Book Review - The Scented Garden

This unusual workbook is a pleasure to browse, sure to get gardenphiles excited about planning pleasing aromas for their flower beds. Gorgeous photos by Jonathan Buckley entice the reader to plan out projects both alluring and diverse: projects include Herb Path, Scented Wall, Carpet of Thyme, Catmint Walk, Sweet Pea Obelisk and Chamomile Seat. Are you drooling, yet?

Good, clear information instructs the gardener to avoid clashes of scent to make each walk around the garden an “olfactory safari”. Bird also advises spreading out the seasonal flowerings so you’ll have scents to enjoy each month of the growing season. A plant directory in the back of the book tells you what plants smell the best and provides tips on how to grow them.

Using the fold-out instruction pages, I laid out my own Honeysuckle Porch. It was easier than I thought. By the end of the season I expect my sweet clingy vine to cover my entire patio with leaves, flowers and scent.

Some good tips from the book:

• Place an outdoor seat near your garden displays so you can actually SMELL the fruits of your labor.
• Keep mint well-pruned so it doesn’t run rampmant (unless you like that)
• fragrant flowers tend to have subdued hues, so mix in colorful annuals with your rosemary and lavender.
• It’s possible to make a night-scented border, using white flowers pollinated by moths. Plants in the Nicotania genus are a good start for a dusky garden.
• While “knot gardens” are among the earliest forms of decorative planting, they are also among the most long-lived features in any planned garden. Keep them well-trimmed while they mature.
• You don’t have room for a garden at all? Even containers and window boxes can host scent-sory delights. Stick with narcissus, pelargoniums, hyacinths and primulas, in their scented varieties. Culinary herbs work too.

  The Scented Garden: A Step-by-Step Project Workbook, by Richard Bird, 2000, Ryland Peters and Small, ISBN: 1841724335

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