Every gardener loves perennials. Buy them and plant them, and most will flourish and even expand year after year. But in addition to reliability, perennials offer gardeners a wonderful opportunity to make a stunning visual statement in their home landscapes - if you know how to combine and arrange them. In THE PERENNIAL GARDENER'S DEISGN PRIMER, Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra, two top garden writers and teachers, offer fun, organized, and - most important - attainable advice on how to create gorgeous gardens using these beloved plants. Cohen and Ondra walk the gardener step-by- step through the process of creating new gardens, as well as of bringing new life to gardens that have lost their lustre. They explain how to pick perennials that suit the site by making the most of plant colour, shape, size, and texture; and how to create eye-catching plant combinations. Beautiful illustrations accompany the new garden plans, and stunning photographs capture how Cohen and Ondra have redesigned their own gardens. Throughout the book, a lively dialogue between Cohen and Ondra encourages readers to experiment and to create their own satisfying designs. The authors also offer down-to-earth design solutions for 20 specific types of gardens, including everything from a minimum maintenance garden to a more complex container garden, from planting a formal border to indulging in the controlled chaos of a cottage garden. Whether you are breaking ground for a new garden, or revitalizing an existing bed, THE PERENNIAL GARDENER'S DESIGN PRIMER can help every gardener achieve great results - year after year.

At Stowe, 250 acres of parkland off er a complex web of views, pathways, statues, inscriptions, urns and ideas. Unlike its French fl oricultural precursors, Stowe presents sudden shifts of scene, abrupt revelations, as well as spots at which to stop to absorb the visual eff ect. There is natural beauty in the gardens of Stowe, but they serve a larger purpose than to please the eye. Beneath this facade of bucolic idyll lies a deeply important suggestion of man's relationship to nature. Accompanying an exhibition of historic and contemporary art at Stowe House, The Garden at War explores the gardens at Stowe, built by a general, as a site of perpetual confl ict in which the preconditions of destruction and creation are inescapable. If nature is understood to be original, then the garden is an ordered but un-orderly condition; a re-ordered vision of the natural order, a vision of nature disciplined by human action in a attempt to advance and yield control. Starting with works by the preeminent neoclassical painters Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain - whose distinct pictorial visions gave rise to an unmistakable relationship between the garden, the viewer and the natural world - the publication brings together an arrangement of interpretations and theories exploring metaphors and meanings within the very practice of gardening itself. An introduction by the pre-eminent critic Stephen Bann and an essay by the foremost garden historian John Dixon Hunt lead on to newly commissioned illustrations by artist Gary Hincks, a previously unpublished interview with the Scottish conceptual artist and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay, and a new discussion of confl ict in the work of Richard Long.

Since it was first published in 1997, homeowners, serious gardeners, and professional nursery owners have responded enthusiastically to "Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden" 66,000 copies are in print. In the last seven years, as the deer problem in towns and suburbs has gotten worse, new solutions have presented themselves. To cope with the situation and keep up with the latest in deer control, Rhonda Hart has revised her original book, adding more than 60 pages of new material on how anyone can protect their yard and garden from deer.
As in her first edition, Hart takes a straightforward, just-the-facts approach. She tells homeowners exactly what they want to know: which commercial repellents are effective, how to make homemade deterrents, and how to create a landscape designed to repel deer.
Since the first edition was published, virtually invisible polyethylene deer netting is now widely available and almost 100 percent effective in keeping deer out of the yard. Hart has updated her chapter on fencing to include this and other new products.
Hart has also refined her plant lists to spotlight those that deer rarely touch and also to identify those plants that are less likely to be tasty targets, depending on the time of year and where you live.
The chapter on deer repellents has also been revised to rank commercial and homemade products in terms of their effectiveness and how often a new application is necessary.
This new edition provides anyone who gardens with a wide variety of deer-proofing alternatives so that at the edge of your garden, you really can say, "the buck stops here."

Create a harmonious garden style all the year round with innovative use of colour and pattern. Experience the soothing sounds of birdsong, the hum of insects, the rustle of leaves and the gentle trickle of water in the garden. Tempt your palate with sweet and edible flowers, plump summer fruits, delicious gourmet vegetables and fragrant herbs. Incorporate soft, velvety-textured plants and shrubs that cry out to be touched, and tactile floor surfaces that invite bare feet. Plant heady-scented roses, fragrant climbers and aromatic bulbs, annuals, herbs and shrubs to make your own pleasure garden. This beautiful book will show you how to add sensory elements into the garden, whether planting a fragrant honeysuckle near a window, adding a gently flowing water feature to attract wildlife, or planning beautiful borders to create romantic atmosphere or glorious year-round colour. Imagine the captivating scent of herbs and flowers, feast your eyes on a sunny summer border, hear the busy hum of bees, brush past soft foliage and taste sweet fruit freshly picked. A garden can incorporate all these elements whatever its aspect or size. With practical planting suggestions and delightful, evocative photographs of achievable garden schemes, "Creating a Garden of the Senses" will inspire you to make your garden a sensory paradise.

This award-winning book by a Harvard landscape architect proves how important it is to understand the natural settings of cities--their air, water, geology, plant, and animal life--to create better, more habitable urban environments.

Gardens take many forms, and have a variety of functions. They can serve as spaces of peace and tranquilty, a way to cultivate wildlife, or as places to develop agricultural resources. Globally, gardens have inspired, comforted, and sustained people from all walks of life, and since the Garden of Eden many iconic gardens have inspired great artists, poets, musicians, and writers. In this Very Short Introduction, Gordon Campbell embraces gardens in all their splendour, from parks, and fruit and vegetable gardens to ornamental gardens, and takes the reader on a globe-trotting historical journey through iconic and cultural signposts of gardens from different regions and traditions. Ranging from the gardens of ancient Persia to modern day allotments, he concludes by looking to the future of the garden in the age of global warming, and the adaptive spirit of human innovation. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A showcase of Britain's most extraordinary gardens and landscapes from the twentieth century to present day. 100 20th-Century Gardens and Landscapes highlights the evolution of gardens and landscapes over the past century, tracing how these distinctive creations complemented buildings of their period. Entries in this book are grouped in chronological periods, documenting changing styles and techniques in a visual timeline. The examples chosen take the story from the Arts and Crafts garden and the garden city, through the landscapes created for mid-century housing and the new towns, to the low-maintenance gardens of the 1980s and contemporary trends for community and wildlife gardens. Designed landscapes were often integral to the conception of twentieth-century developments; the inclusion of a handful of particularly successful landscapes for memorial gardens, offices, industry, transport and parks demonstrate a changing attitude to public green space during the century and its increasing importance as private gardens have become ever smaller. Designers and architects such as Piet Oudolf, Charles Jencks, Frederick Gibberd, Geoffrey Jellicoe, Vita Sackville-West and Gertrude Jekyll are all featured, alongside more detailed essays on the history of gardens, planting styles, the importance of modern landscapes, and the career of Geoffrey Jellicoe. The text is written by architectural, landscape and garden historians including Elain Harwood, Barbara Simms and Alan Powers. Beautifully illustrated throughout with photography, illustrations and garden plans, this book is ideal for gardeners and landscape lovers alike.

Achieve a luscious garden all year round with this best-selling, easy-to-follow guide for novice gardeners from BBC Gardener's World writer Ian Spence. Find out when the best time is for pruning rose bushes, when your potatoes will be ready to harvest, how to keep your lawn green and well-fed, and learn how to plan ahead with this comprehensive gardening book. Keep on top of garden tasks with month-by-month chapters, "Last Chance" reminders, "Get Ahead" tips, and handy to-do lists. This RHS book will make gardening easier by providing helpful guidelines and realistic advice, so you can plan out your time efficiently and effectively. Packed with beautiful photo galleries that showcase each month's "Star Plant", you'll be inspired to have your own garden blooming throughout the year! Explore more than 350 different varieties in the A-Z illustrated plant directory. Discover top tips to guide you with clear, easy-to-follow gardening advice and illustrated step-by-step projects and gardening ideas. This fully updated edition includes brand-new visual galleries that showcase a garden throughout the year, with inspirational ideas for achieving colour schemes, your favourite scent, or striking foliage in your garden. Discover How to Keep Your Garden Beautiful from January to December Whatever your level of skills in the garden, expert advice from the well-known gardener, Ian Spence, will help you keep your garden thriving all year round. RHS Gardening Through The Year is a must-have for anyone who has a green thumb! Inside the pages of this easy-to-follow gardening guide, you'll find: - Essential gardening advice. - Month-by-month chapters and handy to-do lists so you can keep on top of your garden tasks. - Photo galleries that showcase each month's best plants and flowers. - Illustrated plant directory with over 350 different varieties for you to explore. Whether you're looking to refresh your garden or you're thinking about getting an allotment, RHS Gardening Through The Year is the ideal gardening gift that you and your friends will return to time and time again for seasonal garden inspiration and advice. Happy gardening!