Why do some people have their hands in dirt? What causes someone to become obsessed with the process of growing something, whether it be a tangle of flowers, chiles hot enough to make your eyes water, or a rambling rose plucked from a tumbledown house? Author Robin Chotzinoff took a road trip (several, actually) across America to find the answers. People with Dirty Hands is what she found. It rings with the voices of people singularly possessed: Margaret Sharpe and Pam Puryear, founders of the Texas Rose Rustlers; Doug Beck, president of California Garden Ladies, who harvests hibernating ladybugs from their leafy beds for commercial sale; and Bill Palmer, whose garden is home to 450 tomato plants, simply because "You really can't buy a tomato". In vivid style, Chotzinoff captures the all-encompassing fervor - and hope - that can drive a person to create a vegetable garden from a concrete, hypodermic-strewn landscape or to plant seed while snow still threatens. It is the immutable promise of life.

This early work is a fascinating read for any gardening enthusiast or historian, but contains much information that is still useful and practical today. It is a thoroughly recommended title for the amateur or professional arborist or horticulturalist's shelf. With 14 text illustrations. Contents Include: Introduction; Apples; Pears; Plums; Cherries; Peaches and Nectarines; Figs; Apricots; Medlars; Quinces; Mulberries; Grapes (Outdoor); Black Currants; Red Currants and White; Gooseberries; Raspberries; Loganberries; Strawberries; Cob Nuts and Filberts; and Walnuts. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Plants and gardens play a central role in life on Earth. They have provided food, clothing, shelter, medicines, employment, leisure and enjoyment throughout history. Both also have many symbolic uses in art, mythology and literature, making plants and gardens the perfect theme for the Designer Bookbinders fourth International Competition held at the Bodleian Library in 2022. The chosen theme also celebrates 400 years since the founding of Oxford Botanic Garden. This beautiful catalogue features richly illustrated texts and finely printed volumes which are bound with skill and creativity using varied materials by binders from all over the world. The fourth in a series following on from 'Bound for Success' in 2009, 'Prize Volumes' in 2013 and 'Heroic Works' in 2017, 'A Gathering of Leaves' is a celebration of the stunningly inventive winning bindings featured alongside all the competition entries.

Traces the evolution of Renaissance philosophy and aesthetics, architecture, horticulture and social attitudes as reflected in the villas and gardens of the Medici family. Allowing the reader to see an alternative way to see the development of the Renaissance. This book shows the evolution of the Medici villas, from defensive farms through humanist retreats to princely palaces, charts the rise of a family from humble farmers to European royalty enabling students to see how a family could rise through the classes in early modern Italy. The Medici spearheaded the movement to rediscover the classical world; in so doing they promoted the humanist philosophy of living in harmony with nature, evolved a new ideal of villa life and created the template for Renaissance architecture. Offering students and readers alike, a clear example of how the classical world influences the Renaissance world.

Traces the evolution of Renaissance philosophy and aesthetics, architecture, horticulture and social attitudes as reflected in the villas and gardens of the Medici family. Allowing the reader to see an alternative way to see the development of the Renaissance. This book shows the evolution of the Medici villas, from defensive farms through humanist retreats to princely palaces, charts the rise of a family from humble farmers to European royalty enabling students to see how a family could rise through the classes in early modern Italy. The Medici spearheaded the movement to rediscover the classical world; in so doing they promoted the humanist philosophy of living in harmony with nature, evolved a new ideal of villa life and created the template for Renaissance architecture. Offering students and readers alike, a clear example of how the classical world influences the Renaissance world.

This book provides an empirical analysis of the concept of play as a form of spatial practice in urban public spaces. The introduced City-Play-Framework (CPF) is a practical urban analysis tool that allows urban designers, landscape architects and researchers to develop a shared awareness when opening up this window of possibility for adventure. Two case studies substantiate and illustrate the development process and testing of the framework in Canberra, Australia, and Potsdam, Germany. The appropriation of public spaces that transcend boundaries can facilitate an intrinsic connection between people and their immediate environment, towards a more joyful ontological state of human existence in which imagination, co-creation and a sense of agency are key elements of the design approach. The framework presents an alternative understanding of public spaces and public life, reflecting on theory and its implications for practice in a post-pandemic world in dense urban centres. A bridge between theory and practice, this book explores possibilities on what future design ought to be when openness and ambiguity are consciously integrated parts of practice and process. The book presents a valuable discussion on public space and play for academic audiences across a wide range of disciplines such as landscape architecture, urban design, planning, architecture and urban sociology, which is informative for future practice.

Hot, parched summers, water restrictions, sprinkler bans: how can we maintain our beloved gardens in such adverse conditions? Drought has become a serious issue, but with a little planning, gardeners can ease the problem and still achieve a fabulous display of color, form, and fragrance. These tips for the water-saving garden offer a variety of great ways to choose and use plants that thrive in an arid environment. Filled with magnificent illustrations, it details design ideas, soil-enhancing possibilities, and hints on watering wisely. Find out how to have an efficient container or kitchen garden, and which trees, shrubs, and border plants work especially well when it's dry. A large A-to-Z of low-water plants offers all the possibilities any gardener could want.

Walled kitchen gardens were found in the grounds of most large country houses in Britain and Ireland. They were designed to provide a continual supply of fruit, flowers and vegetables. With the aide of heated glasshouses, there would be out-of-season delicacies such as strawberries for Christmas, exotic tropical fruits, figs and grapes. The remains of these gardens can still be seen, some converted to other uses, some simply abandoned; a few have been restored to their previous productiveness. This book examines the history of these old kitchen gardens in the light of what might be seen there today.

Sally Coulthard explores the miraculous world of the earthworm, the modest little creature without whom life as we know it would not be possible. For Charles Darwin - who estimated every acre of land contained 53,000 earthworms - the humble earthworm was the most important creature on the planet. And yet, most people know almost nothing about these little engineers of the earth. We take them for granted but, without the earthworm, the world's soil would be barren, and our gardens, fields and farms wouldn't be able to grow the food and support the animals we need to survive. Sally Coulthard provides a complete profile of the earthworm by answering fifty questions about these wiggling creatures, from 'What happens if I chop a worm in half?' to 'Would humans survive if worms went extinct?' Fascinating and beautifully illustrated, The Book of the Earthworm offers a feast of quirky facts and practical advice about the world's most industrious - but least understood - invertebrate.

From cocoa farming in Ghana to the orchards of Kent and the desert badlands of Pakistan, taking a practical approach to sustaining the landscape can mean the difference between prosperity and ruin. Working with Nature is the story of a lifetime of work, often in extreme environments, to harvest nature and protect it - in effect, gardening on a global scale. It is also a memoir of encounters with larger-than-life characters such as William Bunting, the gun-toting saviour of Yorkshire's peatlands and the aristocratic gardener Vita Sackville-West, examining their idiosyncratic approaches to conservation. Jeremy Purseglove explains clearly and convincingly why it's not a good idea to extract as many resources as possible, whether it's the demand for palm oil currently denuding the forests of Borneo, cottonfield irrigation draining the Aral Sea, or monocrops spreading across Britain. The pioneer of engineering projects to preserve nature and landscape, first in Britain and then around the world, he offers fresh insights and solutions at each step.

From his vantage point as a garden designer and writer based in Kyoto, Marc Peter Keane examines the world around him and delivers astonishing insights through an array of narratives. How the names of gardens reveal their essential meaning. A new definition of what art is. What trees are really made of. The true meaning of the enigmatic torii gate found at Shinto shrines. Why we give flowers as gifts. The essential, underlying unity of the world.

This carry-along version of our enormously popular Zen Gardening Kit provides a touch of tranquility on the go.

Packaged with a 32-page introduction to the aesthetic enlightenment of Zen gardening, it includes a tray, fine sand, decorative rocks, and miniature wooden rake.

This story has its roots in the life of George Owen Millum, who at the turn of the 19th century was the head gardener at Maytham Hall in Kent, the home of Frances Hodgson Burnett, long celebrated for her timeless classic The Secret Garden. The garden in the story was based upon that at Maytham Hall, and George Millum was the model for Ben Weatherstaff, Frances Hodgson Burnett's fictional gardener. George's son, George Charles Millum, who like his father was born in the gardener's cottage at Maytham, also grew up to be a country house gardener - hence the title of this book, written and compiled by his own son with detailed extracts from his diaries.

First full biography of Richard Woods, the landscape designer, examining his work and restoring him to the attention he merits. A contemporary of the famous landscape designer "Capability" Brown, Richard Woods has never received the recognition he deserves: in contrast to Brown, he emphasised the pleasure ground and kitchen garden, with a more pronounced use of flowers than was general among the landscape improvers of his time. He liked variety and incident in his plans and, where he was employed on a larger scale, the encroachment of the pleasure ground into the park created the Woodsian "pleasure park". In this important work of detection and biography, Fiona Cowell analyses his designs, and explores his activities as a plantsman, a determined amateur architect and a farmer. In particular, she showsthe difficulties he found as a Catholic living in penal times, examining the difficulties encountered by both Woods and his Catholic patrons, and placing the man and his work in their wider social and economic context. Unjustly neglected in the past, he is here given his rightful place among the creators of the English landscape style.

Reframes ecology as an integrative notion that includes history, culture, society and materiality, in addition to technology, within contemporary ecological housing programs Argues that, when viewed through the lens of landscape, social and political implications of ecological housing offer important lessons for the future Gathers a wide range of contributions from the USA, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Mongolia, Hungary and India Includes over 130 black and white illustrations.

Following on from the critically acclaimed The Landscape Lighting Book, this is the lighting design companion every professional and student in landscape architecture needs. Written by an award-winning internationally renowned landscape lighting designer, with over 40 years' experience in professional practice, The Art of Landscape Lighting takes the reader step-by-step through Janet Lennox Moyer's design process. Personal and accessible in tone, the book covers tools, equipment, techniques, effects, installation, design composition and challenges using built case studies spanning the author's career. Each project takes you through the process of how to plan compositions; selecting what should be lit and what should remain unlit; how to prioritize the importance of multiple elements; balancing brightness relationships; providing visual transportation across scenes; lighting the same space in different ways and, importantly, guidance on when designs are complete. Lavishly designed and illustrated with 450 full colour photographs, showcasing projects from start to finish, it additionally includes new landscape lighting equipment and techniques developed by Moyer throughout her career. This includes shore scraping, rainwall lighting, approaches for lighting water features and sculptures, and the 3-prong stake. Aimed at practicing professionals and students in landscape architecture, this book is the must-have inspirational resource that provides you with everything you need to design and implement landscape lighting across multiple scales.

In "The Curious Gardener," Anna Pavord brings together in 12 chapters - one from each month of the year - 72 pieces on all aspects of gardening.
From what to do in each month and how to get the best from flowers, plants, herbs, fruit and vegetables, through reflections on the weather, soil, the English landscape and favourite old gardening clothes, to office greenery, spring in New York, waterfalls, Derek Jarman and garden design, Anna Pavord always has something interesting to say and says it with great style and candour.
The perfect book to guide you through the gardening year and, on days when the weather keeps the most courageous gardener indoors, the perfect book to curl up with beside the fire.

Since 1997 Luciano Giubbilei has been creating serenely beautiful gardens in locations on three continents. Giubbilei is known for the understated elegance of his designs, but is constantly evolving his style and approach, both in response to individual clients and as his ideas develop. His work draws on his Italian heritage, especially the Renaissance gardens of the Villa Gamberaia in Tuscany, and a distinctively classical combination of restraint and opulent materials. This book - now published in paperback for the first time - explores 12 significant gardens from Giubbilei's portfolio, including the garden that won him a gold medal at the world-famous Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show in 2009. The locations vary from private residences in London and Barcelona to corporate headquarters in Geneva and a holiday home in Morocco. Each project is fully documented, from the preparation of mood boards and initial sketches to final planting and finishing. As Tom Stuart-Smith notes in his foreword, Giubbilei's gardens are characterized by their 'quiet aura of calm and poise' and their 'restful confidence' 'The gardens are like the man, impeccably turned out, suave and urbane in a gentle way, quietly assertive but never bossy. Sophisticated and thoroughly Italian. ... [His style] provides a form of instant theatre, where the designer forges places, conjures atmosphere and creates spaces out of nothing. This is great art.' Separate sections on the design process, site development, nursery production and the sourcing of plants, as well as on the artists and craftsmen with whom Giubbilei collaborates, offer a fascinating insight into his working methods and sources of inspiration. Accessibly written by a leading garden professional and fully illustrated with planting plans, behind-the-scenes images and atmospheric photographs by Steven Wooster, this beautiful book is the definitive work on the gardens of an acclaimed designer.

Featuring over 40 cool, high-maintenance-looking plants, The Unkillables will ensure your put your plant-murdering days firmly in the past, and will transform your home into the gorgeous green space you always dreamed of. Are you a plant killer? There's nothing more heart-breaking than bringing your new plant baby home, only to have it die a slow death in front of your very eyes. Was it too much water? Not enough sunlight? A drafty corner? The reasons for planticide can seem endless! In The Unkillables, Jo Lambell shares her houseplant knowledge so that even the biggest plant serial killers can have an abundant indoor garden. Jo will take the fear out of the unknown and equip those with no green fingers at all with the skills they need to keep their plants alive and thriving. Plants can be a little intimidating - with their fancy Latin names, complex terminology and 'just look at me and I'll perish' reputation - so choosing hardy, tolerant plants is the best place to start. Jo walks you through the basics of care - light, water, location - as well as sharing information on repotting, propagating, cleaning, First Aid and more.

Guided by a rediscovered spirit of self-sufficiency, a renewed sense of thrift, and a deepened commitment to the natural environment, legions of people are finding satisfaction in vegetable gardening. As gardeners spend more time in their gardens, they look for ways to make their gardens more productive, their garden chores easier, and their outdoor spaces more enjoyable. Now, with just a little time and a handful of tools, gardeners can create handsome, handcrafted items for their gardens at a fraction of the cost of buying retail. "The Vegetable Gardeners Book of Building Projects" presents 39 ideas for simple projects from cold frames to compost bins, from planters to picnic tables, and from trellises to tool storage. Each project was hand-selected by Storey's editors to be functional, attractive, and easy to complete. Each includes step-by-step instructions, detailed illustrations, complete materials and lumber lists, no-nonsense tips, and a four-color photograph of the finished product in its natural setting. Projects are as practical as they are simple; many are ideal for the beginning woodworker, and most can be completed in a matter of hours. Whether a gardener needs a support for his beans and peas or looks forward to relaxing in a lawn chair or garden swing when the work is done, these plans are the perfect starting point.