Making Gardens: A Celebration of Gardens and Gardening in England and Wales - Hardcover

Written to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the National Gardens Scheme, this an impressive book, full of gardening information and tips, and featuring contributions from both renowned gardening experts and amateurs and accompanied throughout by photographs from leading photographers. Set up in 1927, the National Gardens Scheme is a charity which depends on gardeners throughout the country opening their gardens to the public: from estates through to tiny town gardens. Money is raised by the entrance fees, plant sales and teas and all gardens open are listed in the annually produced Yellow Book. More than 3,600 gardens open on various days throughout the year from snowdrop gardens to those glorious, blowsy, typically English summer gardens. Divided into garden type, ie clay, arid, shade etc, each chapter deals with the practicalities of the situation, lists suitable plants and includes articles from well-known gardeners on their particular experience of that medium. Mention is made of the NGS gardens which cope with these problems and advice given by their owners along with their experiences - both good and bad. A list of those gardens which open for the NGS is included at the end of each section. Accompanied by the sumptuous photographs, a full picture is given in each chapter of the specific benefits and difficulties of each situation. For afficionados of the Yellow Book, this book demonstrates the wealth of knowledge held by amateurs and experts, this being the main reason so many of us travel the country each year, map and Yellow Book in hand, searching out the jewels of British gardens. For those yet to discover this enlightening experience, the book will whet the appetite and entice them out of their own gardens into those so generously opened for charity by others.

For those seeking inspiration for their own plots, hundreds of gardens open to the public through the National Gardens Scheme are, for the first time, used as examples of gardening expertise. They include a broad spread of soil types, site constraints and gardens of every size and style, from small urban areas to country estates and royal gardens. Interviews with garden owners demonstrate the passion that goes into good gardens and the secrets of achieving internationally recognised standards of maintenance.