I have made note of a new book which I think will be usefully informative: Working With Weeds A Practical Guide to Understanding, Managing and Using Weeds written by Kate Wall. Published late last year, this 220 page book seems like it will be a terrific reference book – especially considering my current fascination with weeds.

The Booktopia online site details tell me ‘Where there are people, there are weeds. And where there are weeds, people are trying to get rid of them. By looking more closely at what types of weeds are growing where, we can learn so much about the growing conditions in our gardens, giving us valuable insight into what is happening in our soil. This information can then be translated into what needs to be done to make the garden less conducive to weeds and more suitable for the plants we want to grow. When we know a bit about our weeds, we can control them organically, more effectively and more permanently, allowing us to create much more satisfying gardens. Some weeds we may even decide not to get rid of as we discover how useful they are as food, medicine, habitat or soil improvers. Weeds have something to teach us. They can make us better gardeners, better environmental custodians, and they can make us healthier. All we have to do is to look at them a little differently. Kate Wall teaches us how to do just that in this insightful book. Kate helps us learn to read the weeds, how to use the weeds, and how to garden without weeds.’

Kate has her own website. She is a professional gardener with a background in environmental science. On that site she says ‘Weeds present an opportunity to learn about our soil, our garden and our environment, if only we will listen. They provide important soil care, critical insect habitat and even delicious and nutritious free food.’

Hopefully my order is in the mail!