Real Gardening Hardcover – 25 April 2002

I bought this book for a gardening friend as a gift. I have owned a copy for a number of years now and always enjoy going back to it. It contains so much information it needs reading and re-reading so you gradually absorb the ideas in it. It is a deeply personal book about one man's love of gardening, and is a distillation of the wisdom he has acquired over the years. It is only partly a book about garden design; it is more a book about how to make your garden, whatever its size, a source of continuing pleasure for you personally.

This is a book which provides detailed advice particularly in respect of garden design philosophy.In doing so it is not at all prescriptive.... it's also very well written and a joy to read. The book was pre-owned , but arrived in very good condition as described.

Stephen Lacey expands his theories and tastes, and looks for a more relaxed (and less labour intensive) way to garden which produces interest and effects (often very special) almost like a series of set changes in a play. Although he tends towards the dramatic - big leaves, big flowers, big vistas, he sets down some basic principles of style, and understands the basic need for the garden to provide a relaxed, living space - from the grand garden to the smallest urban space. Above all he wishes to see the garden as "special", "a fantasy" and "larger than life", and sets out ideas, planting schemes and techniques to achieve that. Lovely illustrations of flowers, shrubs and vistas too. Recommended.

A pity about the rather uninformative - though catchy - title. In fact, this is a garden-design or planting-scheme book. And a super one too! A better designation might have been something like "Painting with Plants".Think all those atmospheric NGS or National Trust gardens, scaled down to fit a typical plot, and with a less-than-one-gardener's work-load. Well, here are some ideas to achieve it.As mentioned by another reviewer, the author imparts a few strong opinions that not everyone will agree with. But this doesn't detract from the book; if any readers are encouraged to analyse their own views more critically, it should only be beneficial for their own garden designs.The text is effectively an informal discourse, and very readable. It's good to dip into too! It addresses an impressive range of garden situations, conditions, requirements and styles. It does not deal with garden constructions, only plants - a good thing, in my opinion.I'm no lover of the sort of modernistic, modified-building-site, edifices that pass as gardens at places like Chelsea! Maybe neither is Stephen Lacey. Certainly, Real Gardening only exudes his unaffected enthusiasm for growing attractive flora...There is nothing culinary. Nor does it explicitly cover practicalities like care and propagation. But little nuggets of useful information for many of the suggested plants are provided.In summary, for a comprehensive, non-prescriptive, guide to artistically planning (or enhancing) your garden, I can't think of a better starting place than Real Gardening.