Gardening in a Changing World: Plants, People and The Climate Crisis
by Darryl Moore
Pimpernel Press, £20
ISBN 978-1910258286
If there were a prize for ‘most timely publication’ of the year, this book would be a contender. Having experienced the highest-ever recorded temperatures and drought in the UK this summer, with gardens that were completely scorched, is this our wake-up call?
Landscape designer Darryl Moore explores how we have reached this position and
suggests how we might find a way, through designing and gardening more sustainably, to improve the situation.
Garden books are often inclined to be picture-led, with less focus on words and hard facts. This book bucks the trend, with few images and plenty to say. I was struck by the amount of meticulous, in-depth research that has gone into the writing of this book. Moore has left no stone unturned in his quest to unravel the complex situation that we find ourselves in.
He writes: ‘We all have responsibilities as gardeners in the widest sense of the word, and our actions matter.’ The first part of the book focuses on Plants as Producers and as Panacea, tackling subjects such as nature disconnect, novel ecosystems and cleaning up the garden, where Moore draws our attention to the ‘unholy trinity of pesticides, peat and plastic pots’ to which our industry is still firmly wedded.
Plants as Pictures then describes how and why people have gardened
throughout history, from the early Mesopotamians to the late Beth Chatto.
In the second half of the book, Plants as Processes; Possibilities and Partners, Moore focuses on the people and places who have been advancing the study of plants and planting in more recent times. We travel from Germany and the USA to
Sheffield and southern France.
Moore has a great deal to say, yet this must-read book is expertly divided into neat, digestible sections that are jam-packed with fascinating and vital information.
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