This handy pocket guide introduces local gardening enthusiasts to some of southern Africa’s most beautiful, beneficial and easy- to-care-for indigenous plants, giving guidance on how best to use them and how to ensure that they flourish.

It offers:

• A selection of 145 garden-friendly, low-maintenance trees, shrubs and bedding plants perfectly adapted to our local soils and weather conditions
• Text that’s direct and simple
• Full-colour photographs that show plant details and ‘in context’ planting
• Icons indicating at a glance whether a species is evergreen or deciduous, frost-hardy, suitable for a sunny or shaded position, fast or slow-growing, water wise, fragrant and attractive to insects or birds.

An essential handbook for easy-care beautiful gardening.

The author, Glenice Ebedes, is the owner of Grounded Landscaping. She is a graduate of Lifestyle College and an active member of the Guild of Landscape Designers. She specializes in indigenous, wildlife-friendly gardens and her gardens regularly feature in magazines.

At last: a South African how-to with everything you need to know to create a dream indigenous garden. Accomplished landscape designer and botanist Marijke Honig puts forward the fundamentals in this comprehensive reference that is at once inspirational, practical and easy to use. This book is all about choosing the right plants for a particular space and purpose in your garden. Marijke shares her vast bank of knowledge and experience to help you assess the conditions in your garden, select the perfect plants and grow them successfully.

The book is divided into three clearly organised, superbly illustrated sections, which together provide all the information you need to plan and plant a flourishing garden entirely suited to its setting and climate.

Part 1 – explains the process of plant selection, providing clear step-by-step guidelines that will enable you to identify suitable plant palettes for your garden. This section also includes vital information on planting and maintenance.

Part 2 – contains 25 different palettes of plants for specific situations, with practical information relevant to each

Part 3 – a directory of plants, with a brief description of each species, key/essential information on its cultivation and maintenance, and the wildlife it may attract.

This beautiful book is also a celebration of South Africa’s unique flora. Offering inspiration and guidance in equal measure, it promises to become an indispensable reference for all lovers of indigenous plants.

The enduring appeal of English gardens is beautifully realised by Clive Nichols, one of Europe's leading garden photographers. From the green hills of the north to the bleached landscapes of the south, twenty-eight gardens transport the reader into a timeless, golden age. Each page is filled with herbaceous borders overflowing with vibrant flower combinations, kitchen gardens that burgeon with rows of apple blossom, vegetables and sweet peas, water that cascades forever into pools and fountains and emerald-green topiary which frames a vista to a sunlit upland. Many of the finest landscape architects in England whose work is featured include Emma Keswick at Rockcliffe Hall, Julianne Fernandez at Tyger Barn, Angel Collins at Bruern Abbey, Piet Oudolf at Hauser and Wirth and many more, with text that explains and clarifies their design sensibilities. This book offers total immersion and sheer delight for any garden design and photography enthusiast.

Most gardens do not have smooth, flat lawns and borders of rich, easily dug soil. We have to put up with damp, sunless corridors between houses, awkward slopes or plots shaded by trees or neighbouring buildings. Equally difficult to plant are seaside gardens exposed to gale-force winds and salt spray; waterlogged plots, where the drainage is poor; and dry ground exposed to the glare of the sun day after day, without the slightest shade. In short, few gardens benefit from perfect conditions. What you need for these sites are tough plants that will not only shrug off all the worst conditions in your garden but will actually thrive in them. Tough Plants for Tough Places includes a directory of nearly 100 plants that are practically invincible in the specific hostile conditions they have evolved to cope with.

'n Klein tuin bied sy eie uitdagings, of dit nou 'n lang, smal strook, 'n klam skaduryke binnehof, 'n klein stukkie ground of 'n windverwaaide balkon is. Of jy nou 'n oorvloed blomme wil he, 'n tuin wat min onderhoud verg, 'n speelplek vir kinders of 'n veelsydige ontspanningasarea - noukeurige beplanning is noodsaaklik om die plek wat jy tot jou beskikking het ten beste te benut. Klein tuine is deesdae die reel liewer as die uitsondering en daar is 'n oorvloed plante beskikbaar vir elke denkbare behoefte. Kruistelers en tuinboukundiges het bykans elke groot struik, boom en plant gekutiveer om kleiner, meer kompakte en dwergvariasies van klassieke gunstelinge daar te stel. Hierdie titel vertel jou meer daarvan, asook hoe om 'n pragtuin in jou klein ruimte te skep.

This book helps you in choosing the perfect plant for every location in your garden, with 120 photographs. You can understand the properties of different soils, from acid and alkaline to light sand and heavy clay. You can make the most of various different locations within your garden, including moist, shady, dry and sunny. It includes advice on making the best choices and using the right planting and growing techniques - from mulching and feeding to deadheading and pruning - to ensure stunning, healthy plants in every area of the garden. It includes a quick reference chart of the most popular garden plants and their individual requirements. Putting a plant in the right location and soil will ensure that it has the best possible start and chance of long-term health. This book explains how to successfully match plants to the conditions in your garden. It covers the basics of ground preparation, sowing and planting, as well as offering tips on plant maintenance. All the different soil types are described and illustrated, showing how they influence the types of plants that can be grown. A chart of popular plants provides information on preferred soil types, position, planting and flowering times, ensuring that you choose the right varieties for the specific soil and climate conditions in your garden.

Show nature the kindness it deserves Whether you long to see butterflies flit across your flowerbeds or hear birdsong all year round, there's something endlessly rewarding about playing host to wildlife. With practical projects and helpful tips for gardens big and small, this guide will help boost local biodiversity and benefit countless native species. Learn how to: Choose the best type of bird feeder and seed for your feathered friends Build natural habitats and provide shelter for all manner of insects Make sugaring recipes to attract butterflies and moths Select the right pollinator plants for bees in every season Wherever you do it - on a balcony, in a garden or across acres of land - you too can create the perfect sanctuary for an abundance of creatures.

Giant perennials are show-stoppers in the garden. There is something magical about the fact that starting from nothing in spring they rise to towering heights by midsummer only to disappear again for the winter. These are plants that make a statement and can be used to provide a backdrop to a herbaceous border or as specimens to draw the eye and amaze the visitor. From the astounding gunnera, 2.4m (8ft) with its leaves as big as the biggest golf umbrella, to the spectacular verbascum (giant mullein) as tall as a tree at 1.8-2.7m (6-9ft), or the socking great Eupatorium purpureum, with 2.1m (7ft) tall stems and cinnamon pink flowers. Quite simply these plants make us feel like Lilliputians. Covering a wide range of herbaceous perennials, including some biennials and bulbs, Giant Perennials provides at-a-glance information for everything you need to know about these amazing plants. In addition to design ideas and planting suggestions, Giant Perennials has an extensive directory of these majestic plants with easy-to-use symbols that show you size, spread, planting situation, cultivation needs and hardiness. Whether you have a large country garden or a small town plot, you can give you

Get ready for the shocking truth about botanical sex. Who knew that bee orchids trick insects into having sex with them, avocado flowers are female one day and male the next, and some flowers are the insect equivalent of nightclubs where males and females meet and mate? Bestselling popular science author Mike Allaby reveals over 200 of nature's most unseemly creations in this sensational expose. The sexual antics of plants are far more varied than those of people and plants have preferences and techniques for which we have no equivalent. Being rooted to the spot, many rely on pollinators for assistance and forget birds and bees, we're talking kangaroos, giraffes, and vampire bats. Botanical illustrations throw light on the gallery of pimps, hookers and gigolos who may be lurking in your back garden and spice up this compendium of scurrilous botany which - be warned - may shock the worldliest of gardeners.

The ultimate reference to growing plants from seed. Seeds are magical. Every little one has the potential to become a new plant and give you more seeds - connecting us to the circle of life and nature's endless ability to surprise and delight. The act of planting seeds and watching them grow into seedlings and then on into productive plants is enormously therapeutic. Even when things don't go to plan, the gardener is constantly learning, growing and deepening their connection to nature. It's an incredibly grounding and humbling experience that feeds the soul of the gardener. This beautifully illustrated guide will show readers how and when to harvest the seeds of 100 different garden plants and flowers, with advice on when and how to sow them, and where and when to plant them out. Alongside this hands-on guidance, the reader will be engaged with snippets of folklore and traditions that further enhance their appreciation of nature and help them discover the inherent magic of seeds. Whether the reader is a practising green witch, or simply an amateur gardener with a spiritual affinity with nature, this book will give them everything they need to successfully make a garden from seed and unlock the wonders of nature.