Inspiration and practical ideas from popular Gardening Australia presenter Sophie Thomson
A gorgeous, inspirational and fun gardening book jam-packed with ideas, tips, projects and great advice all based on Sophie's own garden in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia.Sophie has transformed what was once a dry, windswept cow paddock surrounding her historic stone cottage into a lush garden. But it's not a mere showplace - it's a working garden that reflects all Sophie's passions: a kids' garden, an 'obsessive-compulsive' gardener's treasure trove, a recycled/repurposed garden, a haven for beneficial insects & bees, and a productive garden supplying her family with fruit, veg and eggs year-round. It's also a work in progress that everyone can learn from, including:
Sophie's 10 guiding principles (including soil, climate and waterwise gardening)
Top tips for planning your patch - from design principles to plant selection
Sophie's favourite plants - from top trees to great groundcovers
The edible garden
Garden structures that reduce, reuse and recycle - Sophie's garden has everything from an old tram carriage that now houses chooks to garden sculptures, a pizza oven and practical and striking 'gabion' walls, all made from repurposed materials
Kids in the garden
Wildlife gardening
Author Biography:
Sophie Thomson is Gardening Australia's presenter in South Australia. Sophie's passion for plants and gardening was passed on to her by her parents and she cut her teeth working in the family plant nursery in the Adelaide Hills. Today, Sophie is a garden consultant, writer and speaker. As well as presenting for the popular ABC TV show, and writing for Gardening Australia magazine, Sophie has written or contributed to several books and writes the weekly gardening column for the Sunday Mail and the Weekender Herald. She is also the garden writer for the quarterly Adelaide Hills Magazine - regularly voted the best regional publication in Australia. In 2014, Sophie created the prize-winning 'A Backyard for Kids' at the Royal Adelaide Show - a purpose built backyard designed for kids, complete with a rolling lawn, shade trees, vegies and herbs, green wall, hanging seat, sand pit, stepping stones, balancing logs, insect hotel, beehive, crawling tunnels, wooden armchairs and water feature. Her vision was to inspire others to create gardens where children can play freely, connect with nature and learn to grow some food, sowing the seed for their future health, wellbeing and happiness, as well as the future health of the planet. A popular guest speaker, Sophie has spoken at hundreds of gardening and lifestyle events, garden clubs and plant societies. Sophie lives at Hamlyn Cottage, a 1.5 hectare property in South Australia's Adelaide Hills, with husband Richard, five children aged 14 and under and a menagerie of animals including a dog, cats, geese, chooks, ducks and stick insects. She has developed a sustainable organic garden with a large vegie patch, more than 100 fruit trees and what she hopes one day will be a breathtaking, climate-compatible, ornamental garden. Sophie opens the garden to thousands of visitors several times a year.
