Reap the benefits of a biodynamic, organic approach to gardening and grow abundant crops in tune with lunar cycles.

Biodynamic Gardening has all you need to know about gardening by the moon:

150 Gardens You Need to Visit before You Die profiles a selection of the most beautiful gardens in the world, renowned for their exceptional flora, imaginative designs, and inspiring locations. From Kew Gardens in London to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, and from Monet's garden at Giverny to the Zen garden of the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto, this handsomely bound book captures in words and images the most notable features of these 150 glorious, not-to-be-missed gardens. An essential bucket list book for garden lovers!

The New Wild Garden combines new approaches to a more naturalistic design with the practical side of growing wildflowers and shows how to incorporate wildflowers, real meadows and a looser prarie-style planting into gardens and wild spaces. With serious concern into the decline of pollinators and habitats, meadows are currently the focus of enormous creativity. Gardeners, wildlife lovers, professional designers and seed manufacturers are all pushing the envelope of what can be grown, the pictorial effects that can be achieved, and the benefits that this provides for gardeners and wildlife. This book includes 15 step-by-step projects and an essential plant list, as well as offering inspiration to gardeners and an overview of the most influential movement in garden design over recent decades. In this book you can learn: * How to sow or plant meadow to suit your space * Planting plans for every plot size: from a container, small patch, allotment or an acre * How to grow and propagate more than 50 kinds of wildflowers * Understand and emulate the new natural style followed by designers * Meadow recipes for every soil, situation and wildlife habitat.

Concrete and steel may weigh as much, but nothing can rival stone for its beauty and durability. Building With Stone is an introduction to the art and craft of creating stone structures and projects by a man who has made stonework his vocation.

Throughout the book is Charles McRaven's stonebuilding philosophy -- that careful craftsmanship and time well spent during construction will repay itself many times over. The physical challenges will be offset by tremendous satisfaction and the knowledge that long after the builder is gone, the structure will stand as a personal and historical monument.

Based on years of experience, this book will educate the novice and inspire the seasonal artisan. A stonebuilder at any level will learn how to evaluate each stone and undertake each step in the procedure with an eye toward aesthetics and useful permanence.

In addition to introductory material on acquiring stone and what tools will be necessary, there are chapters with step-by-step instructions on how to build:

-- walls

-- buttresses

-- stone fireplaces

-- a barbecue pit

-- a stone dam

-- a stone bridge

-- a spring house

-- even a home or barn

The final chapter is on proper restoration techniques for stone structures.

Not just a how-to book, but also a good read, Building With Stone is sure to be a reference book and constant companion for all manner of stone journeymen, and will prove to be as enduring a volume as the structures it recommends.

Summer can be a glorious time when a garden glows with continuous color, and this practical guide will show you the way. Planning and follow-through are clearly spelled out in simple instructions that cover every step to success. Ten varied garden styles are showcased in over 130 beautiful full-color photos and watercolor illustrations that demonstrate the ways to use different groups of plants. Detailed plant lists and timetables help create variety with trees to give height, shrubs to give structure, foliage to give breadth, and flowers to create flashes of color. And the flowers See how to highlight roses, the stars of the summer garden, as well as perennials, ornamental grasses, borders, herbs, and plants in containers, plus decorative features such as arches and pergolas. Get tips on adapting the plans to your climate, and turning problem-area eyesores into eye-catchers. It's just the kind of planning guide needed to bring sweet dreams on cold winter nights.

Garden walkways play a critical role in forming one's overall impression of a garden's entire arrangement and design. Using diagrams, layouts, and brilliant color photographs, this invaluable guide describes the innumerable possibilities for garden walkways, terraces, steps, and cozy siting areas. The book covers an array of surface options, including natural stone, modern concrete, and fantasy-filled mosaics, as well as wooden decks and other garden structures. Great for the professional or the weekend landscaper.

This fascinating work presents the story of the growth of Japanese culture and philosophy as illustrated by gardens. The author identifies the importance of the garden in Japanese art throughout history, tracing its development from Ancient Chinese prototype, to early Japanese gardens, to the mansions of Muromachi, the Tea Gardens, and finally modern gardens. She relates the evolution of the garden to Oriental religion and philosophy, political and historical events, the arts in general, and the tea ceremony. The book's lively, interesting prose and handsome illustrations give it enduring appeal.

Although the integration of sculpture in gardens is part of a long tradition dating back at least to antiquity, the sculptures themselves are often overlooked, both in the history of art and in the history of the garden. This collection of essays considers the changing relationship between sculpture and gardens over the last three centuries, focusing on four British archetypes: the Georgian landscape garden, the Victorian urban park, the outdoor spaces of twentieth-century modernism and the late-twentieth-century sculpture park. Through a series of case studies exploring the contemporaneous audiences of gardens, the book uncovers the social, political and gendered messages revealed by sculpture's placement and suggests that the garden can itself be read as a sculptural landscape.

Contemplative landscape and contemplative space are familiar terms in the areas of design, landscape architecture and architecture. Krinke and her contributors, all highly regarded scholars and designers, set out to explore definitions, theories, and case studies of contemplative landscapes. The contributors, Marc Treib, John Beardsley, Michael Singer, Lance Neckar, Heinrich Herman, and Rebecca Krinke, have spent their careers researching, critiquing, and making landscapes. Here they investigate the role of contemplative space in a post-modern world and examine the impact of nature and culture on the design or interpretation of contemplative landscapes.
The authors investigate principles and strategies often used as guidance for creating contemplative landscapes, as well as the relationships and differences between contemplative and commemorative space. The essays, drawn from both scholarship and personal experience explore the links between spaces designed to provide health benefits and contemplative space.

Are you excited about permaculture but unclear how to put it into practice for yourself? In this unique, full colour guide, experienced permaculture teacher Aranya leads you through the design process from beginning to end, using clear explanations, flowcharts and diagrams. It is based on course worksheets which have been designed, refined and tested on students over time. Linking theory to practice, he places the ethics, principles, philosophies, tools and techniques directly into the context of the process itself. While written for anyone with a basic grasp of permaculture, this book also has plenty to offer the more experienced designer. This guide covers: Systems and patterns ~ Working as part of a design team ~ Land and non-land based design ~ Design frameworks ~ Site surveying and map making ~ Interviewing clients ~ Working with large client groups ~ Identifying functions ~ Choosing systems and elements ~ Placement and integration ~ Creating a design proposal ~ Project management ~ Presenting your ideas to clients ~ and much more. A great reference for anyone who has done, or is thinking of doing, any kind of permaculture course.

In Six Thousand Years up the Garden Path, a seasoned horticulturalist takes others on a light-hearted and magical journey through the history of gardens. Ian Robertson has spent a lifetime working in the world of plants and design and relies on his experience as an international garden designer to narrate a fascinating history of gardening. Beginning with Sumerians learning to garden between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Robertson transports others through the Fertile Crescent to western Europe, forward to the British Isles, and onward to the New World all while describing the beauty of the gardens of Andrew Jackson Downing, Wolfgang Oehme, Frederick Law Olmstead, and many others. Included in his story of the foliage and blossoms that surrounded kings, princes, queens, and mistresses, Robertson shares a timeline, glossary, and roadside stopovers that make the journey up the garden path even more delightful. Tailored for the enjoyment of either experienced or novice gardeners immersed in the second fastest growing hobby in America, Robertson provides insights into the people, events, and plants that have vibrantly colored the landscape of the world for thousands of years.

Steven and Susan show how to create a range of useful structures and furnishings, both large and small, at relatively little expense by using mostly recycled materials. The first chapters show the kinds of materials used and their possible uses; the next demonstrate some basic making skills. The book then showcases a variety of projects, including structures like a garden shed/studio and a recycled deck, as well as smaller items of garden furniture, such as garden chairs and tables, as well as various forms of storage. Each project includes step-by- step construction techniques with illustrations.

This work shows how to create enchanting outdoor spaces for all ages, combining the needs of children and pets with the adult desire to cultivate a beautiful garden. It is a quick reference on all aspects of planting and maintaining a garden, including advice on habitats and soil-types, co-ordinating colour and foliage, and identifying and dealing with pests. Practical tips and instructions are presented in topic-based spreads. The book offers a practical and realistic approach to organic alternatives as well as conventional gardening methods.

Most gardens have shady spots, but some gardens have a real shade ‘problem’. Whether it is caused by large or overhanging trees, tall buildings, or just being on the ‘wrong side of the street’, fi nding the best plants for a shady area can be challenging, particularly if the rest of your garden basks in sunshine all year round. Shade plants are not necessarily tropical, although many tropical plants thrive in shade. Some delicate leafy plants will scorch and burn in hot sun, some plants like shady conditions but not damp soil, while others grow happily in damp, boggy ground that receives minimum sunlight. Gardening in the Shade examines the different types of shade and the effect it has on plant growth.

It presents solutions to common problems such as feeding, watering and mulching shade plants, and how to deal with exacerbating factors such as wind, frost and soil type. Popular shade plants, like clivias, bromeliads, fuchsias and ferns are given special features, and a directory of species lists plants under headings like ground covers, tropical-looking perennials, and succulents.

Ever dreamed of having your very own garden retreat? Off-the-shelf sheds aren't always the answer - the cheap ones are badly made and freezing cold, and the better quality ones are really expensive. But what if you could build your own shed from scratch? How to Build a Shed is the ultimate practical guide. With its clear, easy-to-follow instructions, expert advice and specially commissioned illustrations, you'll be able to source the materials, choose the right tools and build your dream shed on a budget - even if you've never used a hammer.

Fill your garden with flowers all-year round with inspiration, planting ideas and expert advice from Sarah Raven.

Colour and scent are the hallmarks of Sarah Raven's style – and they are simple luxuries that everyone can bring into their garden.

A Year Full of Flowers reveals the hundreds of hardworking varieties that make the garden sing each month, together with the practical tasks that ensure everything is planted, staked and pruned at just the right time.

Tracing the year from January to December at her home, Perch Hill, Sarah offers a complete and transporting account of a garden crafted over decades. Sharing the lessons learned from years of plant trials, she explains the methods that have worked for her, and shows you how to achieve a space that's full of life and colour.

Discover long-lasting, divinely scented tulips, roses that keep flowering through winter, the most magnificent dahlias and show-stopping alliums, as well as how to grow sweet peas up a teepee, take cuttings from chrysanthemums and stop mildew in its tracks.

This is passionate, life-enriching gardening; it's also simple, adaptable and can work for you. Sarah has made the garden central to her life – this book shows you how you can too.

' [A] smart volume ... simple, straightforward photographs and helpful captions accompany text that is lively and amiable.' - New York Times Book Review Inspiration for stunning planting for your garden throughout the year - from Anna Pavord, one of today's most inspiring and much-loved garden writers, author of the global bestseller The Tulip First published in 2001, and now fully revised and updated, in this inspirational book, acclaimed bestselling author Anna Pavord selects 60 'star plants' - from iris to hostas - and pairs each with two perfect partners: shrubs, herbaceous perennials, bulbs, and annuals that no garden should be without. This classic book reveals how best to group plants in a garden to create a year-long display. Ranging from hydrangeas, salvias and ferns to dahlias, tulips and snowdrops, each star plant is paired with two partners, offering gardeners creative planting solutions to achieve stunning results, season by season.

Forget tired rows of carnations interspersed with a few clumped impatiens: these stunning "New Tech" layouts redefine what a garden can be! Award-winning designer Paul Cooper presents the best contemporary garden designs from all around the world. From the innovative to the controversial, this unique collection features kinetic, portable, and radical gardens that defy convention. Using distressed concrete, stainless steel, elastic netting, and other man-made materials interspersed with lush plantings, these distinctive plans provide unexpected visuals and rich textures that challenge perceived notions of landscape design. More than 140 color photographs and numerous garden plans make this an ideal sourcebook for professional landscapers and adventurous home gardeners alike.

In this book, pioneering nurseryman Olivier Filippi offers low-level planting designs that are eco-friendly and so beautiful they redefine the conventional distinction between lawn and plant borders. Inspired by the wild plant communities of Europe, the Middle East, and the USA, these rigorously trialled plant combinations can be used on terraces, paths, gravel beds and flower borders, as well as on areas that are traditionally laid to lawn. With a plant directory that lists over 200 tough but beautiful dry garden plants and Filippi's innovative maintenance techniques, this is the perfect companion to his first book The Dry Gardening Handbook and will delight all dry garden owners.

"Shady plants deserve ambassadors like Susanna: someone who can view a dim corner as an opportunity rather than obstacle." -- Matt Collins, Head Gardener at the Garden Museum Work with the light, grow plants and flowers, bring dark corners to life. This handbook will tell you everything you need to know to make the most of shady garden spaces. Whether your whole garden, courtyard or balcony is cast in shade, or you simply have a window box on a shadowy sill, Shade will inspire you to transform the space with lush and interesting planting that looks good (and is beloved by wildlife) all year round. Rather than a gardener's "problem", an area of shade can open up a whole new world of plants to explore, from delicate flowers and interesting foliage, to handsome trees and vibrant bulbs. Shade includes top tips on tackling all sorts of shady areas, a directory of plants to dip into and pro advice on achieving year-round colour and structure. It's time to bring those dark corners to life! This title is from the Bloom Gardener's Guide series, complete and comprehensive gardening handbooks. Bloom is an award-winning independent print magazine for gardeners, plant admirers, nature lovers and outdoor adventurers, and winner of the Garden Publication of the Year at the Garden Media Awards 2021. Other titles in this series include Cut Flowers and Pots.