Helpful book, good information

books:


	• The Self-Sustaining Garden: A Gardener's Guide to Matrix Planting Peter Thompson Timber Press, Incorporated, 2007 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Helpful book, good information

Although Peter Thompson considers matrix planting an "unorthodox" way of gardening, the concept has been around for awhile. Ann Lovejoy devoted about 20 pages to it in her book, Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School (2001), and she covers it briefly in The Ann Lovejoy Handbook of Northwest Gardening (2003). She called it sandwich planting, but it's the same as matrix planting.

Peter Thompson's book provides more depth, guidance, and rationale on the topic. I use his book to complement and enhance Ann's books. The practice of layering or intermingling site-adaptive plants really makes a lot of sense.

In response to reviewer, MuffieNH, below: I didn't notice the size of the font until I read her(?) review. The font is a bit smaller than some other books, but it didn't bother me. She denied herself all the helpful information in this book...

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This book explores the theme that the plants themselves can do much of the hard work gardeners believe is an essential part of gardening. The Self-Sustaining Garden advocates using plants as partners in self-sustaining communities to create low maintenance gardens rather than being a slave to spades and hoes. In a series of compelling case studies, Peter Thompson shows how to transform a conventional garden into a self-sustaining garden. Updated from the original edition (published in 1997), The Self-Sustaining Garden brings together an explanation of the universal principles of matrix planting with specific applications and informative chapters on soil health and biological controls, and shows how to pull all the ingredients together into a strong, self-sustaining design.

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