'I like that you call brussel sprouts w*nkers' - DIANE MORGAN/PHILOMENA CUNK 'Your book was our bible all summer' - PEARL LOWE 'As a gardening beginner/twit I'm a huge fan' - KEELEY HAWES This is the gardening book reimagined for a new generation. A book for people who want to learn how to grow things, but haven't got a clue where to start. With the average person now spending an enormous 8 hours and 41 minutes in front of a screen every day, gardening is an easy way to escape for half an hour. Whether on a rented balcony or a sunny kitchen windowsill, it turns out growing something with your own two hands can make you feel better. Which is where HOW TO GROW comes in. Irreverent and inspiring, this book will equip you with all the know-how and confidence you need to take your first steps into a lifelong gardening love affair - trowel in one hand, drink in the other. From growing your first wonky courgette to completely transforming a shady patio garden, in HOW TO GROW, self-taught gardener Hollie Newton divulges all the secrets she's discovered over the past few years as she's journeyed from gardening novice to vegetable-grower-extraordinaire - all from her pint-sized London garden. With chapters on easy-to-grow veg, fruit, herbs, salad and flowers (along with plenty of tried-and-tested guidance to keeping those plants alive, and delicious recipes to make the most of your haul), you'll also learn everything from the basics of planning your garden to stylish design ideas. Focusing on small and urban spaces and including beautiful photography throughout, this is practical advice for a whole new generation of gardeners.

The earliest record of an enclosed space around a homestead come from 10,000 BC and since then gardens of varying types and ambition have been popular throughout the ages. Whether ornamental patches surrounding wild cottages, container gardens blooming over unforgiving concrete or those turned over for growing produce, gardens exist in all shapes and sizes, in all manner of styles. Today we benefit from centuries of development, be it in the cultivation of desirable blossom or larger fruits, in the technology to keep weeds and lawn at bay or even in the visionaries who tore up rulebooks and cultivated pure creativity in their green spaces. George Drower takes fifty objects that have helped create the gardening scene we know today and explores the history outside spaces in a truly unique fashion. With stunning botanical and archive images, this lavish volume is essential for garden lovers.

What is the best way to kill weeds in paving? How scared should we really be of Japanese knotweed? And what is a weed anyway?

Biologist Ken Thompson set out to write a different kind of gardening column, one that tackles what he calls ‘the grit in the gardening oyster’. In this new collection he takes a look at some of the questions faced by gardeners everywhere in a bid to sort the truth from the wishful thinking.

Why are the beaks of British great tits getting longer? Which common garden insect owns a set of metal-tipped running spikes? Why might growing orange petunias land you in hot water? Are foxes getting bigger? How do you stop the needles falling off your Christmas tree?

This expert’s miscellany of (mostly) scientifically-tested garden lore will make you look at your garden through fresh eyes.

Written in a clear and accessible style, Garden Practices and Their Science guides gardeners in the practical arts of plant husbandry and in their understanding of its underpinning principles. The author, Professor Geoff Dixon, is an acknowledged and internationally respected horticulturist and microbiologist; he intertwines these arts and principles carefully, expertly leading readers from one to the other. Achieving the manipulation of plant life is described in eight full-colour, well-illustrated chapters covering the growing of potatoes, bulb onions, legumes, small-seeded vegetables, soft fruit, bulbs and herbaceous ornamentals in great detail. Environmental factors controlling the successful husbandry of these crops is described in simple, non-technical language, increasing gardeners' enjoyment and competence. Gardeners are also informed of the tools and equipment they require and their safe use. Also provided are a series of simple, straightforward tests identifying the aerial and soil environments beneficial for plant growth using readily accessible domestic tools. Discussions of very straightforward techniques for vegetative propagation conclude this book. Each chapter ends with a list of the gardening knowledge that has been gained by readers. The structure of this book fulfils a longstanding need for descriptions of practical skills integrated with the corresponding biological reactions of plants. Emphasis is placed on gardeners' development of healthy soils, which encourage vigorous, active root systems capable of withstanding stresses-an aspect of gardening that rarely receives sufficient attention. Tailored for readers requiring clear and concise directions, this very practical book is an instruction manual directed at early-stage gardening learners. These include people of all ages and requirements such as new garden owners, allotment-holders, apprentices and students of basic levels in the Royal Horticultural Society's or City & Guilds qualifications, career changers, community gardeners and those needing applied biological knowledge for GCSE examinations.

An elegant mini edition of Katie Scott and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew's beautiful Aroboretum.

This stylish mini edition of Arboretum is the perfect gift for nature-lovers or anyone who appreciates beautiful books. Wander the galleries - open 365 days a year - and discover a collection of curated exhibits on every page, accompanied by informative text. From majestic redwoods to ornamental cherry trees, beautiful pines and exotic palms, each chapter features a different part of the arboreal kingdom.

Why do so many people love gardening? What does your garden say about you? What is guerrilla gardening? The Psychology of Gardening delves into the huge benefits that gardening can have on our health and emotional well-being, and how this could impact on the entire public health of a country. It also explores what our gardens can tell us about our personalities, how we can link gardening to mindfulness and restoration, and what motivates someone to become a professional gardener. With gardening being an ever popular pastime, The Psychology of Gardening provides a fascinating insight into our relationships with our gardens.

In this first substantial study of Emily Dickinson's devotion to flowers and gardening, Judith Farr seeks to join both poet and gardener in one creative personality. She casts new light on Dickinson's temperament, her aesthetic sensibility, and her vision of the relationship between art and nature, revealing that the successful gardener's intimate understanding of horticulture helped shape the poet's choice of metaphors for every experience: love and hate, wickedness and virtue, death and immortality.

Gardening, Farr demonstrates, was Dickinson's other vocation, more public than the making of poems but analogous and closely related to it. Over a third of Dickinson's poems and nearly half of her letters allude with passionate intensity to her favorite wildflowers, to traditional blooms like the daisy or gentian, and to the exotic gardenias and jasmines of her conservatory. Each flower was assigned specific connotations by the nineteenth century floral dictionaries she knew; thus, Dickinson's association of various flowers with friends, family, and lovers, like the tropes and scenarios presented in her poems, establishes her participation in the literary and painterly culture of her day. A chapter, "Gardening with Emily Dickinson" by Louise Carter, cites family letters and memoirs to conjecture the kinds of flowers contained in the poet's indoor and outdoor gardens. Carter hypothesizes Dickinson's methods of gardening, explaining how one might grow her flowers today.

Beautifully illustrated and written with verve, "The Gardens of Emily Dickinson" will provide pleasure and insight to a wide audience of scholars, admirers of Dickinson's poetry, and garden lovers everywhere.

Vegetables are more than just food for humans: they've been characters, companions, and even protagonists throughout history. "How Carrots Won the Trojan War" is a delightful collection of little-known stories about the origins, legends, and historical significance of 23 of the world's most popular vegetables. Curious cooks, devoted gardeners, and casual readers alike will be fascinated by the far-fetched tales of their favourite foods' pasts. Readers will discover why Roman gladiators were massaged with onion juice before battle, how celery contributed to Casanova's conquests, how peas almost poisoned General Washington, why some seventeenth-century turnips were considered degenerate, and, of course, how carrots helped the Greeks win the Trojan War (hint: carrots enabled the soldiers to stay inside the Trojan horse without a break).

'Gardening is the best medicine for the mind' - the Guardian Gardening, like mindfulness, is a way of finding a sense of calm in an otherwise chaotic world, a simpler existence, even if it is only for a few minutes. Both forge a connection to the world around us, to nature and wildlife, which can bring pleasure and peace. In this beautifully illustrated guide to gardening for mindfulness, horticulturalist and mindfulness practitioner Holly Farrell provides a blueprint for a more contemplative way to garden, including projects, meditations and inspiration. Projects for the mindful gardener, including growing something from seed, planting a tree and creating a mandala, put the theory of mindfulness into practice, while plant lists and design ideas aim to enhance mindfulness in the garden through the senses. Easy to follow and beautifully packaged in a new format, this is the perfect book for keen gardeners, devotees of mindfulness, or simply those looking for calm in a busy and hectic world.