One of the most exciting aspects of gardening is growing your own plants from scratch. In this definitive guide, Alan Titchmarsh shows how simple it is to propagate plants by following a few basic techniques. Learn how to produce a flourishing garden filled with ornamental and edible plants, at very little expense. * Demystified, down-to-earth approach to propagation * Easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step diagrams * A-Z directory with recommended propagation techniques for each plant * Key tips on taking cuttings, sowing seed, layering and division * Guidance on promoting growth of young plants

No flower surpasses orchids for beauty and diversity, and with the expert advice, practical instructions, and beautiful how-to photos found here, even nervous newcomers can grow them with confidence. In addition to an extensive illustrated directory of the specialized and popular orchid groups, detailed explanations cover all the techniques needed to keep orchids in good shape. There are hints and tips on watering, feeding, lighting, and temperature conditions, as well as information on propagation, hybridization, caring for orchids in pots, and handling pests and diseases. Stunning close-up color images provide an amazing view of many of the loveliest plants. With this guide by your side, your orchids will flourish the first time and every time.

Indoor plants have gotten a bad rap and are often associated with dusty and dowdy African violets, languishing philodendrons, and bloom-free orchids. No longer It's time for plant lovers to dust off their houseplants, update their image, and discover just how exciting, trendy, and crucial plants can be in the home.

"The Unexpected Houseplant," by renowned plant authority Tovah Martin, isn't your typical, old-fashioned, dowdy houseplant book. Martin's approach is revolutionary--picture brilliant spring bulbs by the bed, lush perennials brought in from the garden, quirky succulents in the kitchen, even flowering vines and small trees growing beside an easy chair. Along with loads of visual inspiration, readers will learn how to make unusual selections, where to best position plants in the home, and valuable tips on watering, feeding, grooming, pruning, and troubleshooting, season by season.

Martin also brings an evangelist's zeal to the task of convincing homeowners that indoor plants aren't just a luxury--they're a necessity. In addition to the design flair they add to a home, houseplants clean indoor air, which can be up to ten times more polluted than outdoor air.

Comprehensive, up-to-the-minute, and illustrated with gorgeous photography by Kindra Clineff, "The Unexpected Houseplant" is for beginners, green thumbs, decorators, and anyone who wants to infuse a bit of surprising green into their decor

The American Midwest is an ideal place to grow a huge variety of vegetables, and there are plenty of healthful and economic benefits to having your own garden. Whether you have a traditional backyard space or several containers on a high-rise balcony, you can grow a season-long supply of tasty produce. Best-selling garden writer Laura Peters provides all you need to know to dig in: * Basics such as light, soil, exposure and frost tolerance * Almost infinite garden styles, including raised beds and limited space gardening * Preparing the garden and selecting which vegetables to grow where * Recommended varieties, including new, traditional, heirloom and unusual selections * Seasonal care, including mulching, weeding and watering * Tips throughout, including how to extend the growing season and what to do with your harvest * Organic approaches to management of pests and diseases * An appendix featuring companion plants and relationships * Helpful hardiness maps, and delicious colour photos throughout.

Prick is a stylish, practical, modern guide to the world of cacti and succulents. "A comprehensive guide" BBC Gardeners' World Magazine Cacti and succulents are the plant of the moment. Beautiful, affordable and - if you know how - easy to care for, they're a short cut to creating brighter, calmer, more relaxing spaces in the home and office. In Prick, cactus and succulent expert Gynelle Leon gives you all the knowledge you need to help your plants thrive in a simple, easy-to-understand way. Featuring: A plant gallery, showcasing the many weird and wonderful varieties A chapter of styling ideas to show off your plants A care guide to help your cacti and succulents flourish As an RHS-award-winning plant photographer and founder of London's only shop dedicated to cacti and succulents, Gynelle is the perfect guide on your path to cactus know-how.

Discover how easy it is to harness the natural goodness of plants with over 50 homemade beauty recipes that can help you feel better, look better and have a healthy year! Most of us use lipbalms, body scrubs and cosmetics every day, but these can be full of chemicals and harmful to your skin and health. This book teaches you how to confidently make your own homemade remedies and natural beauty products using plants and herbs that are readily available, and often free, such as nettles, dandelions, herbs and hawthorn berries. Our gardens and hedgerows contain much of what we need to keep mild ailments at bay and it's fun giving it a go - instead of weeding the dandelions in your lawn, pick them and use them! Or plant marigolds, not just for their cheerful colour, but to make wonderful skin oils. With a helpful 'Season by Season' layout, you will know at a glance what to gather and when to gather it. Inside, you'll find homemade beauty recipes, including camomile bath soak, chocolate lip gloss, lavender bath bombs, mint lip balm, and more! Plus, plenty of healthy recipes for homemade remedies, from treatments for colds and overindulgence, to witch hazel spot gel, burn salves, skin-toning ointments, and even hay fever relief. This book is a source book for mind, body and soul, as well as a testament to the natural power and beauty of herbs. Get out there, keep your eyes open and discover the many widely available plants that you can use for your health - with the added bonus that they're not costing you anything. With Treat Yourself Natural you will feel empowered to explore the wonderful world of making healthy remedies and homemade beauty products, either for yourself or as gifts for your friends and family; after all, there is nothing nicer than a lovingly made present. "This book is full of brilliant ideas for things to make for yourself, or as wonderful gifts. Year in year out this will be an invaluable resource for a rainy day or a country walk, written by someone who really knows what she is talking about as well as living the same busy life as you and I." From the foreword, by Kirstie Allsopp

A food forest is a productive landscape developed around a mix of trees and perennials. Rooted in permaculture principles, this integrated approach to gardening incorporates a variety of plants such as fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines, and perennial herbs and vegetables. Food forests can help increase biodiversity, protect valuable habitat for beneficial insects, and promote food security and resilience, all while providing an abundant harvest. The Food Forest Handbook is a practical manual for the design and management of a home-scale perennial polyculture garden. Simple, straightforward instructions guide the reader through: Getting started - site assessment and planning Tending the forest garden - maintaining soil health, succession planning, , mulching, pruning and more The fruits of your labor - crop profiles, harvest, storage, nutrition and recipes. This timely book makes the concept of food forests accessible to everyone. Focusing on the potential of perennial polyculture to enhance local food systems, The Food Forest Handbook shows the reader how to mix and match plants in unique combinations to establish bountiful landscapes and create genuine self-reliance in years to come. Darrell Frey is the owner and manager of Three Sisters Farm, a five-acre permaculture farm, solar greenhouse and market garden located in Western Pennsylvania. He has been permaculture teacher for thirty years, and is the author of Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm. Michelle Czolba is co-owner of Pittsburgh Permaculture and co-founded the Hazelwood Food Forest. She has extensive experience in the design and maintenance of perennial polyculture.

The text reflects the passions of the author and gives full details of the plants, from the latest nomenclatural changes to revisionist thinking on the ever-expanding limits of cold hardiness. Mike Dirr is a legend in the horticultural world, widely acknowledged as a leading expert on trees and shrubs for landscapes. Add to that more than 3500 color photographs, and indispensable backmatter lists for choosing exactly the right plant for the right purpose, and you have an unsurpassed resource for tree and shrub identification and selection, one that will be embraced by garden designers, landscape architects, urban foresters, park managers, nursery professionals---anyone who values hardiness, disease resistance, and beauty in their woody plants.

One of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era, Shirley Hibberd (1825-90) was editor of three bestselling gardening magazines. He was highly influential - one of the first to highlight issues such as environmental conservation, water recycling and cruelty to animals - and he helped to establish what is now the vast consumer industry of amateur gardening. First published in 1871, this is one of many books he wrote on the subject, intended as a 'handy guide' for the creation of attractive flower gardens. In it Hibberd offers advice on such topics as bedding plants, border flowers, rockeries, and annual and biennial plants. He also presents methods for managing various types of garden, such as subtropical, alpine and rose gardens. Highly detailed and extensively illustrated, this book remains useful and relevant to both amateur enthusiasts and seasoned horticulturists.

Food gardens are springing up in backyards across the country. Organic, home grown tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers are being enjoyed at more family dinner tables than ever, bringing serious nutrition and delicious tastes to homemade meals. But why stop with vegetables? Herbs are perfect companions in the garden, and their bright flavours elevate the taste of nearly every vegetable. A handful of basil added to a tomato salad or a bit of chopped dill sprinkled on butter-sauteed carrots creates new layers of flavour and complexity. "The Beginner's Guide to Edible Herbs" helps every vegetable gardener realize the pleasures of becoming an herb gardener. Readers will find complete information on growing, harvesting, preserving, and using 26 of the most popular kitchen herbs, from basil to thyme. There are also food-pairing tips, simple recipes, and basic information on medicinal uses, all enhanced by beautiful, full-colour photographs of every plant and many kitchen recipes and projects. Whether they complement rows of asparagus and cauliflower or grow in a garden all their own, edible herbs are versatile, undemanding, and abundant. They're winners in every garden.

Orchids can bloom year after year. In this essential guide, Bruce Rogers, "The Orchid Whisperer," shares his expert tips from more than three decades of breeding and growing orchids. The book demystifies the growing process and features more than 100 lush color photographs of breathtaking plants. Best of all, it reveals professional secrets not found anywhere else for blooming, repotting, spotting hazards and pests, grooming, decorating, and much more. Perfect for beginners as well as orchid experts looking for new tricks, The Orchid Whisperer provides everything readers need to know to keep healthy orchids that will flower again and again

My Unicorn Garden is bursting with crafts and activities perfect for children. Created with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK's leading gardening charity, this amazing book is packed with fun things to make and do both indoors and outdoors. It's time to get your green-hooves ready with your favourite unicorn friends! Paint a unicorn plant pot Create fantastic flower pressings Make your own mini unicorn garden Discover the wonderful secrets of gardening with magical, mythical unicorns! These unicorns are off on a garden tour to learn all about plants, wildlife and top gardening tips. The unicorns can't wait to start exploring - and you can join them! This book is packed with fun facts and activities, so you can become a gardening expert, too. Step-by-step gardening activities - perfect for families to enjoy the garden together Easy-to-follow instructions for growing your own plants Colouring in, spot-the-difference, and make your own daisy chain and winter wreath!

Vegetable gardens can be designed for flavor AND fun Niki Jabbour, author of the best-selling "The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, " has collected 73 plans for novel and inspiring food gardens from her favorite superstar gardeners, including Amy Stewart, Amanda Thomsen, Barbara Pleasant, Dave DeWitt, and Jessi Bloom. You ll find a garden that provides salad greens 52 weeks a year, another that supplies your favorite cocktail ingredients, one that you plant on a balcony, one that encourages pollinators, one that grows 24 kinds of chile peppers, and dozens more. Each plan is fully illustrated and includes a profile of the contributor, the story behind the design, and a plant list."

Through telling the story of the White House Kitchen Garden, Obama explores how increased access to healthful, affordable food can improve health for families across America with ideas on how to create community and urban gardens.

An Irish-born gardener and writer, William Robinson (1838-1935) travelled widely to study gardens and gardening in Europe and America. He founded a weekly illustrated periodical, The Garden, in 1871, which he owned until 1919, and published numerous books on different aspects of horticulture. His most famous book, The English Flower Garden (also reprinted in this series), was published in 1883, and fifteen editions were issued in his lifetime. The Wild Garden, published in 1870, attacks contemporary fashions in public parks and private gardens, which involved showy masses of colour in labour-intensive summer bedding, using mostly subtropical and exotic species. He calls for a return to native species, found in traditional English gardens, pointing out that these are more economical than short-lived annuals, and that there is much greater variety available to the garden designer. He suggests plants more suitable for the English climate, and exotics more capable of naturalisation.

With self-care, mindfulness and mental health being at the forefront of the popular consciousness, taking control of your health has never felt so important. And learning about herbs and how they can treat and heal ailments and conditions is a good place to start. The Herbal Remedy Handbook is a collection of practical remedies for home care. It is an ailment and recipe-led reference for first-aid, simple conditions such as coughs and colds, and helpful self-management techniques for more complex conditions such as anxiety and eczema. From vinegars and tonics, creams and balms to syrups and teas, all the recipes use easily accessible, bought, foraged or grown ingredients for you to create your own herbal healthkit. An indispensable guide for the beginner or the budding herbalist, The Herbal Remedy Handbook is filled with tried-and-tested recipes that will inspire you to make your own remedies.

A revised and updated edition of the internationally bestselling classic Anna Pavord's now classic, internationally bestselling sensation, The Tulip, is not a gardening book. It is the story of a flower that has driven men mad. Greed, desire, anguish and devotion have all played their part in the development of the tulip from a wild flower of the Asian steppes to the worldwide phenomenon it is today. No other flower carries so much baggage; it charts political upheavals, illuminates social behaviour, mirrors economic booms and busts, plots the ebb and flow of religious persecution. Why did the tulip dominate so many lives through so many centuries in so many countries? Anna Pavord, a self-confessed tulipomaniac, spent six years looking for answers, roaming through eastern Turkey and Central Asia to tell how a humble wild flower made its way along the Silk Road and eventually took the whole of Western Europe by storm. Sumptuously illustrated from a wide range of sources, this irresistible volume has become a bible, a unique source book, a universal gift and a joy to all who possess it. This beautifully redesigned edition features a new Preface by the author, a revised listing of the best varieties of this incomparable flower to choose for your garden and a reorganised listing of tulip species to reflect the latest thinking by taxonomists.

Growing plants in the home has always been popular, and in this volume interior and garden designer, Diana Yakeley, shows how to choose and position plants to create maximum impact, taking into account scale and proportion, form and shape, colour and scent, and texture and pattern.;There is also guidance on finding just the right containers and accessories to suit different plants and room schemes. A section on interiors looks at each room of the house in turn, revealing the best plants to create a striking focal point. The remaining chapters are a visual extravaganza of plant displays. Choose from the understated elegance of architectural plants, cacti and succulents or foliage plants in "Plant Sculpture", or indulge those creative urges with the section on "Colour". "Seasonal Displays" shows how to ring in the changes throughout the year, while "Edible Plants" explains how to grow herbs, salad leaves and tender fruits indoors. A useful section at the end of the book gives practical advice on how to care for indoor plants, while "Plant Focus" provides detailed horticultural information on a range of different plants.

Backyards, rooftops, courtyards and balconies are sprouting with herbs, ballooning with fruit and bursting with vegies across our urban landscapes. Slowly, but we certainly believe surely, people are embracing the joy of gardening and the more relaxed lifestyle it brings. There is a change in the air and we are excited to watch it unfold. Enter the completely addictive world of urban growing, where you can pocket a slice of farm life in the city, even if just for a few minutes a day. Growing your own lemongrass for a mojito or rhubarb to make jam isn't just about producing food, rewarding though that is. It's an antidote to the relentless pursuit to 'do it all'. It doesn't matter the size of your space, or your skill, the garden is a place for everyone. Expert horticulturalist Byron Smith has created urban food oases in even the tiniest of plots and in this book he gives you the know-how to grow your favourite ingredients as well as killer recipes to make the most of your harvest. So tuck this book under your arm and grab a beverage with the other - the time to slow down and grow is now. The good life is waiting for you.