United States
£ GBP
This book is a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated colour guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility without the use and expense of agrichemicals. Information based on the latest research is given on how to use soil conditioning plants to avoid soil degradation, restore soil quality and help clean polluted land.
There are 11 chapters: 1 to 6 cover soil health, nitrogen fixation, green manures and herbal leys, bacteria and other microorganisms, phytoremediators and soil mycorrhiza (plant-fungal symbiosis). Chapter 7 has plant illustrations, with climate range and soil types, along with their soil conditioning properties and each plant is presented with a comprehensive description opposite a detailed full-colour illustration. Chapters 8 to 10 examine soil stabilizers, weeds and invasive plants, and hedges and trees, and the final chapter contains 5 case studies with the most recent data, followed by an appendix and glossary. The book allows the reader to identify the plants they need quickly and find the information necessary to begin the implementation of soil regeneration.
Sally Pinhey JP, MSc, SGM, FCPGFS, FLS, full member of the Association of Illustrators and the Institute of Analytical Plant Illustration. Studying Mediterranean flora led to 2 silver gilt medals, and 2 silver RHS Grenfell medals. A qualified teacher, she has been the Botanical Art instructor at Kingston Maurward College since 1998, and tutored courses at the Eden Project in Cornwall from 2000-2003. She was an invited demonstrator at Art in Action in 2002, '3 and '5. She completed her MSc at Bournemouth University with merit in 2017. Joint tutor with Margaret Tebbs since 2013, running workshops entitled "Botany for Artists" at education venues in Dorset and Hampshire. She is a Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society, and is passionate about providing plant illustrations for scientific archives. In 2017 she co-founded the Botanical Illustration Ecology Group (BIEG) with Margaret Tebbs.
Margaret Tebbs, FLS, member of the Institute of Analytical Plant Illustration (IAPI), and freelance botanical illustrator. Until 1991, curator and taxonomist in the Botany Department, Natural History Museum, London, collecting plants and writing for Flora Mesoamericana; 1992- freelance botanical artist working for the RBG, Kew, Natural History Museum and foreign herbaria. In 2011, presented with the Jill Smythes medal (Linnean Society) for botanical artwork. Co-tutors (with Sally Pinhey) workshops entitled Botany for Artists, teaching basic botany and practical artwork. Tutors local art groups, and is on the art committee of the annual Burton Bradstock Music and Art Festival.
