The Ecological Gardener - How to Create Beauty and Biodiversity

Design a garden for the future—because what we grow matters. “Matt Rees-Warren explains why every square inch of Earth, including our gardens, has ecological significance… Excellent, timely, essential!” —Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope Transform your garden into a self-sustaining haven for nature and wildlife. Ecological garden designer Matt Rees-Warren shares inspirational design ideas and practical projects to help you create a garden that is both beautiful today and sustainable tomorrow. The Ecological Gardener will give you the tools to create an abundant, healthy garden from the soil up—a garden that welcomes birds and bees and allows native planting and wild flowers to flourish, with minimal carbon impact or need for fresh water. This book can guide both novice and experienced gardeners alike in their journey to a more ecological approach, and is full of practical projects and information, including:

• Finding the right design for your space
• Creating a wildflower meadow
• Building rainwater catchments and other tips for water conservation
• Making compost from kitchen waste, leaf mold, compost tea and more
• Creating a space for wildlife such as hedgehogs, bees and other pollinators
• Finding beauty in your garden during the winter

Matt will show you how to re-imagine how you garden, working with nature instead of controlling it, to create a space that promotes both wildlife and beauty. Matt Rees-Warren is an ecological gardener, designer and writer. During 15 years of life in the ‘outside’, he’s worked for the National Trust, been head gardener at Kilver Court Gardens, Somerset, had articles published in RHS The Garden, Somerset Life, and Country Gardener, and designed gardens for private clients in and around the South West. Through his work, Matt has looked to illuminate, propose and develop ecological gardening methods and practices. As an advocate of organic gardening, permaculture, no-dig gardening and wildlife gardening, among other practices, his style and ethos reflect the changing relationship between ourselves, our gardens and the natural world.