A beautifully illustrated guide to the colorful gardens that surround the Smithsonian museums along the National Mall, each unique in its design, plant materials, and purpose.
Many visitors are surprised to learn that the Smithsonian Institution includes extensive gardens and landscape areas. All have been designed to complement the museums they border and to enhance the overall museum experience. Imagine having the Smithsonian's resources and knowledge to solve the problems that confront every gardener: growing roses without pesticides, holding four-season interest, experimenting with exotic plants, designing a garden that reflects the architecture around it, creating a contemplative space, recreating historic or themed gardens, and much more.
The Smithsonian Gardens are wide ranging: gardens that reflect distinct cultural influences; a rose garden; an intimate, four-season wonder filled with a vast selection of plants; an ever-changing backdrop and contemplative haven for viewing large-scale works of art; an eco-sensitive Native American habitat considered an extension of the building; an urban space dedicated to butterfly gardening; historical gardens that reflect the classic American flower garden and the Victory gardens of World War II; a classical oasis that invites reflection and contemplation; a historic courtyard turned all-season favorite with architectural pinache; the greenhouses that support these gardens and the museums with orchid displays, seasonal interest, and plant materials; and a garden collection that includes both furniture displayed in garden settings and extensive collections documenting historic and contemporary American gardens.

Do you enjoy natural beauty but dont have the time to cultivate a gardenHave you always longed for a beautiful yard, but find the idea of self-imposed yard work downright unpleasantFor busy people who want to have a garden but dont have the timeor dont want to spend the time

"The Lazy Gardener" tells us how to decrease the effort and increase the enjoyment of having a garden, in an amusing but practical way. Readers can get right to the heart of their problems by starting with a fun, hands-on quiz called "HELP I'm Too Busy to Read This Book," or spend a leisurely afternoon reading the book from cover to cover. The author covers everything from choosing the right plants for your environment to designing a manageable garden and paring down chores. The book is illustrated with beautiful drawings by Vasily Kafanov. Mara Grey has been a professional gardener for over 20 years. Her weekly radio show, "The Lazy Gardener," is broadcast in Washington, and she has a newspaper column by the same name. Grey writes for such publications as "Horticulture Magazine," and teaches classes on gardening and landscape designthis year she will be teaching a Lazy Gardener course.

Learn how to de-stress, relax and connect with the wildness you can find on your doorstep even in urban and suburban settings Increasing workload, nervous tension, trouble sleeping? Wondering whether there is more to life? You're not having a mid-life crisis. Like so many others, you are feeling the call of the wild. Today's urban living makes it easy for us to feel divorced from nature. This practical book is filled with 52 varied and inspiring activities illustrated with beautiful colour photographs that will get you out and about whatever the weather. Featuring a combination of creative, culinary, herbal and mindful projects, all with nature at their heart, you'll be surprised how much wildness you can find on your doorstep when you know where to look. Organised by month, Urban Wild's simple, seasonal, step-by-step activities open the door to nature in urban and suburban landscapes to help you increase your potential for health and wellbeing and take your first steps on a journey of discovery towards a lifelong connection with the natural world.

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.

"When it sings, a garden will have the power to transport and to lead you to a place that is magical. It is an oasis for creation, available to anyone with a little space and the compunction to get their hands dirty." In Natural Selection, Dan Pearson draws on ten years of his Observer columns to explore the rhythms and pleasures of a year in the garden. Travelling between his city-bound plot in Peckham and twenty acres of rolling hillside in Somerset, he celebrates the beautiful skeletons of the winter garden, the joyous passage into spring, the heady smell of summer's bud break and the flaring of colour in autumn. Pearson's irresistible enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge overflow in a book teeming with tips to inspire your own space, be it a city window box or country field. Bringing you a newfound appreciation of nature, both wild and tamed, reading Natural Selection is a deeply restorative experience.

Important tips include attractive and effective fencing options to keep the chickens contained and guidance for choosing the best plants for gardeners and their birds. For everyone who has been bitten by the chicken bug, this indispensable guide is a must-have for how to garden with, for, and around chickens. Only book to teach readers how to have a thriving garden and chickens too! Innovative ideas for gardening with chickens, including solar and green roof coops Extensive lists of the best plants to create a chicken-friendly oasis, and design strategies and problem solving plans for homeowners