We live in a time when the biodiversity of our planet is disappearing at an unimaginable rate. We are losing our direct connection to nature and our knowledge of the benefits it can offer humanity. Vlasta Mlakar’s book is therefore especially valuable in the way it links the wealth of Central European plant life with millennia-old ancestral knowledge of the diverse ways in which those plants can be used to our benefit. This gives us hope that, perhaps, we will recognise the value of the gardens of paradise in which we live before we destroy them for good.
