An illustrated guide to the houseplants you need for clean and fresh air when you're stuck at home How clean is the air you breathe? Plants are the lungs of the earth: they produce the oxygen that makes life possible, add precious moisture and filter toxins. Houseplants can perform these essential functions in your home or office with the same efficiency as a rainforest in our biosphere. In this beautifully illustrated guide, noted scientist Dr Bill Wolverton shows you how to grow 50 plants that filter the most common pollutants, making it easy for you to purify the environments that impact you the most.

We have grown so accustomed to sharing our houses with plants that it may be surprising to learn that it was only in the last century that plants began to move indoors. The story of how this came to pass is an engrossing and complex one, involving many separate strands: the horticultural explosion of the Victorian period, stimulated by the plant hunters of the golden age, changing styles of architecture, new techniques of heating and lighting, the cultural values implicit in home design and decoration, and the changing role of women.

Tovah Martin weaves these strands together in a chronological account of the introduction of houseplants in America, starting with the first bulbs brought indoors for forcing, through the successive introductions of ever more exotic plant materials, including the proliferation of ferns. It is a story equally rich in plant lore and insights into American culture. "Once Upon a Windowsill" is one of those books that manage, through a perceptive examination of a seemingly odd topic, to shed surprising light on a much larger subject. This is an important and fascinating work of social history."

Fresh is simply best. To get the tastiest, most nutritious produce, you have to grow your own, and in a cold climate this presents unique challenges. Fresh from the Garden will help you extend the growing season to produce the best vegetables, berries, and herbs, right in your own backyard. The guide includes more than 150 edible plants and helps you decide which varieties to choose; where and how to plant, tend, and harvest them; and what to do with your bounty. Fresh from the Garden is a clear, concise guide, with nutrition information tables and hundreds of helpful color photographs. Drawing on more than fifty years of gardening-and nearly as many years writing on the subject-John Whitman describes various methods of planting to make the most of different sites, whether in containers, raised beds, or on level ground, and takes into consideration the abbreviated growing season and longer summer days. He discusses the merits of starting from seed indoors or outdoors, the making and uses of compost, and measures for keeping a garden healthy, from mulching and fertilizing to crop rotation and winter protection. Included in his wealth of knowledge is a generous listing of more than 1,700 varieties of vegetables, berries, and herbs, from the best known to the highly unusual, including hybrid and heirloom varieties. He covers the specifics of cultivation, nutritional values, storage techniques, and culinary usage. Dedicated to organic practices, for the health of gardener and garden alike, the information and advice in Fresh from the Garden will enrich the experience of cold climate gardeners.

This illustrated catalogue contains 1500 of the best greenhouse plants, selected by the author from first-hand experience. She groups her plant selection according to their most useful function - as specimen plants for impact, climbers for background and shade, trailing plants, foliage plants, flowering and fruiting plants for attractive seasonal effects, and aquatic plants.;The book gives advice and information on providing the best conditions for growing plants in a conservatory, including ways of regulating light, temperature and humidity. There are also ideas for interior landscaping. Cultivation of plants is described in "Plant Care" which tells all that is needed to know to achieve success in growing exotic plants in a conservatory.;The author is a regular presenter of BBC TV's "Gardener's World" and a panellist on BBC Radio's "Gardener's Question Time" and has been in charge of the glasshouses at the Royal Horticultural Society garden at Wisley. Other books she has written include "A Handbook of Greehouse and Conservatory Plants", "The Gardeners' World Book of House Plants" and "The Gardeners' World Book of Container Gardening".