Ken Thompson (1) (1954–)

A well-written, evidence-based, encouraging, affordable and witty guide to 'wildlife gardening'. The author took a major part in substantial research (in a wide variety of real gardens in Sheffield) into what actually is likely to attract and sustain wildlife, with some surprising and welcome results. Take the title for a start: he concludes there's no point in growing nettles in the hope that butterflies will lay their eggs there - they'll almost certainly find a better patch of them elsewhere. And don't fret that you ought to be planting native varieties - the wildlife, by and large, won't care. And there's plenty more positive advice: do let some (or all) of your grass grow long, do make compost and do have a pond - however small it is. Walls and hedges are also good for wildlife, but not hard surfaces, slug pellets and tidiness.
An invaluable book.… (mer)

A well written homage to Darwin's other ground-breaking works, each chapter covers one of Darwin's papers or books concerning plants. As the author points out, if Origin of Species never came out of the drawer, Darwin would still be a genius game-changer just in the subject of botany.

The book is easy enough to read with a basic background in botany and/or a tolerance for the technical names for the parts of a plant. As usual after reading a book about plants, I have a new list of plants I want in my garden - all of them carnivorous.… (mer)

This is a collection of columns by Ken Thompson, previously published mostly in The Daily Telegraph. He's a plant ecologist and university lecturer in his day job, but his witty and dry style of writing offers an entertaining look at the science side of gardening, if you're a gardener and into that sort of thing.

I am a gardener and this sort of nerdy science based stuff interests me intensely; coupled with the writing style, I devoured the book. Each column is no more than 3 pages or so and it was easy to pick up and put down without losing track of what's going on.

The information is geared directly towards British gardeners, and some of the columns are of negligible value for those outside the UK, or Europe at a stretch, i.e. Cacti in Britain or the column addressing the benefits of reintroducing the lynx to the British Isles. But the majority of the columns have genuinely useful information for all gardeners; it took me longer to get through this book because I was constantly running to google to check out something or other. I now know what I don't have to put broken crockery at the bottom of my pots for drainage, that the ladybugs in my garden are not the ubiquitous-everywhere-else Harlequin and that I don't have to feel guilty for blowing off the miracle of compost tea.

If you're a gardener, I highly recommend this as a light but informative read. If you're not a gardener, but have made it to the end of this review without dozing off, you are a true bibliophile and the least I can do is put a cute kitten at the end:… (mer)

Collection of very brief essays on gardening topics, from what was once a newspaper column (seems to be a common source for many gardening books). This one was of particular interest because the author made a point of combing through many many scientific journals to pull out results of studies and reports that he thought common gardeners would like to know about: answering questions, laying to rest long-held myths, or just satisfying some curiosity. Things like- do shards in the bottom of a pot improve drainage (no), does it matter what color you paint a birdhouse (maybe), is compost tea worth making, what vegetables are most worthwhile to grow in your garden, what makes strawberries taste better, which insects are in decline (as of its publication), etc. Some bits were of less interest to me than others, but the sections I actually skimmed were very few. I’m always rather pleased when at the end of reading a nonfiction book, the top page block is crowded with strips of paper I stuck in to remind me to look things up. On finishing The Sceptical Gardener, I looked up more info on: harlequin ladybird beetle, New Zealand flatworm, calabrese, saskatoon, sowbread, flower sprouts (or kalette- I want to grow this!) Some of these are just because the author is British so the terms were unfamiliar. He says for example, that a certain berry is “widely grown and eaten in America, where it is called saskatoon.” I’d never heard of this berry. Looked it up: oh, serviceberry! I know that name. Also, one interesting note for cooking: to make a tomato sauce taste super fresh, add some tomato leaves to the sauce, pull them out before serving.

from the Dogear Diary… (mer)