This volume discusses gardens as designed landscapes of mediation between nature and culture, embodying different levels of human control over wilderness, defining specific rules for this confrontation and staging different forms of human dominance. The contributing authors focus on ways of rethinking the garden and its role in contemporary society, using it as a crossover platform between nature, science and technology. Drawing upon their diverse fields of research, including History of Science and Technology, Environmental Studies, Gardens and Landscape Studies, Urban Studies, and Visual and Artistic Studies, the authors unveil various entanglements woven in the past between nature and culture, and probe the potential of alternative epistemologies to escape the predicament of fatalistic dystopias that often revolve around the Anthropocene debate. This book will be of great interest to those studying environmental and landscape history, the history of science and technology, historical geography, and the environmental humanities.

This early work on landscape gardening is a fascinating read for the gardener and historian alike, but also contains much information and anecdote that is still useful and practical today. All the work described is well within the scope of the ordinary man or woman with no previous experience, and no tools will be required that are not in the ordinary household toolbox. Extensively illustrated with working diagrams. Contents Include: Laying Out the Plot - "Labour-saving" Gardens - Stone Edging - Wood Edging - Laying Out the Lawn - The Oval or Circular Lawn - The House Step; Crazy Paving: Imitation Crazy Paving; Bird Baths and Sundials; Non-Rustic Screens and Arches - A Rectangular Trellis Screen - A Semi-Circular Trellis Screen - "Rising Sun" Trellis - A Trellis Fringe - A Trellise Window - Arches - A Four-Way Arch - An Arch Pergola; Rustic Work - Rustic Summerhouses; Garden Furniture: Seats, Tables, Etc. - A Simple Garden Seat - Garden Chairs - A Garden Table; and Ornamental Ponds. 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.

'Wonderfully intense and honest - a poignant manual of how to grow hope against the odds.' Chris Packham, TV presenter and author of Fingers in the Sparkle Jar Finding herself in a new home in Brighton, Kate Bradbury sets about transforming her decked, barren backyard into a beautiful wildlife garden. She documents the unbuttoning of the earth and the rebirth of the garden, the rewilding of a tiny urban space. On her own she unscrews, saws and hammers the decking away, she clears the builders' rubble and rubbish beneath it, and she digs and enriches the soil, gradually planting it up with plants she knows will attract wildlife. She erects bird boxes and bee hotels, hangs feeders and grows nectar- and pollen-rich plants, and slowly brings life back to the garden. But while she's doing this Kate's neighbours continue to pave and deck their gardens locking them away, the wildlife she tries to save is further threatened, and she feels she's fighting an uphill battle. Is there any point in gardening for wildlife when everyone else is drowning the land in poison and cement? Sadly, events take Kate away from her garden, and she finds herself back home in Birmingham where she grew up, travelling the roads she used to race down on her bike in the eighties, thinking of the gardens and wildlife she loved, witnessing more land lost beneath paving stones. If the dead could return, what would they say about the land we have taken, the ancient routes we have carved up, the wildlife we have lost?

Orchids of South Africa is the first field guide to local orchids to be published in over 30 years, and presents the more than 450 orchid species found in the region, including Lesotho and Swaziland.

A comprehensive roundup of orchids in their natural habitat, the book features:

- multiple photos for each species

- distribution maps

- flowering time-bars

- succinct text, enabling sure identification of these fascinating plants.

An illustrated introduction discusses orchid structure, ecology and conservation status.

Informative, colourful and easy-to-use, Orchids of South Africa is the authoritative update enthusiasts have been waiting for.

Through this collection of delightful essays and beautiful illustrations, long-time contributor to Country Living Gardner Sharon Lovejoy shares the boundless joys of a country garden. Lovejoy has chosen to focus on the natural world to be found just outside the door, including hummingbirds, caterpillars, and dragonflies, but her informative and witty prose also covers traditional plant care. The very titles of her sketches convey pleasure in the vibrant country landscape and the life that teems within it: "The Bumble Bee Rumba," "Faeries in the Fuschias (sphinx moths)," "Holiday Feasts for the Birds and the Beasts," and "Conversations with Sunflowers." This compilation truly is-to borrow another of her titles-"Something to Crow About."

The vast North Woods, a land magnificently arrayed in the deep greens of pine, spruce, and fir and the brilliant blues of crystal clear lakes, spans the area from Minnesota to Maine and from Michigan to Hudson Bay. With a little help fromCanoe Country Flora, keen explorers will discover a world full of life and wonder in the plants that thrive in this beautiful lake country. Canoe Country Flora, a friendly field guide, introduces you to ninety-six of the most common trees, shrubs, wildflowers, fungi, ferns, lichens, and other plants you're likely to encounter during your travels north. Detailed line drawings and brief plant profiles help you recognize what you're seeing, while "Sparky" Stensaas's intriguing tales draw you into a deeper study of the plants's natural and cultural histories. Each plant is made identifiable and memorable by fascinating facts, handy checklists, diagrams and charts, and interesting activities that help adults and children learn by discovery. Use this book as a companion to Canoe Country Wildlife or alone as your guide to a unique North Woods adventure.

Encourages the homeowner to conserve water by restoring natural processes that filter and return water to groundwater reservoirs. Learn the installation and maintenance of rain gardens. Provides garden plans and plant lists for different conditions and styles, including wildlife habitat, a pretty cottage border, and a formal garden. Discusses community gardens, ways that individuals can do their part in conservation, and provides many resources for further information. Rain gardens to suit any style or size of property are within the reach of anyone. Create a beautiful and enjoyable home garden while saving water and the natural environment.

This beautifully illustrated giftable gardening reference book is a complete guide to the growing and use of medicinal plants, combining exquisite botanical illustrations with practical self-help projects. Every day sees a discovery in the press about the new uses of plants, and it's certain that most of our most important drugs are derived from plants. From willow (used to procure aspirin) to periwinkle (used in chemotherapy to treat lymphoma) many common garden plants have provided cures in modern medicine. In this book readers can discover more than 200 life-saving plants and 25 home-grown remedies to make themselves. Each plant is catalogued and the traditional and modern uses are detailed, alongside a beautiful botanical illustration. Each home cure is described and illustrated with step-by-step photographs to show how you can be a gardener and heal yourself. Recipes include: Dried lemon balm, Passionflower sleep tea, Plantain balm, Rosehip syrup, Rosemary infused oil, Elderberry vinegar, Chickweed cream, Comfrey ointment, Nettle soup, Dried valerian root. The Gardener's Companion to Medicinal Plants is part of the Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing series and is accompanied by Growing Herbs, Growing House Plants, Growing Vegetables, Growing Orchids and Growing Fruit.

Take a visual tour of gardens and homes in one Pacific Coast area, the South Bay of Los Angeles County, which includes Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach. A distinctive feature of Southern California's beach communities is how often homeowners enclose their front yards. Because of the dense development in the residential neighborhoods adjacent to the ocean, some property lines have been clearly defined by fences, garden walls, and ornaments. Here find compelling photographs that will inspire homeowners and gardeners who are looking to define their own outdoor spaces. Organized by the function of the fences and types of enclosures, this book also includes sidebars about the evolution and history of some unique property divisions and homeowner stories.

Growing Extraordinary Marijuana is a concise, simple and affordable guide to both ancient and modern methods of cultivating marijuana. Gottlieb's focus is on the traditional techniques used by ganja farmers of India and Oaxaca. Mexico as well as modern techniques such as hydroponics and genetic alterations. This underground classic from the 70s has been rewritten and repackaged with new illustrations.

Grow more, spend less So you want a stylish, healthy, and productive garden that is budget and Earth-friendly? Of course you do. Garden designer Kier Holmes shows you how, in this accessible and spunky guide. She shares everything you need to create a productive and lush garden that can truly be used and enjoyed. Packed with hundreds of tips on design, plant selection, and how to address problematic situations, it also has information on which hardscape elements are worth the splurge, how to decide where to start, and how to reduce maintenance through design. Inspirational, practical, and endlessly creative, The Garden Refresh is destined to become the book you turn to again and again for the best insider ideas.

Since it's grand opening in June 2007, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay has become one of Maine's most popular attractions and one the most distinguished botanical destinations in the country. "Wow!" is the word most often heard from visitors who explore the exquisite gardens, stunning stonework, exceptional natural landscapes, waterfalls, and sculptures. The goal of the Gardens is to preserve the botanical heritage and natural landscapes of coastal Maine. Comprising nearly 250 acres, with numerous themed gardens-including the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses, The Giles Rhododendron and Perennial Garden, and the Burpee Kitchen Garden-miles of trails, and a rich variety of events year-round, the Gardens has something for everyone. Celebrating the Fifth Anniversary of the Maine Botanical Gardens, and honoring the sixteen years of planning and construction that went into them, this book is an inspiring tribute to thisparadise on the Maine coast. Bursting with vivid color photographs, information about the Gardens, and a pinch of practical advice for gardeners, it makes a wonderful keepsake or a great gift to inspire others to visit the Gardens.

Death and Garden Narratives in Literature, Art and Film: Song of Death in Paradise explores the combination of two motifs, death and gardens, to show how the two subjects are intertwined and used in various media and cultural contexts. Using cultural, literary, film, and art history theories, the contributors analyze various death and garden sceneries in literary works by Arthur Machen, Agatha Christie, J.K. Rowling, as well as in superhero comics, films, and cultural and art contexts such as Ian Hamilton Finley's "Little Sparta," the poetic verses from the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden in South Africa, and the Australian wilderness.

In "Native American Medicinal Plants," anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman describes the medicinal use of more than 2700 plants by 218 Native American tribes. Information -- adapted from the same research used to create the monumental "Native American Ethnobotany" -- includes 82 categories of medicinal uses, ranging from analgesics, contraceptives, gastrointestinal aids, hypotensive medicines, sedatives, and toothache remedies.
"
Native American Medicinal Plants" includes extensive indexes arranged by tribe, usage, and common name, making it easy to access the wealth of information in the detailed catalog of plants. It is an essential reference for students and professionals in the fields of anthropology, botany, and naturopathy and an engaging read for anyone interested in ethnobotany and natural healing.

There have been poems about gardens for as long as there have been gardens. Gardens have been all things to all men and women: paradoxical sites of pleasure and pain, of safety and danger, art and nature, public spaces and private retreats, places of physical labour and metaphysical reflection. This diversity and versatility have always attracted poets, whose repertory of garden themes on the page matches what garden makers have achieved on the ground.

In this anthology successive historical periods of gardening - from enclosed garden and landscape park to Victorian flower-garden and modern patio - are mirrored in verse from the Middle Ages to the present day. While poets have eagerly seized upon the metaphorical associations gardens inspire, they have also been attracted to the opportunities they offer for description, both romantic and robust. As well as being microcosms of society, either perfectly maintained or ill-kempt and overrun, where love can blossom alongside the flowers, or withering and decay may presage death, they are sites of real human labour. The gardener is here celebrated as much as his creation, as are his mundane tasks of weeding and making compost, mowing lawns and tending the allotment.

In his Introduction John Dixon Hunt identifies certain themes that recur throughout a selection that ranges from Chaucer to Pope, Marvell to Tennyson, Coleridge to Fleur Adcock, W. B. Yeats to Anthony Hecht, and Rudyard Kipling to Anne Sexton. Particularly fertile in modern examples, this anthology is a riot of literary talent to match the most abundant of gardens.

In The Cabaret of Plants, Mabey explores the plant species which have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty and belief. Picked from every walk of life, they encompass crops, weeds, medicines, religious gathering-places and a water lily named after a queen. Beginning with pagan cults and creation myths, the cultural significance of plants has burst upwards, sprouting into forms as diverse as the panacea (the cure-all plant ginseng, a single root of which can cost up to $10,000), Newton's apple, the African 'vegetable elephant' or boabab - and the mystical, night-flowering Amazonian cactus, the moonflower. Ranging widely across science, art and cultural history, poetry and personal experience, Mabey puts plants centre stage, and reveals a true botanical cabaret, a world of tricksters, shape-shifters and inspired problem-solvers, as well as an enthralled audience of romantics, eccentric amateur scientists and transgressive artists. The Cabaret of Plants celebrates the idea that plants are not simply 'the furniture of the planet', but vital, inventive, individual beings worthy of respect - and that to understand this may be the best way of preserving life together on Earth.

Companion planting has a long history of use by gardeners, but the explanation of why it works has been filled with folklore and conjecture. Plant Partners delivers a research-based rationale for this ever-popular growing technique, offering gardeners dozens of ways they can use scientifically tested plant partnerships to benefit the garden as a whole. Through an enhanced understanding of how plants interact with and influence each other, this guide suggests specific plant combinations that growers can use to improve soil health and weed control, decrease pest damage, and increase biodiversity, resulting in real and measurable impacts in the garden.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The worldwide trend towards smaller houses and spaces and apartment type homes has inspired and demanded a new approach in gardening. This is due predominantly to the freedom of expression in the styling and use of outdoor spaces, the approach to hard landscaping and the use of plant material most suited to the environment, house or garden design and style.

The trend is to introduce hard landscaping and plant material natural to the local area, gravel as a substitute for lawn in small spaces, a sense of fun and the unexpected in the use of plants or accessories. This is what makes gardening a pleasure and one of the finest creative arts there is.

Keith Kirsten, world-renowned horticulturist, shares his vast local and international experience and knowledge with his readers in this book on small gardens – from the initial design, the preparation, the hard landscaping elements, container gardening, water, maintenance, garden chores for every month of the year, food and herb gardening, to lists of plants suitable for smaller spaces.

Breathtakingly beautiful photos not only illustrate the information, but are artworks in their own right providing a pool of inspirational ideas.