Horti Curious by Ann Treneman: Looking for love? Go to bed with some Marjoram!

HORTI CURIOUS by Ann Treneman (Mitchell Beazley £19.99, 224pp)

Horti Curious is available now from the Mail Bookshop 

Gardening is the work of a lifetime: you never finish, the renowned fashion designer and passionate gardener Oscar de la Renta once said.

You could say the same about gardening knowledge: however much you’ve read, however long you have gardened, you can only scratch the surface of what there is to know about plants and the art of gardening.

The rather awkwardly-titled Horti Curious is an eclectic mixture of facts, historical snippets, biography, recipes and advice.

Author Ann Treneman calls it ‘a sort of cabinet of curiosities’, and although there is plenty here that will be familiar, this entertaining book is packed with intriguing facts, anecdotes and helpful advice to satisfy and enlighten any gardening enthusiast.

Do you hanker after unusual fragrances in your garden? Treneman recommends planting the katsura tree, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, whose autumn leaves smell deliciously like toffee apples and caramel. Or Azara microphylla, a small evergreen tree with vanilla-scented flowers. For a more pungent aroma there’s Helichrysum italicum, the curry plant, which does indeed smell just like the curry powder in your kitchen cupboard.

Are you determined to take advantage of every inch of space in your garden? How about using an unproductive area to build a ‘dead hedge’, which can be just a few feet long, using twigs and branches saved from pruning or left over after storms.

 Weave them through two parallel rows of stakes hammered into the ground, or just pile the branches in between the stakes, and you will provide a refuge for a wealth of insects and small mammals, including hedgehogs.

Herb of love: Putting Marjoram under your pillow will help you find love

There are useful pages on companion plants for roses, on trees that won’t overwhelm, on bonsai and on how to plant different types of borders, whether you have a dry, stony site or a lush tropical one.

There’s also plenty of advice on attracting wildlife, including bats (plant night-scented plants such as evening primroses and the tobacco plant, Nicotiana sylvestris).

There’s an entertaining rundown of the wealth of folklore associated with herbs. Put marjoram under your pillow and you’ll dream of your future love; if you want to prevent unwanted guests from returning, sweep the doorstep and rub it with bay leaves.

A woman of child-bearing age should never buy or plant parsley unless she wants to get pregnant. Virgins who are unwise enough to plant parsley can expect a visit from the devil.

Friend or foe: Dandelions spread everywhere and are incredibly difficult to get rid of

Treneman devotes several pages to the humble dandelion: is it a tiresome weed or a super-plant? She points out that they are a godsend for pollinators as their flowers are rich in pollen and nectar, but for gardeners who hanker after an immaculate weed-free lawn, dandelions are a nightmare – their taproots go on for ever, and each flower produces up to 200 seeds, which will be carried in the wind. 

So, friend or foe? The answer, it seems, is a bit of both.

More controversially, she makes a valiant effort to rehabilitate slugs, claiming they get bad press. Treneman argues that they play an important part in a garden’s life cycle: ‘Mostly they feast on decomposing matter . . . they can be seen as eco-warriors: fanatical recyclers that excel in clearing out dead matter.’

Those of us whose delphiniums and dahlias are regularly destroyed by night-time slug attacks might need a bit more convincing.

Much enhanced by superb botanical illustrations, Horti Curious is a delightful book to dip into. Written with a light touch, it does a fine job of showing just how rich, diverse and fascinating the plant world is.