Life has speeded up so much that when people do have a chance to sit down and relax they want to do so in attractive surroundings, be it in the home or outside in the garden. However, as the recent success of the TV makeover shows demonstrate, they do not want to sit around forever waiting for things to grow and mature. They want it now. TV presenter Gay Search's timely book sets out the pointers for impatient gardeners, ensuring the right choices are made for the right spots. From which garden style through hard landscaping and ultimately planting, she takes the reader on a whirlwind yet concise tour of the dos and don'ts of instant gardening. Interspersed in each chapter are recipes for instant gratification, projects that can be achieved in a matter of hours to quell any impatience. She covers both traditional and contemporary designs together with a mix of the two - hard to achieve but in her capable hands made easy. And she focuses on ornamentation as well as furnishing, ensuring the right furniture is chosen to complement the scheme. Three comprehensive plant lists are broken down into fast, medium and slow growing plants which, with careful study, will give a planting that at once has instant colour and form whilst also providing more slow-growing mature growth in the background. A useful warning is also given of the seven ungovernable fast plants to avoid. Container planting is not overlooked and is indeed encouraged for people constantly on the move, enabling them to have an instant garden wherever and however often they move. Easy to read, informative and to the point, this is an ideal eye-opener to a new impatient gardener. Who knows, it may even open up a whole new world they didn't know existed before.
