This book, using the paintings that Mary McMurtrie left to illustrate an unpublished book on cottage garden flowers, records how she created the garden at Balbithan and used her nursery to distribute the double primroses and cottage garden plants which her husband, John McMurtrie, bequeathed to her. Mary McMurtrie belonged to the small band of enthusiasts, which included Margery Fish and Gladys Emmerson, who grew double primroses during the period after the Second World War. At a time when every fifth day a house of some architectural importance was being demolished, these enthusiasts, along with fellow gardeners, preserved many of the plants from our gardening heritage of the previous centuries. Gently proud of her Scots ancestry, Mary would have been delighted to know that one of her paintings was chosen as a gift for Prince Charles during a visit to The Gordon Highlander Regiment in 2006.

If you want to attract more bees, birds, frogs and hedgehogs into your garden, look no further than Wildlife Gardening for Everyone and Everything. Kate Bradbury offers tips on feeding your neighbourhood wildlife and explains how you can create the perfect habitats for species you'd like to welcome into your garden. With handy charts tailored to the needs of every size and style of garden, this easy-to-use book also includes practical projects such as making bee hotels or creating wildlife ponds, compost corners and wildflower meadows, as well as fact files for the UK's most common garden species. Everyone can garden with wildlife in mind, and in this practical new guide, Kate has teamed up with the Wildlife Trusts and the RHS to help you discover how you can make your garden, balcony, doorstep or patio a haven for garden wildlife.

One of the handiest and most widely used identification aids. Fruit key covers 120 deciduous and evergreen species; twig key 160 deciduous species. Easily used. Over 300 photographs. "Students in the field...with hands full of twigs can get accurate identifications faster with these guides than with any of the many teacher's mimeographed ones . this book should prove useful for many years to come!"-Phytologia.

A practical and beautiful guide to companion planting for organic gardening success Companion planting techniques have been used for centuries to facilitate better, more nutritious, and more abundant crops. With Companion Planting, you'll have all the information you need in clear, concise terms and with charts and garden plans you can copy or modify to suit your family's needs. Starting with the basics of organic gardening, such as how to prepare quality soil and the importance of cover crops and organic fertilizer, author Allison Greer explains the principles of companion planting, how plants interact, and how you can use that information to your garden's benefit. Fun companion planting facts include: Beets will grow better if surrounded by mint or garlic Tomatoes should not be planted near cabbage Flax helps protect some root vegetables from pests Tomatoes will thrive when planted near carrots Your celery will be happier if it's far away from corn Broccoli and dill make a terrific garden pair And much, much more! Companion Planting is a treasure for gardeners with busy lives who want an easy reference guide for planning their ideal kitchen garden.

"Want to grow your own, but have no garden? Indoor Edible Garden shows you how to grow herbs, fruit and vegetables that look good and taste better - all in your own home. Discover a range of ingenious indoor garden projects that will give you a homegrown harvest with a difference. Grow your own tamarillo towers and wild strawberries on shelves, micro red amaranth in muffin cases, and alfalfa sprouts in jars. Make the most of your indoor space and turn windowsills, worktops, walls, balconies, and even ceilings into stunning and delicious indoor gardens. Indoor Edible Garden is packed with all the knowledge you need to understand which plant varieties thrive in the home, how to maximise your light and space, and how to enjoy harvesting and eating fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs no matter how much - or little - space you have."

An essential element in cuisines around the world, garlic enjoys near mythic status among cooks, chefs, foodies, and enthusiasts of natural remedies. Worldwide, garlic cultivation occupies over 2 million acres of farmland, an area that has more than doubled since 1970. Yet even garlic fanciers may be unable to tell hardneck from softneck, or Purple Stripe from Rocambole, not to mention the hundreds of cultivated varieties grown today, many with distinct differences in taste and character.

In fact, the wealth of garlic varieties in nearly a dozen horticultural groups rivals that of corn, carrots, apples, and peaches. This book is the most comprehensive and in-depth guide available to what surely should be the next gourmet frontier. From 'Ajo Rojo' to 'Zemo', Meredith presents illustrated profiles of nearly 150 cultivars. Detailed chapters cover natural history, the history of garlic in cultivation, the nuances of cuisine and culture, therapeutic benefits, plant structure, how to cultivate, curing and storage, taxonomy, pests and diseases, and chemistry.

Especially useful are the Quick Guides, which summarize information on growing and buying garlic and provide recommendations for the best-tasting cultivars for specific uses and climates. Lists of garlic sources and organizations are a boon to the aficionado. Whether you share Ted Jordan Meredith's "garlic affliction" or just find the pungent bulb indispensable, you'll understand it as never before with this meticulously researched, lovingly written exploration.

Herbs are the most liberating and confidence-boosting of ingredients: grow some and you feel like a proper gardener, bring some into the kitchen and you feel like a proper cook. They allow you to experiment and bring individuality to your cooking while, at the same time, anchoring you in sound culinary tradition because herbs are often responsible for those key flavours that 'make' a dish. Not only that but they are a step on the road to a more self-sufficient, homegrown, organic way of eating.In the first part of the book, Nikki explains how to get the most from herbs. She outlines the basic choosing, picking and using guidelines. The second part is a catalogue of herbs, each with grow-your-own notes, flavour descriptions and mini-recipes. Among the forty herbs that Nikki describes are basil, bay, bergamot, chives, coriander, dill, fennel, horseradish, hyssop, marigold, marjoram, mint, parsley, perilla, rocket, rosemary, sage, scented geranium, tarragon, thyme, wild garlic and winter savory.Following this are over fifty wonderful and adaptable recipes for everything from herb-scented cakes and biscuits to soups, stuffings and tarts, where more than one herb is, or can be, used. With an introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and full-colour photographs, "Herbs" is a must-have book for every kitchen.

When Granpaw Broon is not sure what to do next in his garden, he 'asks Thomson' - his favourite gardening bible. In this book, Granpaw and Paw give their thoughts on how to grow in: allotments, window boxes, hanging baskets, container gardens, and how to grow garden plants as well as find that plant for a dark stair, with lots of reference and reproduction from "Thomson's Gardening Assistant".

This beautiful book showcases more than 50 vegetables and their varieties in ways you might never have imagined. Here, you'll discover how to use them to improve your health and wellbeing, and to make your own hair care and beauty products. For keen cooks, there are 120 great-tasting, healthy recipes to choose from and, for those yearning to 'grow your own', there's advice on creating a productive vegetable garden in even the smallest of spaces. If you love to make things for your home and garden, there are fun and stylish craft projects, too, each with a vegetable-inspired theme. Packed with information and beautiful photographs, this stunning book will surprise and inform.

The Tao of Vegetable Gardening explores the practical methods as well as the deeper essence of gardening. In her latest book, groundbreaking garden writer Carol Deppe (The Resilient Gardener, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties) focuses on some of the most popular home garden vegetables tomatoes, green beans, peas, and leafy greens and through them illustrates the key principles and practices that gardeners need to know to successfully plant and grow just about any food crop.Deppe s work has long been inspired and informed by the philosophy and wisdom of Tao Te Ching, the 2,500-year-old work attributed to Chinese sage Lao Tzu and the most translated book in the world after the Bible. The Tao of Vegetable Gardening is organized into chapters that echo fundamental Taoist concepts: Balance, Flexibility, Honoring the Essential Nature (your own and that of your plants), Effortless Effort, Non-Doing, and even Non-Knowing. Yet the book also offers a wealth of specific and valuable garden advice on topics as diverse as: The Eat-All Greens Garden, a labor- and space-efficient way to provide all the greens a family can eat, freeze, and dry all on a tiny piece of land suitable for small-scale and urban gardeners.

The growing problem of late blight and the future of heirloom tomatoes and what gardeners can do to avoid problems, and even create new resistant varieties.

Establishing a Do-It-Yourself Seed Bank, including information on preparing seeds for long-term storage and how to dehybridize hybrids.

Twenty-four good places to not plant a tree, and thirty-seven good reasons for not planting various vegetables.Designed for gardeners of all levels, from beginners to experienced growers, The Tao of Vegetable Gardening provides a unique frame of reference: a window to the world of nature, in the garden and in ourselves."

Find out how to make your garden beautiful from January to December with this pocket-sized favourite about how to garden month by month from the experts at the RHS, now fully up to date and revised. Easy to follow, this guide not only tells you what to do in the garden now, but shows you how to do it. Follow over 1,300 seasonal tasks for every part of the garden, with expert gardening tips including invaluable guidance for your vegetable garden and advice on how to prune, while planting guides and star plants from January to December help you make sure your garden blooms all year round. Whether you are a green-fingered guru or are just starting out, enjoy 12 months of successful gardening with RHS Gardening month by month.

This is the ultimate guide to all forms of marijuana growing, expanded and completely rewritten to include information on grow rooms, greenhouses and outdoor growing. Over 1100 colour photos illustrate every detail - and numerous simple cultivation solutions make for easy appeal to novice growers.

In Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World, Ben-Erik van Wyk offers the first fully illustrated, scientific guide to nearly all commercial herbs and spices in existence. The book covers more than 150 species, from black pepper and blackcurrant to white mustard and white ginger, detailing the propagation, cultivation, and culinary uses of each. Introductory chapters capture the essence of culinary traditions, traditional herb and spice mixtures, preservation, presentation, and the chemistry of flavours, and individual entries include the chemical compounds and structures responsible for each spice or herb's characteristic flavour. Finally, the book offers a global view of the most famous use or signature dish for each herb or spice, satisfying the gourmand's curiosity for more information about new dishes from little-known culinary traditions. People all over the world are becoming more sophisticated and demanding about what they eat and how it is prepared. Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World will appeal to those inquisitive foodies in addition to gardeners and botanists.

'Brilliant ... Equal parts irreverent, cheeky and vitally important ... Charming ... Much too valuable to tuck away until the zombies come ... A gardening manual that you can put to use immediately, regardless of your situation' Zombie Research Society. Climate change? Brexit? Screaming brain-biters? Don't lose the plot, this book can help! Irreverent, straightforward and useful, it shows even complete beginners how to grow enough of their own food to survive when Armageddon arrives and imports collapse. Or even if they don't. A grow-your-own guide for the generation who'd rather eat compost than watch Gardeners' World, it tells you how to sow and grow 20 key crops, whether you have two pots, a patio or a whole allotment to play with. It takes you through what seeds, tools and other kit you'll need, teaches you how to plan and plant your site for maximum nutrition, and suggests gardening projects to get underway while civilization still stands, from growing dinner in a dustbin to a juice bar on a balcony. All while sticking a garden fork in the eye of the undead. Gardening for the Zombie Apocalypse: surviving has never been so much fun.

A sumptuously illustrated celebration of 34 remarkable women and the beautiful heritage roses that are named after themMany of our best-loved heritage roses are named after women and in this charming book, Ann Chapman explores the lives and stories behind the evocative names. We may be familiar with Mary Queen of Scots, Amy Robsart, and Jeanne d'Arc, but who were Adelaide d'Orleans, Nancy Steen, and Nur Mahal? Among the more than 30 women described here are serene queens, duchesses, and aristocrats, courageous heroines and pioneers, as well as the passionate gardeners who contributed much to the cultivation and preservation of the roses named for each one. Each biography is beautifully illustrated with a portrait of the women and a sumptuous photograph of her rose by the acclaimed French naturalist photographer Paul Starosta. "Women in my Rose Garden" will make a perfect gift, not only for rosarians and gardeners, but for all those with a love of history, romance, and adventure.

Anyone who loves their garden knows that there's something happening in nature every day of the year. Whether it's the first crocus of spring, summer's explosion of colors, fall's abundant harvest, or the renewing dormancy of winter these outdoor sanctuaries offer daily opportunities for investigation, contemplation, and appreciation. This stunning daybook offers 365 elegant photos of some of the world's most exquisite gardens, following the yearly cycle of growth and rebirth. Each photo is accompanied by engaging texts such as planting tips, design techniques, natural history, and botanical facts that provide both ideas and helpful information. In addition, there is room on each spread for gardeners to record and preserve their own daily observations and reflections. The perfect keepsake for gardeners of all levels of expertise, this beautiful daybook deepens the rewards of gardening all year round.

Herbs are the most hardworking of plants. They have been used for thousands of years to flavour and preserve food, treat ailments, ward off pests and diseases, freshen the air, and decorate and enhance our lives. Over the centuries, they have also become associated with fascinating myths and folklore. This practical directory provides information on how to grow, harvest and store herbs and how to make the best use of them in your daily life. You'll find recipes, homemade beauty products, safe herbal remedies and ways to make and use herbal cleaning products in the home. * An A-Z guide to growing, harvesting, storing and using more than 100 herbs. * More than 50 recipes for easy cooking. * Safe herbal treatments for common health conditions. * Save money with natural beauty products and herbal household cleaners. * More than 400 full-colour photographs.

This book is firstly addressed to those who grow vegetable gardens in Mediterranean environments. Also it may be of interest to people who live in areas affected by draught. Whoever is engaged with a vegetable garden in these areas knows very well the limitations presented by the climate-intense sunlight, lengthy hot and dry period, strong winds.