Added by Naturalchoices

This wiki is to be the starting point of my writing a book that covers as many ideas for the how to, whys, when of planning, building, enjoying and profiting from a beautiful and bountryful low water garden. I spent some time thinking about the best approach to writing this book, and finally came to the conclusion that the subject is very broad, has many different theories and approaches, some completely contradictory to others, and all of them no doubt valid for one part of the world or other. Rather than impose a single system on the reader I will look at each series of ideas, take out what I think, and have experienced, as being successful, as well as indicate the strength and weaknesses of each approach. The basis will always be a practical, and 'how to' style rather than a theoretical and ideological one, so no NPK formulas just lots of muck.

However even before I start writing the first words I realised that all my knowedge was based on my personal experience of working the land at the Domaine de Montrouch, here in the Languedoc. While the extremes of weather make it in many ways the ideal test bed for many of the techniques that the book will explore it also means that many of my successes may not work so well in say California or Cape Town or Kent. That was one reason behind deciding to write the book in such a public way, so as I can hopefully draw in wiser and more geographically diverse heads to help. The second reason goes back to the old gardening adage that you will learn more from looking at your neighbours garden than you will ever learn from a book. While my nearest neighbour is 2 kilometres away the internet has opened a new definition of neighbour- using the power of social networking services, such a Twitter, Stumble Upon, Facebook and new arrival like Cooltribe.com and ethicaleconomy.com I hope to be able to enguage with and learn from many different gardeners around the world, so although the book will bear my name it will be the collective "We Think" of many. Another idea is that a book is mereley on staging post in an on-going learning and development, both for myself and hopefully others. It will probably end with posiing more questions than it anwsers, and leaving many interesting angles un explored. All books do, its te nature of a fixed pagination, and a need to be brief and to the point. However a website can be endless, and if structured correctly can be an amazing resource, so rather than print the book and then create a website, my idea if to develop the website to create the book, and then continue post publication as a resource, a question and many answer service and extented database for both people who ahve bought the book and the many of other interested gardeners who haven't. Who knows where it could lead- possibly to a new and improved second book, or may even spark of other potential writers who think, "ha I know more about this that this Peter Shield chappy, if he can do it I can do it better!" Which is great, the more information out there the better because it means that more and more people will be thinking about water consumption, local produce, arts and crafts, and eating and gardening organically, and that afterall is the ultimate aim. So please help me, I have a thick skin and can take a strong critique. The one thing I do ask is please be polite and constructive rather than the usual online debate which can to often lead to rudeness and negativity. The aim of this wiki is to create something positive, and provide a service to others. Together I am sure we can do something that we can all be proud of. Pete Shield, Domaine de Montrouch, 1st July 2009 �4 articles

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