Book Review: “Thoughtful Gardener” by Jinny Blom

The title of this new gardening book perfectly encapsulates Jinny Blom – the Thoughtful Gardener. With a previous background in psychology Jinny calls on her experience when creating her own, unique outdoor spaces for clients and breathing life into her gardens. But is her new book worthy of space on your burgeoning book shelves? And would you like to win a copy?!

Perhaps rather than taking up space on your book shelves, this book could take pride of place on your coffee table? First impressions are of a beautiful, tasteful book on garden design at a higher level than some we have read.

Jinny of course is an award winning garden designer so any work she produces is worth indulging in and this book is no different. As you would expect, the photography is exemplary. There are page after page of stunning stone villas with grand gardens to match and rustic walls with romantic planting. It is wonderful to see gardens from around the world and feels like you are being whisked away as you flick through the pages.

Each chapter is introduced in a way that draws on Jinny’s psychology background and asks for you to consider elements carefully. These are tied in with a simple yet effective line drawing.

Jinny talks through the process of garden design from walking the area, drawing the garden, planning a layout, considering all the elements (from sun to earth to water) and of course plenty advice on planting.

This is a book for serious gardeners and designers. If you love gardens you will love indulging in these pages. It has quite a traditional feel to the garden with more of a focus on rustic gardens and romantic planting.

Thanks to the lovely people at Quarto we have a copy of “The Thoughtful Gardener” to give away to one of our lucky readers. To enter please enter your details below. The winning entry will be announced on Easter Monday! :

The Thoughtful Gardener is out now on hardback, RRP £35.

Thanks for reading,

All at Vialii

Book Review: “Urban Flowers” by Carolyn Dunster

In recent years there has been a lot of focus on urban gardening and creating gardens whatever space you have. From rooftop terraces to vertical gardens there are always ways to create wonderful gardens wherever you are. In our last blog, “Small Garden, Big Ideas” we shared our top tips for urban gardening. In our latest blog we review some urban flower tips from Carolyn Dunster in her new book “Urban Flowers”…

This book is crammed full of wonderful photography by Jason Ingram and is full of inspiration for adding flowers to your urban garden. Who knew that a plastic washing up bowl could be a gorgeous planter? And there are some lovely tips to make your drain pipe look a lot more interesting.

If you are looking to completely overhaul your space, Carolyn gives lots of tips on how measure your space, plan your garden and things to consider. She explains all sorts of gardening including container planting, vertical planting and showcases lots of different styles.

There are pages crammed full of different colour palettes to help you make a cohesive display through planting. She also touches on the importance of trees and why they should be a consideration in gardens.

To further your skills, there are sections on how to grow plants from seeds and bulbs as well as considering scented or therapeutic plants in your garden. There are even some recipes tucked at the back to take your garden flowers to a new level!

Whatever your skill level and garden knowledge there will be something useful to take from this book. It is easy to flick through and pick out bits of interest and it’s the sort of book you will return to again and again for inspiration.

If you are interested in gardens and dabbling a bit more then this book should be on your reading list. And as it happens, we have one to give away. Just fill out the form below and we will pick a winner on 18th April 2017. Good luck!

Urban Flowers is published by the lovely people at Frances Lincoln and is available in hardback for £20 from 6th April 2017.

All at Vialii

Book Review: She Sheds by Erika Kotite

“She Sheds” is a magical book, crammed to the gunnels with tips and inspiration to create your very own garden retreat. They’re sheds but not as we know it! “She Sheds” immediately gets you into the spirit of creating your own outdoor space right from the introduction. Who wouldn’t want their own “refuge of comfort” filled with your most treasured possessions and space for you, and you alone? I’m in! Let’s find out more…

She Sheds by Erika Kotite

The She Shed

The “Shed Style” section gives a gentle introduction to some of the styles you may want to consider. This chapter is a little light and only touches on a small handful of syles. Not to worry though as there is plenty of inspiration to follow…

The subsequent chapters show examples of some of the “She Sheds” the author has discovered on her travels around the world. They cover a huge array of styles and purposes – from gardening to art, yoga to floristry, you can use them for pretty much anything you wish.

Our Favourites

Our favourite “She Sheds” include:

• The Bridal Shed
• Playhouse All Grown Up
• Room of Glass
• Streamlined in Seattle

But they all have their own inimitable style and are the perfect creations by their owners, all for their own unique use.

Fabulous She Shed creations. Photography by Susan Mintun

Tips for your own she shed

There are so many quirky touches and ideas to discover in this book, you can’t help be inspired, even if you had never considered having a she shed of your own.

Some of our own top tips to consider for your own she shed include:

• Light. Make sure there will be plenty of natural light and consider what you will use when the sun goes down. Do you need to run wiring for lighting or will battery operated lamps or candles suit?
• Seating. Whatever its use, your “she shed” will need comfortable seating. Lots of cushions and throws will make you want to spend even more time there!
• Treasures. Fill your “she shed” with your treasured possessions – photos, books, pictures, vases, clocks, what it may be! Add lots of shelving too for displaying your treasures and storing your work.
• Upcycling. We love giving old items a new lease of life and “she sheds” are the perfect place to do this. We loved the story of the brass door handle upcycled from a grandmother’s house.

Amazing interiors. Photography by Cody Ulrich

Did we love it?

Well, yes! There are lots of “Builder’s Notes” in the book which provide great tips on how to create your “she shed”, whether you want to do it from scratch or just know the best way to protect a potting bench. There are also lots of “Owner’s Favourite Things” which gives a lovely insight into the most important elements to them.

“She Sheds” is very empowering with lots of stories of women who had no previous skills, suddenly deciding to build their own “den” and construct walls and much more. Or commission someone else to bring our dreams to life. There isn’t a lot us women can’t do! We found “She Sheds” not only an inspirational read for women, but for anyone interested in creating a haven to get away from the daily grind and create some “me time” in the perfect surroundings.

Vialii star rating:

“She Sheds” by Erika Kotite is available in the UK from February 2017, priced £16.99 for hardback, published by Cool Springs Press.

“The Children’s Garden” – a book review by Lulu Burt

Hey y’all. I am always on the look-out for new ideas for things to do outside in the garden. You may have read my recent blog which had 19 Great Ideas for Summer Fun In The Garden. Well, now I have even more ideas to share with you thanks to a great new book called “The Children’s Garden” by Matthew Appleby.

I am so excited about my new book I can’t open my eyes!

There are a whopping 52 projects packed into this book and they are done in a very engaging way. There are LOTS of lovely colour photos as well as plenty of tips and facts within each section. The book is split into the different seasons so that there are always plenty of ideas to choose from whatever time of year it may be. Everything is done on a really low budget and most projects use things which you already have lying about the house. Here are a few of my favourites:

Fun With Potatoes

Potato stamping is an old favourite and perfect for this time of year as we harvest our home grown tatties. There are always a few potatoes which aren’t quite up to my high standards so what better than to use them to do some potato stamping!

Potato stamping made me starry eyed!

Wet Work & Play

There are lots of water fun ideas in this chapter. One that I loved doing was really simple. Mummy gave me a bowl filled with soapy suds and I set about washing all my dolly’s clothes. My clothes ended up drying on the washing line too but it was great fun!

Doing the washing is fun – Mummy says I can always do it!

Flowers To Pick & Press

I have been sent a flower press to try out (I’ll blog all about that soon!) so combining that with this book was the perfect opportunity to try it out. I loved picking lots of pretty flowers then seeing how different they looked once pressed. I then made a pretty bookmark using them.

A pressed cirsium looks like a funny moustache!

Feed The Birds

This was a great project and all we needed was an old water bottle, a couple of pencils and some bird seed. My bird feeder looks great hanging in the garden.

The bird feeder I made out of an old water bottle

And here are some of the ones which I am desperate to try which I haven’t yet…

• Home made seed bombs – kaboom!
• Turf tattoos – hopscotch on the lawn will be fab!
• Butterfly World – M&D have bought me a butterfly cage so that I can do this at home
• Paint it Black – I have some chalk paint and I am going to paint my sand pit lid so that it can double as a chalk board.
• From Picking to Pie – yum, bramble picking, we will be able to do that soon!
• Thinking Ahead – this involves making a time capsule. I am definitely going to do that and get the builder’s to bury it in the foundations of our new house extension!
• Carrot: Root to Cake – I love eating carrots so it will be a struggle to keep some aside for cake making but I’m sure I will manage!
• Make a Cress Head – there are lots of fun ideas of what you can make a cress head from
• Craft a Model Garden – for rainy days when you can’t get outside, this is a perfect way to still enjoy gardening

I thoroughly enjoyed reading “The Children’s Garden” and would definitely recommend it for all children.

I give it a Lulu rating of:

Five out of five, woohoo!

Available on hardback, RRP 14.99 *

Happy reading!

Lulu xx

*Price correct at time of publication

Book Review: Usborne Garden Sticker & Colouring Book

As you know, I am an expert on all things gardening. And I am pretty good at sticking and colouring too so I was the natural choice to give my expert opinion on Usborne’s latest book, handily called “Garden Sticker & Colouring Book”. But did it reach my high expectations or did it crash into a sticky, scribbly mess?…

A brand new book from Usborne, but what did I think of it?…

Well, if you are already a fan of Usborne books like me, you will know that they know how to make a good book and, to be honest, this one doesn’t disappoint. Here are some of my favourite things about the book:

It’s got loads of pages in it. 32 to be precise so it will last for AGES!

Wow, there are a LOT of stickers to choose from!

The stickers are brilliant quality. I have some sticker books where the stickers are hard to get off and rip easily. These ones are much better quality and have a nice glossy feel to them.

Adding the bugs to their silhouettes was LOTS of fun

At the back of the book there are lots of bits to colour in which makes a nice change from just sticking. I love sticking but after a while it’s nice to do some colouring too. Plus I like that the flowers were proper flower shapes and not just a generic flower. There were foxgloves and echinacea and poppies and all sorts of pretty plants to colour.

Lots of pretty flowers to colour

There’s lots to learn in this book. It tells you the names of lots of bugs and birds, vegetables and some of the animals that come out at night (like Batty the Bat!)

They even have Primula vialii growing beside the pond in one of the pictures. This is the plant that our family business Vialii Garden Services is named after. Cool!

Look, a Primula vialii which is what our company is named after!

The book costs £7.99 which I think is AMAZING value for a book which will give many, many hours of fun. I have spent loads of time colouring and sticking and there is still lots to do. So for those rainy days when you can’t get outdoors in the garden then what better than to snuggle down with this book.

It gets a big thumbs up from me!

Lulu’s Star Rating:

Available from Usborne Books and all good book sellers.

Hope you love it as much as me!

Lulu xx

Feed The Birds, Tuppence a Bag…

I love birds. They can fly for one thing, which is pretty cool. They are also great friends to us gardeners. In my latest blog I am reviewing a super book all about garden birds from the cool people at the RSPB. I have also created a trendy bird feeder which is soooo easy for you to make at home.

Book Review: My First Book of Garden Birds (RSPB)

The lovely people at the RSPB do an incredibly important job in protecting our feathered friends. They kindly sent me their “First Book of Garden Birds” so I could read it and, more importantly, tell you all about it.

The first thing you notice before you even open the book  are the beautiful bird illustrations on the cover. These continue throughout the whole book making it beautiful and colourful as well as educational.

The book is split into interesting sections. “Birds in your garden” tells you some basic information on what its important to do to look after the birds in your garden and to encourage more in.

The “Guess Who” section is my favourite. You are given lots of clues about common garden birds and a beautiful illustration and you have to try and recognise them. It’s a great introduction to bird spotting for littlies like me and you don’t even need to venture outside with binoculars and waterproofs!

Loving reading My First Book of Garden Birds

There is also an explanation about some of the terms used when talking about birds such as plumage and markings so you can talk like an expert!

At an RRP of £6.99 for a hard backed copy, this book is great value and a wonderful introduction to the world of birds. It’s a must for all young readers who like the outdoors and nature.

One of the things that this lovely book tells you about is how important it is to feed the birds in your garden. I have created this awesome bird feeder from an old drinks carton. Read on to find out how…

You will need:

• Empty juice carton
• Scissors
• Paints, glue and things to decorate your feeder
• String or ribbon
• Pencil or doweling

My lovely new bird feeder!

Lulu’s Garden Double Book Review

Hi everyone! The lovely people at Hawthorn Press recently sent us two of their books to review. I know how you love to read about gardens and things to do so I have read, pondered, laughed, crafted and generally got a good feel for what they are all about. Want to hear what they are? Well read on Macduff…

Findus Plants Meatballs by Sven Nordqvist

Findus is a cat so I immediately liked this story as I have THREE cats. None of them are called Findus though and to be the best of my knowledge none of them have planted meatballs! Now, I think I should point out that this is a fiction book (that means it’s a made up story!) Or at least I think it’s a made up story, you can never be quite sure… The Findus series originates from Sweden and there is a wide range of stories featuring Findus. I love this one as it centres on the garden. Farmer Pettson is busy sowing his vegetables which inspires Findus to do a bit of planting of his own. Chaos ensues and it is VERY funny to see what happens to the vegetable patch. I hope the same doesn’t happen to our own veg patch mind you! There are lots of lovely pictures in this book too. I would definitely recommend this book as a fun read for everyone!

Lulu’s Rating: 4 lovely glittery stars

Gardening with Young Children by Beatrys Lockie

Gardening with Young Children is a guide to how to encourage kids like me to get outdoors, engage with nature and learn to garden. It is full of practical advice on what to grow and when. There is lots of information on wildlife as well as plenty of recipes and projects to make. There are poems and songs in the book too which breaks it up and makes it quite different from all the other books on this subject. The book feels a lot more old fashioned in terms of style than many of its competitors and I think if it had new photographs and lots of colour pictures it would be a lot more engaging for children and grown ups. There is a lot of useful content and it would be a useful reference book but sometimes it can be a bit dry and hard to read. However, it is worth the struggle on as there is a lot to learn and some lovely projects to try. I have shown you my step-by-step guide to one of my favourite projects below.

Lulu’s Rating: 2 twinkly stars

Make a Garden Crown

• Some corrugated cardboard
• Scissors
• Staples and a paper clip
• Paint
• Leaves

To make:

1. Get some card board (make sure its is corrugated.)

2. Bend it round your head to get it to the right size. Hold it in place with a paper clip.

3. Take the crown off, ask a grown-up to cut off any excess cardboard to get the height of crown you want and ask them to staple the edges together securely.

4. Now it’s time to decorate your crown. I painted it funky colours but you could add glitter, shapes or even go into the garden to find other things to stick onto your crown such as leaves, berries or flowers.

Princess Lulu and her magic crown!

Thanks to Beatrys Lockie for the inspiration for this lovely craft project.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my book reviews and my Garden Crown project and it has inspired you to get outside and do some projects of your own (and to read a nice book!)

Lulu xx

Book Review: 101 Things for Kids To Do Outside by Dawn Isaac

Next week a new book will be launched and I was lucky enough to be sent a sneaky preview copy so that I can tell you, my lovely readers, all about it. It’s written by a fellow blogger called Dawn Isaac (she is very clever and is also a garden designer like M&D) and is called “101 Things for Kids To Do Outside”. Could it be any more perfect for me and my super-duper blog? Here’s what it’s about, the sort of things you will find inside and what I think of it…

Clutching my special preview copy

Dawn Isaac has three kids of her own so she knows a thing or two (well 101 actually) about kids and how to have fun. She is firmly of the same mindset as me that it’s waaay more fun to head outside than to be stuck inside watching TV (although that can be fun too).

The book has been split into four seasons so frankly there is no excuse to not head outside, whatever the time of year. There are also projects for people who don’t have a garden. Just head outside to parks, woods, public gardens, wherever.

The book is PACKED full of lots (well 101 to be precise) of awesome ideas

Here are some of the things I just love about this book:

• There are lots of lovely big pictures for every single project so you can see how it is built and what the final project should look like.
• On every project it clearly lists all the materials you need so you can see quickly what you need to get or you can quickly choose a project where you already have everything you need. Loads of the projects just use the sort of things you will have lying about the house.
• The book is filled with lots of tips (like really awesome ones on how to make games messier, yay!)
• There are lots of ideas you can use as gifts throughout the year (home made gifts are so much nicer to give and receive.)
• There are lots of fun cartoons throughout the book.
• There is a great mix of quick and easy projects (that can be done in about an hour) as well as some which you can spend a bit more time on.
• It’s a great reference for things to do at parties or on play dates (your friends will think you are the coolest person ever having all these projects up your sleeve.)
• There’s a great mix of games, gardening and craft projects – exactly what my blog is all about.

There are lots of cool projects – do you want to hear some?  But sshhh, don’t tell anyone else OK?

What’s in the book…

The lovely people at Kyle Books (hello Hannah!) have given me permission to tell you about some of these projects over the course of the year so watch out for these in future blogs. A few which have already caught my eye and I think are brilliant ideas are:

• Grow a potato tower (it uses old tyres and is a brilliant way of “earthing up”)
• Go on a bear hunt (hide and seek for all ages)
• Brew your own plant food (it’s like a witches brew and stinks, yay!)
• Make a twig plant pot (I think this would be an awesome Mother’s Day project, watch this space…)
• Make outdoor bunting (perfect for garden parties, if only we were having one soon Daddy that we could try this at…)
• Make a butterfly feeder (it involves painting so I am in!)
• Hold a snail race (I LOVE snails!)
• Make autumn crowns (as a princess I insist on this project!)

I hugely recommend “101 Things for Kids To Do Outside” . I think it would be a WONDERFUL gift to give friends for Easter (or drop hints to your grown up to buy it for you!) It will last a whole lot longer than a chocolate egg. This book is loads of fun for kids of all ages. The only thing you will need to watch out for is your grown up trying to steal it.

Lulu rating: 5 big shiny stars!

Hugs & kisses,

Lulu xx

1. I would like to write a book when I am a big girl. Perhaps when I am three…