Modern Space by Joe Swift

Modern Space (Collins Gardening)

by Joe Swift

Design your own modern green space with expert gardener Joe Swift.

Gardens connect us with the natural world, improve our physical and mental health, and allow us to showcase our personalities. Expert gardener Joe Swift’s practical, easy-to-follow advice will inspire readers to envision what is possible in even the smallest spaces.

There is no one way to design a garden. Joe’s no-nonsense guide on modern gardens provides innovative, creative and exciting advice on how to create your perfect escape.

This book explores every aspect of designing a garden, from assessing your plot and soil to choosing a style as your inspiration and tackling challenging spaces.

Covering topics such as colours, plants, placement, connecting to a view and dealing with awkward spaces, Joe will inspire gardeners to create and maintain a green haven all year long.

Joe Swift is an author, TV presenter and garden designer. He makes regular appearances on BBC’s Gardener’s World and the RHS Flower Shows

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Create Your Own Modern Space is one of a set of accessible gardening guides by Joe Swift covering a range of gardening topics. Due out 3rd March 2022 from Collins Reference, it's 224 pages and will be available in ebook format.

This guide covers assessment, planning, design, and implementation of green rooms and garden spaces with a modern aesthetic. I've been surprised by all of these guides (this is the 5th one I've reviewed) at how comprehensive they are and how little overlap there is between them. The author has a very broad knowledge and solid aesthetic sense. Although I'm much more of a cottage gardener, I found quite a lot of inspiration and plant choices which appealed to me and made lots of notes of plants to look for during spring shopping. He had some good ideas about hardscaping and water features as well which I definitely want to incorporate into my own garden.

The book is copiously illustrated with colour photographs. Most of the photography is from stock image services, but does a perfectly good job of illustrating the salient points.The language throughout is accessible and easy to understand. Plants are listed with botanical (Latin) names as well as common names, along with lots of photos.

Worthwhile, especially in conjunction with the other volumes in the series.

The book's terminology and climate information are based on UK English, although most of the information is certainly applicable to gardeners outside the British Islands.

Five stars. This would be a good choice for public and school libraries, gardening groups, community/allotment gardens, suburban gardeners, homeowners, etc.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 March, 2022: Finished reading
  • 3 March, 2022: Reviewed