Book review: The Book of Weeds



The book that I’ve been keeping under my hat is ‘The Book of Weeds‘ by Ken Thompson. It’s officially published today, but I was sent a copy to review a couple of weeks ago. It took me a little while to get around to it, but here we are :)

‘The Book of Weeds’ is published by DK, which immediately tells you that it will be nicely turned out and full of good photos. It is. According to the blurb on the back, DK are actively trying to be greener and more ethically aware, which makes it slighlty disappointing that the book is printed and bound in China. But I know that making books more eco-conscious comes with a hefty price tag, so we’ll let that one slide.

The book follows a pattern that will be familiar to anyone who has read a book on weeds – it tries to define what a weed is, then goes through techniques for keeping them under control or erradicating them and then goes on to describe some of the worst offenders. Unusually, it covers aquatic and pond weeds as well as terrestrial ones.

Ken Thompson’s experience and entertaining writing style come out most strongly in the first section – defining what makes a weed a weed and how plants spread, with snippets of his own struggles with weeds in his back garden. He explains why it is all but impossible to rid yourself of some weeds, especially dandelions and other weeds that spread by wind-borne seeds.

He touches on plant fashions, seedling identification, green manures and coming to terms with your weeds.

The Rogues’ Gallery shows you some of the most common weeds, which means that you’re likely to be able to identify the ones in your garden without wading through photos of every plant that is a weed in the British Isles. The high quality photos have enabled me to identify a couple of my weeds that I wasn’t sure about, for example. I’ve definitely got one of the speedwells and knotgrass (not to be confused with the highly invasive Japanese knotweed). The ugly looking thing I sometimes see is groundsel and the green goo in one of my ponds is blanketweed (which must have arrived on one of the pond plants I bought).

For each rogue weed, there is information about why it is so weedy, details of how to erradicate it and interesting snippets of information or humour. I like the page on bindweed: “All bindweeds have attractive flowers, but is it best to admire them in someone else’s garden.“

At the back of the book there is a short list of useful addresses and books, and a decent index. Throughout, Ken Thompson’s scientific background comes to the fore and all the plants are referenced by their latin names as well as their common ones.

All-in-all, this would be a nice book to have on your bookshelf. It’s not preachy, and it doesn’t encourage you to live with your weeds, or to try and eat them. It’s not a definitive guide to weeds and wild plants, but if you’re a gardener trying to keep on top of the weeding in your garden then you should find it both informative and entertaining.

Posted 1 April 2009, 16:26.   Posted in .

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