Review by Booklist Review
Hubbard is a Briton by birth who's settled in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, where, inspired by the English landscapes of her childhood, she's created her own cottage garden, applying these criteria: dense plantings, an informal plan, a mix of plant types, wide and curvy borders, a "riot" of color, potted plants, an enclosed space, meandering paths, vertical features, and little or no lawn. With an informality matching the cottage-garden style, Hubbard lays out a sensible process for planning and creating a cottage garden, including siting, choosing plants, weeding, irrigation, and mulching. She effectively frames the cottage garden as a way to address climate change and the ensuing loss of pollinators, to grow food, to grow flowers, to entice kids to become lifelong gardeners, and overall, to ease stress through fragrance, color, sound, and touch. Throughout, photos of plants are smartly positioned near their mentions on the page. While many of her plant choices are best suited for the Poconos, many can also be planted elsewhere; in addition, experienced gardeners should be able to sort out the "right plant, right place" themselves. A newbie-friendly introduction to the wonderfully multifunctional cottage garden.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bee balm, gillyflowers, and rocket larkspur are some of the vibrant plants featured in gardener Hubbard's prudent debut guide to creating an English-style cottage garden. Dating back to the 12th century, the cottage garden is known for its abundant, informal look, featuring a diversity of colorful flowers and vegetables and meandering paths. Hubbard outlines seven steps to creating a cottage garden, including selecting the right plants (she recommends visiting gardens and parks to see what thrives locally) and sketching the layout. She takes into account such challenges as climate change, pollution, and food supply shortages, explaining how cottage gardens contribute to a healthier planet by replacing lawns with meadows that don't require chemical fertilizers or "gas-guzzling mowers" and are filled with native plants that support biodiversity. Gardeners can also donate the vegetables they grow to their community to address food inequality. Elsewhere, Hubbard offers advice for shoring up one's cottage garden against extreme weather events, like installing rain barrels to minimize the effects of heavy rainfall. She supports her shrewd guidance with her personal experiences growing up around her grandmother's cottage garden in England and eventually building her own in Pennsylvania. The result is a definitive resource for cultivating a thriving cottage garden. Photos. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
British-born garden writer Hubbard, who trains new master gardeners for Penn State Extension and gardens in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, shares her expertise in creating English-style cottage gardens in this beautiful, practical book. She begins with the history of cottage gardens, then describes the features that comprise this garden type: an informal plan; wide, curvy borders; a riot of color; dense plantings; and a mixture of plant types. She details the challenges today's gardeners face, including pollution, extreme weather, rising food prices, and increased stress, then offers solutions to each of these while creating sustainable English-style cottage gardens, with modifications for rain gardens and drought-tolerant and fire-resistant spaces. Step-by-step instructions, illustrated with helpful photographs, show how to design and plant the gardens; they are accompanied by lists of the author's favorite plants. Hubbard also covers how to grow vegetables using the square-foot gardening method and relieving stress through gardening. The book concludes with numerous projects to do with children to instill an early love of gardening. VERDICT Enhanced with myriad lovely color photographs, this easy-to-follow guide will be relished by gardeners of all levels of expertise who would like to create an organic, sustainable cottage-style garden.--Sue O'Brien
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