Ten annuals appear here, each a specific cultivar carefully selected for its innate and enduring beauty. The photographs show every critical stage of their development, creating an album which should inspire planting that is as attractive in Winter as Spring. Each plant is described in detail, explaining not just how it develops and the conditions in which it develops, but also its cultural, historic and folkloric associations.

This work gives the reader all the inspiration and information needed to create a display of flowering and foliage plants indoors for any situation, be it a small window box or a large conservatory.

If you want a vibrant, chemical-free vegetable garden, companion planting is the solution. Did you know tomatoes produce a natural insecticide that can help protect carrots against pests? Or that planting mint near lettuce can repel slugs? Every gardener knows that the key to an abundant harvest in their vegetable garden is controlling pests and disease, while still maintaining a healthy growing environment. But it is possible to have a healthy, thriving vegetable garden without using dangerous chemicals? It is, as long as you know how to pair up the right plants. Organic gardeners have known for years that planting the right plants together is the key to minimizing pests, improving soil quality, and increasing the yield of their gardens, and almost any vegetable you can grow likely has a beneficial companion. Companion planting is the ideal way to avoid using chemicals, while still increasing the efficiency of your garden. Expert organic gardener Brian Lowell will teach you how to use plants to create a beautiful, vibrant vegetable garden that will be free of toxic chemicals. Here's what you'll find inside: Handy companion planting pairings for all of the most common garden vegetables Practical, simple photography and colorful illustrations for dozens of beneficial planting configurations Expert advice from a master gardener that is specifically designed for beginners Loads of troubleshooting tips for fixing common issues with companion-planted gardens Tips for setting up the perfect vegetable garden, including practical advice on watering, soil management, troubleshooting, and more

The Complete Language of Herbs is a comprehensive encyclopedia providing the meanings, powers, facts, and folklore for over 500 herbs and spices. Along with a beautiful visual depiction, each entry provides the herb or spice's scientific and common names, characteristics, and historic meanings and powers from mythology, medieval legends, folklore, and flower poetry. Did you know that allspice can be added to herbal mixtures to attract money or luck? Or that sprinkling arrowroot at the doors of your home will keep guests' negative energy from entering? Reaching the height of popularity during the Victorian era, floriographies-dictionaries of symbolic flower meanings-were an amusing pastime and art to subtly communicate unspoken emotions. To complement the success of The Complete Language of Flowers, author S. Theresa Dietz has scoured historic sources and compiled an equally beautiful compendium in The Complete Language of Herbs, revealing the secrets and powers of hundreds of common and forgotten herbs and spices from around the world. Together with stunning full-color illustrations and two indexes, one for searching by common herb and spice name and the other organized by meaning, this beautiful reference is a must-have for gardeners, chefs, party planners, and food enthusiasts. Elegantly designed and beautifully illustrated, the Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia series offers comprehensive, display-worthy references on a range of intriguing topics, including birthday astrology, dream interpretation, astrological self-care practices, techniques for harnessing the power of dreams, and the stories behind signs and symbols.

The way we currently produce our food is damaging both to ourselves and our planet: we need to create gardens, woodlands and farms which are in harmony with nature. Though all natural ecosystems provide excellent examples to follow, Plants For a Future specifically focuses on edible species, suggesting a wide variety of easily grown perennials and self-seeding annuals which produce delicious and healthy food. Describing edible and other useful plants, both native to Britain and Europe, and from other temperate areas around the world, Plants For a Future includes those suitable for: the ornamental garden, the lawn, shady areas, ponds, walls, hedges, agroforestry and conservation. It offers alternative methods of growing these plants in ways that are in harmony with the local environment and can help to improve the overall health of the planet. In his thoroughly useful book, Ken Fern shares his experiments and successes in growing herbs, vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees. Packed with information, personal anecdotes and detailed appendices and indexes, this pioneering book takes gardening, conservation and ecology into a new dimension.

A major monograph on the Dutch garden designer, featuring his gardens and the largest collection of his drawings ever published Step into a Piet Oudolf garden and you are transported into a dreamlike meadowscape, filled with perennials, seasonal color, and texture. Made in close collaboration with Oudolf, this book showcases gardens throughout his career and across the globe - from New York's acclaimed High Line to the newly planted Vitra Campus in Germany. The book offers fresh insight into the work and creative practice of Oudolf, both from a horticultural and artistic perspective, showcasing high-profile and lesser-known gardens, including Chicago's Lurie Garden, Hauser & Wirth Somerset and Menorca, Venice Biennale, Singer Museum, Belle Isle in Detroit, Noma, and others. It offers unprecedented insight into his design process, working methods, and inspirations, and features original sketches and drawings - many of which are published here for the first time. This major new monograph is significant not only for its breadth and the largest collection of Oudolf's drawings ever published, but also for its inclusion of brand-new work, together with newly commissioned essays that place his work in context and offer fresh perspective on his career and significance. The book also includes gatefolds and tip-ins to explain key designs.

This inspirational book from Kew Gardens' rose expert is the perfect guide to choosing and growing these majestic and versatile flowers. Instantly recognisable, fragrant and evocative, roses are the quintessential garden flowers. From low-growing ground-cover roses to long-stemmed Hybrid Tea roses, multi-petalled English roses, wild roses, small shrubs for containers, climbers and ramblers, in a range of forms, colours and scents, there is a rose for every garden situation. Combining botanical illustrations and practical advice, The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Roses is the definitive introduction to growing seventy-eight beautiful roses, with full growing instructions and details on feeding, propagation and training. Twelve garden projects, from growing from seed to preserving rose petals, will bring the wonderful world of roses to life. This book is from the Kew Experts series, in which the top gardeners and botanical scientists from Royal Botanic Kew Gardens offer up advice and information as well as suggesting handy projects on a range of gardening topics. Other titles include: Companion to Medicinal Plants, Guide to Growing Bulbs, Guide to Growing Fruit, Guide to Growing Orchids, Guide to Growing Herbs, Guide to Growing Succulents and Cacti, Guide to Growing Trees, Guide to Growing Vegetables and Guide to Growing House Plants.

Fungi is a richly detailed and beautifully illustrated book which tells you everything you need to know about these fasciating organisms. Fungi are an indispensable part of the great chain of life: more than 90% of the world's plant species depend on them for their nutrition. There are believed to be about 1.5 million species, thriving in virtually every habitat, from temperate to tropical, Antarctic to marine. Using beautifully coloured illustrations, this book dips into the whole range, showcasing the unusual, the familiar, the poisonous and the delicious, and sharing the stories of puffballs, deadly webcaps and devils' fingers, among others. Some are cultivated for use in different cuisines, while others are heralded for their hallucinogenic properties, or valued for use in medicine. Essential information on distribution, uses and growth partnerships is included for each species featured, as well as stunning. Weird, alluring and mysterious - get to know what makes mushrooms magic in this handy, colourful book.

The UK's leading gardening publisher brings you a horticultural handbook to fulfil your every need and seed! Get your gardening gloves on and join the green-fingered journey to growing fruit successfully at home. A must-have volume for first-time gardeners, Grow Fruit has tons of tips and tricks to sow, grow, plant and propagate a diverse range of fruit, from plums to persimmons, blackcurrants to blueberries, this grower's guide truly has it all! Try your hand at more than 40 different varieties of fruit trees, bushes, canes and vines, including allotment plot staples such as damsons and blackcurrants, as well as lesser-grown options like kiwis and pineapple guavas. With passion in every page, you can enjoy: - A jargon-free practical guide to harvesting home-grown fruits. - Easy to follow step-by-step instructions of fundamental gardening techniques. - Exploration of popular fruits as well as lesser-known options. In today's society, the ever-growing pressure of balancing family life with a career suggests a lot of today's green-fingered gardeners simply lack time for growing fruit and vegetables at home. We believe it's time to change that! Whatever your horticultural hopes may be, author and gardener Holly Farrell brings you a fantastic fruit-growing guide that is sure to shape first-time gardeners like never before, full of top tips to help your garden thrive! An ideal gift for first-time gardeners, budding botanists or the green-fingered lover in your life, make sure to get those gardening gloves on, and join the journey today! At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. If you like Grow Fruit why not try the other titles in our Grow series? Learn how to brighten your garden all year round with Grow Bulbs, enjoy a no-fuss guide to container gardening with Grow Containers or minimise garden waste with Grow Eco-Gardening. Ready, set, let's grow!

Flowers For All makes it easy to create gorgeous, modern flower arrangements that enhance everyday life with natural beauty. Celebrated floral designer Susan McLeary invites you to live a flower-filled life with botanical arrangements that encourage joy and connection. Driven by the belief that flowers should be enjoyed by everyone, McLeary does away with fussy ingredient lists and impossible-to-find botanicals. Here, she reveals the secrets to making striking, joyful floral displays using just a few ingredients. Organized into three sections - flowers for your home, flowers to gift, and flowers for larger celebrations - the book features 30 gorgeous arrangements, including an infinitely giftable monochromatic bouquet, an aromatherapy bundle to fill your space with uplifting scents, a striking centerpiece for celebratory dinner parties, and a gorgeous wreath for festive gatherings. With sections on design techniques, flower care, vessel selection, and simple-to-follow instructions for each design, you'll be empowered to make magnificent arrangements at home - whether you buy your flowers at the local grocery store or cut them from your own garden. Delivered in a petite package full of expert tips and lush photos, this stunning handbook is a must-have guide for flower lovers, decor enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to immerse themselves in nature's beauty.

Beans are easy to grow, easy to cook, delicious, nourishing and beneficial for us and the planet. Growing your own beans not only helps you build healthy soil in your garden, it also provides you with a nutrient-rich diet. Beans can play a role in reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer - they are good sources of protein, fibre, folate, iron and potassium - and they can reduce your carbon footprint and food miles as well! This fascinating book brings together Susan Young's 10 years of experimentation with multiple varieties of beans. She clearly explains how to sow, grow, harvest, dry, store and cook them, and shares her six 'must grow' varieties. Go on a tasty culinary journey around the world and discover a range of colourful and historic beans, from the pink 'Fagiolo di Lamon' of Italy to the black and white 'Bosnian Pole' bean. Learn which varieties are best for eating fresh from the pod and those that are best for drying and storing for later use. Beans offer year-round nutritious meals, and dried beans can be the star of the show with their fabulous diversity of flavours, colours and textures.

An anthology of the best garden writing from the pages of The Garden, the magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society. As well as revealing key moment from a time of intense change, this anthology paints a rich and intriguing picture of what gardening means today.The writers tell of plant-hunting and new gardening practices, fashion and growing food, whilst shedding light on the inner landscape of the thoughtful gardener. Collected and curated by Ursula Buchan, herself an anthologist, The Garden Anthology presents a narrative of thoughts and opinions for keen gardeners to help navigate the gardening year, and comprises the best writing from more than the last 100 years. This 320-page reading book includes short essays, opinions, thoughts and excerpts from 80 garden writers and designers including James Wong, Sir Roy Strong, Helen Dillon, Anna Pavord, E A Bowles, Gertrude Jekyll, John Brookes, Tim Richardson, Joy Larkcom, Hugh Johnson, Nigel Slater, Lia Leendertz, Ursula Buchan, Nigel Colborne and Mary Keen under the universally-appealing subjects of: the kitchen garden; wildlife and wildflowers; gardens; garden design; the environment; plants; people; seasons and the weather.

This practical pocket guide includes 194 edible fruits, nuts and seeds, flowers, greens and vegetables, herbs, roots, whole plants, fungi, seaweeds and shellfish that you can forage in the UK and Europe.

Each species account includes accurate artworks and concise descriptions outlining essential details to help you identify species in the field, as well as information on where you can find species and helpful tips on how to cook and bake with the food you forage.

The author's introduction offers practical advice on foraging safely and legally and outlines how to prepare and preserve your foraged foods, including making mead and jam, drying herbs, storing mushrooms for later use and how to safely prepare foraged shellfish. The helpful fold-out poster shows common edible species grouped by season and by habitat.

Forage is a beautifully illustrated celebration of edible plants that can be found throughout the world. Anybody can enjoy the increasingly popular back-to-nature activity of foraging. In some countries these plants are now forgotten as food, but in others they are still celebrated for their value as nutritious, delicious ingredients and cooking with wild plants is increasingly being adopted by mainstream restaurants. Journeying through 50 globally populated edible plants, Forage explores the culture and history of our wild food. Stunning botanical illustrations by artist Rachel Pedder-Smith accompany each plant, alongside recipes inspired by the regions of the world where they are most celebrated.

Exquisite paper flowers that never wilt! In this book, Japanese paper crafting expert Emiko Yamamoto reveals her secrets for making realistic blossoms, leaves and stems from inexpensive colored paper sheets. Her simple cut-curl-paste method is perfect for beginners--making it easy to create dozens of lifelike flowers. Fabulous Paper Flowers features 43 varieties of Asian flowers for every season, including: Spring: Wild Cherry Blossoms, White Clover, Japanese Primrose, Japanese Marigolds & Fuji Dawn Violets Summer: Bigleaf Hydrangea, Japanese Iris, Water Lilies, Moutan Peony, Japanese Morning Glory & Evening Primrose Fall: Cosmos, Japanese Bush Clover, Cranesbill Geraniums, Japanese Maple Leaves & Gingko Leaves Winter: Heavenly Bamboo, Japanese Camellia, Snow Camellia, Pheasant's Eye, Japanese Plum & Chinese Sacred Lilies The finished pieces look great as table settings, wearable brooches, gift toppers, in framed displays, on handmade cards and so much more. Make wedding decor on a budget, decorate for a baby shower, make a dinner party special or surprise a loved one with a handmade gift--with this book, the possibilities are endless! This complete how-to guide has descriptions of the easy-to-find materials and tools, templates that you can trace and cut out, and step-by-step photos showing you how to curl and crease the pieces, then assemble them with dabs of glue.

150 Gardens You Need to Visit before You Die profiles a selection of the most beautiful gardens in the world, renowned for their exceptional flora, imaginative designs, and inspiring locations. From Kew Gardens in London to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, and from Monet's garden at Giverny to the Zen garden of the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto, this handsomely bound book captures in words and images the most notable features of these 150 glorious, not-to-be-missed gardens. An essential bucket list book for garden lovers!

My Unicorn Garden is bursting with crafts and activities perfect for children. Created with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK's leading gardening charity, this amazing book is packed with fun things to make and do both indoors and outdoors. It's time to get your green-hooves ready with your favourite unicorn friends! Paint a unicorn plant pot Create fantastic flower pressings Make your own mini unicorn garden Discover the wonderful secrets of gardening with magical, mythical unicorns! These unicorns are off on a garden tour to learn all about plants, wildlife and top gardening tips. The unicorns can't wait to start exploring - and you can join them! This book is packed with fun facts and activities, so you can become a gardening expert, too. Step-by-step gardening activities - perfect for families to enjoy the garden together Easy-to-follow instructions for growing your own plants Colouring in, spot-the-difference, and make your own daisy chain and winter wreath!

Start growing your own food at home! Whether you're an urban gardener, a first-time vegetable grower, or have your own allotment, this illustrated guide takes the uncertainty out of your harvest with clear, reliable gardening advice for every month of the year. This gardening reference guide is filled with gardening tips on growing everything from herbs and kale to strawberries and rhubarb. Inside, you'll find: - Month-by-month chapters that break down what to do through the year, with instructions on what to sow and plant and the gardening tasks to focus on - Visual galleries accompany every chapter that showcases the products that can be harvested during that month - Crop planners that provide a catalogue of more than 60 fruits, vegetables, and herbs that can be grown in an allotment or kitchen garden - "Allotment know-how" chapter that offers detailed, accessible advice on preparing your allotment, choosing the correct tools and equipment, and making the most of your plot with crop rotation - "Troubleshooter" chapter that breaks down the warning signs of pests, diseases, and disorders, with detailed advice on preventing and/or treating these issues Wondering how to grow your own fruits and vegetables or how to make the most out of your existing allotment? Allotment Month by Month has everything you need to know about how to grow your own fruit and vegetables: when to sow, how to cultivate, advice on pesticide use - and step-by-step garden projects like making a compost bin. With more than 60 fruit and vegetable crop planners, this gardening book is your go-to guide to growing fresh, seasonal produce in your kitchen garden, on your plot or in smaller city spaces. Month-by-month alerts help you guard against the season's garden pests and diseases to ensure a top-quality harvest. This new edition has updated recommendations for the best varieties to grow and all the latest expert gardening advice.

The author describes the glorious but laborious work of converting what had been a general dumping-ground to a rich and productive wildlife haven. As work progressed, May took many photographs and kept observations of the varied wildlife she observed during the many evenings which were spent working and watching in the reserve. How she and her husband achieved their dream of creating their own nature reserve as part of the country house hotel they ran, makes illuminating and fascinating reading. This grand labour of love over fifteen years was rewarded as the reserve was visited or colonised by many species such as badgers, bats, foxes, and goshawks to the more unusual elephant hawkmoths and the very rare rhododendron lacewing. Interesting facts gradually emerged - an exceptionally fine collection of rhododendron which came from the Kingdom Ward Collection had originally been brought back from Chile, Burma and China for the Royal Horticultural Society many years previously. The award-winning nature reserve, with its countless animal and plant species, often featured in many wildlife documentaries and was officially opened by Professor David Bellamy. 'Just Before Dawn" will be an inspiring read for all lovers of nature and wildlife, and will be of particular appeal to gardeners and anyone who wishes to encourage and observe wildlife in their garden.

This is the fourth of six parts of a facsimile reprint of a compendium of cookery, gardening, animal husbandry and general household medicine which was published in two volumes in about 1760, having first been offered to the public in 41 weekly parts in 1756. The author claimed "upwards of Thirty Years Experience" as housekeeper or cook, possibly in the service of a Lady Hewit, whose manuscript receipt book - cookery and medicinal - is copied into the published work. The work is arranged as a calendar discussing marketing, cooking, preserving, brewing, medicines for men and animals, and tending the orchard, the herb and vegetable garden and the pleasure garden, month by month. Among its features are descriptions of foods bought - spices, sugar, anchovies, olives, soy sauce - as well as foods grown or cooked. Other hints about marketing - buying fish, for instance - are more detailed than in many other manuals of the period, and there are lists of specific varieties of fruits as they are ready for the table.

A must-read for anyone who wants to know how to grow their own zero-food miles, pesticide-free veg, while treading gently upon our planet. Dave Goulson, author of The Garden Jungle and Gardening for Bumblebees Whether you're an experienced gardener or have ambitious plans for your allotment, this A-Z, soil-to-table guide shows you how to reduce chemical inputs; naturally enrich your growing ecology; and create a hardy, nutrient-dense and delicious crop. In The Healthy Vegetable Garden, expert organic gardener Sally Morgan explains how to use natural approaches to cope with the challenges of a changing climate through principles from regenerative gardening, agroecology and permaculture - all to help your green space thrive. The Healthy Vegetable Garden shows you how to: Combat disease and keep pests at bay with natural predators, companion planting and trap and barrier crops Choose the right plants to attract pollinators and pest predators Build a healthy soil full of organic matter, earthworms and mycorrhizal fungi Regenerate soil through no-dig practices, composting, cover crops and mulching Boost biodiversity through the use of crop rotations and polyculture Rewild your garden by creating a range of habitats, making use of walls and fences, log piles, water features and wild corners Understand plant defences and use biocontrols Make natural barriers, traps and lures A healthy, productive garden should work in harmony with nature to produce and protect delicious fruits and vegetables as well as build a rich soil that is full of life. With The Healthy Vegetable Garden, growers of all levels will start reducing incidents of pests and diseases while creating a verdant habitat - all without the need for fertilizers, pesticides or weedkillers.

Kweek dit self is ’n alsomvattende gids vol praktiese riglyne wat jou sal leer hoe om jou tuin (groot of klein) ten volle te benut, hetsy met tradisionele of alternatiewe tuinbou metodes. Die inhoud is nie beperk tot alledaagse en bekende spesies nie, daar word metodes aangebied om ongewone en moderne variasies van elke tipe plant te kweek. Elke plant word op ’n geordende en logiese manier volledig bespreek, met besondere verwysing na die vereistes vir die voorbereiding van die grond, verdeling van die plante, die kweking, asook die oes en berging daarvan. ’n Lekker bonus is die bykomende wenke hoe om plante in houers te kweek, die geskikste plante vir verskillende spasies, hoe om peste te bekamp, plantmaats, en die beste wapens in die oorlog teen siektes en ander probleme. Met die oog op die haastige leser wat nie onnodige opleeswerk wil doen vóór besluitneming nie, is daar ’n gebruiksvriendelike opsomming van elke spesie en bykomende interessante inligting op so ’n manier saamgestel dat dit ’n plesier is om daarna vollediger inligting te bekom.

A handy, accessible guide to creating your own paradise plot where you can forage throughout the year Anna Locke condenses years of hands-on experience to walk you through the skills and techniques you need to design and plant a delicious, useful, and thriving garden in town or country that is also a haven for wildlife as well as for humans. She encourages us to see our gardens as part of a bigger, local food strategy that can help to generate abundance, health and resilience. This book provides: An overview of organic gardening techniques-great for the beginner A basic, accessible guide to designing your garden Insights into how to plant guilds and choose what is right for your space Valuable information on how 'weeds' can become harvests A choice of nutritious, seasonal plants for any sized plot Techniques to grow maximum food with minimal work Practices that reconnect you with Nature and enhance well-being Money saving tips to make a forager's garden available to anyone! The Forager's Garden demonstrates one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways possible to grow and harvest food.