Discover how easy it is to harness the natural goodness of plants with over 50 homemade beauty recipes that can help you feel better, look better and have a healthy year! Most of us use lipbalms, body scrubs and cosmetics every day, but these can be full of chemicals and harmful to your skin and health. This book teaches you how to confidently make your own homemade remedies and natural beauty products using plants and herbs that are readily available, and often free, such as nettles, dandelions, herbs and hawthorn berries. Our gardens and hedgerows contain much of what we need to keep mild ailments at bay and it's fun giving it a go - instead of weeding the dandelions in your lawn, pick them and use them! Or plant marigolds, not just for their cheerful colour, but to make wonderful skin oils. With a helpful 'Season by Season' layout, you will know at a glance what to gather and when to gather it. Inside, you'll find homemade beauty recipes, including camomile bath soak, chocolate lip gloss, lavender bath bombs, mint lip balm, and more! Plus, plenty of healthy recipes for homemade remedies, from treatments for colds and overindulgence, to witch hazel spot gel, burn salves, skin-toning ointments, and even hay fever relief. This book is a source book for mind, body and soul, as well as a testament to the natural power and beauty of herbs. Get out there, keep your eyes open and discover the many widely available plants that you can use for your health - with the added bonus that they're not costing you anything. With Treat Yourself Natural you will feel empowered to explore the wonderful world of making healthy remedies and homemade beauty products, either for yourself or as gifts for your friends and family; after all, there is nothing nicer than a lovingly made present. "This book is full of brilliant ideas for things to make for yourself, or as wonderful gifts. Year in year out this will be an invaluable resource for a rainy day or a country walk, written by someone who really knows what she is talking about as well as living the same busy life as you and I." From the foreword, by Kirstie Allsopp

Nevin Smith has spent his life growing plants and exploring the wild California landscape. A highly respected horticulturalist and practitioner who is also a gifted writer, Smith shares his years of experience growing native California plants in this lively, informative book. Rather than being a systematic "how-to" manual, "Native Treasures" combines Smith's personal thoughts, sometimes maverick opinions, and matchless expertise with practical advice on selected groups of native plants and their culture.The author explains how California's diverse terrain, climate, and geology support a wealth of plant species - more than 6000 - and offers suggestions for designing with most of the major natives in cultivation, as well as with some more obscure but garden-worthy groups. With an engaging narrative and a wealth of illustrations, this ode to beauty and diversity celebrates California's rich store of native plants and encourages readers to visit them in their native haunts and invite them into their gardens. It describes the use of plants in varying landscapes and gardens. It includes state of the art propagation techniques, and is beautifully illustrated with color photos and line drawings.

Informative and entertaining, this book will stimulate experimentation and encourage gardeners to review and improve their current gardening practices. Once gardeners learn how plants are constructed, it is easier to envision how they'll grow and flourish. An understanding of the structure behind good, healthy soil gives clues as to how to improve one's own garden tilth. This practical guide helps readers identify what plants need to survive and how these fundamental scientific facts are at the heart of good plant care. A chapter on seeds and germination will encourage gardeners at any level to try their hand at propagation, while discussion of soil, pests, and diseases adds to the skills of all gardeners. The final sections of the book take a closer look at biodiversity, ecology, genetic engineering, and nomenclature. For the enthusiastic beginner or the master gardener, "Practical Science for Gardeners" unravels the mysterious inner life of plants.

Palms that grow in Canada? Bananas that overwinter in Michigan? How about southern crape myrtles that flower in Birmingham, England, instead of Birmingham, Alabama? Although the voice of authority -- and nursery labels -- might say, "You can't grow those plants here," author Dave Francko has a different message for gardeners: "Plants can't read the information on their tags." Laced with humorous anecdotes and based on years of first-hand observations and research, this book provides real-world information to help adventurous gardeners grow plants they never before dreamed possible. Nobody who reads this book will ever look at a plant label the same way again.

With more than 800 "Clematis" species and cultivated varieties from which to choose, gardeners and growers have been inundated with options. Even more frustrating for some has been the absence of a single comprehensive reference with which to identify the numerous cultivars. This new volume, written by distinguished clematis experts and backed by the authority of the British Clematis Society, is the first picture encyclopedia on the genus to encompass the garden-worthy species and hybrids.
This long-awaited book is separated into two sections: the first is devoted to the care and cultivation of clematis, while the second provides an A Z directory of more than 550 plants, from the acclaimed large-flowered forms to the less-familiar shrubby, subshrubby, and herbaceous forms that are beginning to be available. Using everyday language, the authors provide plant descriptions that include information on synonyms, origin, plant habit and height, flowers, pruning group, flowering period, cultural requirements, recommended uses in the garden, and hardiness zones. The text is accompanied by more than 650 magnificent color photos, making this encyclopedia an indispensable reference and guide.
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For more than twenty years, ""Growing Media for Ornamental Plants and Turf"" has been a core text for students of horticulture and an essential reference for practicing horticulturists, their suppliers, green keepers, landscape gardeners and designers. With 42 new illustrations, this fourth edition has been substantially revised and updated to include the latest advances in horticultural production systems, with significant revisions to chapters on fertilizer practice in nurseries, foundations for good turf, managing turf soil, fertilizing turf irrigation, and drainage. New additions include discussion on roof gardens and vertical gardens, and topics on recycled water for irrigation and issues of water shortage have been expanded.

In this greatly expanded and revised edition of his classic treatment, Donald Schnell examines in detail the 45 species and numerous hybrids of carnivorous plants that grow in the U.S. and Canada. Information on each species includes an identifying description, the preferred habitat, the range in which it can be found, and the season for flowering and trapping, making this book a useful field guide as well as a fascinating source of leisure reading. With a full array of maps, drawings, and 200 color photos, this volume promises to enrich every enthusiast's library with a wealth of information. Hobbyists will find much to their liking as well. Schnell gives detailed instructions for growing these plants.

Both field guide and gardener's handbook, this book covers all 45 species of trilliums worldwide. The authors trekked all over North America to photograph the 38 American species in the wild.

Replicating the climate of an orchid's native habitat is a key to the successful culture of a species and its hybrids. This ingenious book provides monthly rainfall and temperature data for the varied habitats of more than 1200 species of "Dendrobium," supplemented by detailed cultural recommendations based on the observations of experienced growers.