Review and giveaway: Smart Gardening

Thanks to Exisle Publishing I’ve been given a copy of Marcelle Nankervis’ book Smart Gardening, which is about how to grow your own fruit and vegetables while saving money and helping the environment. The publishers have been generous and given me a 2nd copy to give away to one of my readers – so why not read my review then enter my little competition to win it?

You might recognise Marcelle Nankervis from TV shows like Burke’s Backyard and Better Homes and Gardens. She’s a passionate gardener who believes that permaculture principles are a great way to help people grow produce in their backyard.

The book is in two main sections: the first covers the basics of soil preparation, watering, plant selection, pest control, backyard animals and so on; the second is a month-by-month description of what needs to be done for gardens in each climate. I liked that the monthly tasks included preparation for fire and wet season rains, as well as the standard vegetable information.

The permaculture principles aren’t presented in a lecturing way. They’re just integrated into the other information in a chatty style, with explanations of why these methods work so well for sustainability.

There’s a focus on Australian and New Zealand climates and plants which I really appreciated. Of course you can grow exotic species, but if you understand your growing situation well then you’ll be able to make good decisions about which ones will adapt well and which will struggle to survive.

The book covers the basics really well, without getting bogged down in finicky details. I’m a big believer in the “just do it” principle of gardening, so this suits me fine. I also enjoyed the focus on ornamental plants that will work well with fruits and vegetables – rather than keeping them separate, Nankervis suggests bringing them together to confuse pests and make your garden more attractive. If there were a second edition, I’d love to see an extra little section on how native birds and frogs can add to your garden, and ways to attract them.

Recommended?
Smart Gardening is a great book for gardeners who are ready to branch out from a few herbs in pots, or the standard roses and so on. It gives you good suggestions on how to get started, and follows up with a plan for the maintenance you’ll need. I think it’s also make a great gift for someone who’s wondered about growing their own vegetables but is a little uncertain of how to get going. Nankervis’ conversational style makes it an easy read, and it has large text and room for your own seasonal notes.

Competition
If you’d like to win a copy of Smart Gardening, please leave a comment on this post before Friday, 5pm Western Standard Time (so that’s 8pm Eastern Daylight Savings hours for you east-coasters!). I’ll pick a winner at random and email them to let them know. It doesn’t have to be an essay, just a short sentence or two expressing your enthusiasm for gardening or willingness to give it a go

We have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my competition last week – the winner is Angela from Sydney. I learned a lot about hemp, I hope you all did too.

Honorable mention goes to Howard’s story about his hemp cap: thanks for sharing, Howard! I hope all the new commenters will continue to share their interesting facts and feel free to join in with the questions and comments on the site in the future – it’s been lovely having you around

Want to win a prize? Tell me about hemp…

Hemp fabric is one of those things that’s associated with tie-dye and hippies, because it’s known to be eco-friendly but people rarely see it used well. Which is a shame, because as well as being useful and eco-friendly, it can be made into things just as beautiful as we see made with water-guzzling, pesticide-laden cotton.

Although you can grow cotton organically, which is great, it does take a lot of work. Hemp is naturally ahead of the game:

• the plants grow too close together to allow for weeds, so no herbicide needed;
• insects prefer other crops so it needs fewer pesticides;
• and it doesn’t need nearly as much water to grow (which is great for Australia).

Hemp producers can go organic without much extra effort at all.

I’ll admit that I hadn’t paid much attention to it until I saw a beautiful range of hemp purses online. Anne from Sir Tom uses hemp as one of the materials in her work, and she’s showing all those hippies how it’s supposed to be done! I spent quite a while looking at her Etsy store, and was very pleased when she agreed to help me out with a little competition here on my blog.

Anne is giving away a hemp purse from her store to the Go Greener reader who can tell us the most interesting or fun fact about hemp – environmental, historical, scientific, etc – in the comments of this post. If you’re not interested in using a purse yourself (hello, gentlemen!) you might like to enter and win a gift for your partner or a friend.

You have 3 days to leave your comment here, although I suggest doing it now and then telling your friends. On Friday night at 8pm Perth time (so 10pm for you east-coasters) I’ll pick a winner from the commenters, and be in touch with you about receiving your prize.

Hopefully you will be the lucky winner of a very stylish purse, and when people give you compliments on it, you can thank them and tell them how eco-friendly it is too.