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The Rurbanite: How to Live in the Country Without Leaving the City
In cities around the world, we are redefining our sense of urban living. No longer satisfied with a grey, sterile metropolis, we want the best of both worlds – the energy and diversity of the city, but a connection with nature too. Filled with practical advice, projects and inspiring stories from bus stop landscapers, guerilla gardeners, urban homesteaders and rooftop beekeepers from all over the world.
- GenresGardeningNonfiction
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Alex Mitchell
5 books2 followersAlex Mitchell is a writer and gardener who has grown her own fruit, salad, herbs and vegetables for years. She studied at the Chelsea Physic Garden and for the past five years her columns in The Sunday Telegraph have entertained readers with her experiences of turning her garden into an edible Eden. Alex lives and gardens in Greenwich, South-East London, with her partner and two young sons.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Alex^^Mitchell, gardener
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Alex^^Mitchell, gardener
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 14, 2020
I saw the book in my local library and took it home.
Nice in range in subject, but not too in depth. Not much information you couldn't get quicker from a google search or YouTube movie.
You would read this once, and if any of the subjects really interest you, you'd have to get some more in depth information. Mostly inspirational.
Nice in range in subject, but not too in depth. Not much information you couldn't get quicker from a google search or YouTube movie.
You would read this once, and if any of the subjects really interest you, you'd have to get some more in depth information. Mostly inspirational.
August 5, 2020
What you'd expect from a book written by and for someone who only reads magazines.
More of the specific advice on finding "common" urban spaces to reclaim for gardening hinges on being an attractive white woman than Mitchell probably realises, and all of the stuff about growing in your own limited space is blindingly obvious, though I do appreciate that someone just getting into a new hobby might need "permission" from a book to put a planter box or a trellis on their balcony. The advice regarding growing specific plants is interchangeable with that in pretty much any other book on the subject or, indeed, the back of most seed packets, and suffers from the usual lack of awareness that different climates exist (which seems to be a consequence of reading too many other bad gardening books rather than of every urban space in England having the same climate, or she wouldn't be recommending growing basil outside). For the urban gardener specifically, Mitchell also greatly underestimates the extent to which air pollution will fuck up your vegetables, especially if you're growing them in full soil; as a truly urban gardener you should probably just resign yourself to having to buy your lettuce in shops.
There's also a lot of Pinterest bait here, and the expected aside on seed bombing gets points for realising that many apparently barren (i.e. clearly green but non-photogenic) spaces often have their own ecosystems that seed bombs will disrupt, though it loses some for having no awareness of invasive plant species (a significant problem with seed bombers in my experience; most of them just order generic wildflower seed mixes from China or the US) or the fact that if a space looks like it should be able to support wildflowers but doesn't, there's usually a good reason for it.
The section on animals seems to be a bit confused about what constitutes a typical urban garden (two ducks require, per Mitchell, a 12✕12m space, and ideally multiples of that so you can rotate to let the grass recover), but I really appreciate that she advises people who want to keep chickens not to get a cockerel—far too many people in my neighbourhood have missed that memo.
In sum The Rurbanite isn't really any worse than any other gardening book, but that's mostly an indictment of your average gardening book. If you're completely new to gardening (which I guess many city dwellers would be) and you need some pictures to provide some broad direction, you could do worse, but you could also do much better by just locating and browsing your local garden centre—if nothing else, that will keep you from spending hundreds of unnecessary dollars on "frugal" gardening supplies online.
If you let this book inspire you to put a beehive in your city garden, though, you're a fucking sociopath.
More of the specific advice on finding "common" urban spaces to reclaim for gardening hinges on being an attractive white woman than Mitchell probably realises, and all of the stuff about growing in your own limited space is blindingly obvious, though I do appreciate that someone just getting into a new hobby might need "permission" from a book to put a planter box or a trellis on their balcony. The advice regarding growing specific plants is interchangeable with that in pretty much any other book on the subject or, indeed, the back of most seed packets, and suffers from the usual lack of awareness that different climates exist (which seems to be a consequence of reading too many other bad gardening books rather than of every urban space in England having the same climate, or she wouldn't be recommending growing basil outside). For the urban gardener specifically, Mitchell also greatly underestimates the extent to which air pollution will fuck up your vegetables, especially if you're growing them in full soil; as a truly urban gardener you should probably just resign yourself to having to buy your lettuce in shops.
There's also a lot of Pinterest bait here, and the expected aside on seed bombing gets points for realising that many apparently barren (i.e. clearly green but non-photogenic) spaces often have their own ecosystems that seed bombs will disrupt, though it loses some for having no awareness of invasive plant species (a significant problem with seed bombers in my experience; most of them just order generic wildflower seed mixes from China or the US) or the fact that if a space looks like it should be able to support wildflowers but doesn't, there's usually a good reason for it.
The section on animals seems to be a bit confused about what constitutes a typical urban garden (two ducks require, per Mitchell, a 12✕12m space, and ideally multiples of that so you can rotate to let the grass recover), but I really appreciate that she advises people who want to keep chickens not to get a cockerel—far too many people in my neighbourhood have missed that memo.
In sum The Rurbanite isn't really any worse than any other gardening book, but that's mostly an indictment of your average gardening book. If you're completely new to gardening (which I guess many city dwellers would be) and you need some pictures to provide some broad direction, you could do worse, but you could also do much better by just locating and browsing your local garden centre—if nothing else, that will keep you from spending hundreds of unnecessary dollars on "frugal" gardening supplies online.
If you let this book inspire you to put a beehive in your city garden, though, you're a fucking sociopath.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews