Review: ‘Revive Your Garden’ by Nick Bailey

Garden for long enough and the chances are you will need to undertake a rescue operation be it a complete overhaul of a long-neglected space or simply dealing with some planting that has become tired. Either way, Revive Your Garden by Nick Bailey should be in your toolkit.

Drawing on what he describes as “nearly 30 years holding gardens back from the brink of wilderness and revitalising those that have tipped over the edge”, Nick has produced a book that is comprehensive and thorough.

It assumes that the reader will want to do the bulk of the work themselves leaving only particularly complex elements to the professionals. So, the explanations are detailed with photographs by Jonathan Buckley showing each step clearly.

The key to any garden revival, we are told, is understanding the plot from where the sun hits to how views change with the seasons and soil types.

Assessing what’s already there is crucial and there’s advice on identifying not only trees, shrubs and perennials but also whether they are ailing and, if so, why, with pictures illustrating honey fungus and scale insects among other foes.

Likewise, how to tell the difference between a weed and a useful plant is covered with photographs that show them side-by-side with both pictured when small and more difficult to identify.

Once you’ve decided what to keep, Revive Your Garden explains how pruning, soil improvement and general TLC can improve everything from neglected lawn to ancient apple trees and overgrown ponds and tangled climbers.

There’s even advice on what not to prune – phormiums, he tells us, should not be touched: “The chopped-off tops of leaf blades will simply remain as they are cut, resulting in a mutilated plant.”

Cases studies that cover Victorian terrace, modern city courtyard, semi-detached and detached gardens, give examples of how an existing framework can be given a fresh feel.

The schemes are shown as overlays on photographs of the plots that explain first the ideas and then the resulting redesign. It would have been even better with photographs of the revamped gardens but presumably the budget didn’t run to the work getting beyond the drawing board.

Advice on plants that will enhance a garden includes climbers that are suited to scrambling through trees and shrubs, well-behaved self-seeders that will add “an element of continuity” and plants for under trees.

Some of the book will be obvious to experienced gardeners, such as how to plant, but the scope of Revive Your Garden is such that there is likely to be much that would interest – how to rejuvenate a mature wisteria is just one example.

Likewise, although the book is more about the transformation of an entire neglected garden, the individual elements would be of use to anyone who has just one shrub that has got out of hand or a single border that needs rethinking.

The Gardeners’ World presenter and former head gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden admits that reviving any garden isn’t easy but assures us that “breathing life back into an ailing plot couldn’t be more rewarding”.

• Revive Your Garden by Nick Bailey with photography by Jonathan Buckley is published by Kyle Books, priced at £25 RRP. Buy now. (If you buy through this Amazon link, I get a small fee. The price you pay is not affected.)

• Photographs by Jonathan Buckley from Revive Your Garden by Nick Bailey reproduced with permission of Kyle Books. Review copy supplied by Kyle Books.

• Read more of my book reviews here.