Combining the popular subjects of aromatherapy and gardening, Julia Lawless promotes the aromatic garden as a means to health, well-being, and pleasure. This book details the history of the scented garden, starting with the Persian palaces 2,500 years ago, and links this with the present-day appreciation of essential oils and their healing powers. Focusing on some of the most memorable fragrant gardens, past and present, then moving on to a discussion of specific plants and their uses, The Essential Aromatherapy Garden guides you through every stage of creating your own aromatic paradise. Featured gardens, including the author's former Gloucestershire garden and the Chelsea Physic Garden, provide inspiration and examples of the benefits that aromatic gardens afford. Accessible, practical advice helps you to achieve the reality-whether it's a tiny, fragrant border, a hanging basket, or a formal rose garden. With chapters including 'An aromatherapy and Perfumery Border,' 'Herbs for Health and Cooking,' 'Planning an Aromatherapy Garden,' and 'Secrets of the Still Room,' the author offers invaluable advice on all aspects of your garden - ensuing that both the enthusiast and the aspiring gardener are catered for. Plant portraits, covering over 50 of the most essential aromatherapy plants from acasia to violet, guide you through the practicalities of cultivation, gardening, recommended varieties, and range of uses. There are plenty of ideas and tips here to transform your aromatic plants into effective recipe ingredients.

A privileged tour of a lavish estate in Greenwich featuring an abundance of garden experiences - formal boxwood and undulating hornbeam hedges, dense woodland, reflecting pools, arbors and follies - and a ferme ornee offering organic produce to the community. Sleepy Cat Farm is the vision of one man, Fred Landman, who acquired the handsome Georgian Revival house and grounds in 1994. Deeply committed to the concept of harmony between house and garden, he has dedicated himself to the landscape to create a garden of which the house could be proud. Collaborating with Greenwich architect Charles Hilton and noted landscape architect Charles J. Stick and drawing inspiration from travels in Europe and Asia, Landman has done just that. The landscape unfolds in a series of garden rooms and pavilions, pathways and pools, statuary and staircases, trees, shrubs and flowerbeds, hillsides and vistas that change daily, monthly, almost minute by minute, as the visitor explores this undulating landscape of surprises, intrigue and unexpected beauty. Names were given to the various aspects: The Golden Path, the Grotto, The Iris Garden, the Spirit Walk, the Perennial Long Border Garden, the Pebble Terrace, the Woodland Walk. Buildings and follies were added, also with storybook names--the Celestial Pavilion, the Barn, the Limonaia, the Chinese Pavilion, the Cat Maze and Arbor. Down the hill from the main house is an working organic farm that supplies produce to the community, a project of Landman's wife, Seen Lippert, a professional chef who worked with Alice Waters in California before moving East. Landman and Lippert are committed to sharing the beauty that they have created. They are generous in opening the property for charitable events and tours of gardeners and horticultural enthusiasts, particularly through the Open Days program of the Garden Conservancy. As Landman says, One of my greatest joys is when other people come here and get to experience what I experience every day. The most important thing is that they leave happy.

Discover the joys of gardening using traditional plants and planting methods that have withstood the test of time. Create and maintain a garden filled with hues and scents of old-fashioned plants. This book includes everything from natural horticultural methods of propagation, soil fertilization, care and cultivation, to period garden design and layout. This is an absorbing reference for all those wishing to garden the traditional way.

The Gardener Says invites readers to a festive garden party where guests ranging from Gertrude Jekyll and Henry David Thoreau, to Michelle Obama and Michael Pollan share their insights and words of inspiration. Ranging from the humorous to the poignant, these quotes from gardeners, poets, philosophers, and landscape designers highlight both the joys and challenges of gardening-the exhaustion at the end of a long day's work, the satisfaction of seeing a flower blossom, the peace and happiness of time spent in quiet contemplation. A delightful hobby, a potent tool for ecological and social transformation, and a crucial reminder of our place in nature, gardening is, in the words of Mirabel Osler, the one occupation where "if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling."

A plant by plant pruning guide for perfect results With detailed advice on how to prune 180 trees, shrubs, and climbers plus 20 popular fruit crops, RHS Pruning Plant by Plant is the only pruning guide in this handy size to tell and show you exactly what you need to do plant by plant. The A-Z organisation helps you find the plant you're looking for fast, while step-by-step instructions and diagrams make pruning fruit trees, shrubs, and climbing plants a simple and achievable process. RHS Pruning Plant by Plant is essential pruning advice for novices and experienced gardeners alike and its handy, compact format make it ideal for putting in your pocket when you're heading to your garden or allotment.