Go beneath the soil with this hand-drawn guide! This book is sure to become your go-to reference for all things bonsai. Beautifully illustrated with details and views a camera simply can't show, Introduction to Bonsai offers a unique and insightful look at these mini ecosystems. This complete guide contains all the information you need to create and maintain your own bonsai: Handy monthly bonsai maintenance schedules detail proper watering, pruning, wiring, transplanting and other upkeep activities throughout the year Leaves, fruits, flowers, and processes are presented up-close to help make growing and upkeep as successful and simple as possible Diagrams show where, how much, and in what direction pruning, wiring, watering and other maintenance should be performed Clear, detailed illustrations of every part of the bonsai ensure that you'll see everything you need to see, exactly as you need to see it--making this a great resource for collectors and enthusiasts at all levels Learn the specific ways to care for more than 40 types of popular bonsai trees, including: Flowering Bonsai--cherry blossom, dogwood, azalea and lilac Fruiting Bonsai--crab apple, persimmon, Chinese quince and burning bush Coniferous and Deciduous Bonsai--maple, Japanese beech, black pine and salt cedar Prepared by the editors of Japan's popular Bonsai Sekai (Bonsai World) magazine,this handbook is designed to make care and maintenance easy for bonsai beginners--from seeds to root systems and from basic watering to your first transplant.

The definitive practical guide to pruning trees, shrubs, roses and climbers from the RHS. Features an A-Z approach on over 800 plants with practical, step-by-step images to show you exactly where and how to make pruning cuts, plus infomation on advanced techniques such as coppicing, topiary and pergola-training. This handy guide will ensure you have the best gardening advice for green fingered results.

Consumer interest in tea has grown rapidly in recent years and continues to climb. Worldwide there are 25,000 cups of tea consumed every second - more than billion cups per day! For tea drinkers interested in the freshest flavour, growing the leaves at home is the ideal solution. Lucky for them, tea is not an exotic, hard-to-grow crop - it can be successfully grown anywhere that camellias can be grown. In Grow Your Own Tea, readers will learn how to cultivate, harvest, and process this venerable crop. Parks and Wolcott share details on how to get started; describe cultivation, long-term maintenance, and harvesting; show how to grow tea plants in containers; and describe how to process and store harvested tea leaves. Grow Your Own Tea includes information on how to produce white, green, oolong, and black teas.

Merlin, Gandalf, Voldemort--these well-known sorcerers from popular culture are famed for their amazing spells and spectacular magical powers. In ancient times, however, a wizard was actually a freelance intellectual whose main stock in trade was good advice, supported by a thorough education in agriculture, navigation, political and military science, languages, commerce, mathematics, medicine, and the natural sciences--in essence, the true Renaissance man.

John Michael Greer proposes a modern mage for uncertain times; one who possesses a startling array of practical skills gleaned from the appropriate tech and organic gardening movements forged in the energy crisis of the 1970s. From the basic concepts of ecology to a plethora of practical techniques such as composting, green manure, low-tech food preservation and storage, small-scale chicken and rabbit raising, solar water heating, alternative energy sources, and more, "Green Wizardry" is a comprehensive manual for today's wizard-in-training.

Providing a solid practical introduction to the entire appropriate tech toolkit, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about decreasing our dependence on an overloaded industrial system and, in a world of serious energy shortages and economic troubles, making life a great deal less traumatic and more livable.

John Michael Greer is a scholar of ecological history and an internationally renowned Peak Oil theorist whose blog "The Archdruid Report" has become one of the most widely cited online resources dealing with the future of industrial society. He is the author of more than thirty books, including "The Wealth of Nature" and "The Long Descent."

A one-stop treasure trove from the experts at RHS that covers every aspect of gardening! Dreaming of having the perfect garden? Does it have a vegetable patch? Classic borders or flowers to attract wildlife? A picturesque garden for all to marvel at is achievable with this gardening guide giving you the vital tools to achieve whatever you desire for your dream garden. Delve into this concise and practical guide to find all the gardening ideas and advice you need to create a spectacular, thriving garden. Here's what you'll find inside: - A comprehensive guide covering everything from growing in containers to planting a garden from scratch - Fully illustrated with detailed step-by-steps and inspirational gardening ideas - Detailed beginner's guide to garden design, including step-by-step instructions for simple hard landscaping such as building a raised bed, creating a pond, or laying a patio - Covers all aspects of planting styles, including "recipes" to make the most of different types of plants - Easy-to-follow guides on how to water, feed, prune and propagate your garden - Advice on problem-solving and controlling weeds and pests - A chapter full of Plant Chooser galleries to help you grow the right plant in the right place at the right time Learn how to plan, sow, plant, and protect your garden throughout the year with expert tips and techniques that will see your garden flourish. Discover how to design with plants by using colour and texture to create inspirational displays, and keep them at their best with jargon-free guides to pruning and preventing pests and diseases. Undertake a new endeavour of DIY landscaping projects, which include laying your own patio or lawn, or building a raised bed ready for you to grow your own fruit and vegetables. Choose from a catalogue of hundreds of different ornamental plants to find varieties that will thrive in your garden's climate and provide seasonal interest throughout the year. The Complete Gardener's Manual is the perfect all-around practical book for gardening beginners, also for those looking for a step up from a beginners' gardening book.

Create your own compost and grow better plants. With breathtaking clarity, Compost Science for Gardeners demystifies composting practices and helps readers determine the best technique for their unique situation. This comprehensive science-based book is your key to building healthier soil and growing better plants. Using plain language and easy-to-follow instructions, this essential resource distills and blends the latest scientific research with the author's many decades of knowledge and experience into manageable form, debunking a host of common gardening myths along the way. Learn about: The role of composting in the ecological cycle Compostable materials to incorporate and those to avoid Browns and greens vs the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio The full range of composting methods, including cold and hot composting; composting in piles, bins, and tumblers; and pit and trench composting Keyhole gardening, food digesters, vermicomposting, bokashi, eco-enzyme fermentation, and more The relative merits and impact on the environment of each composting technique Using finished compost to improve soil health Anyone can compost. Whether you are a balcony or backyard gardener, market gardener, small-scale farmer, or homesteader, or even if you are simply looking for a way to keep organic matter out of the landfill, this book will show you how to do it simply, safely, and sensibly.

NEW EDITION 2018. Extend the life of your plants, trees and shrubs with this authoritative and comprehensive gardening manual. It covers all the standard propagation techniques including sowing seed; taking cuttings; dividing; growing suckers and offsets; layering; how to create extra bulbs, tubers and corms; and grafting two plants together. An A-Z directory lists all the key plants for propagating, describing each plant's size, colour and shape, and how and when to propagate them to get the best results. Plants propagate themselves naturally in the wild, using all kinds of ingenious techniques. This practical book explains the most effective techniques for propagating 375 different types of plants. The book begins with growing plants from seed, covering everything from lettuces and chillies to sunflowers and sweet peas. Next, there are instructions on taking cuttings from established plants to give you exact copies of the parent plant at minimal cost. Dividing plants, layering and grafting methods all follow and all are explained with step-by-step instructions and photographs. The directory of plants includes growing tips for each individual species.There is also advice about propagation equipment from secateurs and garden knives to bio-degradable pots and cold frames, as well as how to improve your soil and make compost. Beautifully illustrated with over 1100 clear and informative photographs and illustrations.

Legendary gardener and plantswoman Beth Chatto describes how she transformed a piece of wasteland into a lush and blooming garden in this beautiful book, filled with helpful tips and practical advice. The story of how Beth Chatto created her gravel garden on 'possibly the driest, and the most windswept, piece of soil in England' has a message of hope for gardeners everywhere. At the outset she promised herself: 'This garden was not to be irrigated in times of drought. Once established the plants must fend for themselves or die.' The results, eloquently described by the author and beautifully portrayed in Steven Wooster's specially commissioned photographs taken through the seasons, testify to the triumphant outcome of the adventure. Showing how her principles can be applied on any scale, this book is an essential read for any gardener facing water shortages and poor soil. Rich with hard-won tips and expressed in Beth Chatto's matchless style, this is a gardening classic.

Grow up! If you have limited outdoor space and would like to grow your food, this practical illustrated guide will help you transform previously plant-free zones into thriving, beneficial and utterly beautiful food-growing areas. Using special containers, either bought or home-made, as well as conventional methods such as containers on a roof or growing plants up walls, you can grow a wide range of edible crops - and grab a salad for lunch without getting your feet wet. This book includes: * Creating edible roof gardens * Planning and growing crops on green roofs, including on sheds * Using a wide variety of containers, e.g. ladder allotments and growing frames, with details of how to make them * Making the most of wall boxes and hanging baskets * A directory of plants suitable for vertical growing - fruit, flowers and herbs as well as vegetables - with advice on how to cultivate them. Whether you have an apartment with just a wall, windowsill, balcony or small flat roof; a school with nothing but a tarmac playground; or just a paved courtyard in your community centre, this book will get you started on a new way of growing.

With fans far and wide, cacti and succulents come in myriad shapes and sizes too. These firm favourites of Instagram influencers are perfect for adding greenery indoors, and can add structure and detail to outdoor spaces as well. Smaller plants are companions for 'generation rent', since they are easily moved from place to place. Generally low-maintenance, being 'plant mum' to one or two of these tiny plants often starts a life-long fascination, and an ever growing horde. The Little Book of Cacti and Succulents is an inspiring and indispensable guide to growing these fascinating plants. Detailed Plant Profiles are divided into sections according to style and shape, from beautiful trailing plants to intricately formed rosettes. At the beginning of the book, you'll find practical advice on getting started, caring for the plants through the year and how best to show your plants off. You can also discover how to grow your collection using various propagation techniques with step-by-step guidance. Cacti and succulents provide year-round interest for very little input, and caring for their fascinating forms is an enchanting hobby. Full of beautiful photography and sweet illustrations, The Little Book of Cacti and Succulents is an encouraging and down-to-earth guide to these weird and wonderful plants.

"Society does not generally expect its farmers to be visionaries." Perhaps not, but longtime Maine farmer and homesteader Will Bonsall does possess a unique clarity of vision that extends all the way from the finer points of soil fertility and seed saving to exploring how we can transform civilization and make our world a better, more resilient place. In Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening, Bonsall maintains that to achieve real wealth we first need to understand the economy of the land, to realize that things that might make sense economically don't always make sense ecologically, and vice versa. The marketplace distorts our values, and our modern dependence on petroleum in particular presents a serious barrier to creating a truly sustainable agriculture. For him the solution is, first and foremost, greater self-reliance, especially in the areas of food and energy. By avoiding any off-farm inputs (fertilizers, minerals, and animal manures), Bonsall has learned how to practice a purely veganic, or plant-based, agriculture-not from a strictly moralistic or philosophical perspective, but because it makes good business sense: spend less instead of making more. What this means in practical terms is that Bonsall draws upon the fertility of on-farm plant materials: compost, green manures, perennial grasses, and forest products like leaves and ramial wood chips. And he grows and harvests a diversity of crops from both cultivated and perennial plants: vegetables, grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and nuts-even uncommon but useful permaculture plants like groundnut (Apios). In a friendly, almost conversational way, Bonsall imparts a wealth of knowledge drawn from his more than forty years of farming experience. "My goal," he writes, "is not to feed the world, but to feed myself and let others feed themselves. If we all did that, it might be a good beginning."

Among the oldest plants on earth, mosses are a gardener's dream - they provide a lush backdrop in almost any setting and are easy to keep healthy with regular maintenance. In The Magical World of Moss Gardening, moss enthusiast Annie Martin shows you how to create a green and sustainable solution to that difficult shady spot in your garden.

'Read this book, then look and wonder' Sunday Times We have to learn to live as part of nature, not apart from it. And the first step is to start looking after the insects, the little creatures that make our shared world go round. Insects are essential for life as we know it - without them, our world would look vastly different. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research and a lifetime's study, Dave Goulson reveals the long decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades and its potential consequences. Eye-opening and inspiring, Silent Earth asks for profound change at every level and a passionate argument or us to love, respect and care for our six-legged friends. 'Compelling - Silent Earth is a wake-up call' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'Enlightening, urgent and funny, Goulson's book is a timely call for action' New Statesman

A Practical Illustrated Bird-Oriented Gardening Book with Great Reference Charts Bird-watchers everywhere dream of a landscape dotted with fruiting shrubs, nests tucked into twining vines, and birds flocking to feeding stations. Let Natural Gardening for Birds show you how to lay out the welcome mat for birds by considering all of their needs, including year-round food, water, and shelter. Whether you're looking to create a hummingbird garden, install a water feature, create alluring perches, or simply designate a corner of your property as a natural area, you'll find all the inspiration and information you need in Natural Gardening for Birds, including: The best plants for nectar, fruit, and seeds The most attractive foods to offer birds Housing for cavity-nesting birds Simple habitat enhancements like snags and perches Region-specific planting ideas and charts

Learn how to grow wild and exotic, medicinally important, sustainable, and deeply delicious mushrooms right at your own home, just as people throughout the world have been doing for centuries. Mushrooms are healthy, packed with vitamins and antioxidants; rich with flavor, an excellent source of the fifth flavor know as umami; and can be used medicinally in teas and tinctures. By growing your own, you can enjoy these benefits while also enriching your soil, speeding up your composting, and even suppressing weeds-though the biggest draw may be the magic of watching this unique form of life grow. Understanding how mushrooms grow is crucial to successfully cultivating them, and Mushroom Cultivation offers photo-illustrated instruction both on how mushrooms grow and how you can cultivate them yourself, with a focus on six types of mushroom-shiitake, oyster, wine cap, hericium, blewit, and agaricus. You'll learn how to: Grow mushrooms, step by step, in a variety of different mediums: logs, straw, wood chips and sawdust, and compost Troubleshoot problems, including identification, underwatering, overwatering, and insects Store, dry, and freeze your mushroom harvest Cook with mushrooms, including variety-specific cooking tips and 8 tasty recipes Find supplies and more information with the resources listed at the back of the book After reading Mushroom Cultivation, you'll discover that growing a mushroom is really no more difficult than growing a tomato. You just need a slightly different set of skills. Picking your own fresh mushrooms at the peak of their flavor and nutrition is within your reach with this comprehensive, step-by-step guide.

One of House & Garden's book picks for 2020: 'Whether you dream of a Mediterranean oasis, a rose-filled retreat or a tropical jungle, Green will help you to make the most of your space, proving that small can indeed be beautiful.' One of Daily Mail's best books of the year: 'Can a really small space ever be turned into a beautiful garden? Fashionable garden designer Ula Maria shows how even the tiniest balcony or courtyard can become something special. Featuring numerous case histories and practical advice on storage, paving, furniture and lighting, this is an excellent reference source for anyone with limited space and big dreams.' 'Garden designer Ula Maria takes us on a safari through small but perfectly formed oases...to inspire your very own Eden.' - Elle Deco 'Urban garden design has inspired books ever since the Victorians started to green their sprawling new neighbourhoods. But where Maria's Green differs is that it focuses on the possibilities of growing in small spaces rather than the restrictions. The 22 gardens she has brought together (by various designers) erupt with potential...In Green urban gardens, so often prone to a twinge of pity from those who tend larger, more rural spaces, become deeply aspirational.' - Alice Vincent, the Daily Telegraph 'A must for apprehensive city gardeners and for anyone wanting to make the most out of their outdoor space, no matter how small it might be. [...] Flicking through it feels almost as enjoyable and relaxing as sitting in the garden.' - Gardens Illustrated 'The first book from rising star Ula Maria tackles the perennial challenge of how to create a garden in a small space. [...] Whether you dream of a Mediterranean oasis, a rose-filled retreat or a tropical jungle, Green will help you to make the most of your space, proving that small can indeed be beautiful.' - House & Garden 'Spending so much time outdoors in my childhood made me think of a garden as a natural extension of my home - an inseparable part of everyday life. It wasn't until I moved into a rented property in the city that I felt an undeniable urge to make the most of the little exterior space that we had and re-evaluate it. In time, creating outdoor spaces that people truly care for, no matter how small or large, became much more rewarding than perfecting any indoor space. Many say that a home is a true reflection of self, but I believe it is the garden, where personalities and relationships with our surroundings truly blossom.' - Ula Maria In Green, Ula Maria takes a completely fresh look at creating a garden in whatever outdoor space is available - be it a roof terrace, balcony, small back yard or patio. Perfect for first-time gardeners, the book approaches creating a garden as if decorating a room - exploring how to work with scale, colour and texture, to choosing the plants that will thrive in an urban space. At the heart of the book are 22 genuinely small and innovative gardens with a dazzling range of ideas to copy - from a small backyard garden using reclaimed timber, evergreens and grasses to a rental rooftop terrace in the heart of the city where a cottage-style garden has been created in simple containers. Using low-maintenance plants and affordable furniture, lighting and containers, Green offers simple solutions that don't involve major structural work but will quickly result in a stylish and hugely rewarding urban sanctuary. The book was shot by award-winning photographer, Jason Ingram.