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Home Ground: Sanctuary in the City
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<!--StartFragment--> Ten years ago Dan Pearson found an extremely rare, large, neglected city plot and set out to design and create a garden space all of his own. Arranged by seasons, Dan shares the challenges of gardening his city plot in a romantic and beautifully written series of diary-like essays, documenting the horticultural tasks required and sharing his successes
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Hardcover, 272 pages
Published
September 7th 2011
by Conran
(first published March 7th 2011)
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“We should not feel separate from nature, we are part of it. We need to cover our footprints.”-Dan Pearson
What a beautiful book! Set in his home garden (in Beckham, Norfolk, England) Dan Pearson writes about his experience in 1997 to re-create the neglected garden of the home. It is written over a course of a year because he wanted to show the dramatic changes with the seasons.
When he bought the house, wild brambles had overwhelmed the whole back garden, it had been untended for years. He starte ...more
What a beautiful book! Set in his home garden (in Beckham, Norfolk, England) Dan Pearson writes about his experience in 1997 to re-create the neglected garden of the home. It is written over a course of a year because he wanted to show the dramatic changes with the seasons.
When he bought the house, wild brambles had overwhelmed the whole back garden, it had been untended for years. He starte ...more

Good gardening book.
Sometimes it is too encyclopedic, as the author lists plant after plant he uses and what each brings to his garden, along with the difficulties and joys of each plant.
But, following him as he considers his garden season by seasons provides a framework to think about your own. He notices and appreciates much more than just the bloom or smell of a good flower. He looks at colors and foliage and stems and heights in light and shade and when coupled with other flora and is effe ...more
Sometimes it is too encyclopedic, as the author lists plant after plant he uses and what each brings to his garden, along with the difficulties and joys of each plant.
But, following him as he considers his garden season by seasons provides a framework to think about your own. He notices and appreciates much more than just the bloom or smell of a good flower. He looks at colors and foliage and stems and heights in light and shade and when coupled with other flora and is effe ...more

I initially bought this book because I thought I was going to learn about the transformation of a garden. It is not that. It is more a book about how Dan Pearson deals with the seasons and the plants he loves. While I'm always looking for new plants I wish it had more photos of them as many times I had to pause and find a photo on the internet which never allowed me to get into the flow of what he was telling me. Although as someone with a smallish garden, I did learn some new ways to deal with
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Dan Pearson is a gardener and designer I have admired for many years and I often read his published press articles. From the early days, when I got my first garden and he had his first tv series, I've always felt I could relate to Dan's gardening style and ethos. Sadly, these days, I do not have a garden of my own and so reading gardening books is more of an escapism exercise, or planning for the long-term. I do garden on a small scale, in containers, but it's just not the same as having your ow
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A detailed account of a London garden, from its over-grown, neglected inception, to current glories by the renowned landscape architect Dan Pearson.
Following the seasons, Dan recounts the history of his garden, how each effect was achieved – through much hard work and many mistakes – in a narrative that combines pure, detailed landscape architecture, with his memories, stories about the plants, of course, but also the minutiae of the process: decking and garden tools, composting and wildlife, an ...more
Following the seasons, Dan recounts the history of his garden, how each effect was achieved – through much hard work and many mistakes – in a narrative that combines pure, detailed landscape architecture, with his memories, stories about the plants, of course, but also the minutiae of the process: decking and garden tools, composting and wildlife, an ...more

I am not sure if my rating of two is fair to Dan Pearson, but I am frustrated that here is another book on English gardening published for the US and purchased by US libraries! Very little of the United States has a climate like England and as a result, we can not grow what they do. Okay, I agree it is probably a fine book for the Pacific Northwest, but it is not okay for most of the rest of the country! We are too hot, too cold, too dry... Please publishers there are plenty of good American gar
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