How to make a wildflower meadow: Tried-And-Tested Techniques for New Garden Landscapes Hardcover – 22 Sept. 2016

Great read and very informative

Well written, concise and orderly, lovely book, will read many times over thanks Mike.

nice book; helpful and well laid out

Comprehensive coverage of subject with good pictures of the stages of wildflower field, meadow 'small area's development .

Pictures and easy instructions presant for .y son who has found it really helpful

A present, look ideal for a novice wildflower grower.

This is a book-long advert.The book starts by talking about the different ways you can create a wildflower meadow - nothing wrong with that. But it talks a lot about the risks of using seed, and about the benefits of turf and the 'latest advancement' of an 'innovative' wildflower earth. When I looked up wildflower earth, it's only available from one site - the manufacturer's, who also sell turf.Again and again the book impresses the benefit of turf and earth. I started to get suspicious, and looking into the manufacturer in more detail I learned that the 'managing partner' is James Hewetson-Brown - the author of this book. He doesn't mention anywhere in the book his involvement in the products he's advocating - at least not that I could see.What's more, even if you did want to buy wildflower earth, you won't be able to as they only sell to trade. You also won't be able to get any costs form them - as again, that's only for trade.The second half of the book is case studies, some of which are interesting. But again, it feels like there's a general push for the author's own products. Nothing overt - but once I'd noticed it, I kept spotting it everywhere.Overall, this seems like a disingenuous book that's more for self-promotion than anything else.

great book

An excellent resource for anyone considering a meadow project. It provides clear directions with ample photos of how to both establish and maintain a meadow using both traditional and newer meadow making methods (wildflower turf and wildflower earth), which aren't commonly used in the US. And while extolling the beauty and benefits of meadows, the author helps set realistic expectations as far as the time and work involved, as well as the natural cycles of plants, i.e. don't expect a profusion of color all season. All told in a delightful way that is accessible to folks who are new to establishing meadows while full of details that will appeal to the more seasoned landscaper.

This book covers everything you need to know about starting a wildflower area. Great photographs throughout the book. It is good for the experienced gardner as well as the beginning gardener

I ordered this book together with another one on similar topic "Sowing Beauty" By James Hitchmough hoping to get a very instructive step-by-step guide how to create a meadow in a private garden. I relied on comments by other people who had bought this book before. I have to say that I was very disappointed by the book as the content is very superficial and mostly deals with turf mats whereas sowing techniques are undermined. There's no information about choosing seed mixes or creating your own seed mix and many other important staff. I don't think I'll be referring to this book in the future in my endeavors to create a meadow in my own garden. Hope this will help others in choosing the right source of knowledge on this matter.

I stopped reading at page 53, where Hewetson-Brown recommends the use of glyphosate (Round Up) to prepare the ground for a wildflower meadow."...the benefits of introducing a wildflower meadow far outweigh the use of a tried-and-tested chemical," he writes.As a Master Gardener and naturalist, I can say with certainty that he has lost all credibility with me.