The ultimate guide for all keen gardeners and allotmenteers - The Allotment Almanac by BBC Radio 2 gardener Terry Walton gives key advice on what to do each month, key crops, main tasks and top tips of varieties and is shot through with distilled hard-won experience. Entertaining and informative, you won't need anything else! 'The perfect companion for any allotmenteer, and with Terry Walton, you can't go wrong. His friendly advice will guide you each month, with exactly what you should do on your plot' -- English Garden 'This super little book... for all keen gardeners, especially allotmenteers, who will appreciate the tales but also get some useful tips' -- Kitchen Garden 'What a lovely little book. Takes you through month by month and really well illustrated. Really pleased with it' -- ***** Reader review 'The only companion you will need in the allotment' -- ***** Reader review 'A VERY good book, written from the heart, by a knowledgeable gardener' -- ***** Reader review 'A must-have for gardeners' -- ***** Reader review 'As you read this book you feel Terry at your side chatting to you as if on the plot together - a real joy' -- ***** Reader review **************************************************************************************** From a gardener who has been working on his allotment for over 50 years, this is a brilliant guide to organic vegetable growing and allotment life in general. Month-by-month BBC Radio 2 gardener Terry Walton give us invaluable advice on: - things to do each month - what to watch out for - key crops for the month - top variety tips In addition to this, he peppers this with tales of life on his allotment, creating a charming and heart-warming guide. Taking the gardening reader by the hand and leading them through the gardening year, Terry is the perfect companion, giving technical help, quick tips, reassurance, and plenty of entertainment along the way. What are you waiting for?

This series of natural history field guides has been developed in the hope that young people and anyone with a budding interest in natural history will take up the challenge to learn the secrets of southern Africa's fascinating fauna and flora. These little guides are an invaluable resource for the beginner, providing information at a glance through superb photographs, maps, and easy-to-read text.

The definitive practical guide to pruning trees, shrubs, roses and climbers from the RHS. Features an A-Z approach on over 800 plants with practical, step-by-step images to show you exactly where and how to make pruning cuts, plus infomation on advanced techniques such as coppicing, topiary and pergola-training. This handy guide will ensure you have the best gardening advice for green fingered results.

A green-fingered gardener, Amy Stewart has always delighted in the sight of freshly cut flowers, but she grew increasingly curious and uneasy about the journey those flowers take to reach her bouquet. In Gilding the Lily, Stewart introduces us to the people, places and plants that make up this multi-million-pound industry, from a lily grower in the American Northwest to the rose fields of Ecuador and the tulip greenhouses in Holland. Gilding the Lily is a page-turning enquiry into the controversial practices that lie behind each bloom, including the treatment of the workers in the fields and greenhouses, the issue of patenting and the use of pesticides, and the financial forces that drive the quest for the "perfect" flower. It is also a wonderful story about the romance and the reality of growingand cultivating flowers.

Give your houseplant a bit of attitude with this heavyweight ceramic planter by Brass Monkey, which features white glaze and...well...some care instructions. Includes a drain plug & drip tray (that also functions as a lid) for even the most discerning of plant people. * Vintage apothecary-inspired design, crafted in ceramic. * Features bold one-color 'I Could Really Use A Drink' lettering. * Includes a drain plug & drip tray for those high maintenance plants. * Measures 4.42" in diameter and 3.9" tall. * Use it as a lidded container if your plant dies, and you just give up.

*** 'So you know you want to start gardening but you have no idea where to begin? ... Simon Akeroyd gives step-by-step guidance on everything from creating a cactus collection to growing fruit in hanging baskets. The book turns what is often a daunting task into bite-size steps that can often be done in an afternoon.' George Hudson, Evening Standard, favourite garden publications of the year Aimed at first-time gardeners, those in rented accommodation or anyone with limited outdoor space, this book teaches how to take stock of an environment and start a garden. With ideas for gardens, patio spaces, courtyards, balconies and interiors, these 50 easy-to-adopt ideas provide the steps to success for even the most inexperienced gardeners. Contents include: - Create a floral display with bulbs that last all year - Grow pet-friendly plants - Create a vegetable harvest in pots - Add height in flat spaces - Make a mow-free lawn - Hang plants around your home

'A brilliant and inspirational starter kit for anyone who wants to make a garden to suit their own needs.' - Alan Titchmarsh Although excited by the prospect of moving into their own home for the first time, many people are mystified at the thought of what to do with their outdoor space. Frances Tophill's fuss-free, practical guide shows you how to create a space outside your own back door that's designed by you, built by you and enjoyed by you. Beginning with advice on getting to know your garden - what type of soil you have, what the drainage and light is like - then on getting to know yourself as a gardener - do you want a vegetable patch, an abundance of flowers or simply an extension of your indoor living space? - and then moving on to the practical design, including hard and soft landscaping and building materials and guidance, Frances guides you through different types of plants and how to source and plant them. There is also a section on aftercare, telling you the best way to keep your garden well cared for and easy to maintain throughout the year.

Garden of Your Dreams is an inspirational and practical guide to complete outdoor transformations - from the smallest urban courtyard to a rural paradise. Let award-winning garden designer and landscape expert from Better Homes & Gardens Charlie Albone walk you through the process of turning your outdoor space into your own personal oasis. Start by identifying your dream design style, then learn how to make a plan that works for your site, budget and aspirations. Create an entertaining space you are proud of, prepare the soil and then the real fun begins - planting! Packed full of ideas and inspirational how-to as well as Charlie's personal plant guide, Garden of Your Dreams is the ideal first step to dreaming up your own outdoor transformation.

This book is about growing 40 of the most popular vegetables and includes 200 recipes giving ideas for cooking them.

In "Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Hand-book", authors Ron and Jennifer Kujawski take the guesswork out of gardening with weekly to-do lists that break gardening down into easily manageable tasks. Suitable for all gardening zones, the book offers easy instructions for set- ting up a personalized schedule based on your last frost date. The Kujawskis are an inspiring father-daughter team who share their own triumphs, mistakes, and misadventures over many years spent together in the vegetable patch. Readers will enjoy the friendly direction and advice these veterans offer. Easy-to-read boxes, bulleted lists, charts, and detailed how-to illustrations make each week's activities clear and doable. Spots for record-keeping encourage readers to track their own successes and fine-tune their weekly schedules from year to year. Inch by inch, row by row, week by week, gardeners will move confidently through the gardening season. Whether it's planting the strawberries, pinching off the pumpkin blossoms, checking for tomato hornworm, or harvesting the carrots, they will know exactly when and how to do it for the most bountiful harvests and the most enjoyable vegetable-growing experiences ever.

Orchard fruits can be some of the most enjoyable crops that come from the garden. Fruit trees can be decorative, grown either individually or trained as fans and espaliers. In this book, the main types of tree fruits are described and illustrated, and there is key advice on preparing the soil and making compost, choosing, planting and supporting fruit trees, and harvesting and storing the fruit. A section on practical cultivation details essential information on growing and caring for each type of tree fruit, including when and where to plant trees, and how to keep fruit in good condition. The book is perfect for all gardeners who would like to grow their own fruit.

The best way to get fresh, tasty ingredients is to grow your own. Italians have known this for centuries, and no Italian house, apartment, school or office is complete unless it has a little bit of space in which to grow tomatoes, herbs, salad leaves and whatever else can be crammed in. From Seed to Plate covers that very Italian tradition of growing to cook, using recipes handed down from cook to cook, often through generations. Paolo Arrigo shares his family's practical traditions and 'passione' for food, guiding readers on the best varieties to grow, offering growing tips and explaining how all the resulting delicious produce should be best prepared, cooked and preserved. Including recipes from Paolo's own family, delicatessens, favourite restaurants and chefs such as Georgio Locatelli, Antony Worrall Thompson, Rose Prince, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and many more, this is a book that persuades us to look at food in a different way - the Italian way.

The Pacific Northwest abounds with native plants that bring beauty to the home garden while offering food and shelter to birds, bees, butterflies, and other wildlife. Elegant trilliums thrive in woodland settings. Showy lewisias stand out in the rock garden. Hazel and huckleberry number among the delights of early spring, while serviceberry and creek dogwood provide a riot of fall color. Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest is the essential resource for learning how to best use this stunning array. Close to 1,000 choices of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and grasses for diverse terrain and conditions, from Canada to California, and east to the Rockies 948 color photographs, with useful habitat icons Fully updated nomenclature, with an index of subjects and an index of plant names (common and scientific) New to this edition: chapters on garden ecology and garden science Appendix of Pacific Northwest botanical gardens and native plant societies Glossary of botanical, horticultural, and gardening terms With enthusiasm, easy wit, and expert knowledge, renowned botanist Art Kruckeberg and horticulturist Linda Chalker-Scott show Northwest gardeners, from novice to expert, how to imagine and realize their perfect sustainable landscape.

Everyone everywhere depends increasingly on long-distance food. Since 1961 the tonnage of food shipped between nations has grown fourfold. In the United States, food typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to plate as much as 25 percent farther than in 1980. For some, the long-distance food system offers unparalleled choice. But it often runs roughshod over local cuisines, varieties, and agriculture, while consuming staggering amounts of fuel, generating greenhouse gases, eroding the pleasures of face-to-face interactions, and compromising food security. Fortunately, the long-distance food habit is beginning to weaken under the influence of a young, but surging, local-foods movement. From peanut-butter makers in Zimbabwe to pork producers in Germany and rooftop gardeners in Vancouver, entrepreneurial farmers, start-up food businesses, restaurants, supermarkets, and concerned consumers are propelling a revolution that can help restore rural areas, enrich poor nations, and return fresh, delicious, and wholesome food to cities."