wants to understand the science of gardening without getting bogged down in formulae and graphs. * The Times *
This neat little book will bring peace of mind from worries about weeds, pests and pruning for all those anxious gardeners who'd rather be up at the allotment than down on the beach. * Daily Mail *
Good popular science books for gardeners do not come along every day. Those that are also easy to read, witty and do not insult the intelligence of readers are rarer still. So I can't recommend too highly An Ear to the Ground by Ken Thompson, which gives up-to-the-minute answers to all those questions that nag at you when you are bottom-up in a flower border or floating off to sleep at night. Its style - forthright, breezy and authoritative - is most appealing. Thompson politely, but firmly, puts the boot in. It is about time someone told it how it really is. * Telegraph *
This is the book we've been waiting for. * Sunday Telegraph *
An entertaining guide to the biology behind green tomatoes and red cabbage, brambles' peculiar sex lives and why not to be afraid of Latin, it is learned and authoritative without blinding with science. * Independent *
ISBN: 9781905811847
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 15mm
Weight: 182g
256 pages