Title: Wild about Weeds
Author: Jack Wallington
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
Release Date: October 21, 2019
Pages: 176
Book Source: NetGalley
“Not all weeds are ugly uncontrollable brutes. Yes, they can be difficult and intimidating, but by learning how to grow weeds in unexpected ways you will become a better gardener with a more interesting garden.
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This book profiles over 50 weeds and shows you surprising ways to grow them, no matter what your garden type: from borders to boxes, sunny to shady, poor soil to rich, tropical to formal, Japanese-style to prairies.
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With interviews, tips and advice from celebrated gardeners, learn how to let weeds flourish without taking control. Wild about Weeds is the must-have guide for modern gardeners that explains how to tame and nurture the most challenging of plants.” – Amazon
Kim’s Review
What a wonderful reference guide for gardeners and herbalists. As an herbalist in training, I have studied many of these plants and am excited to now have the knowledge to grow some of them in my yard. One person’s weed is another person’s or animal’s food or medicine source.
A friend of mine has lots of acres where I am able to forage for plants, but I need to be able to identify them. The photos in Wild about Weeds does an excellent job capturing the flowers, leaves, and stem so I know if it’s the correct plant. There are also details in regards to their parts that make identification even easier.
Wild about Weeds begins with a brief history of garden weeds and how to design with them. It also includes some weeds that people now consider to be good and often grow in their gardens, along with weeds that are really invasive or you may want to avoid for other reasons. Jack Wallington tells you how to go hunting for weeds and how to collect and store their seeds. And once you find the plants, how to move and divide them, as well as managing them and how they fit into plant communities.
The plants are divided into various chapters in regards to what sunlight and soil they grow best in. There isn’t a zone included, but that is easy enough to look up on the internet. Some of the chapters include; weeds for rich, damp soils, weeds for colorful, sunny borders, weeds for ground cover, and many other areas and weather situations.
Each plant has a detailed section including how to care for it, the effort to grow it, rebelliousness, plant family, maximum size, color, flowers, pot friendly, soil, situation, range, and origin. There are interviews with gardeners and landscapers interspersed between the weed descriptions. And the book includes more resources and websites for you to gather even more knowledge.
With so many gardening books written about vegetables and flowers, I am very happy to find a good one in regards to weeds. The only thing is, I wish even more plants were included!
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