"As I stand at my kitchen sink and look across at what we optimistically call our herb garden, to one side I see an old wooden sign on which are carved the words 'Arthur's Garden'. Arthur doesn't live here. My wonderful great-uncle died nearly thirty years ago having spent most of his long life in the Victorian terraced house in which his mother had brought up eleven children. The sign had stood in the garden there for decades, a gift to the man who'd always cherished that small patch of Kent, creating a riot of glorious colour which lit up the row of long, narrow strips that tumbled down to a line of back gates from which you could look across the lane to the local coal yard below." In Arthur's Garden, Pam Rhodes collates a heart-warming collection of songs and poems, advice and tit bits about the glorious, very ordinary, English garden - told through the life of her Uncle Arthur. This is a gardening book, with a story.

Agrarian Landscapes in Transition researches human interaction with the earth. With hundreds of acres of agricultural land going out of production every day, the introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture represents the most pervasive alteration of the Earth's environment for several thousand years. What happens when humans impose their spatial and temporal signatures on ecological regimes, and how does this manipulation affect the earth and nature's desire for equilibrium?
Studies were conducted at six Long Term Ecological Research sites within the US, including New England, the Appalachian Mountains, Colorado, Michigan, Kansas, and Arizona. While each site has its own unique agricultural history, patterns emerge that help make sense of how our actions have affected the earth, and how the earth pushes back. The book addresses how human activities influence the spatial and temporal structures of agrarian landscapes, and how this varies over time and across biogeographic regions. It also looks at the ecological and environmental consequences of the resulting structural changes, the human responses to these changes, and how these responses drive further changes in agrarian landscapes.
The time frames studied include the ecology of the earth before human interaction, pre-European human interaction during the rise and fall of agricultural land use, and finally the biological and cultural response to the abandonment of farming, due to complete abandonment or a land-use change such as urbanization.

In the new edition of the bestselling indoor styling book Green, Jason Chongue explains and simplifies how to curate and look after plants in small urban spaces.

In this practical and personal guide, Chongue shows us how to create urban gardens and how to style with plants, inside or out. From balconies, porches, courtyards and small backyards to entryways, offices and living spaces, this ‘how to’ guide is an approachable resource for gardeners of all types. Now in hardback with a fresh new look.

Chapters are filled with quick tips for styling and plant care and cover everything from understanding your climate, to creating a plant maintenance calendar, to curating a range of spaces and appreciating plants in public spaces. Jason also invites ‘Plant People’ across the globe to share how they are inspired by nature.

Green is the perfect guide to small-space gardening, beautifully photographed and illustrated, and will help you transform your indoor and outdoor spaces into a lush, healthy oasis in no time.

World population is increasing at an alarming rate and this has resulted in increasing tremendously the demand for tree products such as wood for construction materials, fuel and paper, fruits, oils and medicines etc. This has put immense pressure on the world's supplies of trees and raw material to industry and will continue to do so as long as human population continues to grow. Also, the quality of human diet, especially nutritional components, is adversely affected due to limited genetic improvement of most of fruit trees. Thus there is an immediate need to increase productivity of trees. Improvement has been made through conventional breeding methods, however, conventional breeding is very slow due to long life cycle of trees. A basic strategy in tree improvement is to capture genetic gain through clonal propagation. Clonal propagation via organogenesis is being used for the production of selected elite individual trees. However, the methods are labour intensive, costly, and produce low volumes. Genetic gain can now be captured through somatic embryogenesis. Formation of embryos from somatic cells by a process resembling zygotic embryogenesis is one of the most important features of plants. In 1958, Reinert in Germany and Steward in USA independently reported somatic embryogenesis in carrot cultures. Since then, tremendous progress in somatic embryogenesis of woody and non-woody plants has taken place. It offers a potentially large-scale propagation system for superior clones.

Written by commercial-scale grower Mel Thomas, "Cannabis Cultivation" divulges the expertise, tips, and insight he learned at the helm of one of the world's largest marijuana growing operations. Ideal for beginners and anyone interested in learning more about growing marijuana indoors, the book is free of technical jargon and boring theory, and its step-by-step directions enable anyone to grow and harvest the highest quality marijuana using simple techniques and inexpensive, everyday gardening tools. All of the important factors that influence growth rate, yield, and potency are covered, including lighting, planting mediums, pH, nutrients, water systems, air, and temperature. With extra focus on small gardens and security, this is the perfect book for the home grower and medical growers.

This is a directory of plants whose greatest attributes in the garden lie in their form and foliage, not merely in their flowers. Ornamental foliage plants for your garden features over 2000 plants from all over the world, many of which are useful cultivars, varieties or forms. They have been selected for their value in the landscaping of gardens, be they big or small. Their claims to fame may be their architectural form, their intriguing texture, their unusual habit, their miniature or immense size, or their suitability for a particular situation, such as for topiary, a conservatory or to provide winter colour. Many plants have been chosen for their striking leaves, which may be patterned, enormous, dissected or magnificently coloured. Every entry has notes on cultivation and use, and is coded to correspond with the climatic zones of the world map at the front of the title. There are at least 1000 colour photographs and 600 line drawings. Gardeners and landscapers have become increasingly aware of how easy foliage plants are to care for and what a magnificent palette they provide for simple, clean garden design. Many lend themselves to small formal gardens for urban spaces, while trees and mass plantings can give perspective and interesting effects in larger gardens. Style is often a matter of restraint and the judicious use of foliage plants sometimes brings to a garden a greater sense of peace and relaxation than one cluttered with colourful flowers.

The definitive reference guide to garden design, its rich history, and the creative art of gardening - a luxuriously illustrated A-Z compendium of more than 200 garden elements, styles, features, and ornaments for gardeners around the globe With its easy-to-use A-Z format, The Garden examines over 200 modern and historical garden styles, features, types and ornaments, with definitions and informative descriptions and more than 500 spectacular images. This accessible, inspirational book is perfect for both amateur gardeners and specialists alike. Its entries, written by garden expert and historian Toby Musgrave - author of Phaidon's bestselling book The Gardener's Garden - range from Allee, Borrowed Landscape and Coastal Garden, to Minimalism, New Perennial Planting, Pool, Vista and Xeriscape Garden and form a unique, illustrated 'glossary' for gardeners, featuring more than 400 gardens, both public and private, iconic and lesser known. Examples include spaces such as the Baroque gardens of Versailles and rarely published tropical courtyards from contemporary designers, alongside artist creations such as Frida Kahlo's courtyard in Mexico and Derek Jarman's coastal garden in Dungeness, England. Alongside the work of private garden owners and makers, the book also showcases the work of emerging and eminent designers, including Andrea Cochran, Emily Erlam, Raymond Jungles, Dan Pearson, and Piet Oudolf. Whether creating an English cottage garden or tending a Japanese Zen landscape, the range and beauty of The Garden will inspire gardeners and garden lovers everywhere as never before.

A Produce Reference Guide to Fruits and Vegetables from Around the World: Nature?s Harvest answers the many questions consumers have about various fruits and vegetables. Providing basic, clear, and understandable information for each produce item, this reference guide gives you a synopsis of the fruit or vegetable, a short history of the item, the common and uncommon name, what it looks and tastes like, how it is used, and the time of year it is available. Information on nutrition, serving sizes, yields, and optimal storage conditions is also provided. From potatoes to shepherd?s purse and from grapes to the Clementine tangor, A Produce Reference Guide to Fruits and Vegetables from Around the World covers both the familiar and the exotic. Other than the obvious fruits and vegetables (such as 12 varieties of cherries and 10 different kinds of squash) you?ll also read about herbs, mushrooms, sprouts, and nuts. A Produce Reference Guide to Fruits and Vegetables from Around the World is packed with useful information. From practical advice to interesting trivia, some of the things you?ll learn include: You should not eat any green parts of potatoes--it will make you sick. How to classify a peach--clingstone vs. freestone and white vs. yellow. The Texas 1015 Supersweet onion is named after its recommended planting date, October 15. Kiwis (originally from China, not Australia) contain an enzyme that tenderizes meat. Women in China once made a dye from the skin of eggplants to stain their teeth black. The famous mutiny by Captain Bligh?s crew was caused by breadfruit. Gourds may have spread between continents by floating in the ocean, as they can float in sea water for 220 days without losing seed viability. The two nuts mentioned in the Bible--almonds and pistachios.As new methods in farming, storing, and shipping are allowing exotic fruits and vegetables unheard of a few years ago to becom

Landscape designer Owen Wormser explains how to replace the deadscape we call lawn with low-maintenance, eco-friendly meadows. In this second edition of his award-winning book, he includes photos of meadows in progress plus more ways to cultivate your own organic meadow. This how-to book on growing your own wildflowers and native grasses is also about sustainability, regeneration, and beauty. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution. It is garden landscaping that is beautiful, all year round. Meadows establish wildlife and pollinator habitats, are low-maintenance and low-cost, have a built-in resilience that helps them weather climate extremes, and can draw down and store far more carbon dioxide than any manicured lawn. Wormser describes how to plant an organic meadow garden or traditional meadow, that's right for your site. His book includes guidance on: Preparing your site Designing your meadow Planting without using synthetic chemicals Growing 21 starter native grasses and wildflowers, including butterfly weed, smooth blue aster, purple coneflower, wild bergamot, blue grama grass, switchgrass, and many more Building support in neighborhoods where a tidy lawn is the standard. He also shares 28 color photos that highlight the multitude of ways you can cultivate your own organic meadow. To illuminate the many joys of meadow-building, Wormser draws on his own stories, including how growing up off the grid in northern Maine, with no electricity or plumbing, prepared him for his work.

In House + Flower, Cynthia Zamaria immerses the reader in her creative process sharing how she infuses gardens, flowers and other elements of nature into sensitive home design. Through engaging photography and a welcoming narrative, this book inspires us to celebrate living environments as expressions of our personal style while also embracing a home's unique soul. With a passion for character-filled spaces, carefree floral displays, and an appreciation for vintage and artisanal objects, Cynthia's approach is timely, yet timeless. Readers are invited to see the potential in their own homes through the reimagined interiors and exteriors of the many Toronto-area residences she and her husband, Graham, have restored over the years. 'Here are houses found, embraced, personified and embodied by the spirit of the author. Cynthia gives the same generous passion to her homes as she does to her readers.' - Deborah Needleman, Author of The Perfectly Imperfect Home and co-author of the Domino Book of Decorating

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it seemed to many that England was being transformed by various kinds of 'improvements' in agriculture and industry, in gardening and the ornamentation of landscape. Such changes were understood to reflect matters of the greatest importance in the moral, social and political arrangements of the country. In the area of landscape design, to clear a wood, or plant one, to build a folly or a cottage, to design in the formal style or the picturesque, was to express a political orientation of one kind or another. To choose to employ Capability Brown, Humphry Repton or one of their lesser-known competitors, was to make a statement regarding the history of England, its constitutional organisation and the relationships that ought to exist between its citizens. Although many landowners may have been oblivious to this, there was a large body of critical opinion, poetry, theology and social discourse that offered to inform and correct them. In this illuminating and stimulating book, Nigel Everett reviews the entire debate, from about 1760 to 1820, emphasising in particular the attempts of various writers to defend a 'traditional' or tory view of the landscape against the aggressive, privatising tendency of improvement. Challenging the narrow implications of the existing schools of landscape historians - the 'establishment' historians, concerned primarily with currents of 'taste', who ignore the wider issues involved, and the commentators on the Left who have tended to see landscape politics as the politics of class - Everett reveals the history of English landscape as a political struggle between, on the one hand, the mechanical, universal andimpersonal - whig - point of view and, on the other, the natural, Christian, particular and organic point of view. Everett depicts a lively, intelligent debate regarding the development of English society, as active among cultivated clergymen and landowners as among the theoreticians. Furthermore, analysing the languages of tory political thought, Everett engages in a dialogue between the present and the past, identifying in the detached, artificial and utilitarian attitudes of the whig 'improvers' the philosophical and historical origins of a dominant set of values of the late twentieth century - most recently expressed in the Conservative Party - in which the interests of private enterprise and commercial utility preponderate over any other conception of the public good. This important and passionate book makes an essential and original contribution to the study of eighteenth-century cultural history in Britain.

A beautiful and practical book on choosing and caring for over 100 easy-to-find houseplants, as well as inspiring plant styling advice and much more. Fresh flowers are great-everyone loves receiving them. But inevitably they're already on the way out the door (and into the trash) by the time they arrive. Plants-living, breathing, life-sustaining plants-are where it's at! Authors Lauren Camilleri and Sophia Kaplan really want you to love indoor gardening and growing as much as they do. Leaf Supply profiles and provides comprehensive (but easy to follow) care instructions for 100 houseplants-including tropical plants, palms, hanging plants, succulents, cacti, and more unusual varieties such as air plants and carnivorous plants-ensuring you learn and grow as your plant grows. But much more than a plant guide, Leaf Supply also gives interior styling advice on choosing the right pots for your plants-both aesthetically and practically-as well as best utilizing your space, making the most of your indoor greenery, plus advice on pet-friendly (as well as harmful) plants for your home. This is a comprehensive guide for any budding green thumb interested in greening their apartment or inside their home.

Grow your own beautiful multilayered food forest in your own backyard. Pippa Chapman is an RHS trained gardener who designs, plants and maintains abundant, biodiverse, edible and beautiful forest gardens. Here she shares her practical tips for realistically transforming your own plot, whatever its size, and with limited time, money and resources. A forest garden doesn't have to be big; you can grow a productive edible paradise in pots and containers too. Pippa explains how to create multiple layers on a small-scale to maximise your growing area, using polycultures and guilds for healthy, low-maintenance food. She shares how to use perennials for structure and for year-round food, and how to incorporate flowers for beauty, wildlife and for the kitchen. Chapters on permaculture design and forest gardening give practical advice on how to plan and plant your own garden, with guilds and plant profiles to give real-life examples to help you get started. Useful tips on propagation and seed saving help keep plant costs low and a handy chapter on the soil-food web will help you understand your own soil and how to keep it healthy.

Gardens Illustrated magazine acknowledges that gardeners love plants and want to know their origins and parentage as well as details about colour, form and habit. This book brings together 25 of the best plant features from the magazine in one highly illustrated volume. Written by a band of well-known plant experts, the profiles include essential information on the provenance of the each species, helping readers to understand the plant's needs. The authors have, in many cases, observed the plant growing wild and all have intimate knowledge of each species and its preferred environment. performers and curiosities - Plant Profiles opens gardeners' eyes to the diversity of the plant families featured, enabling them to introduce new species into their gardens that not only look at home, but really flourish.