The Sensuous Garden
By Monty Don
Conran Octobpur
2001
ISBN # 0-571-14715-1 Buy here:Amazon.com
Monty Don is BBC TV's main presenter for the gardening
show Gardener's World and is one of the UK's most respected
gardeners and garden writers. Organic gardening is his passion
as is establishing environmental awareness. In an effort to
establish his theories for gardening, Don has created a 2 acre
plot near at his home in Herefordshire in England where growing
healthy and chemically free food for his family is essential.
Don has authored a number of books, including one he penned
with his wife Sarah called from Fork to Fork, an acclaimed book
that traces the steps food takes from the garden to the dinner
table.
In The Sensuous Garden, Don believes that every garden should
have a one of each of the six natural senses to be whole and
perfect......touch, smell, sight, sound, taste and intuition.
There are some fabulous photos and he has the sections broken
down into the six natural senses.
He has some really great ideas. One is of a field of flowers,
just three kinds...red poppies, blue bachelors buttons and
yellow daisies. The effect is tall and wispy but dotted with
primary colors that are pleasing to the eye. The overall effect
is warm and summery without formal manicuring. This particularly
appealed to me, especially as these are some of my favorite
flowers.
Don believes that every garden should include all the senses...smell,
sight, touch, sound, taste and intuition -
Smell - always have nice smelling plants and flowers...ones
that compliment each other;
Sight - use complimentary colors...no red and pink together,
but red and yellow is OK;
Touch - include a variety of complimentary textures...such
as soft lamb's ears amongst a bed of fine mulched bark;
Sound - include things that make noise when the breeze
blows through...such as tall grasses or even wind chimes;
Taste - include at least one thing you can taste, like
a fruit tree or berry bush or an herb bed;
Intuition - where intuition comes in is the feeling of
pleasure, happiness, contentedness, or whatever, that the
garden gives the visitor while walking amongst the plants
and flowers. The experience in that garden should let that
person experience all of their natural senses in the one
place during the visit.
As I read through this book and flipped through the photos,
I was completely drawn in. So much of what Don recommended
was not just right on for what I was looking for, but also
seemed to incorporate a lot of common sense. More than a few
times I found myself saying, "That makes so much sense.
Why didn't I think of that? It's so obvious!" I couldn't
think of a better book to get ideas from. I can't wait to
get started. Anyone looking for unique gardening ideas is
sure to benefit from this book.
Don's most recent book is The
Complete Gardener, which was published by Dorling Kindersley
in 2003. He has another coming out in February 2005 called
Gardening
from Berryfields, that I'm really interested in since
we have a lot of wild blackberries and black currents growing
on our property.
