Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden by Keith Wiley: A review

Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden: Plants and Combinations that Thrive in the Shade by Keith Wiley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Keith Wiley is a gardener in the U.K., where he is a regular contributor to horticultural and lifestyle magazines and has appeared on many television programs about gardening. Over the last ten years, he and his wife have created a new garden from a bare field and they now run their own nursery there. His book is mostly directed at gardeners in his own country, but the principles he discusses, as well as many of the plants, have applicability in the U.S.

Woodlands are popular places in Nature the world over. They evoke a powerful response in people. The colors, textures, interplay of shade and lighting of such a place can impart a sense of peace and tranquillity which is extremely restful to the spirit. Thus, creating a woodland garden can mimic the atmosphere of that natural setting, which might help to explain why they are so popular.

Wiley explores the characteristics which help to make a well-designed woodland garden. Such a garden would certainly contain towering trees but could also have moss-covered stones and pockets of shade where colorful blooming bulbs can flourish. It might even contain a quiet water feature.

The key to a woodland garden, and indeed the key to any successful garden, is probably first of all the soil, but second, surely, is the choosing of the appropriate plants that will thrive in the setting. Much of this book is given over to a listing of woodland plants from trees and shrubs to ferns, grasses, and grass-like plants with a discussion of what is needed for their proper care and cultivation.

Wiley explains about the need to combine plants that enjoy similar conditions in order to create self-supporting colonies. He gives us his hand-picked selection of interesting, often less well-known, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, ferns, and grasses that will mingle easily with familiar favorites in order to create the woodland effect in a naturalistic style.

The principles which the author discusses are applicable whether one has a postage stamp-sized garden or several acres. His book should be a useful tool for anyone seeking to design and plant a woodland garden and see it grow and succeed.

(A copy of this book was provided to me free of charge by the publisher for the purposes of this review. No other remuneration was received and the views expressed here are entirely my own.)

View all my reviews

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

Search This Blog