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Sowing Beauty: Designing Flowering Meadows from Seed
“A hopeful and expansive book for the gardener who sees a field as a canvas.” — Publishers Weekly
James Hitchmough is well-regarded in the design world for his exuberant, colorful, and flower-filled meadows. His signature style can be seen in prominent places like London’s Olympic Park and the Botanic Garden at the University of Oxford. Using a distinct technique of sowing meadows from seed, he creates plant communities that mimic the dramatic beauty of natural meadows and offer a succession of blooms over many months—a technique that can be adapted to work in both large-scale public gardens and smaller residential gardens. Sowing Beauty shows you how to recreate Hitchmough’s masterful, romantic style. You'll will learn how to design and sow seed mixes that include a range of plants, both native and exotic, and how to maintain the sown spaces over time. Color photographs show not only the gorgeous finished gardens, but also all the steps along the way.
James Hitchmough is well-regarded in the design world for his exuberant, colorful, and flower-filled meadows. His signature style can be seen in prominent places like London’s Olympic Park and the Botanic Garden at the University of Oxford. Using a distinct technique of sowing meadows from seed, he creates plant communities that mimic the dramatic beauty of natural meadows and offer a succession of blooms over many months—a technique that can be adapted to work in both large-scale public gardens and smaller residential gardens. Sowing Beauty shows you how to recreate Hitchmough’s masterful, romantic style. You'll will learn how to design and sow seed mixes that include a range of plants, both native and exotic, and how to maintain the sown spaces over time. Color photographs show not only the gorgeous finished gardens, but also all the steps along the way.
364 pages, Hardcover
Published April 19, 2017
16 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 10, 2018
Gardening books are, more often than not, written by professional horticulturists or gardening enthusiasts. The aim is to provide practical advice or, at the very least, a beautiful volume to lay on the coffee table. This one, however, is by the hand of an academic who, incidentally, has worked for urban planning or other institutional agencies, on projects such as London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. As a result, the style of James Hitchmough’s book is slightly atypical. Firstly, it’s unclear if it is intended for professional landscapers or the regular guy tending to his lawn on weekends. Secondly, it’s a bit verbose, just as academic papers use to be.
Be it as it may, it is an excellent book on the rare topic of how to create a flowering steppe and use grasses and forbs on slopes and gardens, all from seeds only —which is much more cost-effective than putting actual plants in the ground. From climate considerations to herbaceous mix design to weeding, sowing and managing, pretty much everything is covered. The pictures (most of which are by the author) show some carefully designed meadow-like gardens that look enchanting —even better than a real wildflower prairie!
Be it as it may, it is an excellent book on the rare topic of how to create a flowering steppe and use grasses and forbs on slopes and gardens, all from seeds only —which is much more cost-effective than putting actual plants in the ground. From climate considerations to herbaceous mix design to weeding, sowing and managing, pretty much everything is covered. The pictures (most of which are by the author) show some carefully designed meadow-like gardens that look enchanting —even better than a real wildflower prairie!
December 6, 2018
Unlike too many gardening books which are just pretty pictures with forgettable text, this has detailed, practical, professional-level text along with pretty pictures. I felt a bit as though someone’s advanced degree thesis paper had snuck into a coffee table book. It was readable for the layperson though.
I learned so much. I’ll return to this book for years. The author is the maestro - he’s worked around the globe and is truly obsessed with meadows. This reveals what he’s learned from his life’s work.
I learned so much. I’ll return to this book for years. The author is the maestro - he’s worked around the globe and is truly obsessed with meadows. This reveals what he’s learned from his life’s work.
April 21, 2020
The beginning and end of meadow books, this book describes seeding, planting, mowing, growing seasons, compatibility, and color arrangements. A bit technical for me, and really didn't help me for my growing #4, but very informative and well written.
September 21, 2020
This book is incredibly inspirational and organized, with lots of practical advice and information on everything from germination to siting plants to mulching and design. His examples of his past projects contain detailed breakdowns of the plant species used.
March 6, 2022
Beautiful and technical
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews