Review: ‘Sweet Peas for Summer: how to create a garden in a year’ by Laetitia Maklouf

As you know, I’m a bit of a Twitter addict.  And yes, I know a lot of people just don’t get Twitter, but I’ve made some amazing connections on there (I hesitate to say friendships, as I suppose that’s not possible with someone you’ve never actually met).  One such person is the utterly gorgeous and adorable Laetitia Maklouf.  We discovered a shared love of garden-pottering and cooking when I was back in Ireland, and she’s always available with wonderful advice and gentle, kind encouragement for us enthusiastic but basically clueless gardeners.

Laetitia was kind enough to send me a review copy of her new book, Sweet Peas for Summer.  It basically chronicles the year she spent creating a garden from scratch in her new home.  As the year unfolds, Laetitia takes us, month by month, from the planning, initial groundwork and planting, through to lush pictures of a flower-filled summer garden which looks like it’s been there for years.

Laetitia’s writing style is similar to her Twitter feed: it’s gentle encouragement and wonderful advice.  There are no barked orders or must dos in this book, just really useful knowledge sharing (and the odd admission of mistakes, which I love and find stupidly encouraging).  The pictures are stunning and the overall styling is wonderful (I find this so important) – I love the leaf-prints punctuating the pages.  All in all it has a lovely, fresh feel.

I miss my lovely Irish garden and gathering fresh vegetables and herbs from my raised veggie bed, but this book has made me see that I can do just as much now on my small patio with lots of containers: I can fill my little garden with wigwams of sweet peas and clematis, grow lovage and dill in pots (there are some beautiful, simple recipes), and make sure I have mint on my kitchen windowsill for fabulous mojitos too.

I inhaled the book on one Saturday morning, perched in bed with endless mugs of tea, my notebook and even the belligerent cat (just shows how still I must have been).  I now have plans for hanging baskets, herbs and copious containers.  Now all I’ve got to do is wait for this stupid snow to disappear.

Sweetpeas for Summer: How to Create a Garden in a Year by Laetitia Maklouf is out on 23rd March 2012.  I know you’ll love it as much as I do.

3 Responses to “Review: ‘Sweet Peas for Summer: how to create a garden in a year’ by Laetitia Maklouf”

1. Mrs Worthington says:

   February 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

   I think i might just have to go and buy this book. IT sounds inspiring
2. Knackered Mother says:

   February 12, 2012 at 8:21 pm

   Oh this sounds wonderful, will definitely be purchasing. What a brilliant idea.
3. allotmentmum says:

   February 21, 2012 at 10:24 pm

   this sounds right up my garden path … and I love sweet peas.