Brilliant and Wild: A Garden from Scratch in a Year

When I read of the recent publication of Brilliant and Wild I did not hesitate to order a copy as it seemed to resonate with my interest in the wildlife-friendly new perennial movement. The author, former primary school teacher Lucy Bellamy, trained at the Chelsea Physic Garden and with the RHS and worked as a freelance garden journalist writing for The Guardian, The Times and Modern Garden amongst others before becoming the editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine in March 2017.The back cover of the book makes a bold and compelling claim. “From back-of-an-envelope plan to flower-filled paradise - Brilliant and Wild: A Garden from Scratch in a Year gives even the most inexperienced gardener the chance to create a beautiful and wildlife-friendly space - from nothing - in just twelve months.” With this in mind I dived straight into the book and was immediately impressed with its clear layout, generously supplemented with beautiful photographs by James Ingram.The introduction is poetic in the way that it paints an image in the reader's mind of the garden that awaits them if they follow the philosophy and guidance set out within the pages of the book. “A brilliant and wild garden is never still. It trumpets a fanfare for every season and celebrates every kind of weather. Shoots shoot, blooms burst, seeds embellish, frost gilds.”Lucy devotes almost half of the book to describing the plants from which to create your Brilliant and Wild garden. The plants are grouped by inflorescence type, umbellifers, spikes, dots, flatheads, panicles and grasses, with a separate section devoted to bulbs, corms and tubers. The description for each plant includes why you should grow it, its size, wildlife benefits and what goes well with it. There are also recommendations as to the best species or cultivars to look out for.After celebrating the beauty of winter seed heads Lucy turns to the design and selection of plants that work well together. Using between four and seven plants, there are five simple planting plans that demonstrate how to weave the plants together and to serve as inspiration and information for the reader.Lucy then moves on to the practicalities of calculating how many plants you will need and to sourcing them before getting down to the business of planting your own Brilliant and Wild garden. Once planted, the book then looks at the wealth of insects and birds that you can expect to attract and the role they play in the ecology of your new garden as well as maintenance and some helpful hints and tips should things not go quite as planned.Finally the book includes a handy calendar showing when the plants described flower and display their seed heads as well as a resources section listing nurseries and suggestions for a couple of gardens to visit.Will I plant a Brilliant and Wild garden? Probably not in the way Lucy describes in her book, for one thing, there is no way that I could restrict my planting to a just handful of reliable perennials! I do however see myself using her ideas to introduce more elements of perennial planting into my own garden. This book is aimed at the inexperienced, time-poor gardener who wants the garden to work for them and not the other way around, but equally, seasoned gardeners can be encouraged to look afresh at their relationship with their own gardens. It is a book that is full of promise and will I believe encourage readers of all ages, especially those who are new to gardening, to have a go at creating their own Brilliant and Wild garden.

What an amazing gardening book!! The concept is, well, BRILLIANT... and promising. Insert disclaimer here: I have not used the principles within this book but will at the earliest chance!Like many, in an effort to support declining pollinators, I planned to create a wildflower meadow in my garden. I was ready to order turf seeded with wildflowers. I am so happy I didn't as this wild garden will better suit our existing garden, give us a wider array of colourful flowers with greater longevity, height and texture diversity.I know this review is crazily random but I am very excited by this idea and the genius of it. Lucy Bellamy has created a plant puzzle that can be customised and scaled to suit any gardener's taste. The principle is simple: select an assortment of plants, create a blocked garden plan for your area, buy smaller sized/cheaper plants and grow!The idea is pure genius as is the layout of the book. We start with plant categories. The categories are divided into umbellifers, spikes, dots, flatheads, panicles, grasses and bulbs/corms/tubers. Within each category are pages of beautiful plants that are good for nature. Each page details a plant, explains why it is good (and for whom), gives details about the plant (colour, height, spacing, etc), the best species to choose and lists the other plants it goes well with (both flowers and grasses). You pick 7+/- plants you like best, mixing between the categories and picking different heights, then work on the plan. Lucy's got loads of templates and example plans that mix and match the categories and gives lots of planting guidance. This book is a gem for experienced gardeners and novices alike.Picking plants will be the hardest part for me as I love them all. I made a list of the plants I liked best and my list goes well beyond 7. I decided to give a tick to each 'works well with' plant that matched a plant from my list. Those with the most ticks are my plants. I'm pleased with the selection and now am off to work on my plan. I cannot wait to go shopping and get planting. Thank you, Lucy, for your terrific system!

I'm a fairly experienced amateur gardener, and I bought this book as I have a new garden to whip into shape. Previous owners had no interest in gardening so I have a blank canvas - a large square filled with nothing but perennial weeds. The description suggested Ms. Bellamy's book would be an ideal publication to help me get the bones of the garden sorted out within 12 months. I've followed her other writings in various publications so I felt this was a worthwhile purchase.There are barely any photos showing the establishment of a new garden from scratch. No real sense of before and after. Nothing, pictorially (which is important when guiding readers through what is very much a visual discipline), to give the reader a real sense of what can be achieved. But it's not just that - Monty Don's The Jewel Garden has a fairly limited photo count of establishing his garden at Long Meadow, yet coneys perfect what he is setting out to achieve. This book, sadly, is a disappointing attempt at something similar. There's none of the personal story that came through in her Guardian writings - and two thirds of the book is just a list of plants that are covered in any number of horticultural publications.As with so much garden writing these days it's just a rehash of existing information. It's just style over substance.