This book is an immersive experience into the delights of foraging in Spring, written by one of Britain's most respected foragers. Forage In Spring celebrates the top fifteen edible and medicinal wild plants found in March, April and May. It's a comprehensive exploration of their past and present uses as food and medicine. An invaluable addition to any forager, herbalist, gardener, horticulturist or naturalist's library, providing plant-lovers with a much-needed resource to understanding nature's most useful wild plants. Inside, you'll discover the forgotten story of Alexanders, Brooklime, Cleavers (Goosegrass), Dandelion, Garlic Mustard, Ground Elder, Ground Ivy, Plantain, Primrose, Ramsons (Wild Garlic), Sea Beet, Sorrel, Sowthistle, Stinging Nettle and Violet. Plants have stories that reconnect us to the Land and the rest of Nature. As our society becomes ever more disconnected, there is a revivalist movement flourishing like a rhizome. This ancient path of the forager reconnects us to the vital, to wildness, to creation, to what is in effect the very pulse of life itself. One of the most direct ways to experience this is to consume this wildness. Take it into our bodies, where like a sleeper agent, it lies dormant until you have eaten enough to change the structure of your blood, thereby changing your brain and how you relate to the non-human world. For it is this simple act. The act of taking wild food and medicine into our body, that in time becomes so transformative. Forage In Spring is not a harking back to some naive, romantic vision of how we might once have lived. Instead, these plants' stories are a way to help you sense into the future and understand our ecological function (as a species) within the world.

Covers forty eight wild edible and medicinal plants of Britain and Ireland.

Includes multiple full-colour photographs of each plant to help make identification easy.

I wrote this book to help you rediscover our forgotten plant heritage. To learn how to use wild plants as food and medicine. Knowledge that was once common to everyone.

Each individual plant profile includes:

• common name
• scientific name
• family
• an easy to understand botanical description
• multiple full colour photos of each plant
• when the plant flowers
• where it is found
• a historical summary
• which parts of the plant to use
• how the plant is used as food
• its nutritional profile
• its traditional folk medicine uses
• and finally, safety notes

Most gardens do not have smooth, flat lawns and borders of rich, easily dug soil. We have to put up with damp, sunless corridors between houses, awkward slopes or plots shaded by trees or neighbouring buildings. Equally difficult to plant are seaside gardens exposed to gale-force winds and salt spray; waterlogged plots, where the drainage is poor; and dry ground exposed to the glare of the sun day after day, without the slightest shade. In short, few gardens benefit from perfect conditions. What you need for these sites are tough plants that will not only shrug off all the worst conditions in your garden but will actually thrive in them. Tough Plants for Tough Places includes a directory of nearly 100 plants that are practically invincible in the specific hostile conditions they have evolved to cope with.

Ever wondered how to make a garden attractive in December? Or what to do with that corner by the dustbin? Answers to these questions can be found in this compact and charming book of tips for the green-fingered, accompanied by Heath Robinson's highly inventive and humorous cartoons. First published in 1938, the book gives an insight into gardening trends on the eve of the Second World War while also addressing common concerns faced by gardeners. It features many typically elaborate contraptions such as the Combined Telescopic Spaderake for digging and raking at the same time, the Inebriate Roller for making wobbly garden paths and the Osoeezi Slugsticker. While some are patently ridiculous - a lawn is de-thistled and resown with the help of a barrel of grass seed strapped onto a small donkey - others are before their time, such as a special pump that can divert your bathwater into your garden hose, a contraption that is not wildly dissimilar to gadgets on the market today. Finally, the growing of vegetables inspires some sage advice: 'with the right kind of upbringing, a marrow will attain astonishing dimensions, and can be used for boasting purposes.' Poking gentle fun at a British obsession with a detailed illustration on almost every page, this book will delight both aspiring and experienced gardeners alike.

The illustrated biography of a Scottish country house, set beside the River Clyde, and of the people who made it their home over the past 850 years Written by four brothers, their sister and the eldest member of the next generation, Finlaystone offers an insidersa view of the house, its beautiful gardens and the surrounding estate. They tell about the lives of its former owners, many of whom played prominent roles in Scottish military, political, religious and cultural affairs. As Scotland moved forward from centuries of feuds between large feudal landowners to the reformation, the age of enlightenment and the industrial revolution, the building evolved from a fortress to a modest but attractive family home in 1746. Its present form as an imposing late Victorian mansion dates from when it was modernised and extended in 1900 by George Jardine Kidston, the great-grandfather of the older authors, who had grown wealthy from running one of the worlda s earliest steamship companies. In its hey-day, Finlaystone was managed for the comfort and leisure of its owners by a bevy of household servants living in a wing of the house, and by an army of workers, including gardeners, foresters, game-keepers, joiners and a laundry-maid. The prosperity that had made such a lavish life possible, however, soon started to decline, with George Kidstona s death in 1909, followed just 5 years later by war, the economic depression in the 1930s, and then World War II. Unlike many other large country houses, Finlaystone remains a family home, kept afloat largely by the hard work and adaptability of the members of the family who reflect in this book on the joys and travails that this implied.

User-friendly and highly accessible, this is a practical, fully illustrated and inspiring guide to indoor gardening by self-taught plant enthusiast Jade Murray. Here you will find invaluable tips and advice for choosing, caring for and propagating houseplants. Having limited space is no barrier to indoor gardening. Many of these plants are perfect for small homes and space-saving ideas abound - eg vertical arrangements - whether hanging in a basket, bunched on a shelf, on a window sill or grouped on a ladder. Chapters include: the easiest houseplants to grow for complete beginners (including Chinese Money Plants and Dragon Trees) the best 'diva' plants for creating drama and conversation pieces (including String of Dolphins and Elephant Ear) air-purifying plants (from ferns and lilies to the Fiddle Leaf Fig) humidity-loving plants (including the Lipstick Plant and Asparagus Ferns) heat-resistant indoor plants (cacti and succulents) plants to help with pests (including Venus Fly Trap and Trumpet Pitcher) Throughout the book you will find: advice on where to best position plants in the home ideas for how to display them to best advantage, including vertical arrangements tips on soil mix, watering, feeding and trouble-shooting step-by-step photographs for plant propagation an at-a-glance summary of Jade's 'golden rules' for success Jade firmly believes that plants can be restorative and therapeutic - a positive asset in any home or office. Her advice and enthusiasm shine on every page of this book - as do her glorious photographs.

Revised in 2020 with 218 new terms, this pocket-sized glossary is essential for everyone in the tree care industry as a foundation for using a shared language of defined terms to work with professionals in arboriculture and related fields. The 2020 edition also includes expanded terminology for tree risk assessment and stationary rope climbing systems, hundreds of enhanced, clarified, and updated definitions, and a reference guide for abbreviations and acronyms.