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Showing how gardening ideas come around increasingly quickly, The Thrifty Gardener comes 18 years after Alys Fowler's landmark book (from Kyle, now part of Octopus/Hachette) of a similar name.
Fowler wrote her timely book during the credit crunch. Garden designer Lane, also another TV gardener, has written his book during uncertain geopolitical times, though he could hardly have predicted the Iran war's impact on the economy. Fowler was all about skip-diving for wine crates, upcycling them into window boxes, anti-consumerism and swapping plants with friends. This new generation of gardeners is now middle-aged, and at peak career.
So while Fowler’s audience was often young and rebellious, this new generation of "thrifty" gardeners has matured and their motivation for thrift has evolved; where Fowler focused on financial necessity, Lane anchors his advice in the urgent reality of climate change and the popular trend of rewilding. An admirable character, Lane tackles an admirable subject: how to be less wasteful.
Lane's book, for Frances Lincoln, now part of Quarto, covers understanding the garden, planning the design, choosing the plants and caring for them. Then there's the usual seasonal tasks guide.
He begins with the familiar survey of your plot: temperature, soil type, wind and sun. The there's the plant and design phase with cheaper and more sustainable, and using repurposed materials such as colander hanging baskets.
As a garden designer, he's good on setting budgets and when you need to call in the professionals. Tree felling, patios, walling, steps and electrics may be beyond the hobbyist. Lane has lots of low-budget ideas such as making your own compost, or plant supports.
Choosing the right plants for the right place is a thrifty idea, as well as a mainstream one. Propagation, seed collecting, layering, and stem, leaf and root cuttings are standard advanced gardening techniques that are well described. There's a good few pages on shrubs, climbers, edibles etc that Lane considers thriftier than those he doesn't include, often because they are low maintenance, self-seeding or long-lasting, just as the thrifty gardening concept has proved to be.
