On the shelf
Colourful new book is chock full of tips, tricks and projects to enhance your outdoor space
A colourful new book by Christina Symons and John Gillespie is rich with tips, tricks and projects for green thumbs.
To the average green thumb who finds gardening intimidating, and frets over colour and growing season, Christina Symons has a simple rule: there are no rules. Symons and her partner John Gillespie think gardening should be less serious and more fun, and that’s just what they set out to prove when they starting turning soil and experimenting on their Roberts Creek property. Now, they’ve gathered all their ideas and inspirations in a new book, Sow Simple: 100 + Green and Easy Projects to Make Your Garden Awesome ( Harbour Publishing, $ 29.95). It’s 208 pages of breezy tips on planting, pruning and propagation for the home gardener, or what the couple — he’s a landscape designer and horti-culturalist and she’s a freelance writer and photographer — calls a “down and dirty” gardening philosophy. In the book’s five chapters, Symons and Gillespie cover everything from getting started to taking chances to design concepts. You’ll also find creative ways to showcase your garden’s bounty inside the home and in easy- to- make recipes. The book, which includes everything from water features to beautiful benches to living gates, is a bonanza of creative projects, each with a step- by- step guide, inspirational ideas and more than 250 gorgeous photographs. Symons suggests using salvaged finds to create your own garden accents. An example of this is featured on the book’s front cover, where an old typewriter, along with some chicken wire, moss, soil and blooms, was transformed into a “quaint container”. Gardening, after all, is what you make it. It’s about creating and experimenting. It’s about getting your hands dirty and having fun. It really is, sow simple. Also on the shelf is the couple’s first book, Everyday Eden: 100 + Fun, Green Garden Projects for the Whole Family to Enjoy. On the Web, check out their blog at everydayeden. com.