Fearless Gardening: Be Bold, Break the Rules, and Grow What You Love

by Loree Bohl

Too many gardening books focus on the rules, telling gardeners "do this" and "don't do that."  Fearless Gardening seeks to liberate gardeners by showing them how to break the traditional rules to design creative gardens that defy expectations. Readers will learn how to discover their personal style, shop for unusual plants, expand their plant palette, use containers and other techniques to successfully grow a wide range of plants. Also includes profiles of fearless gardens around the country.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Plants

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 5, 2021

About the author

I hope to inspire people to look at plants differently and see their gardens through new eyes--to treat gardening as an adventure, to embrace the freedom to explore a new type of plant, and then to plant it just because they want to. Why not surround yourself with plants you love? Who cares if they're not supposed to be planted together, might eventually crowd each other, or aren't everyone's cup of tea? It's your garden and you should love it; you should be having fun.

I've been writing about plants and gardening on my blog, danger garden, since 2009. I've also penned several magazine articles, perhaps to the horror of the college professor who chastised me for using comic-book English. Writing is how I share my plant passion with other gardeners, and those just discovering the world of plants. However, I am first and foremost, a gardener. I want to grow all the plants--the more unusual the better. I also believe it's possible for a plant lover to have a cohesive, well-designed garden.

Remember, there's always room for one more plant...

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a different gardening book and such fun to read. The author has a gardening blog called danger garden that was coined from her own garden that was not just different but full of spiky plants and rule breaking in her Pacific Coast garden. The book talks about all the "garden rules" and why you should break them all. Along the way she profiles two of her garden heroes that promptly became mine, and she features oodles of photographs of her own unique garden and others that similarly break the rules to wonderful effects.

I definitely will be putting using some of her ideas next year in my garden. Near the end she profiles lots of plants that look exotic and tropical but are fairly cold hardy. Unfortunately, they are typically hardy to around zone 7, not to zone 4 like my Minnesota garden. The rest of the book gave me ideas to use and garden eye candy enough, though. A delightful read.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that Loree Bohl, the author, gives us permission to try things and fail. I think a lot of the learning process about gardening is about failure. You try things, and sometimes they just don’t work. Other times you grow things outside your zone and they are fabulous. Loree knows a lot about stretching her zone in her Danger Garden.

Great book for anyone who wants to grow outside the lines.

[Phillip Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept of “fearless gardening” encourages gardeners to defy convention and grow the plants they love. Author Loree Bohl has done just that in her Portland, Oregon garden where she grows an impressive collection of “spiky plants” like agaves and yuccas. Climate-wise, Portland may not seem like an ideal location for these types of plants but as she proves in the book, where there's a will, there is a way.

Influenced by Ruth Bancroft and Ganna Walska – who both created influential gardens in California, Bohl began to study how the plants she craved grew in the Pacific Northwest region and observed how adventurous gardeners in the area were using them.

Bohl advises readers that in order to pursue their desires, some long-established gardening rules have to be ignored. Ten commandments of gardening are totally debunked here and it all makes perfect sense. For example, the notion of planting in threes and making pathways that are wide enough for two people to walk side by side, are ridiculous when you have a small garden and want to grow as many plants as you can. However, as she explains, there should be a method to this audaciousness and good design should not be ignored.

A strong design sense is evident in Bohl's garden and she shows how a pleasing garden can be achieved by using repetition plants, creating vignettes, using texture and working with containers and vertical spaces when your real estate is limited. “Cramscaping” (using as many plants as you can without any bare ground showing) is a concept she highly recommends.

Learning what plants grow in your garden, experimenting with those that are considered marginal in your area, taking gardening zones with a grain of salt and working with micro-climates are just some of the concepts in this wonderfully inspiring book. Chapters are alternated with garden profiles of gardens, both corporate and individual, which illustrate gardeners who are stepping outside the box.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader. https://nonstopreaderbooks.blogspot.c...

Fearless Gardening is a really useful and somewhat profound book on gardening philosophy and design by Loree Bohl. Due out 5th Jan 2021 from Workman Publishing on their Timber Press imprint, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

All gardeners are familiar with the feelings of "but I can't (plant that there, grow that in this climate, plant those together, use this plant in this soil, etc)". The author presents a number of expository essays arranged thematically that, more or less, "yes you can and yes you should" (and here's how to do it). The technical/theory parts of the book are interwoven with profiles of unconventional gardeners gardening to the beats of their own drummers. The stories are inspiring and filled me with a desire to get into my garden and start digging (not really an option in late December).

There are a number of useful appendices included: plant lists, resources for further reading, gardens to visit (with private gardens delineated with a "P"), suppliers lists (aimed at North American readers), and a cross-referenced index.

The photography throughout is superlative - clear and easy to understand. This is an inspiring book with humor, wit, style, and useful relevant technical expertise. It would make a superlative gift, library acquisition, or for a garden club or school library.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read and go through because of so many of the local gardens that they talked about including my very own Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Edgefield McMenamin's and a few others that I know and love.

Gardening is always a work in progress, and if you're like me then you have about a 60% survival rate at the 12 month mark for anything you plant so it's nice to hear that other people experience some of the same challenges and see how they innovate and come up with some beautiful outdoor spaces.

[Abi · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF at 33%

Did really enjoy it but just need to come back to it and read when I am actually gardening! Not much activity on that front this year!

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved what I read and found it inspirational and informative.
I loved this book and I think it can help everyone to improve their gardening and to try new things.
An excellent and well written book, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Patch405 (Shannon Barghols) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It hit me on exactly the right day!

Honestly, flipping through it – I wasn’t that excited. As the author hails from the Pacific Northwest, I was expecting lush, thick landscape. What I found was lots of desert-styled plants. I’ve lived in Seattle and I’ve lived in Tucson. I much prefer the Seattle landscape.

However, I was committed to giving this book an honest look. And I’m so glad I did! Bohl delivers pure inspiration. She encourages the read to try, and try again. Explore. Challenge conventional wisdom. Do what makes you happy. I just loved at every turn, Bohl was encouraging me to do my own thing – garden rules be damned.

I also loved how the book included dozens of other gardens, and the philosophies of those owners. Each garden visit was just enough to spark your curiosity and provide some encouraging advice. Not too much detail, and not too little.

I highly recommend this book for all gardeners. With a January publication date, it will be the perfect winter read to inspire your spring gardening efforts!

I received a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. A blog of this review appears at: https://patch405.com/2020/11/03/book-...

[Misti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've followed Loree's garden from a far for several years so it was exciting to get her perspective on gardening through a book instead of online. This is very much a drool-worthy and plant collector's dream of a book and in another life my garden would look like so much in here! There are some very valuable tidbits of advice she throws out to readers that may make some folks bristle but if you aren't breaking some gardening rules, are you even gardening?

* I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my review*

[Tove R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the quotes and valuable advice in this book! I mean, who can argue with something like the only restriction in your garden is your bank account, or that you’re not a fool if you make mistakes, but you’re a fool if you don’t learn from them. Absolutely love this book! It’s true that everyone and everything around us is trying to put us in a box. We are told what to do and what not to do - but not this book!

I live so far up north and pretty much everything dies during winter, but not everything. It’s just about trying, failing, and learning. I know no one was born with perfect gardening skills, but sometimes it feels like it. Believe me, I’m not one of them... The advice in this book is not only good for gardening, but also life in general. Trying, failing, learning. Trying again, failing again, learning again.

If we do only what we’ve been told to do, there would be no progress or new things. Just do it! Try it! Don’t be afraid! This is what I learned from this book. Also, awesome pictures that makes pretty much everyone jealous. Jealous in a good way - now readers have to try for themselves and see what they can create!

[Root_rambler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a really useful book if you're in the Pacific Northwest like the author. I follow her blog and was hoping it would be a little more applicable to the rest of the country (like Maryland, where I am). Some of the plants have possibility here- we're in zone 7- but others not so much. The pictures are beautiful, and I appreciated the author's philosophy of 'breaking the rules' and encouraging people to do what makes *them* happy and push planting zone boundaries if they want. I got my library to buy this book because I wasn't sure I needed it on my shelf. I didn't, but also I feel a little bad because I made a library in MD buy a book so focused on the Pacific Northwest. Oh well... Worth a read if you can get your hands on it. It's a fast read, I can pretty much sum it up by saying "don't worry about garden rules, do what you like, try stuff out, don't be afraid to make mistakes"- pretty much the guidelines for any creative practice, but again, good encouragement.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pandemic has brought so many new gardeners into the fold and they arrived with such high expectations that it was sad to see their disappointment over minor setbacks like a few dead plants and minor insect damage. The text of this book is exactly what these gardeners need, to be fearless and go follow their vision. Unfortunately, Loree Bohl features only relatively warm dry climate gardens like those in southern California. As a result, the photographs have little to offer gardeners who have wetter and colder climates. Another very major deficient of this book is that Bohl completely neglects the discussion of planting native plants in our gardens. Today with our knowledge of the climate and environmental challenges facing our planet this is unacceptable. This is a book to read but sadly not one that offered me any visual inspiration.

[Alison Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! As a Pacific Northwest gardener, it was so refreshing to hear "you can grow what you want, it's your garden!". I definitely appreciated learning the term "zonal denial" which is something I have, now I'm labeled! Sometimes, it's okay if you purchase a plant and it's purpose is to stun and excite you-- yet it's treated like an annual because of colder winters. I already buy annuals (petunias etc) with the expectation of one season of color, but it is pretty fun to grab a plant that may or may not survive the winter. I mean, there are some awesome tropical looking plants that are completely worth a try. I reccommend this book to any PNW gardener, young or old. The pictures and examples are great- check it out!

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked this book enough but was very disappointed that the plant focus was mainly on succulents and spiky things! How about being fearless and planting an all blue and yellow front garden to match your house? Which happens to be my next big garden leap, after brief affairs with daffodils (2016-20), alliums (2021-23), and dahlias (2024)... Or how about a cramscaped cutting bed cottage garden? Where is the totally edible front yard garden? It seemed very unfair to talk about growing what you love and then the author only shows us what she loves. I appreciate that she gives permission to fail, but that's not my particular problem...

[Sara Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fearless Gardening by Loree Bohl was an inspiring read.

While it is not a book I would run out and buy, it would be worth checking out from a local library for some inspiration on your current or future garden.

I loved the reminders that even experienced gardeners still kill plants and that there is no wrong way or one way to create your garden space. While these concepts are easy, I find we often forget about them.

I did not find it to be an exciting read overall.

I received an eARC from Timber Press through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

[Amy Dendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fearless Gardening was filled with hope and inspiration for novice and experienced gardeners alike. You will feel encouraged to take reasonable gardening and planting risks. It extols the virtues of “try again” and the perspective of gardening is very much a learning process.. I enjoyed the format of the book with inspirational essays thematically interspersed amongst illustrations,plans, and tips. Gardners of all levels will feel inspired after viewing this book.

[June Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This unique gardening book has a fun narrative, beautiful photos, and good tips from several experienced gardeners.

I especially enjoyed seeing the photos of the floral arrangements and wreaths the author made using items from her own gardens.

I borrowed this book from the local public library system.

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[jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, engagingly written, about not being afraid to break the traditional rules of gardening and of pushing the envelope of the possible when it comes to plant selection. The author has a particular penchant for succulents.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, this is meant to give home gardeners the courage to fail, a good concept. But it’s a little heavy on gimmicks and, to me, otherwise banal advice. Also very skewed to growing conditions that favor cactus and agave. Still, a beautifully formatted book graphically that works well as a paperback.

[Laura Gilfillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author lives in Oregon and likes spiky plants. She has to stretch a few rules in order to grow them. Much of her advice is useful, although I have to say, I don't have any particular interest in growing spiky plants.

[A_s · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Lots of good ideas on why you don't need to follow typical gardening ideas when something else works better for you. Be your own gardener and don't feel bad about it.

Full of great inspiration for the xeric or dry gardener.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got one or two ideas out of this gardening book. A lot of information that is helpful but I was more interested in photos.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Best thing about this one...was the pictures. A couple of tips but overall, most of the gardening was about the Pacific Northwest so it didn't apply much to the desert.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is perfect for those that want to add southwestern garden elements to a PNW garden.