This title features: over 50 glorious gifts and ideas to create from the natural produce grown in your own garden; how to create a wonderful variety of practical and ornamental garden items, both for your garden and as gifts for fellow enthusiasts; over 50 ideas, gifts and projects, illustrated step by step with beautiful photographs; create lovely decorative items like customized garden furniture and containers, painted pots, a decoupage seed box, and a lavender and herb garland. Try making useful tools and accessories such as a gardener's first aid kit, citronella candles, hand-painted plant labels and fruit-picking bags. It includes a seasonal checklist of activities, and planting practicalities such as growing from seed and potting on, to keep you busy in the potting shed through the year. This book takes its inspiration from the potting shed, the practical refuge that provides the perfect space in which to enjoy the potential of your garden. Here are dozens of projects to make, from decorated gift boxes and themed plant baskets to all manner of ornamental garden accessories. Ideas include items that you'll be tempted to keep for yourself, as well as for gifts any gardener would be delighted to receive, such as candle holders, a plant theatre, and a potted Mediterranean herb garden. All the projects are shown with easy-to-follow instructions. With over 350 glorious photographs by well-known, award-winning photographer, Michelle Garrett, this book captures and celebrates the creative spirit of gardening.

This story has its roots in the life of George Owen Millum, who at the turn of the 19th century was the head gardener at Maytham Hall in Kent, the home of Frances Hodgson Burnett, long celebrated for her timeless classic The Secret Garden. The garden in the story was based upon that at Maytham Hall, and George Millum was the model for Ben Weatherstaff, Frances Hodgson Burnett's fictional gardener. George's son, George Charles Millum, who like his father was born in the gardener's cottage at Maytham, also grew up to be a country house gardener - hence the title of this book, written and compiled by his own son with detailed extracts from his diaries.

Gardening on Clay provides valuable information and support for anyone struggling to create a garden from this challenging soil, which can so easily become waterlogged in winter and baked dry in summer. The author guides the reader through the basics of cultivation before going on to look at more detail at the plants that will flourish on clay soil.

Gardening in Texas is not for the faint of heart or weak-willed. Given the remarkable variety of soils, climate ranges, and the potential for stifling heat, humidity, and drought, the dedication of so many gardening enthusiasts speaks to the powerful hold plants have over people. Living and gardening in Central Texas since 1969, Bill Scheick has celebrated successes and analyzed failures; techniques and plants that worked in one yard did not necessarily work in another just a few miles away. In Adventures of Texas Gardening, Scheick shares, through personal accounts as well as stories from fellow gardeners, big gardening efforts-transforming an entire backyard, dealing with unruly pets and marauding wildlife, and fostering vanishing bees. Attention is also given to challenges like soil erosion and yard contamination. With a firm understanding of horticulture and a good dose of humor, Scheick offers beginning and experienced gardeners a resource for inspiration, information, and commiseration as they pursue their own gardening adventures in Texas.

Learn all the secrets for creating fertile, productive soil anywhere. With more than 300 detailed illustrations and at-a-glance charts, Secrets to Great Soil solves all your soil problems and gives you techniques for year-round soil building.

InSecrets to Great Soil you'll find:

* The basics of soil pH and nutrients

* Quick methods for making compost

* Instructions for using organic mulches, soil amendments, and fertilizers

* Ways to customize your soil for a variety of vegetables, flowers, fruits, trees, shrubs, and lawns

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER NIGEL - One of Britain's favourite dogs! MONTY DON - One of Britain's favourite presenters. When Monty Don's golden retriever Nigel became the surprise star of BBC Gardeners' World inspiring huge interest, fan mail and his own social media accounts, Monty Don wanted to explore what makes us connect with animals quite so deeply. In many respects Nigel is a very ordinary dog; charming, handsome and obedient, as so many are. He is a much loved family pet. He is also a star. By telling Nigel's story, Monty relates his relationships with the other special dogs in his life in a memoir of his dogs past and very much present. Witty, touching and life-affirming, Nigel: My family and other dogs is wonderfully heart-warming. Monty Don is a great writer coming out of the garden and into the hearts and homes of every dog lover in the UK. 'I have always had a dog, or dogs. I cannot imagine life without them. I am just as much a fan of Nigel as any besotted viewer. In the book I explore why we love dogs and what they mean to us emotionally and domestically. I look back on all the dogs in my life - all of which I have loved deeply and which have been an essential part of my life. So, this is the book of Nigel - but also the book of all our dogs in every British family and a celebration of the deep love we feel for them' Monty Don

The potato is economically a very important crop in many parts of the world. All improvements through potato breeding or biotechnology must be based on a thorough knowledge of potato genetics. This book fills a major gap in the current literature for an up-to-date account of this topic and its implications for crop improvement. Written by authorities from the UK, USA, Canada, Peru, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Poland, this major reference work will be indispensible for workers in plant genetics, breeding and biotechnology.

Free Plants!

From Simple Seed-Saving Techniques

Here's all the information and guidance you need to start saving seeds from your favorite vegetables, herbs, and flowers and grow even more plants next year.

Dozens of at-a-glance charts and over 300 step-by-step illustrations show you how to determine when seeds are ready for harvest, how to collect them, and how to store them. Plus, you get time-proven tips, the kind that only an experienced horticulturalist can share, for starting seeds right.

Seed Sowing and Saving is packed with solid advice and information that teaches you how to:

* Successfully harvest seeds from more than 100 common vegetables, annuals, perennials, herbs, and wildflowers

* Dry and store seeds, and test seeds for viability

* Sow seeds indoors to get a head start on the growing season

* Prepare soil and garden beds for transplants or direct sowing

Vintage pieces are set in scene in more than 410 photos. Whether from metal objects, old household items or circus caravans. Let yourself be inspired by great and unusual ideas.

Saving seeds to plant for next year's crop has been key to survival around the globe for millennia. However, the 20th-century witnessed a grand takeover of seed producers by multinational companies aiming to select varieties ideal for mechanical harvest, long-distance transportation, and long shelf life. With the rise of the Slow Food and farm-to-table movements in recent years, the farmers and home gardeners who have been quietly persisting in the age-old habit of conserving heirloom plants are finally receiving credit for their vital role in preserving both good taste and the world's rich food heritage. Kentucky Heirloom Seeds: Growing, Eating, Saving is an evocative exploration of the seed saver's art and the practice of sustainable agriculture. Bill Best and Dobree Adams begin by tracing the roots of the tradition in the state to a 700-year-old Native American farming village in north central Kentucky. Although Best shares tips for planting and growing beans and describes his family's favorite varieties for the table, the heart of the book are the incredible interviews with seed savers, predominately from Eastern Kentucky and from generations of gardeners who saved seeds to feed their families. These people have worked tirelessly to preserve and share heirloom varieties. This book vividly documents the social relevance and historical significance of the rituals of sowing, cultivating, eating, saving, and sharing.