This book provides all the skills and techniques you need to grow your own crops. There is advice on designing your garden, selecting the right tools, understanding your soil, crop rotation, propagating, pruning, harvesting and storage. A section on common problems explains how to deal with bad weather, pests and diseases. A plant directory covers a wide range of vegetables, herbs and fruit, with information on cultivation, harvesting, sowing, planting and harvesting times, crop varieties, and photographs of growing and mature plants. With its beautiful images and clear practical advice, this is the perfect reference guide for every kitchen gardener

There's something about the word 'allotments' that conjures up an image of traditional values, of balmy summer days spent working the land, escaping in honest toil. A rural idylll far removed from our everyday experience. And even though allotments can be found throughout the world, in our minds they still seem to encapsulate a certain Britishness. Andrew Buurman's photographs capture the essence of the allotment and convey the enthusiasm and diversity of today's plot holders. These photographs were all taken on Uplands Allotments, in Handsworth, in the heart of Birmingham. The largest allotment site in the UK - with 422 plots - it opened in 1949, with its own office and meeting hall. Even today it retains much of the communal spirit of the post war era with weekly tea dances, bingo nights and an annual flower and vegetable show. The history of allotments tracks the major social and political changes in British life: the move away from open field agriculture, the urbanisation of the Industrial Revolution, the need for home grown produce during both World Wars. By 1943 there were some 1.4 million allotments in the UK growing 10 percent of the nation's food. Inevitably both increasing affluence and the redevelopment of many sites led to a dramatic decrease in numbers, though in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest. There are now some 300,000 allotments in the UK often shared between families and friends.

Discover everything you need to know to grow your garden in containers. Even if you only have a balcony or small patio, you can grow more than you ever thought possible in pots, wall planters and hanging baskets! This is your no-fuss guide to container gardening. Are you interested in making your outdoor space greener but don't know where to start? This urban gardening guide for beginners will help you choose and care for more than 80 different plant varieties, all specially chosen for their ability to thrive in containers. Discover the quickest way to bring nature into your home all year round! From suntraps to shady corners, this easy gardening guide will show you how to brighten up even the trickiest areas with beautiful plants. You don't have to be a horticulture expert to get started, this indispensable reference book will take you through every single step! It includes: - Tips on how to care for more than 80 different container plant varieties - Packed with practical, jargon-free know-how and simple gardening techniques - Easy-to-follow format to help grow your gardening knowledge Let It Grow! Gorgeous, full-colour photography provides plenty of inspiration and styling ideas! Expert tips and step-by-step instructions on every page help make sure that you care for your plants in the right way for them to flourish. Grow Containers shows you how to leverage every square inch of your gardening space. It's perfect for first-time gardeners, especially renters and small homeowners with paved-over gardens. Complete the Series: 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 Houseplants.

There is a fantastic array of vegetables you can grow in your garden, and not all of them are annuals. In "Perennial Vegetables" the adventurous gardener will find information, tips, and sound advice on less common edibles that will make any garden a perpetual, low-maintenance source of food.
Imagine growing vegetables that require just about the same amount of care as the flowers in your perennial beds and borders--no annual tilling and potting and planting. They thrive and produce abundant and nutritious crops throughout the season. It sounds too good to be true, but in "Perennial Vegetables" author and plant specialist Eric Toensmeier ("Edible Forest Gardens") introduces gardeners to a world of little-known and wholly underappreciated plants. Ranging beyond the usual suspects (asparagus, rhubarb, and artichoke) to include such "minor" crops as ground cherry and ramps (both of which have found their way onto exclusive restaurant menus) and the much sought after, anti-oxidant-rich wolfberry (also known as goji berries), Toensmeier explains how to raise, tend, harvest, and cook with plants that yield great crops and satisfaction.
Perennial vegetables are perfect as part of an edible landscape plan or permaculture garden. Profiling more than 100 species, illustrated with dozens of color photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, "Perennial Vegetables" is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.

This is a step-by-step guide to achieving gardening success, shown in 950 photographs. It covers all the basics such as digging, soil, compost, planting, sowing, watering, weeding, pruning, propagation and harvesting. It shows you how to create and plant up beautiful borders, bedding, rock gardens, ponds, wildlife gardens, containers and window boxes, and how to grow flowers, foliage and delicious fruits, vegetables and herbs. It deals with garden planning, design and construction, and making the most of a greenhouse. In gardening, satisfaction comes from getting the best results every time. This beautiful book illustrates in step-by-step detail the most effective and efficient ways of achieving your horticultural objectives. It begins with advice about choosing tools, preparing the ground, composting, weeding and propagation, and then shows how to plant flowers, foliage, fruit and vegetables. From planting a simple lawn to creating a kitchen garden bursting with apples, lettuces or herbs, there are ideas for every type of garden. There are also instructions for building arches, pergolas, fences, walls, paths and edgings, ensuring complete success for gardening enthusiasts.

In this book, Scottish gardeners will find accurate information and hundreds of plants ideally suited to where they live. Scotland is one of the best places in the world to garden. Its maritime climate, ample rainfall, and the rarity of severe droughts and really hot weather mean that huge numbers of plants grow well there. But the climate varies considerably - from the colder, wetter, windier mountainous areas to the west coast where tender plants can be grown outdoors all year round - and choosing plants that are suited to the local conditions is critical to success. Kenneth Cox and Raoul Curtis-Machin have evaluated the performance of thousands of plants in gardens all over Scotland, drawing on the knowledge and experience of many gardeners and nurserymen, and in this book they describe - with over 800 photographs - the most reliable shrubs, conifers, trees, fruit and perennials for Scotland. In this book Scottish gardeners will find a wealth of accurate information and hundreds of great plants ideally suited to where they live.

This book helps you in choosing the perfect plant for every location in your garden, with 120 photographs. You can understand the properties of different soils, from acid and alkaline to light sand and heavy clay. You can make the most of various different locations within your garden, including moist, shady, dry and sunny. It includes advice on making the best choices and using the right planting and growing techniques - from mulching and feeding to deadheading and pruning - to ensure stunning, healthy plants in every area of the garden. It includes a quick reference chart of the most popular garden plants and their individual requirements. Putting a plant in the right location and soil will ensure that it has the best possible start and chance of long-term health. This book explains how to successfully match plants to the conditions in your garden. It covers the basics of ground preparation, sowing and planting, as well as offering tips on plant maintenance. All the different soil types are described and illustrated, showing how they influence the types of plants that can be grown. A chart of popular plants provides information on preferred soil types, position, planting and flowering times, ensuring that you choose the right varieties for the specific soil and climate conditions in your garden.

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.

The ultimate gift for gardeners and art-lovers, featuring 300 of the most beautiful and pioneering botanical images ever Following in the footsteps of the international bestseller Map, Exploring the World, this fresh and visually stunning survey celebrates the extraordinary beauty and diversity of plants. It combines photographs and cutting-edge micrograph scans with watercolours, drawings, and prints to bring this universally popular and captivating subject vividly to life. Carefully selected by an international panel of experts and arranged in a uniquely structured sequence to highlight thought-provoking contrasts and similarities, this stunning compilation of botanically themed images includes iconic work by celebrated artists, photographers, scientists, and botanical illustrators, as well as rare and previously unpublished images. Advisory panel: Rosie Atkins, Gillian Barlow, Brent Elliott, Celia Fisher, Patricia Jonas, Rob Kesseler, Hans Walter Laack, Gren Lucas, Henry Noltie, Mikinori Ogisu, Pia OEstlund, Lynn Parker, Martyn Rix, Charlotte Tancin, Alice Tangerini and Anita Walsmit Sachs Additional texts: Rosie Atkins, Helen Bynum, Ruth Chivers, James Compton, Tim Cooke, Brent Elliott, Celia Fisher, Carolyn Fry, Patricia Jonas, Rob Kesseler, Hans Walter Lack, Paula McWaters, Pia OEstlund, Lynn Parker, Martyn Rix, Julian Shaw, Charlotte Tancin, Alice Tangerini, Guy Tindale, Jacek Wajer and Martin Walters

Orchids, the epitome of floral beauty, have long inspired poetry, adventure, art and scientific discovery. In Orchid Muse, historian and home orchid grower Erica Hannickel brings together fascinating tales of the orchid-smitten throughout history, along with tips on growing the exotic blooms at the centre of each account. Consider, for instance, Empress Eugenie and Queen Victoria, the two most powerful women in nineteenth-century Europe, who shared a passion for Coelogyne cristata. John Roebling, builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Raymond Burr, the actor famed for playing Perry Mason, cultivated thousands of orchids, introducing captivating new and unusual species. Transporting the reader from hazardous Amazonian journeys to a seedy dime museum in Gilded Age New York's Tenderloin, from the glories of the palace gardens of Chinese Empress Cixi to the island of Bourbon, where the vanilla orchid thrives, Orchid Muse spans the world, exploring our enduring fascination with these exquisite flowers.

The first book from an icon of landscape design. James Hitchmough is well-regarded in the design world for his exuberant, colourful, and flower-filled meadows. His signature style can be seen in prominent places like London's Olympic Park and the Botanic Garden at the University of Oxford. Using a distinct technique of sowing meadows from seed, he creates plant communities that mimic the dramatic beauty of natural meadows and offer a succession of blooms over many months - a technique that can be adapted to work in both large-scale public gardens and smaller residential gardens. Sowing Beauty shows you how to recreate Hitchmough's masterful, romantic style. You'll will learn how to design and sow seed mixes that include a range of plants, both native and exotic, and how to maintain the sown spaces over time. Colour photographs show not only the gorgeous finished gardens, but also all the steps along the way.

Have trouble keeping house plants alive? Struggling to find your green fingers? Fear not! You can still have a beautiful plant-filled home with this stunning guide to indoor plants. Whether you are looking to cultivate an entire indoor garden, or simply wish to know more about your single cactus, you can be sure to find the right information for you amongst the seventy-five plants in this stylish guide. And the best bit? All the plants are easy to maintain so even the most timid of gardeners can enjoy turning their hand to this green-fingered pastime. Learn how to care for succulents, cacti, flowering and foliage plants even with a full-time job, with this unique gardening guide that is made to fit alongside our modern-day schedules. With endless inspiration to brighten up your home,desk or office, this beautiful book of plants from across the world is a must for lovers of art and design, as well as plants.

In this practical and personal book, Gardeners' World presenter Adam Frost takes you through his process for getting the most out of a garden space whatever its size, whether it's a window box, a terrace with a few pots or a bigger space with dedicated veg plots and borders. Enjoying your garden is about more than just what you grow; it's also about why you grow it. As well as spending time outdoors, the meaning of a garden lies in what you bring inside, from vegetables and herbs to make a family meal to flowers and seedheads to decorate the house. Adam explores how his own garden has allowed him to enjoy the simple pleasures in life and create precious memories - whether it's coming down in the morning and seeing that single flower in a vase or teaching your kids how to make the runner bean chutney that reminds you of your nan. Adam's inspiring book will guide you through all you need to make your garden thrive, and to use it to develop your own traditions and meaningful moments.

This is the complete practical guide to kitchen gardening, from planning and planting to harvesting and storing. It shows you how to design the kitchen garden that's right for you, with original plans for a range of gardens of all shapes and sizes, including a large-scale vegetable plot, a potager, and a courtyard kitchen garden. It covers all the main vegetables, fruit and herbs, with detailed advice on the best varieties to choose.

Produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, the "Allotment and Garden Guides" were issued monthly throughout 1945. Aimed at the amateur gardener, they were to be the final rallying call in the wartime campaign to Dig for Victory. Concentrating on the productive garden, the guides were designed to take the amateur gardener through the basic tasks of each month. Many of the subjects tackled are as relevant now as they were then. How to make a compost heap, when to sow marrow seed, which seeds are they easiest to save, are still popular topics in the modern gardening media. However, other subjects convey the war-time difficulties: seed shortages due to enemy occupation in Europe, regulations on flower growing, and the very real prospect of running out of food next winter. Packed with additional photographs and illustrations, Twigs Way gives an historical overview to gardening during the Second world war and comments on each month of the guide. Many people still work allotment or vegetable plots that were first established during the war years, 'inheriting' them from a generation that used these guides as their gardening bibles. To read the Guides now is to experience a sense of both the urgency of the war-time garden, and the timelessness of the processes of gardening.

The Ultimate Succulents Book for Gardeners and Crafters#1 New Release in Cacti & Succulents, Ornamental Plants, Gardening, Horticulture, and Landscape We know-killing your plants succs. A crash course on all things succulents, this engaging and easy-to-use succulents book offers everything you need to know so you can both successfully grow these gorgeous plants and create cool crafts with them, too. You'll find everything you need to know from cacti plant care to specific projects for decorating with plants. A go-to reference for anyone trying to grow and maintain succulents. The ultimate guide to propagating, growing, and styling succulents and cacti both indoors and out, Succulent Style is as informative as it is gorgeous. Designed for millennials who want to stop killing their plants and for DIY types who want to learn about designing with succulents, Succulent Style is full of succulent growing techniques for beginners as well as for knowledgeable gardeners looking to expand their gardening skills. This beautifully photographed compendium makes the perfect addition to any coffee table or bookshelf. Succulent ideas for your home and garden. Whether you want to learn how to care for a cactus indoor or how to style plants, you'll find tons of tips and tricks inside. Start designing succulents with fun projects like succulent garlands, wall art, wreaths, succulent bouquets, potted arrangements as well as many other cool things. Inside, you'll also find: A detailed compilation of succulent varieties Instructions on how to propagate and plant cacti and succulents Tips to integrate succulents into outdoor and indoor design If you're looking for a succulents plants book or cactus book-like A Beginner's Guide to Succulent Gardening, Essential Succulents, The Gardener's Guide to Succulents, or Cacti and Succulents Handbook-then you'll love Succulent Style.

Eucalyptus, a genus of over 800 species, is a multiproduct crop par excellence. Not only is it grown for timber, pulp and fuelwood, but, as the Aborigines discovered thousands of years ago, it has numerous medicinal and aromatic properties. Since the first commercial distillation of eucalyptus oil 150 years ago, a vast array of eucalyptus-based products has entered the marketplace, mainly for pharmaceutical, fragrance and flavor use. Eucalyptus provides an invaluable reference for all those with an interest in Eucalyptus - in academia and industry alike, for researchers as well as producers, processors, importers and end users - but there are also issues discussed and lessons learned that extend to medicinal and aromatic plants.

Since the 1950s we have lost 63 per cent of our orchards through development or neglect, and even though we have been able to grow 3,000 varieties of apple in England, almost 70 per cent of apples we buy are imported. Common Ground has worked to interest local communities in creating and saving orchards to provide fruit and nuts, havens for wildlife and places of beauty. The Community Orchards Handbook shows how to start your own Community Orchard, from getting support to tackling legal issues, organising work, selling produce and enjoying together the fruits of your work. It gives suggestions on 'apple mapping' and saving local varieties, and practical advice on planting, harvesting and safeguarding your orchard. It includes a comprehensive resources section and is full of examples of diverse Community Orchard projects across the UK.

This is a comprehensive illustrated guide to a wide range of delicious soft fruits with information on their origins and nutritional values. It features step-by-step instructions for preparing the soil, cultivation and care, and propagation techniques. It includes expert advice on training, supporting and pruning fruit bushes, and harvesting and storing your crops. It offers helpful hints on how to avoid pests and diseases, and what to do when problems occur. In this kitchen garden handbook, the most popular soft fruits are illustrated with useful information on their origins, growing habits, nutritional content and culinary uses. The second section gives key advice on soil preparation, essential tools, propagation and protecting your fruit bushes. The techniques described include training and supporting fruit bushes, pruning, sheltering plants from the weather and harvesting and storing fruit crops. The section on practical cultivation tells you how to grow all types of berries and currants, whether you have a large kitchen garden, a small garden plot with some space in the borders, or room for a few containers. A must for the novice grower, this book also provides reliable information for the experienced gardener who wants to experiment with new varieties.