Cacti and succulents are fascinating and beautiful plants. This book explains the various techniques to keep them in good shape. This work offers advice on cultivation and care and shows you how to recognize and treat pests and diseases. It also includes
More and more people are choosing to garden organically, but struggle to manage their gardens without resorting to dangerous chemicals. Chemical weed killers can be incredibly harmful to the wildlife in your garden, not to mention any fruit and vegetables you might have growing. This book discusses various groups of weeds individually.
Companion planting simply means working with nature to get the best from your plants, and it is the key to successful pollination and the prevention of pests. This title explains just how it works. It also shows how to select plants that do not compete for light, space or nutrients in the soil.
By promoting and certifying organic farming methods and products, the Soil Association has been encouraging us to enjoy life for over 50 years. This title brings together a number of leading organic experts to show you how easy it is to incorporate aspects of self-sufficiency and organic living into your daily routine.
A comprehensive guide to the gardening essentials, from planning and creating, to maintaining, altering and enhancing the garden. It covers 2500 plants in fourteen different plant categories. Packed with illustrations, step-by-step photography, and plant portraits, it is suitable for gardeners of various levels of experience.
A guide to more exquisite bulbous plants than most gardeners will ever grow in their lifetime. It provides an introduction explaining why bulbs are different from other kinds of plant, where they come from, and their history. It features the different typ
Green Guides
Written by an environmental journalist, this informative and accessible guide takes you step-by-step from kitchen scraps to blooming flowers. Including:
Why we should compost
What you can and can't put on your heap
How to make and what to do with compost
Different types of compost bin
Ways of composting if you do not have a garden
Composting is an excellent way to recycle kitchen and garden waste and to help your garden flourish. This title demonstrates just how easy it is to build your own compost bin and use the compost to help your garden grow. It explains the steps of the process, from different recipes for creating organic compost, to the effects it has on plants.
Suitable for keen gardeners, this title provides gardening advice and step-by-steps on pruning to propagation. It shows how to grow fruit and vegetables in containers and green roofs. It helps you to create and keep your garden perfect all year round.
The lily is one of the most beautiful and popular flowers in the garden and despite having a reputation for being temperamental, lilies can actually be very easy to grow. This concise, illustrated handbook contains detailed information on the care of a
Features full-colour photographs and easy-to-follow illustrations, this guide provides readers information they need to know about pruning trees, hedges, perennials, roses, and shrubs. It shows gardeners why pruning is so important and how it can be used to maintain, train, and in some cases, revive plants.
The story of the Roadless Traction firm encompasses 60 years of design and innovation in the fields of transport and agricultural engineering. Here, the reader follows the fortunes of the firm from its earliest roots in tank track design to four-wheel drive and high-horsepower tractors.
Nothing beats the taste of home grown fruit and vegetables. Even if you only have a tiny patio, balcony or just a windowsill, you can still grow a bountiful crop. This title features recipe ideas, and includes 40 projects for containers in 'Crops in Pots'
* The follow-up to 2008's reissue of Mr Middleton's Digging for Victory * A facsimile reissue of a 1945 wartime gardening guide * By the wartime BBC gardening guru, Mr Middleton * Full of fascinating period advertisements and handy tips for money-saving vegetable and fruit growing * Perfect Christmas gift for credit-crunch times
Shows you how to create easy-to-maintain garden courtyards, patios, terraces and backyards. This book includes decorative ideas to suit all kinds of outdoor spaces from urban backyards to small garden spaces. It provides guidance for making key decorative features, such as laying brick pavers, training a grapevine, and planting a wall basket.
Helps homeowners, farmers, and landscapers reduce the need for water, fertilizers, and pesticides. Of interest to those who grow houseplants, maintains a large garden, or participates in community gardening, this guide explains why it's important to compost, the many methods of composting and the benefits of turning rubbish into soil nutrients.
The Dig For Victory campaign to encourage people to grow their own food began in Britain in September 1940. This was the government's plan to avert hunger in the event of the war lasting more than a few months. This book takes the reader through the seasons offering helpful gardening tips.
Whether you have an allotment or just a patch in the corner of your garden, growing your own fruit and vegetables is rewarding and fun. Reap the benefits of harvesting your own seasonal produce-safe in the knowledge that it has been grown naturally without the excessive use of chemicals. From hearty root vegetables to prize marrows, crunchy peas and beans, and delicate soft berries, gardening has never tasted so good.
Guidance on preparing the soil and designing your fruit or vegetable plot.
Step-by step advice on sowing seed, pricking out, training climbing plants, harvesting and more.
Month-by-month calendar of key tasks for fruit and vegetables
Expert advice on protecting your crops from pests and diseases
The grape is a sun-loving hardy deciduous woody-stemmed climber from Asia-Minor and the Caucasus. It does best in a temperate climate with springs free of frost and long warm summers. This is a concise, illustrated handbook with detailed information on va
This book is full the necessary basic information on how to get started with your first garden. It covers the correct equipment, designing your garden - whatever the size, choosing the right plants for the soil and position, caring for your lawn and growing fruit and vegetables.
Discover how easy it is to master composting Whether you're an avid gardener or simply want to reduce the amount of materials you send to the landfill, Composting For Dummies shows you how to turn household food waste, yard clippings, and more into free, nutrient-rich compost and mulch.
SeedBombs are a vital part of the current phenomenon of guerrilla gardening. They encourage people to lean about plants through making and throwing them - a fun, practical, and dynamic way of dispersing seeds - and to broaden the way we think about out environment and make a positive contribution to it through the medium of plants.
A guide which covers what a new beekeeper needs to know, from buying equipment to harvesting honey. It provides instructions on handling and checking bees, tips and advice on keeping them healthy and productive. It also features a collection of honey-base
Ducks and geese make wonderful pets. Not only will they control the insects in your garden and act as handy lawn mowers and watchdogs, they will also provide you with a constant supply of fresh, delicious eggs. Providing information on over 40 popular duc
You can't beat just-picked strawberries, raspberries and crunchy crisp apples for taste and wholesome nutrition. This work reveals the skills you need to nurture 40 different fruits from plot to plate. It offers green-fingered advice for growing your appe
Offers a broad perspective on how to make the best of the precious resource of water in your garden. This book reveals how conserving water in your garden does not necessarily restrict the gardener to dry gravel beds, but can also involve lawns, leafy crops and flowery borders.
Illustrated with step-by-step artworks, this guide dispels myths about organic gardening and explains all aspects of organic garden management, including the planning of an organically-balanced environment, soil preparation, pests and diseases, weed contr
A practical guide to natural gardens, showing how to apply organic principles to various aspects of garden planning, design and maintenance. It contains over 600 photographs, including illustrated step-by-step sequences to show how to achieve the best results in ornamental, wildlife and kitchen gardens.
Investigations on the statistics of linear polymers or of self-avoiding walks in, say, porous medium or disordered lattices were started in early eighties. The problem is not yet completely solved in its generality. This book intends to offer the readers a review of the various aspects of the problem. It is written by experts in the field.
Presents the story of the garden that has bloomed from the muddy fields around the Dons' Tudor farmhouse. This book also offers the story of a creative partnership that has weathered the greatest storm, and a testament to the healing powers of the soil. It features the garden's role in pulling back the author from the abyss of depression.
Bonsai in the original Chinese and Japanese means plant in a container. In western usage this has come to mean a tree grown in a container, conforming in various respects to a normal tree except for its miniature size. This is a concise, illustrated h
Edward Enfield has only ever had one garden, but his dealings with it have extended over half a century. He came to his threequarters of an acre knowing nothing about growing anything. This book offers an account of his horticultural successes and failures, inventions and frustrations, discoveries and developments.
Shrubs and climbers provide one of the principle tools for design and decoration. Their huge range and variety allow a great deal of choice and flexibility to shape the composition and mood of any garden. This book shows how to select the best shrubs and climbers for any garden, with inspirational ideas for a range of decorative effects.
Of Gardens records a great adventure of continual discovery not only of the artful beauty of individual gardens and landscapes but also of the intellectual and historical threads that weave them into patterns of civilization. Deitz's vivid descriptions and recollections allow readers to share in the experience of her extensive travels.
A guide to uncommon fruits and berries, which add an adventurous flavor to any garden. Though names like jujube, juneberry, maypop, and shipova may seem exotic at first glance, these fruits offer ample rewards to the gardener willing to go only slightly off the beaten path at local nurseries.
From ridding yourself of Spanish bluebells and sourcing climbers which cover your neighbours' unsightly fence, to encouraging bees and the right kind of bugs and deterring unwanted pests and diseases; week by week and season by season, this title answers the various gardening questions you can think of, and quite a few more besides.
The book covers all the technical aspects of planting trees, such as how to incorporate them into the garden design; mixed border plantings; group plantings and woodland schemes, avenues; hedges, screens and windbreaks; and in tree collections. There are also useful how-to sections that explore the practicalities of growing and propagating trees.
A practical guide to ensuring success in the garden. It shows that there is more to gardening than putting a seed in the soil and watching it grow. It draws on the author's years of experience to guide you, step-by-step, through the process of preparing for, planting and nurturing your plants.
When Kay Sexton becomes the proud holder of an allotment, she hopes it will be her first foray towards self-sufficiency for her family. Instead, she finds herself in a strange and hostile world of arcane rules and regulations, and hosepipe standoffs.
Beekeeping is a hobby any interested amateur could explore - that is the message of this work which aims to take the mystique out of keeping bees. Alan Campion uses his own experiences to describe in plain terms how to go about setting up a hive, and what to expect from your bees.
Describes what grasses and bamboos are and then details planting information, buying tips, cultivation, propagation and how to display them - whether you want to create a sub-tropical garden or simply make a feature in a terracotta pot. This book includes step-by-step projects, planting plans, hints, tips, lists and box features.
A guide to growing fruit, vegetables and flowers on an allotment or equivalent plot, exploring best practice growing advice, allotment life and its many benefits. It is suitable for those who want to get more from their plot, as well as for all would-be a
Helps you to be the envy of your neighbours with a garden in bloom through every season. This title includes colour photographs and at-a-glance information for over 1, 000 plants, the experts at the RHS give you the best plants for each month from bright spring bulbs to luscious evergreens.
If you grow your own vegetables, then you'll already be aware that the job's far from finished when harvest is gathered, as the harvest will need to be efficiently stored to last as long as possible. This book explains how grow your own food in the most efficient way possible for long term storing as well as how to store them in the traditional way.
A plant by plant pruning guide that comes with pruning advice for 180 trees, shrubs and climbers and 20 popular fruit crops. It presents an A-Z organisation that helps you find the plant you're looking for fast and the simple instructions and easy-to-follow diagrams that can encourage you to prune with confidence.
Allotment gardening has an established following, proving that there are large numbers of people who want to grow their own organic fruit and vegetables. This book provides information on getting the best from your plot, including charts, plant lists, diagrams and planting plans. It is suitable for every allotment gardener.
A brain-teasing puzzle book that offers a suitable way to relax after a hard day's toil in the garden. With 200 intriguing puzzles, ranging from Spot the Difference to plant and flower anagrams, interspersed with beautiful historical engravings and fascinating facts and garden folklore, it helps to keep your mind as sharp as a thorn.
Presents hands-on, know-how and understanding of practical delivery of integrated, closed-loop gardening from waste delivering real sustainability. This title includes your safety check list and how to calculate your own positive garden carbon footprint.
Growing a beautiful garden-even with a busy lifestyle For those garden lovers who thought keeping a garden of their own meant hours of work they simply couldn't spare, this fun and practical guide makes even a beautiful garden possible-in only an hour a week.
Correct pruning is essential to keep plants healthy and free of pests, but for many gardeners, it can seem confusing and even daunting. This title explains when is the best time of year to prune the plants, trees or shrubs, and gives instructions about where and how to cut. It provides advice on selecting and using the best tools and equipment.
Primroses, one of the first signs of spring in the countryside, are also one of the book earliest plants to bloom in the garden. Auriculas are hardy plants that are not difficult to grow. This illustrated book contains information on various aspects of pr
Tells of Sir Liontooth, who lays down his sword to make a perfect harmonious garden, but the herbacious mix of love, treachery, valour, terror, and civil war all but wrecks his dream. This gardening book features 19th century botanical paintings and drawings.
Explains the best methods for removing and preventing a variety of common garden pests, from aphids and slugs to vine weevils and whitefly. This title discusses the effective and organic ways to avoid and cope with diseases, such as dieback, canker, silver leaf, and rust.
By sowing, planting, weeding and harvesting in alignment with the Moon's influence and using organic and biodynamic principles, this book lets readers discover how to grow and harvest crops that are bursting with energy and taste. It also contains month-by-month plans and charts.
From manuscript descriptions and illustrations, this work presents a picture of the various styles of medieval garden from the small enclosed herber to vast cultivated parks of royalty and nobility. The book also offers practical advice on how to create typical medieval features in gardens.
What are the key tasks for each month that the time-pressed flower gardener should do to ensure success? And what are the most important things you need to know to keep your garden healthy, pest-free, bountiful and beautiful? This handy diary includes tried-and-tested tips.
With practical advice, projects and plant directory, this step-by-step guide helps you design your own Japanese oasis in one of the five classic styles - pond, dry, tea, stroll and courtyard - each brought to life with step-by-step projects. It includes photographs that feature inspiring locations, step-by-step sequences and colour illustrations.
Presents a collection of over 15 designs for your lawn ranging from the straightforward to the spectacular. This book contains easy-to-follow mowing instructions for a variety of projects, from a simple chequerboard pattern to more intricate christmas tree and eagle designs.
An introduction that contains what you need to know about the history, botany and cultivation of apples, from planting, pruning and propagation to harvesting, storing and cooking. It offers a botanical overview and description of the plant from its early
RHS Grow Your Own for Kids provides 35 step-by-step projects to get children into the garden and growing their own fruit, vegetables and herbs. There's also useful information on some key gardening basics such as pollination and seed germination, bugs a
No longer do we need a walled vegetable garden to grow succulent fresh produce for the kitchen. Large patio pots and grow bags can bring this useful hobby to the smallest of spaces. From veggies through herbs and fruits, to the kitchen and the recipes to use for it all, this book introduces the basics in a picture-packed format.
With expert advice, instructions and step-by-step photographs, this guide explains various techniques you need to ensure that your orchids flourish every time. It includes hints and tips on watering, feeding and the optimum lighting and temperature condit
Andi Clevely advises on how to use a variety of flowering plants to best effect around the garden and throughout the year, and offers tips and professional insights to help enhance their performance, whether alone or in combination with congenial neighbours. Here is everything you need to know about how to enjoy flowers in your garden.
Head to the vegetable plot where seeds are sown, plants nurtured, fruits tended, and crops harvested with Joe Hashman. With his guidance and your gardening any patch big or small will provide you with fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables while maintaining the natural balance of your garden.
Whether it's a tree house perched among the branches or a rustic gazebo by a pond, a small-scale playhouse or a whimsical dovecote, structures in the garden conjure images of long-ago summers and thoughts of childhood, innocence and worry-free relaxation. This book lets you recreate these bygone days by constructing their own outdoor features.
What are the key tasks for each month that the time-pressed fruit gardener should do to ensure success? Which fruits should you grow and which varieties can guarantee both quantity and quality? What are the most important things you need to know to make your crop blight-free, healthy and plentiful? This title provides answers to these questions.
Orchids have a reputation as the divas of the plant world: fussy, difficult-to-grow plants that - on top of all that - are prohibitively expensive. But there are plenty of orchids that anyone can grow. This title highlights the easiest, most fuss free varieties and includes tips on where to buy orchids and how to keep them in bloom.
What can be more satisfying than growing your own fruit and veg and then eating it, fresh from the pot? This book looks at what you can grow, the tools and materials you need, choosing the right containers as well as where to site them for optimum results.
Provides an introduction to the possibilities and methods involved in setting up the different aspects of a greener way of living. This title emphasises the positive aspects of adapting to a self-sufficient lifestyle, such as cutting living costs and eating well, and the sheer fun of rolling your sleeves up to get things going.
Presents an analysis of different plant combinations that explain how it works and why it is effective, and what you need to do to keep the plants flourishing. This title includes suggestions for many alternative plant pairings that allow you to create th
Explores nature's vast palette of plants, where they come from, what grows naturally in which conditions, but most importantly how they are used in gardens all around the world and how you can use them in your garden. This title helps you plan your planti
This book is about keeping hens for pleasure in your garden, about their suitability as pets and the joy of having fresh free-range eggs. There are also useful details on how the egg is produced, the composition of an egg and the best way to store and freeze eggs.
Presents a collection of accumulated wisdom, old wives' tales and gardening proverbs. This work contains generations of advice, both sound and questionable, from considering the seasons and wildlife in your garden, to growing better fruit, vegetables, herbs and trees. It is also a tribute to the time-honoured traditional gardening techniques.
Beverley Nichols (1898-1983) was a prolific author, playwright, composer, and media personality. This title features a selection of passages that offer a tantalizing taste of Nichols' poetry, humor, and passion. It is suitable for Nichols fans, gardeners, and plant lovers.
The rise in the popularity of allotments means that the old image of flat-capped men leaning on spades is no longer valid. This book aims to bring to life the unorthodox, the highly successful and the occasionally absurd, activities going on down the allotment plots. It also offers an array of allotment tips and hints.
Terrarium Craft features 50 original designs that you can re-create or use as inspiration for your own design. If you've always wanted to have a bit of nature in your own home, without the labour of a garden, Terrarium Craft will show you exactly how to create your own verdant, enchanting world.
Aimed at gardeners, this work is a compendium of Latin words that describe and distinguish plants and flowers. It also contains garden lore, such as: why Narcissus cyclamineus is a horticultural joke; why basil is the herb of dread and suspicion; and, why Cleopatra's asp arrives in a basket of figs whenever Antony and Cleopatra is performed.
Irises are among the most beautiful flowering plants that can be grown in temperate climates. They have a range that cover all colours of the rainbow and can provide spectacular focal plants for a mixed border, by water, among shrubs, or in a rock garden.
In today's increasingly busy world, even the keenest gardeners may often have trouble fitting in more than the odd half-hour to cultivate their plot. 'No Time to Garden' is the answer. It shows how you can create or maintain a beautiful garden, large or small, even if you are only able - or only want - to work on it for short periods of time.
Suitable for the gardeners and those who want to extend their gardening expertise, this title helps you learn the essential gardening skills and techniques, ranging from assessing your garden and planning the design to preparing the soil and maintaining perfect beds and borders.
After moving from Barleywood garden where he hosted BBC "Gardeners' World" for seven years, the author set up home in a farmhouse a few miles down the road, and went about planting his own private eden away from public eye. In this memoir, he reveals all about this secret garden, explaining his personal stories behind its design and evolution.
Contains over 1000 entries of information about flowers, vegetables, fruits, trees, herbs, insects, birds, water, soil, tools, composts, climate, recipes, gardens and gardeners, myths, superstitions, biodynamics. This work also includes famous"ations, anecdotes, traditional sayings, lines of verse, and words of rural wisdom.
Offers a guide to the world of garden design, packed with expert advice that shows you exactly where to put your patio and plant your perennials. This title provides a comprehensive plant directory, a selection of garden features and over 600 beautiful co
With easy-to-follow advice on designing, stocking and managing garden ponds, this guide deals with the planning and installation of the pool, and shows how to solve common problems such as green water, blanket weed and predator attacks. It also answers questions on which fish and plants to choose.
A guide to the best fruits and vegetables, with tips on how to grow them. From runner beans to gooseberries, it provides practical advice on key aspects of cultivation, such as sowing and harvesting and troubleshooting pests and diseases. It offers essential cultivation advice for grow-your-own beginners and experienced gardeners.
Creating A Bird-Friendly Garden reveals just how easy it is to tempt birds to your garden. By following the clear advice given on the most suitable foods, the best plants and the benefits of providing nest-boxes, everyone can enjoy the beauty of birds in the garden. It also provides informative character descriptions of the most common garden birds that you are likely to see, giving details of their appearance, lifestyle and behaviour.
Contains essential facts about the habitats, feeding preferences and behaviour of each type of garden wildlife, including their life cycles and how you can supplement their natural diet. This book is aimed at gardeners who want to encourage wildlife to take up residence in their backyards.
Gives advice that gardeners need to grow a year-round supply of healthy fruit and vegetables for their table. This book starts with planning what to grow and where to grow it, whether that's an allotment, a series of containers, raised bed or veg patch, t
Offers practical advice on planning, planting and maintaining rock and water gardens including more than 300 photographs. This title provides you what you need to know to design, plan and plant a unique rock and water garden. It also includes a section on rock and water design that contains plans showing different garden ideas.
From damp shady spots to choosing the best climbers for pergolas, this title helps you choose the plants that are ideal for your garden. Whether you want to attract wildlife or perfume your scented garden, it provides lists showing you the best plants for various sites and situations.
A plant guide that helps to cultivate the classic English rose or grow a crop of climbing French beans, choose plants with confidence. It recommends over 3, 000 trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs, bedding plants, fruits and vegetables for every garden situation and with more than 1, 500 colourful photos and illustrations.
What are the key tasks for each month that as a time-pressed vegetable gardener you should do to ensure success? Which vegetables should you grow and which varieties can guarantee quantity and quality? What are the important things you need to know to make your crop blight-free, healthy and plentiful? This book provides answers to these questions.
A practical gardening box set that provides four how-to guides on planning and designing your garden, showing in 3400 photographs and illustrations. It includes ideas for different styles and types of gardens and outside spaces: low-maintenance courtyards
Answers the 1000 most-asked questions that can frustrate various gardeners alike. This book covers from the basic knowing how to identify your soil type, buying plants, seeds versus seedlings; to the thorny problems of dealing with chronic pests and disea
The successful reproduction of cultured brood stock is essential to the sustainable aquaculture of aquatic organisms. This book describes advances in the field of finfish reproductive biotechnology. It reviews the progress and assesses the status of biotechnology research that is applicable to the reproduction of finfish species for aquaculture.
Garden Style Guide Garden Makeovers: Quick fixes and designer secrets to transform your garden This book shows you lots of easy ways that you can transform your garden. None of them involve a huge toolkit or a vast DIY knowledge (not to mention specialist gardening equipment).