NOTES from. the bookshelf // June picks

Looking things up online is great but sometimes you can't beat a reference book from classic Roger Phillips, Richard Mabey, and Jekka McVicar to a new compendium of garden style ideas.

I use reference books a lot in my work but some I go back to time after time, the ones that end up piled up on my desk, kitchen table, or beside the garden door rather than staying neatly stacked on the shelf. It’s great being able to look things up online but there’s just something about being able to flick through the pages of a well illustrated, well written book. Here are just a few of the publications I used over the past month:

Wild Flowers of Britain – Over a thousand species by photographic identification by Roger Phillips (Pan Books Ltd, 1977)

I took this one into school to show the kids when I was teaching them about the concept behind ‘No Mow May’ as we liberated a front patch of lawn for summer. ‘A book from before the Internet’ I declared (the web widely considered to be officially launched in 1983), and then spent most of the lesson showing them the difference between a dandelion, a spotted cat’s ear, coltsfoot, perennial sow thistle and marsh sow thistle. Some of them had never seen a book like this before and were truly amazed by the flat lay photographs that showed everything they needed to identify what was growing underfoot – and in some cases now up to my knees. It’s also arranged chronologically rather than by plant family so it was fun to also show them how wildflowers appear seasonally and what might crop up if we opted for ‘No Mow Forever’.

Food for Free – The complete guide to help you safely identify edible species that grow around us, together with detailed artwork, photographs, field identification notes and recipes by Richard Mabey (Harper Collins, 2021; first edition 1972)

Another brilliant classic of a book, I took this one out to see what Richard had to say about some of the common ‘weeds’ in the school garden such as hairy bittercress and shepherd’s purse. As suspected the former can be eaten, the leaves having a pleasant mild peppery flavour that be used as a substitute for cress – which is good because there is so much of this pesky annual we spend half our gardening lessons pulling it out. The latter is also edible, again slightly peppery in taste, and is apparently popular in China where it is stir-friend like cabbage and Chinese leaf. Good to know for my own backyard where it is popping up in colonies between the paving stones. Weeds so often are also herbs or edible survival foods and it’s essential to pass this knowledge on for who knows what the future brings. Always be prepared, I say.

The Complete Essential Oils Sourcebook – A practical approach to the use of essential oils for health and well-being by Julia Lawless (Thorsons, 2016)

I worked on one of Julia’s books a few years ago – The Essential Aromatherapy Garden – and know her to be one of the UK’s top experts in aromatherapy and a good educator and author too. I use this one often to find the trusted balance of essential oils for particular ailments and got it out to show a friend how scent might help their anxiety. I’m also suffering from bouts of stress and anxiety post divorce and house move so it was a good note to self to take my own advice too. I’ve since been carrying around an easy to make rollerball of sweet almond oil with clary sage, ylang ylang, and lavender that I can massage into my pulse points whenever I feel my nervous system needs a calm. There’s a great write up about scent and stress at the front, which reminds how ‘the sense of smell is intimately connected with, and influences the functioning of, the central nervous system’ – something I’m currently researching for another book.

Planting the Natural Garden by Piet Oudolf & Henk Gerritsen (Timber Press, 2019)

I can tell I’ve got my gardening mojo back when I get this one out, a perfectly sized and expertly written guide to choosing, using, and combining perennials including flowers, grasses, and interesting foliage plants. Written by pioneers of the New Perennial Movement, Piet Oudolf and the late Henk Gerritsen and edited by Noel Kingsbury, the first section is a detailed directory of plants including numerous suggested cultivars that can really help personalise a design. The second half is where the magic really comes in, with tried and tested suggestions of how to use various plants, with subtitles such as airy, exuberant, or autumn, helping narrow things down. Finally there are planting plans, ideas for combinations, and crucially – how many plants per square metre if you’re planning a drift. I’ve only currently got a small border in my new garden but then the edit is even more crucial.

The Handmade Apothecary – Healing Herbal Remedies by Vicky Chown and Kim Walker (Kyle Books, 2017)

May was a month of getting back to the herbs for me and this is one of my favourite herbal remedy books, being one of the first to hit the scene a few years back and still standing the test of time in content and design. Written by Kim Walker and Vicky Chown, both trained medical herbalists and foragers (Kim also has a doctorate in the study of quinine, while Vicky teaches permaculture at the fabulous Omved Gardens and Queens Wood Community Garden as well as co-organising the Seed Saving Network), I’ve also been using this book to help research the use of herbs and plants for various body systems, but then can’t help making some of the recipes and remedies at the same time. Good to see Herb Robert in there which is so abundant at this time of year; use it as a mosquito repellent or to staunch small wounds or nosebleeds, although it does have a strange ‘burnt rubber’ smell.

Garden Style – A Book of Ideas by Heidi Howcroft and Marianne Majerus (Mitchell Beazley, 2023)

This is a new book that I’ve currently got by my bed in the hope of garnering some ideas for my new garden. I’m slightly obsessed with the endpapers, which are a beautiful bright yellow filter over a border of lupins and irises, so I keep taking it out to stare at those too. There’s a lot to take in as it’s crammed with detailed case studies and photographs of beautifully imagined and planted spaces by some of the world’s leading garden designers, helpfully divided up into ‘styles’ such as formal, informal, country, growing edibles, artistic and forward-thinking. The upfront section helps you plan your plot, while the ‘finishing touches’ chapter includes helpful advice about styling the garden with furniture, pots, water features, or lighting. I might be here a while with this one.

Jekka’s Complete Herb Book by Jekka McVicar (Kyle Books, 2011)

I’ve been redoing my herb garden and have been mourning the loss of quite a few heritage herbs that I sourced from Jekka’s Herb Farm and had to leave in my old plot. This absolute must of a herb book reminds me where my gaps are and has me making an ample shopping list of less well-known herbs such as sweet cicely, lovage, lemon verbena and anise hyssop to grow in a dedicated herb garden and among my ornamentals and other edibles. Each herb gets at least a page (and this is large format) in which everything you need to know about growing it and using it medicinally or as a food are laid out. There’s also a great spread of scented geraniums that I now feel compelled to start collecting, once I get a dedicated space to protect them from winter frosts. Dreaming on.

The Heritage Herbal – Recipes and Remedies for Modern Living (British Library Publishing, 2020)

I wrote this one but I also use it a lot knowing just how much research went into each and every recipe and remedy and collecting all the knowledge from heritage herbals through time. I haven’t been able to access many of my herbal ingredients or equipment recently so it’s been great reorganising my store cupboards, re-establishing a herb garden, and then delving back into the pages of my book to craft herbal recipes and remedies inspired by the seasons but also what I might need in the everyday. I also leave several copies of my book at school to use with the children when we’re talking about, tasting, and drawing herbs as the illustrations by Elizabeth Blackwell (from her 18th-century masterpiece A Curious Herbal) are so exquisitely drawn and coloured. You can buy this one from me if you’re local – still have a few copies spare.