The Urban Gardener - Softcover

Since 1996 Elspeth Thompson has chronicled the successes and disasters that beset her tiny London garden and her newly acquired allotment in a regular column in the Sunday Telegraph. These articles are gathered together in Urban Gardener which not only makes fascinating reading but proves that however small and depressing a garden appears, it can be transformed with a bit of imagination and determination.

Thompson admits to being an amateur gardener when she started but her enthusiasm shines through the book. Yes, she has always dreamed of a large garden with trees and a vegetable plot with views of fields beyond, but when all there was at the back of her house was a twenty-two foot square of "wall-to-wall red concrete with a fine crop of chickweed coming up through the cracks", she saw the challenge.

Thompson's writing is not confined to her own garden either. She travels around, talks to experts and includes a practical index on places to visit, books to read, plant and seed suppliers and other useful addresses.

This is a book that will make you laugh, feel Thompson's frustrations and give you many ideas. As she discovered, even in a small garden you can have a statue and even in London you can be an organic gardener. Dip into it or read it from cover to cover. If you have an impossible town garden this is a book that will gently show you how to deal with it.--Judy Wyles