The Sceptical Gardener: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Good Gardening

By Ken Thompson

How are birds linked to house prices?


How can a gardener improve the


flavour of their vegetables?


Do wildflowers really thrive in poor soil?







In this collection of articles from The Telegraph, biologist and gardening columnist Ken Thompson takes a scientific look at some of the greater – and lesser – questions faced by gardeners everywhere in a bid to sort the genuine wisdom from the hokum.







What is the ideal temperature for a compost heap? What do bees do that improves strawberries? Why are gardeners in literature always such dummies? This is an expert’s gardening miscellany, aimed at making you not necessarily a better gardener, but probably a far more thoughtful one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Release date: Nov 5, 2015
• ISBN: 9781848319349

Ken Thompson

Dr Ken Thompson teaches on the Kew Horticulture Diploma, and was for twenty years a lecturer in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield. He writes regularly on gardening for various publications. He is the author of Where Do Camels Belong? and Darwin's Most Wonderful Plants.

Reviews for The Sceptical Gardener

[adzebill · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nice to have the voice of a biologist commenting on gardening lore. Thompson is at his best when sorting out which gardening practices are and aren't supported by science. A very UK-centred book, but many of the garden plants he discusses are grown worldwide. New Zealand has hebe and flatworm cameos.

[murderbydeath · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of columns by Ken Thompson, previously published mostly in The Daily Telegraph. He's a plant ecologist and university lecturer in his day job, but his witty and dry style of writing offers an entertaining look at the science side of gardening, if you're a gardener and into that sort of thing. I am a gardener and this sort of nerdy science based stuff interests me intensely; coupled with the writing style, I devoured the book. Each column is no more than 3 pages or so and it was easy to pick up and put down without losing track of what's going on. The information is geared directly towards British gardeners, and some of the columns are of negligible value for those outside the UK, or Europe at a stretch, i.e. Cacti in Britain or the column addressing the benefits of reintroducing the lynx to the British Isles. But the majority of the columns have genuinely useful information for all gardeners; it took me longer to get through this book because I was constantly running to google to check out something or other. I now know what I don't have to put broken crockery at the bottom of my pots for drainage, that the ladybugs in my garden are not the ubiquitous-everywhere-else Harlequin and that I don't have to feel guilty for blowing off the miracle of compost tea. If you're a gardener, I highly recommend this as a light but informative read. If you're not a gardener, but have made it to the end of this review without dozing off, you are a true bibliophile and the least I can do is put a cute kitten at the end: