The Ultimate Planting Guide

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Summary: The Ultimate Planting guide
Review: The Ultimate Planting Guide. Noel Kingsbury Ward Lock. London 1996 ISBN 0-78063-7370-7

Where do you start when you want to select plants for your garden? Noel Kingsbury sets out to answer that question in this well-illustrated and comprehensive book.

Reading "The Ultimate Planting Guide" is rather like consulting with your own garden designer. You start with the question "What type of garden do I have?" and your answer "Shady", "dry", "Acid Soil" will lead you to a section on choosing plants for your own type of garden. The next question to answer is "What kind of garden do you want?" and the author discusses briefly the different styles of garden - classic, cottage etc. He moves on to selecting plants for the backbone and body of the garden. In his extensive section titled "A Plant for Every Place" he presents a series of five colour illustrations showing different approaches to a very plain, square front garden. These take you from ordinary through nice and very nice to stunning.

His major section on "Planting Principles" helps the reader understand how to combine plants and use them to best effect in different types of gardens and in various environments. There are very short chapters on "Aftercare" abd a brief bibliography.

This is a pleasant read with something for every gardener from novice on up. The material is well organized and the illustrations both attractive and relevant. This is good value for money and would make a great gift for a new gardener.