Create your own small garden with expert gardener Joe Swift. Green spaces are the perfect antidote to fast city living. Learn how to create your own small garden with expert gardener Joe Swift's practical, easy-to-follow advice. From courtyards to rooftops, transform awkward and unexciting spaces with inspirational ideas and solutions. Whatever you want your green space to look like and be used for, Joe's no-nonsense approach guides you through issues such as privacy, boundaries and shade, to growing plants in areas with little to no soil. The wider environmental benefits are significant - helping to reduce pollution and minimise the heat island effect (a result of the hardscape in towns and cities). The plants will increase biodiversity, and many will be an important year-round resource for wildlife. In this book, Joe covers a vast range of exciting, impactful and innovative ways to stamp your personality on your outdoor space. He demonstrates how to use paving, boundaries, containers, furniture, water and sculpture to help structure and define, and how to give the starring role to the plants you choose to draw the seasons into our towns and cities. Joe Swift is an author, TV presenter and garden designer. He makes regular appearances on BBC's Gardener's World and the RHS Flower Shows

Dwarf and median bearded irises are the little floral jewels of the gardening world, extending the iris season by six to eight weeks with great panache. Relatively new on the horticultural scene, these small and miniature replicas of larger bearded irises have nevertheless taken it by storm, because their 4-to-27-inch height makes them the perfect size for most American gardens. Dr. Kevin Vaughn, who has hybridized these irises over a 50-year period in diverse climates, describes all five dwarf and median bearded-iris classes. He offers suggestions both for historical and modern cultivars, describes best cultivation practices, and details hybridizing methods. Lavishly illustrated with nearly 200 color photos of outstanding specimens, this comprehensive book is both for beginners who want to try some of the hottest perennials on the market, and for seasoned iris growers who want to learn more about their favorite plant.

Orchids have always inspired passion. Their exotic flowers and vibrant colours draw people in, but their reputation as fussy and difficult to grow keep many houseplant fans from adding them to their home decor. But orchids can be easy to grow and Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the orchid collection at the New York Botanical Garden, details exactly how in his new book. Orchid Modern includes basic information on potting, watering, and care. Hachadourian profiles the top 100 plant picks, focusing on varieties that are readily available and easy to grow. Step-by-step projects, including a jewel orchid terrarium, an orchid wreath, an orchid kokedama, and a woodland centerpiece, will inspire readers to express their individual style and add orchids to their home decor. Packed with accessible information and hundreds of stylish photographs, Orchid Modern demystifies this intimidating plant and offers inspiration for modern styling.

Simple Pleasures Throughout the Year "Simple Pleasures has become my go-to book for remembering to slow down and enjoy the little things in life." -Becca Anderson, bestselling author of Badass Affirmations, The Book of Awesome Women, and more An abundant sourcebook of ideas, encouraging quotes, recipes, and soothing activities, Simple Pleasures of the Garden shows you how to appreciate the simple things within your daily activities. The secret to living well year round can be found in the abundance of your home garden, so get to planting those seeds of simple joys and herbal healing! Nurture your mind, body, and soul. Sometimes finding the positive can be hard, but it doesn't have to be. From the recipe for a homemade herbal bath for a spa day to quick and easy recommendations for an instant room makeover, the suggestions and home recipes collected in this book offer a new appreciation for the everyday activities that nurture and comfort you. Simplify your emotional self care. Taking care of yourself doesn't have to be expensive, unrealistic, or inaccessible. It can be as easy as tending to a green garden, making healing herbal tonics, sipping calming teas, or spending time with other natural energy boosters. Pleasures are made, not bought, so unlock new secrets to happiness with these touching stories, practical tips, and satisfying crafts. Inside this positive attitude book you'll find: Ways to decorate your home with nature crafts, growing herbs, and an air of magic Advice on how to foster a routine for a rejuvenating self care year Tips on how to become the gardener of your moods and emotions If you liked seasonal self care books like A Year of Self-Care, Grow Your Own Medicine, or A Woman's Garden, you'll love Simple Pleasures of the Garden.

Garden expert and lovable eccentric Ruth Stout once said: "At the age of 87 I grow vegetables for two people the year-round, doing all the work myself and freezing the surplus. I tend several flower beds, write a column every week, answer an awful lot of mail, do the housework and cooking; and never do any of these things after 11 o'clock in the morning " Her first book about her no-work gardening system, "How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back," was the kind of book people can't bear to return. She reports, "A dentist in Pennsylvania and a doctor in Oregon have both written me that they keep a copy of my garden book in their waiting rooms. Or try to; the dentist has had twenty-three copies stolen, the doctor, sixteen." "Gardening Without Work" is her second gardening book and is even more entertaining and instructional than the first, so hide it from your friends How does it work? "And now let's get down to business. The labor-saving part of my system is that I never plow, spade, sow a cover crop, harrow, hoe, cultivate, weed, water or irrigate, or spray. I use just one fertilizer (cottonseed or soybean meal), and I don't go through the tortuous business of building a compost pile. Just yesterday, under the Questions and Answers' in a big reputable farm paper, someone asked how to make a compost pile and the editor explained the arduous performance. After I read this I lay there on the couch and suffered because the victim's address wasn't given; there was no way I could reach him. "My way is simply to keep a thick mulch of any vegetable matter that rots on both my vegetable and flower garden all year round. As it decays and enriches the soil, I add more." Regardless of topic, Ruth Stout's writing is always about living a joyous and independent life, and "Gardening Without Work" is no exception This book is a treasure for the gardener and a delight even to the non-gardener. First published in 1961, this Norton Creek Press version is an exact reproduction of the original edition. Ruth Stout, who, in her teens helped temperance activist Carrie Nation smash saloon windows, could turn any aspect of life into an adventure. She may have been the only woman who both gardened in the nude and wrote a book on being a hostess ("Company Coming: Six Decades of Hospitality"). She died in 1980 at the age of 96.

A no-fuss guide to caring for your indoor plants - ideal for first-time gardeners! Do you want to know how to keep your houseplants alive and thriving indoors but don't know where to start? This gardening book for beginners will help you care for over 60 houseplant varieties. You don't have to be a horticulture expert to create an indoor garden, this indispensable reference book will take you through every single step! It includes: - Easy indoor gardening tips and expert advice on indoor gardening for beginners - Packed with practical, jargon-free know-how, this easy-to-use guide has everything you need to know to help your - houseplants grow - Easy-to-follow format to help grow your gardening skills - Learn how to look after, rescue, and propagate plants including a rubber plant, fiddle fig leaf, a bread plant and more! Houseplants can magically transform any living space but looking after them can be tricky. If you are new to owning plants, this easy-to-use guide is packed with essential care tips and expert advice for happy and thriving indoor plants. Gorgeous, full-colour photography and simple step by step instructions will show you how to care for a wide range of indoor plants. This indoor gardening book for beginners also includes a plant directory of over 90 houseplants to practice your new gardening skills! Delve into the right succulents to plant, how to grow a fern and choosing the perfect trailing plants for your indoor spaces. Grow Houseplants is perfect for first-time gardeners, especially renters and people who live in smaller spaces. Make your green-fingered dreams a reality with the Grow series from DK. Learn how to sow, grow, and harvest vegetables successfully in Grow Easy Veg, or discover how to garden more sustainably in Grow Eco-Gardening. Alternatively, there are more titles to explore such as Grow Pruning & Training and Grow Compost.

Auriculas are spring-flowering alpine beauties and a sensational draw whenever they are seen, at primula and auricula flower shows, on display in auricula theatres, or in the garden. This essential guide tells of their rich history, describes various cultivars in detail, instructs on propagation techniques and explains how to grow and show them. Topics covered include: monthly guide to cultivation; advice on composts, fertilizers and how to raise new plants; in-depth look at pest and disease recognition and control; description of the alpine house and other greenhouses and instruction on how to make an auricula theatre and a cold frame is given. A comprehensive list of different cultivars is included.

The content of this book originally appeared in The New Kitchen Garden, published in 2015. 'An endless selection of delicious produce you can plant, grow and then cook with.' Raymond Blanc OBE Now you can create your own delicious edible garden at home! More and more people are being inspired to grow a little of what they eat at home. But while starting your own kitchen garden may seem like a daunting task at first, Grow & Cook makes it easy. Award-winning author and gardener, Mark Diacono, has distilled years of knowledge into this pocket-sized book. Whether you are new to gardening and only have a small window box or you are much more experienced with the space to experiment, this user-friendly handbook will inspire and help you. Mark is here to show you that there are plenty of options for everyone and lots of exciting new varieties to discover. Each variety in the book includes a wealth of information on when to sow, growing tips, potential problems, harvesting and plenty more. There are hundreds of varieties to pick from that can be grown and then used in your kitchen. Mark separates the growing guides into three groups: * Vegetables * Fruit & Nuts * Herbs & Spices Whatever you choose to grow should suit your lifestyle. You might prefer something tough and sturdy that doesn't need too much love or time commitment, or you might get pleasure from the steady graft of looking after your veg patch. Whichever your circumstances, your kitchen garden should bring you joy both in the growing process and then in the kitchen. Grow & Cook is the essential pocket guide for modern gardeners.

One of the most popular of all spring-flowering bulbs, the tulip has a history that is as colourful as the flower itself. In the 1600s, in the heyday of "tulipomania", these blooms were rare, very expensive and considered status symbols by European aristocrats. Today, just about all of us can afford to "tiptoe through the tulips" right in our own gardens. This easy-to-use, abundantly illustrated guide tells novice and expert gardeners everything they need to know to successfully grow many exquisite varieties of tulip, from the bizarre Parrot to the classic Rembrandt.

The Royal Horticultural Society's The Rose tells the story of the world's favourite flower through 40 of the most popular and interesting species and hybrids. Arranged chronologically, The Rose brings to life the arrival of each flower in European gardens, detailing the history of the layout of rose gardens and the role that roses play in the 'language of flowers'. From the first recorded reference to a rose over 7,000 years ago, these extraordinary flowers have captivated botanists, artists, poets, perfumers and gardeners. A symbol of love and patriotism, a scent and flavour synonymous with the East, and the jewel in the crown of ornamental gardens, roses in all their forms bear a special meaning that spans centuries and crosses oceans. Extraordinary botanical illustrations and extracts from classic texts held in the Royal Horticultural society's world-famous Lindley Library, such as Redoute's Les Roses, Henry Andrew's Roses, Mary Lawrence's Selection of Roses and Victor Paquet's Choix des Plus Belles Roses, complete this authoritative celebration.

A true story of one of the world's strangest plants and humanity's oddest obsessions: the orchid, brought to book by the author, traveller and self-confessed orchid obsessive. From the Orinoco River to the hothouses of Kew, and the clandestine nurseries of Europe to the peat bogs of Minnesota, this is a dark and humorous tale of orchid smugglers, ice-cream makers and visionary breeders; of courruption, murder and moths with 12-inch tongues; and of the vicious, bizarre world of international plant politics and the wide range of gentle people whose overriding passion is the cultivation of these beautiful, fragile flowers.

In this volume, John Howells attempts to bring clarity to a confusing subject. Gardeners are bewildered with the choice of over 1000 clematis in the "Plantfinder". How can the gardener know the characteristics, growing requirements, attractions, faults and flowering time of so many? Some years ago the author devised a straighforward classification of clematis by dividing them into 12 groups, a system which is now universally followed. The main part of the book considers all 12 groups in order of flowering . Each group has an unmistakable description and unambiguous illustrations. A number of easy to grow clematis in each group are described and illustrated. Understandable but brief descriptions are given for the cultivation of each group. A knowledge of just 12 clematis, one from each group, gives the key to knowing all 1000. With this key the gardener can quickly choose what appeals and what suits the chosen planting area. There is also guidance on how to buy clematis and how to develop a clematis collection. Lists of the best clematis are provided.

Features over 335 annuals best suited to growing conditions in Ohio. Gardeners will enjoy the more than 400 brilliant full-color photographs in the book. They'll also benefit from the down-to-earth knowledge and extensive experience of Ohio horticulturist and garden designer Debra Knapke and Alison Beck, author of more than a dozen gardening guides.

Over 500 annuals suitable to MN & WI climate. How & when to start your plants. Tips on planting, growing, recommended varities, problems & pests.

Never kill another orchid - give them a happy life! Learn how to keep your orchids flowering beautifully, year after year, with advice from an RHS Gold Medal-winning orchid grower. And discover sensational new varieties to add to your collection. Did you know that many orchids hate being in direct sunlight? Or that most orchids have a crucial dormant period when their care needs change? Happy Orchid dispels the myths around orchid care, starting with a simple, step-by-step introduction that offers tips on buying orchids and demonstrates all the essential growing techniques, including how to plant, what feed to give them - orchids are fussy eaters! - and how to water and maintain humidity. Discover more than 120 illustrated profiles of the most desirable orchids to grow: graceful Phalaenopsis, delicate Dendrobium, spectacular Cymbidium and many more varieties. Each profiled orchid lets you know exactly what they need for optimum growth, including where best to place them, how often they need repotting, how to prolong flowering and encourage reflowering. With this book as your guide, you will quickly become an expert on how to grow orchids and be inspired to fill your home with these striking, colourful beauties.