Natural Selection - by Dan Pearson (Hardcover)

About the Book

The perfume of witch hazel in January. The skywards race of clematis in April.The blaze of sunflowers in September.As the year rolls round, our gardens rise and fall to its rhythms. Every week is different from the next, but there is also reassurance in the cyclicality - the inevitability of spring blossom and the flare of autumn berries at the other end of the season.Dan Pearson takes us through twelve months in the garden, from his city-bound plot in Peckham to twenty acres of rolling hillside in Somerset. Through a beautifully wrought landscape of words he shares with us his wealth of knowledge, and teaches us to see the gardens around us with new eyes, whether in the countryside, village or city. Natural Selection is a book to bring you year-round joy and a newfound appreciation of nature, both wild and tamed.

Book Synopsis

"A lovely book for green-thumbed readers to read in the winter as they sit by the fireplace and await spring."--Publisher's Weekly

In Natural Selection, Dan Pearson draws on ten years of his Observer columns to explore the rhythms and pleasures of a year in the garden. Traveling between his city-bound plot in South London and twenty acres of rolling hillside in Somerset, he celebrates the beautiful skeletons of the winter garden, the joyous passage into spring, the heady smell of summer's bud break and the flaring of color in autumn.

Pearson's irresistible enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge overflow in a book teeming with tips to inspire your own space, be it a city window box or country field. Bringing you a newfound appreciation of nature, both wild and tamed, reading Natural Selection is a deeply restorative experience.

About the Author

An award-winning British landscape and garden designer, plantsman, writer and journalist, Dan Pearson's love of all things gardening stemmed from a young age. At ten years old, while his classmates were reading Enid Blyton and Alan Garner, he was devouring garden catalogues in his spare time. Dan Pearson went on to become one of the most celebrated gardeners of our time. Following in the footsteps of the legendary Vita Sackville-West, he was a weekly columnist for the Observer for over a decade. He writes regularly for publications including The Times, Daily Telegraph, and Gardens Illustrated.