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cybermuleThis book is a series of diary extracts written by Monty Don as he basically set his rural garden up from scratch after the collapse of his jewellery business and subsequent depression. His style is occasionally annoying, and being a book very much on one theme, you do get fed up of certain obsessive issues of his. For example, pleached limes. Love you Mont, but shut up about your damn pleaching already! ;) Another thing that is hard to get used to is that the diary extracts, although pretty much covering every day within the year, are taken from many years of journal-keeping. So the timeline that is days in the year actually wanders through many dimensions, where dimensions = years. It's cool enough when you get used to it.
Obviously I loved this book because I love Monty and I love gardening. But I did roadtest it on0ct0pus and it seems to have a general appeal too. You get a good insight into what makes gardeners tick, why gardening is worthy, and particularly why gardening is therapeutic - I'd like to read more of his books on this theme. Monty is also a good advocate of gardening as an imprecise art, rather than the technical exactitude a lot of books seem to imply, so that has to be good :)
Obviously I loved this book because I love Monty and I love gardening. But I did roadtest it on
0ct0pus and it seems to have a general appeal too. You get a good insight into what makes gardeners tick, why gardening is worthy, and particularly why gardening is therapeutic - I'd like to read more of his books on this theme. Monty is also a good advocate of gardening as an imprecise art, rather than the technical exactitude a lot of books seem to imply, so that has to be good :)
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Date: 2010-06-20 09:13 am (UTC)Can I pleach plums? As I already have one, can I pleach peaches?
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Date: 2010-06-20 09:16 am (UTC)Book Review - The Ivington Diaries [Monty Don]
Date: 2010-06-20 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-20 07:34 pm (UTC)There's a lot of information out there on big roofs, and on commercial products to make expensive roofs quickly (not such a bad idea as it sounds, within limits). There's also the obsolete stuff from CAT. The good stuff though, for DIY projects on garage-scale roofs, all seems to come from either Nigel Dunnett at Sheffield Uni, or else the pay-download guide at livingroofs.org (sample PDF's worth a read).
Really though, the recipe for constructing one varies a lot, depending on what you want, what you're spending, and such things as height restrictions to dodge planning (like mine) or space for overhanging eaves (none on mine). Mine blew its budget completely when I switched from "rainproof shed that wasn't ugly" into "fully-insulated and lined workshop". The small details matter (Method X of joining DPM membranes will fail, how much standing water should you allow under your soil, etc.) but the big stuff is oddly flexible. You can have any soil depth you like, from an inch to a foot, it just brings different implications with it. Soil has mass and volume you can't really change, as do wheelbarrows. So work out first how much weight you've hauling up there, and get ready to deal with it!
Mine is an inch of vermiculite, geotextile, then three inch of sandy local soil. As it's flat, it holds up to an inch of water underneath. Vegetation is a mixture of sparse sedums, sempervivens and mostly the gaps filled with meadow-mix grass seed. A couple of seasons of drought, winter swamp and natural selection do the rest.
I'm planning another one on a spare concrete garage: lightweight, cheap, 30degree slope. This will have about an inch of soil / vermiculite / coir / coffee grounds mix on it, and will probably need to have some sedums bought for it, as it will be sloping, thus runs dry.
We need a barbecue soon, come over and see it in daylight.
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Date: 2010-06-21 09:02 am (UTC)http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.d-i-y/browse_frm/thread/a53a3b44c52421ac/a2ba52799c4005d9
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Date: 2010-06-21 08:04 pm (UTC)