An inspiring guide that shows those new to gardening how to create a beautiful, new perennial garden in a small space.
Beginner gardeners blessed with gardens rarely know where to start. But Lucy Bellamy’s Brilliant & Wild promises a magical thing: a garden from scratch in a year, with barely any maintenance or horticultural knowledge necessary.
It could sound too good to be true. But Bellamy, like Dutch landscape gardener Piet Oudolf, has selected a handsome variety of hardy perennials that will flourish without taking over. Unlike Oudolf, she is delightfully easy going in design, instead gently steering the reader into an excited confidence about making a plan. Bellamy lends guidance on the essentials – measuring and markers – before urging her readers to just crack on with the planting.
It’s an infectious approach. The argument that urban soil is perfect for perennials – its low fertility creates tough plants that grow pleasingly in tandem – is refreshing for city-based gardeners who have bemoaned their overworked earth.
The finer details of growing are simple but Bellamy doesn’t oversimplify the botany. She starts with a genuinely useful and succinct explanation of how to understand Latin plant names, before using them throughout the book. As a result, they are demystified. Selfishly, as a container gardener, I found myself clamouring for tips for smaller spaces, although I revelled in the inspiration Jason Ingram’s photography provides.
Bellamy doesn’t scrimp on the wildlife benefits of the perennial garden, specifying each plant’s appeal for insects. Urban gardening has long ignored the nature around it, but even if one garden in every street adopted Bellamy’s plan, our cities would be more buzzing and beautiful. Brilliant & Wild makes that seem enticingly possible.