Gain some new ideas along with the principles and history of Japanese stone gardening with this useful and beautiful garden design book. Japanese Stone Gardens provides a comprehensive introduction to the powerful mystique and dynamism of the Japanese stone garden--from their earliest use as props in animistic rituals, to their appropriation by Zen monks and priests to create settings conducive to contemplation and finally to their contemporary uses and meaning. With insightful text and abundant imagery, this book reveals the hidden order of stone gardens and in the process heightens the enthusiast's appreciation of them. The Japanese stone garden is an art form recognized around the globe. These meditative gardens provide tranquil settings, where visitors can shed the burdens and stresses of modern existence, satisfy an age-old yearning for solitude and repose, and experience the restorative power of art and nature. For this reason, the value of the Japanese stone garden today is arguably even greater than when many of them were created. Fifteen gardens are featured in this book: some well known, such as the famous temple gardens of Kyoto, others less so, among them gardens spread through the south of Honshu Island and the southern islands of Shikoku and Kyushu and in faraway Okinawa.

This handbook offers some simple circuits that will monitor weather and environmental conditions and provide warnings or take remedial action as necessary. for example, such projects include rain detection, frost warning, under/over temperature monitoring, dusk/dawn switching and automatic plant watering.

Plants thrive thanks to back-sparing and thrifty techniques for propagation, fertilization and transplanting, plus tips on beneficial fungi and bugs, magical mulches, edible weeds, water-wise wildflowers and native plants. Design-wise, make a spectacular entrance with a living gate, or see how easy it is to create a vertical or rooftop garden, a whimsical water garden or a stone courtyard. Home-crafted concrete troughs stuffed with succulents stand strong alongside dry-stack stone walls, and simple ideas for playhouses, gazebos and backyard benches will keep readers busy through all seasons. Sow Simple invites all gardeners, whether they have a large acreage or a tiny urban oasis, to have fun, experiment and see how wonderful it can be to spend time in the garden.
To contact the authors and find out more about their latest gardening adventures, please visit their blog: everydayeden.com

The intimate Monk's Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston embodies the design principles that inform the work of noted landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. In Designing a Garden, Van Valkenburgh presents the design of the Monk's Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, an intimate, walled garden that Laurie Olin has described as a masterpiece, and not a minor one. The book documents the evolution of the garden's design, which is based on the concept of meandering paths through a dreamlike woodland to create a contemplative space. Sketches and models show how the idea was worked out, and lush photographs reveal the completed garden through the seasons. Van Valkenburgh's text explores the origins of his love of landscape and plants in his family farm in Upstate New York and how this has influenced his intuitions as a designer. He shares the full background story of the Monk's Garden, focusing on the experimental nature of design work as well as the challenges and satisfactions of the small scale and the historic and cultural context. Designing a Garden provides a unique first-person account of the design process from the most prominent landscape architects in the country.

Since 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.

Container Succulents is the perfect book for container gardening beginners who don't have a lot of space to work with. The beautiful photographs of succulent decor are sure to inspire your inner gardener, interior designer and all-around house plant lover. Learn how to care for and display individual succulent varieties, or get creative with groupings that combine multiple plants with complementary colors, shapes and sizes. Whether you prefer a garden that is simple or intricate, this book covers all the basics of container selection and succulent care to ensure healthy plants. This book shows you how to: Use the colors and textures of your containers to enhance the tones and textures of the succulents to create stunning visual combinations Repurpose old cans and kitchenware to create interesting and healthy new homes for your succulents Use unconventional and openwork containers (like an antique birdcage) to add a new dimension to a composition Plant succulents in antique urns and pedestals for a touch of the unexpected Use traditional planters and baskets to create interesting design effects Create attractive soil surfaces and use cuttings to create original arrangements And much more! Each arrangement includes a "floor plan" showing you how to mix the colors, shapes and textures in ways that are pleasing to the eye and healthy for the plants. A reference guide to over 120 succulent varieties explains the different plants' characteristics to help you create compatible groupings. Even succulent beginners can get involved in this low-maintenance gardening trend. With the help of this inspirational guide, anyone can have a beautiful succulent garden in no time at all!

Destructive bushfires are increasing in frequency and intensity around the world. For people living in fire prone areas there are no reliable guides about which plants have low flammability and which are frighteningly flammable. Safer Gardens is that guide, with over 500 plants assessed, based on fire research from around the world. Readers can look up a plant in the Plant Flammability Table to get an idea of its flammability then turn to the A-Z for more detailed information. The book contains advice about ways to create a more firesafe garden, including the need to carefully manage the use of mulch and hedges. This is citizen science, written by a gardener for other gardeners. Complex and potentially confusing science is made comprehensible and usable, to help you make your garden and hence your house safer. To find out more go to the www.firesafergardens.com website. It gives a good cross-section of the issues covered in the book, including sample pages from the Plant Flammability Table and the A-Z.

Invaluable reference and guide, carefully researched and charmingly written, illustrates and describes over 50 herbs and plants that were extremely useful to colonial settlers, among them: bee balm, bloodroot, candytuft, daffodil, hyssop, lovage, rosemary, tansy, wormwood, and yarrow. Includes anecdotes, popular and scientific names and use for each plant.

'Excellent book.' Nigella Lawson 'Charming, inspiring, uplifting... pure lovely.' Marian Keyes 'Read Rhapsody in Green. A novelist's beautiful, useful essays about her tiny garden.' India Knight 'Glorious...for anyone who loves fruit, vegetables, herbs and language. It makes you see them with new eyes.' Diana Henry 'A witty account of 'extreme allotmenteering' for all obsessive gardeners' Mail on Sunday 'An extremely entertaining and inspiring story of one woman's passionate transformation of a small, irregular shaped urban garden into a bountiful source of food.' Woman & Home 'A gardening book like no other, this is the author's 'love letter' to her garden. She relays warm and witty stories about the trials and tribulations throughout her gardening year.' Garden News '...this inspirational, funny book, written by someone who hankers after a homesteader's lifestyle, will make you look at even your window box in a new, more productive light.' The Simple Things 'Gardening is not a hobby but a passion: a mess of excitement and compulsion and urgency and desire. Those who practise it are botanists, evangelists, freedom fighters, midwives and saboteurs; we kill; we bleed. No, I can't drop everything to come in for dinner; it's a matter of life and death out here.' Novelist Charlotte Mendelson has a secret life. Despite owning only six square metres of urban soil and a few pots, she is an extreme gardener; the creator of a tiny but bountiful edible jungle. And like all enthusiasts, she will not rest until you share her obsession. This is the story of an amateur gardener's journey to addiction: her attempts to buy lion dung from London Zoo and to build her own cold frame; her disinhibited composting and creative approach to design; her prejudices (roses, purple flowers, people with orchards); and her passions: quinces, salad-leaves, herbs, Japanese greens and ancient British apples. It is a story of where fantasy meets reality, of the slow onset of a consuming love and, most of all, of how gardening, however peculiar, can save your life.

"Edible Forest Gardens" is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates. Volume I lays out the vision of the forest garden and explains the basic ecological principles that make it work. In Volume II, Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier move on to practical considerations: concrete ways to design, establish, and maintain your own forest garden. Along the way they present case studies and examples, as well as tables, illustrations, and a uniquely valuable "plant matrix" that lists hundreds of the best edible and useful species.Taken together, the two volumes of "Edible Forest Gardens" offer an advanced course in ecological gardening--one that will forever change the way you look at plants and your environment.

Italian writer and horticulturist Umberto Pasti s world-famous garden, Rohuna, is set on a stony hillside high above the ocean south of Tangier. Pasti s passion for the wild flora of Tangier and its surrounding region led him to create Rohuna, where he has transplanted thousands of plants rescued from construction sites with the aid of men from the village. After decades of painstaking work, Rohuna has become a living museum. Planted between two small houses is the Garden of Consolation: a series of rooms and terraces with lush vegetation, some rendering homage to the paintings of Rousseau le Douanier, others inspired by invented characters. Surrounding the Garden of Consolation are the Wild Garden and a hillside devoted to the wild flowering bulbs of northern Morocco, where indigenous species of narcissus, iris, crocus, scilla, gladiolus, and others bloom. With its stunning vistas and verdant fields, Rohuna is a true arcadia, a garden of incomparable beauty with the mission to preserve the botanical richness of the region. Captured here in detail by celebrated photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo, the poetic beauty of this special and unique place is lovingly rendered for all the world to see and share.

The Superfood Garden makes a lot of sense! Growing your own Superfood has many benefits, both financial and for your health. Each of the 24 vegetables presented in this Guide is easy to grow in all climate zones. Many can be grown in containers and on balconies. The nutritional information provided illustrates how healthy these foods are. Regular consumption provides all the nutrients and vitamins required for vitality and well-being. Spinach, kale and pumpkins are outstanding storehouse of goodness. All 24 vegetables assist with weight loss and maintenance. Growing your own superfoods is environemntally friendly, provides certainty of origin and ensures the absence of agricultural poisons. In addition you have absolute control when to harvest your food. Vegetables that ripen in the garden have more nutrients than supermarket vegetables that have been picked early and often shipped long distances.

Vintage pieces are set in scene in more than 410 photos. Whether from metal objects, old household items or circus caravans. Let yourself be inspired by great and unusual ideas.

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker is considered one of the greatest botanists of the nineteenth century. A close friend of Charles Darwin, he was an epic traveler, cataloging tens of thousands of plants and lending scientific weight to the theory of natural selection. 2017 marked both the bicentenary of his birth and 170 years since his trip to India where he sought botanical treasures in the Himalayas. In celebration comes this facsimile edition of Hooker's The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya, carefully reproduced from an original printing dating back to the mid-1800s. At the time it was an unparalleled commercial success with lavish illustrations by Walter Hood Fitch that were--and still are--considered to be some of the finest examples of botanical illustration ever produced. Published in three parts, this new edition brings together all parts of the publication, along with thirty of Hood Fitch's plates beautifully reproduced alongside Hooker's original descriptions. A new introductory chapter by Virginia Mills and Cam Sharp Jones from Kew's Joseph Hooker Correspondence Project describes Hooker's time in India and the reception of the original publication in 1849. And Ed Ikin, Head of Wakehurst Landscape and Horticulture, describes the impact Hooker had on British gardening and the inspiration he provided for a whole new approach to horticulture. Together, this reproduction is a wonderful tribute to Joseph Hooker and a beautiful new way to experience botanical history.

Using over 230 color photographs, an introductory text about basic wood turning techniques, and step-by-step instructions, Mike Cripps guides his reader through the turning of bird houses, planters, and bulb planters known in England as "garden dibbers." The bird house and planter projects are turned from unseasoned lumber. New hobbyists and seasoned professional wood turners alike will enjoy this book and the freedom they will derive from turning unseasoned timber, which is free from dust and needs virtually no sanding or difficult-to-apply glossy finish. A color photo gallery will fire the wood turner's imagination. Patterns are provided for each project.