Britain's favourite gardener Alan Titchmarsh has also been the most popular contributor to Gardeners' World magazine for the last twenty years. This collection of his very best columns, demonstrates just why he is regularly voted the readers' favourite. His brilliant writings are, in turn, practical - just how far back should we prune our roses? - opinionated - I always rail at people who go out on a Sunday afternoon to tidy their gardens. I mean, a garden is not a sock drawer - cheeky - I have a theory that gardeners grow to look like their soil and wistful - You've got to be a bit of a dreamer to get the most out of your garden. So lay down your trowel, take off your wellies, sit back and enjoy a bit of quintessential Titchmarsh.

'I like that you call brussel sprouts w*nkers' - DIANE MORGAN/PHILOMENA CUNK 'Your book was our bible all summer' - PEARL LOWE 'As a gardening beginner/twit I'm a huge fan' - KEELEY HAWES This is the gardening book reimagined for a new generation. A book for people who want to learn how to grow things, but haven't got a clue where to start. With the average person now spending an enormous 8 hours and 41 minutes in front of a screen every day, gardening is an easy way to escape for half an hour. Whether on a rented balcony or a sunny kitchen windowsill, it turns out growing something with your own two hands can make you feel better. Which is where HOW TO GROW comes in. Irreverent and inspiring, this book will equip you with all the know-how and confidence you need to take your first steps into a lifelong gardening love affair - trowel in one hand, drink in the other. From growing your first wonky courgette to completely transforming a shady patio garden, in HOW TO GROW, self-taught gardener Hollie Newton divulges all the secrets she's discovered over the past few years as she's journeyed from gardening novice to vegetable-grower-extraordinaire - all from her pint-sized London garden. With chapters on easy-to-grow veg, fruit, herbs, salad and flowers (along with plenty of tried-and-tested guidance to keeping those plants alive, and delicious recipes to make the most of your haul), you'll also learn everything from the basics of planning your garden to stylish design ideas. Focusing on small and urban spaces and including beautiful photography throughout, this is practical advice for a whole new generation of gardeners.

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter: wherever you are, the seasons come and go, bringing changes both welcome and unexpected. Japanese by birth, but transplanted to Europe in adulthood, Miki Sakamoto has spent a lifetime tending her garden and reflecting on its mysteries. Why do primulas bloom in snow? Do the trees really 'talk' to one another? What are the blackbirds saying today? And is there a mindful way to deal with an aphid infestation? From rising early to walk barefoot on the grass each morning, to afternoons and evenings spent sipping tea in her gazebo or watching fireflies as she recalls her childhood in Japan, in Zen in the Garden Sakamoto shares observations from a life spent in contemplation - and cultivation - of nature. She shows us that you can create Zen in your life, wherever you live and whatever form your outdoor space takes.

Soil is the basis not only for all gardening, but for all terrestrial life. No aspect of agriculture is more fundamental and important, yet we have been losing vast quantities of our finite soil resources to erosion, pollution, and development. Now back in print, this eminently sensible and wonderfully well-focused book provides essential information about one of the most significant challenges for those attempting to grow delicious organic vegetables: the creation and maintenance of healthy soil. Chapter 2, "Understanding the Soil System," is alone worth the price of admission. Gershuny and Smillie give lay readers and experts a clear explanation of subjects--soil life and nutrient cycles--that have confounded most authors. Nowhere will the reader find simpler and more coherent descriptions of key concepts including cation exchange capacity and chelation. There are other books about soil available, including Grace Gershuny's comprehensive Start with the Soil, and there are books that feature chapters on soil building. What distinguishes The Soil of Soilis the authors' concise presentation; they give readers important information, including technical essentials, without getting bogged down in scientific or quasiscientific mumbo-jumbo. In addition, useful tables list specific compost materials, green manures, and other resources that allow growers to translate into action the more general information provided by the book. The soil-building techniques featured include: Organic matter management Building and maintaining humus On-site composting Green manures and rotations Cultivation and weed control Nutrient balances and soil testing Using mineral fertilizers Planning for organic certification Updates to the 1999 edition include analysis of Proposed Rules for the National Organic Standards, and expanded recommendations for private testing services and soil-testing equipment for home gardeners and organic farmers. All of us involved in the cultivation of plants--from the backyard gardener to the largest farmer--need to help regenerate a "living soil," for only in the diversity of the soil and its creatures can we ensure the long-term health of ourselves and our environment. The Soul of Soil offers everyone a basic understanding of what soil is and what we can do to improve our own patch of it. Seen in this light, this practical handbook will be an inspiration as well.

Our planet, the Earth, is under threat, with potentially catastrophic consequences for ourselves and the other lifeforms it sustains. Yet Nature itself can still rescue us - with plants playing a pivotal role, in the countryside - and everywhere. In gardens and parks, plants are the mainstay of our relationship with the natural world, and we celebrate them for the pleasures they bring. However, that can be part of the problem: too often we value plants for their aesthetic qualities rather than the vital role they play in the ecology of the Earth. In Gardening in a Changing World Darryl Moore explores how gardens can be better for human beings and for all the other lifeforms that inhabit them. Recent developments in horticulture and plant science show us that we need to rethink our attitude to plants beyond purely aesthetic concerns, and to adopt more holistic approaches to how we design, inhabit and enjoy our gardens. He looks at the history of garden design, to show how we got to where we are today, and recommends ways of changing to new principles of sustainable ecological horticulture. This challenging and important new book will be essential reading for professionals and students of horticulture and garden and landscape design, as well as for anyone interested in making gardens part of the solution to the future of life on Earth.

For the Founding Fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions: a conjoined interest as deeply ingrained in their characters as the battle for liberty and a belief in the greatness of their new nation.
"Founding Gardeners" is an exploration of that obsession, telling the story of the revolutionary generation from the unique perspective of their lives as gardeners, plant hobbyists, and farmers. Acclaimed historian Andrea Wulf describes how George Washington wrote letters to his estate manager even as British warships gathered off Staten Island; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson's and John Adams's faith in their fledgling nation; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of environmentalism. Through these and other stories, Wulf reveals a fresh, nuanced portrait of the men who created our nation.

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

An estimated 10,000 baby boomers retire every day, and many of them are gardeners. As part of maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle, they need to adapt how they garden to ensure they can continue enjoying the hobby for years to come. In The Lifelong Gardener, popular garden speaker Toni Gattone shares adaptive gardening techniques that help readers garden smarter, not harder. Gattone offers tried-and-true methods that help eliminate the physical strain of gardening like buying new ergonomic tools, using raised beds, making small adjustments like using kneeling pads, and dozens of simple ways to make the garden comfortable. Throughout, Gattone maintains a positive and empowering tone that honors the garden and the gardener and focuses on the joy of aging. The perfect gift for older home gardeners, The Lifelong Gardener shows how a little advanced planning can make gardening a safe and fun daily activity.

The intimate Monk's Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston embodies the design principles that inform the work of noted landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. In Designing a Garden, Van Valkenburgh presents the design of the Monk's Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, an intimate, walled garden that Laurie Olin has described as a masterpiece, and not a minor one. The book documents the evolution of the garden's design, which is based on the concept of meandering paths through a dreamlike woodland to create a contemplative space. Sketches and models show how the idea was worked out, and lush photographs reveal the completed garden through the seasons. Van Valkenburgh's text explores the origins of his love of landscape and plants in his family farm in Upstate New York and how this has influenced his intuitions as a designer. He shares the full background story of the Monk's Garden, focusing on the experimental nature of design work as well as the challenges and satisfactions of the small scale and the historic and cultural context. Designing a Garden provides a unique first-person account of the design process from the most prominent landscape architects in the country.

Deer are the most common problem a gardener can face. These cute but pesky animals think home-grown flowers and vegetables are delicious, and they can quickly devour hundreds of dollars' worth of plants. Common solutions often include the use of harsh chemicals or unattractive fencing. In her new book Deer-Resistant Design, Karen Chapman offers a new option - intentional garden design choices that help keep deer at bay. Chapman showcases real home gardens across North America that successfully coexist with wildlife. Each homeowner also shares their top deer-resistant plants, all welcome additions to a deer-challenged gardener's shopping list and guaranteed to put the fun back into nursery visits. A chapter on deer-resistant container gardens provides suggestions for making colourful, captivating, and imaginative containers. Lushly illustrated and filled with practical advice and inspiring designs ideas, Deer-Resistant Design is for every home gardener looking for beautiful, natural ways to keep deer out of their gardens.

The most comprehensive, entertaining, down-to-earth one-volume gardening reference ever, and highly praised:
"Barbara Damrosch delivers the goods."--"Chicago Tribune"
"Best of the crop."--"House Beautiful"
"Barbara Damrosch's writing has the snap of a good snowpea and the spice of an old rose."--"The Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer"
"Covers just about everything you could think of and then some." -- "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
"An extraordinarily comprehensive guide." -- "The San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle"
"Takes your soaring visions of garden splendor and plants them firmly in the ground."--"The Toronto Star"
Now the beloved classic is revised front-to-back. The new edition has gone 100% organic, which in Barbara Damrosch's hands also means completely accessible. It reflects the latest research on plants, soils, tools, and techniques. There is updated and expanded information on planning a garden, recommended plants, and best tools. Ecological issues are addressed much more extensively, covering lawn alternatives, the benefits of native species, wildlife-friendly gardens, and how to avoid harmful invasive species. More attention is paid to plants appropriate to the South, Southwest, and West Coast, while cold-climate gardeners are given detailed advice on how to extend the growing season. Simply put, the book is a richer and fuller compendium than ever before, with more text, more illustrations and garden plans, expanded plant lists, and gardener's resources. But Barbara Damrosch's core of practical, creative ideas and friendly style remain--she is still an "old-fashioned dirt gardener" at heart.

Are you facing drought or water shortages? Gardening with Less Water offers simple, inexpensive, low-tech techniques for watering your garden much more efficiently - using up to 90% less water for the same results. With illustrated step-by-step instructions, David Bainbridge shows you how to install buried clay pots and pipes, wicking systems, and other porous containers that deliver water directly to a plant's roots with no or minimal evaporation. These systems are available at hardware stores and garden centres; are easy to set up and use; and work for garden beds, container gardens, and trees.

This book motivates gardeners to adopt a completely different mindset: instead of growing foreign plants and killing perceived pests, gardeners can benefit from planting indigenous vegetation with the object of actually attracting insects and other garden wildlife. It illustrates how easy it is to work with nature instead of against it. Not just another gardening book, it encourages gardeners to help preserve and restore our fast-disappearing natural heritage. In this way they can contribute to conservation right on their own doorsteps, while deriving great pleasure in the process. Virtually every aspect of environmentally-friendly gardening is covered, making it a complete “how to” guide and debunking some long-held myths. Winner of a University of KwaZulu-Natal book prize, the first edition was out of print for several years after all 15 000 copies had been sold. This new edition, which covers the eastern and northern parts of the country, is a greatly improved version of the much acclaimed original. Besides being expanded to 320 pages with much more information, it has nearly 100 colour pictures and almost twice as many black and white illustrations. The same lighthearted and entertaining style has been retained and technical terms have been avoided, thus making it an easy read. The book is enhanced by delightful humorous drawings that emphasise points made in the text. A must for all nature-loving gardeners, the large amount of information is almost encyclopedic and will also be more than useful to conservationists and anyone with an interest in the natural sciences.

A backyard field of grains? Yes, absolutely Wheat and corn are rapidly replacing grass in the yards of dedicated locavores across the country. For adventurous homeowners who want to get in on the movement, "Homegrown Whole Grains" is the place to begin.
Growing whole grains is simpler and more rewarding than most people imagine. With as little as 1000 square feet of land, backyard farmers can grow enough wheat to harvest 50 pounds in a single afternoon - and those 50 pounds can be baked into 50 loaves of fresh bread.
In addition to providing information on wheat and corn, "Homegrown Whole Grains" includes complete growing, harvesting, and threshing instructions for barley, millet, oats, rice, rye, spelt, and quinoa, and lighter coverage of several specialty grains. Readers will also find helpful tips on processing whole grains, from what to look for in a home mill to how to dry corn and remove the hulls from barley and rice.
Chapters for each grain include inventive recipes for cereals, desserts, casseroles, salads, soups and stews, and, of course, home-baked breads, the crowning achievement of the home grain grower. Sara Pitzer shares dozens of ideas for using whole grains - from cooking sturdy wheat berries in a slow cooker to malting barley for homebrewed beer. Whether milled into nutritional flours or used in any of their unmilled states, wheat, barley, quinoa, and the other grain crops are healthful additions to every diet.

A beautifully illustrated devotional book that looks at what we can learn about God from tending our gardens. Richard Littledale invites you to push open the garden gate and join him as he discovers the joy of gardening. A reluctant gardener, Richard took up 'project garden' to help combat the loneliness of bereavement, only to find that the physical transformation of his garden mirrored a real change in himself too. Follow Richard's journey through 52 tales and uncover what gardening can teach us about patience, humility, hope, fruitfulness and the abiding goodness of God. Beautifully illustrated throughout, each tale includes a gardening story, a biblical reflection and a prayer. Whether you are an enthusiastic beginner or naturally green-fingered, this gentle and encouraging book reveals inspirational thoughts about life and God from the perspective of the gardener. Content Benefits: This beautifully illustrated gift book, containing 52 devotions, explores truths that we can learn about life, ourselves and God from tending our gardens. Each tale has a gardening story, a Bible verse and reflection and a chance to pause and pray Each gardening tale is written in a conversational and accessible voice Beautiful line drawings appear throughout the book adding visual appeal Encourages even reluctant gardeners to see the joy gardening can bring Helps gardeners see the link between the natural world and God Enables keen gardeners to see God in their work Explores the link between gardens and faith Enables you to spend time listening to God in nature Ideal resource for quiet times or devotional times Encourages those who are bereaved to take up gardening as 'ecotherapy' to help deal with grief Ideal inspirational gift for any green-fingered gardener Suitable for those just starting out or seasoned gardeners Hardback cover and internal illustrations make this a perfect gift for anyone who loves gardening Perfect gift for birthdays, celebrations, and more Binding - Hardback Pages - 368 Publisher - Authentic Media

Live a more sustainable lifestyle Historically referred to as a government program for revitalizing undesirable living areas, "homesteading" today has come to mean the pursuit of a self-sufficient lifestyle. Homesteading can include everything from keeping bees, growing vegetables, and composting to installing solar panels, creating a rain barrel, and canning your own food, --plus much more. Backyard Homesteading All-in-One For Dummies has a little bit of everything for the homesteader in all of us. It walks you through the basics of creating your own sustainable homestead and offers expert tips and tricks for making it as easy and successful as possible. Raise chickens Keep bees Compost Can and preserve This book gives you everything you need to embark on your own homesteading adventure.

Based on her hit Allotment Tales column for "The Scotsman and New Consumer Magazine", Antonia Swinson - the First Lady of the allotment - shares, not only her tips for gardening and allotment management, but also the effect of her time spent in the mud. Written with humour and vim You Are What You Grow is her extraordinary original vision of how the world ticks. Scything down the caricature of the allotmenteer, this is a social and political critique from an allotmenteer's point of view. Antonia explores issues such as the history of British land ownership, organic produce and self-sufficiency, community building and the psychological benefits to be found by allotmenteering. The work is divided by season with gardening tips, money saving ideas and promotion of healthy, and organic food.

Most of us lump plants together in one big family, and when pressed can only explain their grouping by what they're not--not an animal, not a mineral, and so just a plant. In reality, there are hundreds of different plant families, each grouped logically by a unique family history and genealogy. This brings sense and order to the more than a quarter of a million different plant species covering a diverse spectrum that includes soaring sequoias (Cupressaceae), squat prickly pear (Cactaceae), and luxuriant roses (Rosaceae). Plant Families is an easy-to-use, beautifully illustrated guide to the more than one hundred core plant families every horticulturist, gardener, or budding botanist needs to know. It introduces the basics of plant genealogy and teaches readers how to identify and understand the different structures of flowers, trees, herbs, shrubs, and bulbs. It then walks through each family, explaining its origins and range, and describing characteristics such as size, flowers, and seeds. Each family is accompanied by full-color botanical illustrations and diagrams. "Uses For" boxes planted throughout the book provide practical gardening tips related to each family. We have much to gain by learning about the relationships between plant families. By understanding how botanists create these groupings, we can become more apt at spotting the unique characteristics of a plant and identify them faster and more accurately. Understanding plant families also helps us to make sense of--and better appreciate--the enormous biological diversity of the plant kingdom.

Every garden presents problems of one kind or another. It is inevitably windy, lacking in privacy too shady, badly drained, too large, too small or hopelessly overgrown. "Garden Rescue" is written to help gardeners to develop, reclaim or maintain their gardens more successfully, not only be surmounting problems, but often by turning them to advantage. Originally published as "Your Problem Garden" and revised and updated, this classic book seeks to explain not just the 'how' of the gardening, but the 'why' as well. Rather than trotting out cliched solutions, Richard Bisgrove helps the reader to understand the unique challenges posed by their gardens in order to come up with a tailor-made rescue package. Climate, soil character, planning and maintenance are all discussed, and there is a useful chapter devoted to recovering a garden that is in a poor state of repair.

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?