Planning and maintaining a successful garden is an enjoyable and creative process. If you dream of borders of bright and scented blooms, a healthy green lawn, a patio in which to relax, or even low-maintenance ideas to lessen the workload, here are the skills to guarantee success. There are plenty of tips to incorporate aromatic shrubs and architectural plants into your garden, as well as ideas for filling space with annuals. Schemes for attractive hanging baskets and window boxes are also included. With over 1200 photographs illustrating both techniques and beautiful gardens, the book contains everything you need to create a stunning outdoor area.

Christopher Lloyd (Christo) was one of the greatest English gardeners of the twentieth century, perhaps the finest plantsman of them all. His creation is the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex, and it is a tribute to his vision and achievement that, after his death in 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of GBP4 million to help preserve it for the nation. This enjoyable and revealing book - the first biography of Christo - is also the story of Dixter from 1910 to 2006, a unique unbroken history of one English house and one English garden spanning a century. It was Christo's father, Nathaniel, who bought the medieval manor at Dixter and called in the fashionable Edwardian architect, Lutyens, to rebuild the house and lay out the garden. And it was his mother, Daisy, who made the first wild garden in the meadows there. Christo was born at Dixter in 1921. Apart from boarding school, war service and a period at horticultural college, he spent his whole life there, constantly re-planting and enriching the garden, while turning out landmark books and exhaustive journalism. Opinionated, argumentative and gloriously eccentric, he changed the face of English gardening through his passions for meadow gardening, dazzling colours and thorough husbandry. As the baby of a family of six - five boys and a girl - Christo was stifled by his adoring mother. Music-loving and sports-hating, he knew the Latin names of plants before he was eight. This fascinating book reveals what made Christo tick by examining his relationships with his generous but scheming mother, his like-minded friends (such as gardeners Anna Pavord and Beth Chatto) and his colleagues (including his head gardener, Fergus Garrett, a plantsman in Christo's own mould).

This early work is a fascinating read for any gardening enthusiast or historian, but contains much information that is still useful and practical today. It is a thoroughly recommended title for the amateur or professional fruit grower's shelf. Contents Include: Soft Fruits in the Garden; Site and Soils; The Importance of Plant Health; Spraying; Planting and Manuring; Strawberries; Raspberries; Blackberries, Loganberries and other Hybrid Berries; Blackcurrants; Red and White Currants; Gooseberries; Blueberries; Grapes Out-of-Doors; Propagation; Weed Control; Neglected Soft Fruits; Recipe for Success; Appendix: Ministry of Agriculture Publications; and an Index. 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.

'As long as one has a garden one has a future' - Francis Hodgson Burnett. This practical and entertaining guide helps you make those first steps to becoming an ecogardener. Beautifully illustrated and brimming with bright ideas, it's designed to make you think, get you started and help you to have fun doing it. A useful and inspiring gift for gardeners new and old, it covers such topics as Sod's Lore (not so boring old soil), The Long-Suffering Lawn, Cheap Eats and 'how to make slugs do something useful for a change'. Wellies on, then. We've got a planet to save.

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.

This book motivates gardeners to adopt a completely different mindset: instead of growing foreign plants and killing perceived pests, gardeners can benefit from planting indigenous vegetation with the object of actually attracting insects and other garden wildlife. It illustrates how easy it is to work with nature instead of against it. Not just another gardening book, it encourages gardeners to help preserve and restore our fast-disappearing natural heritage. In this way they can contribute to conservation right on their own doorsteps, while deriving great pleasure in the process. Virtually every aspect of environmentally-friendly gardening is covered, making it a complete “how to” guide and debunking some long-held myths. Winner of a University of KwaZulu-Natal book prize, the first edition was out of print for several years after all 15 000 copies had been sold. This new edition, which covers the eastern and northern parts of the country, is a greatly improved version of the much acclaimed original. Besides being expanded to 320 pages with much more information, it has nearly 100 colour pictures and almost twice as many black and white illustrations. The same lighthearted and entertaining style has been retained and technical terms have been avoided, thus making it an easy read. The book is enhanced by delightful humorous drawings that emphasise points made in the text. A must for all nature-loving gardeners, the large amount of information is almost encyclopedic and will also be more than useful to conservationists and anyone with an interest in the natural sciences.

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.

As each summer brings the inevitable hosepipe ban, it is becoming increasingly obvious that gardening has to adapt to take account of climate change. However, regular droughts and dry periods should not stop people enjoying their gardens - or their plants.In this timely new book, Ian Cooke explains how it is still possible to have a beautiful garden with limited or dwindling water supplies. The first section covers the fundamentals of waterwise gardening, dealing with the issues of global warming, being green and looking at ways of storing and recycling water. The second section has lots of practical information and advice on improving your soil's water retention, using mulches, choosing drought-tolerant crops and irrigating successfully. Finally, there is a section on the aesthetics of dry gardening which includes an A-Z section of waterwise plants, as well as some planting schemes.Packed full if essential advice and useful information, this book cannot fail to be of interest to all gardeners whether beginner or experienced, as well as those who care about the environment.

100 Ideas, Crafts, and How-Tos for Gardeners"... packed with DIY ideas and ways to garden no matter how big or small your home or yard is." -Ask Away Blog A gardening book filled with DIY projects, wisdom, and joy Awakening the gardener in all of us. Gardening allows us to live in a much more human way, grounded in nature and connected to Mother Earth and all she provides. Even if your garden is just a hanging basket of cherry tomatoes or a windowsill filled with herb pots, you will still reap the benefits of gardening. DIY crafting and gardening. Gardening adds pleasure to your life and gives you a sense of calm. With your garden, you are quite literally growing a bounty of blessings. Lifelong gardener and bestselling author Becca Anderson has put her love of crafting and of gardening together in this book of inspired DIY ideas. More than a gardening book. Along with gardening tips and secrets for growing flowers, herbs and veggies, Anderson shares dozens of how-tos in this delightful guide to making candles, potpourri, bath salts, essential oils, floral waters, tinctures, liquors, pickles jams and even fountains, birdhouses and fairy doors. The perfect gift for any gardener! Inside learn: Time-tested gardening secrets How to garden in big and small spaces Recipes for home-grown vegetables and fruits How to preserve and ferment How to make DIY garden decorations and fixtures Anderson's own gardening stories that will inspire, motivate, and lift the spirit If you are a fan of books like Do-It-Yourself Garden Projects and Crafts, Establishing Home, Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden, Welcome to the Farm, Vogue Living, or Provence Style, you'll love The Crafty Gardener.