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Books > Gardening > General
Too often gardening advice comes in the form of rules: do this,
don't do that, buy this, don't buy that, plant this, don't plant
that. But this kind of guidance can stifle cre ativity and personal
expression, resulting in gardens that feel impersonal and generic.
With Fearless Gardening, Loree Bohl - founder of the popular blog
The Danger Garden, has written a call to arms that urges home
gardeners to grow what they love. Readers will discover advice on
gardening outside their zone, shopping for unique plants, and
taking risks in gar den design. They will also find tips on how to
discover their personal style and expand their plant palette. Bohl
profiles exemplary gardens from across North America that showcase
each gardener's unique taste and style and will inspire home
gardeners to discover their own.
Home-grown botanical dyes are in, and they're part of today's shift
toward natural and organic living. "A new generation discovers
grow-it-yourself dyes," says the New York Times. And you don't have
to have a degree in chemistry to create your own natural dyes. It
just takes a garden plot and a kitchen. A Garden to Dye For shows
how super-simple it is to plant and grow a dyer's garden and create
beautiful dyes. Many of these plants may already be in our cutting,
cottage or food gardens, ready for double duty. These special
plants can fit right in with traditional garden themes. A Garden to
Dye For features 40-plus plants that the gardener-crafter can grow
for an all-natural, customized color palette. A dyer's garden can
be a mosaic of flowers, herbs, roots and fruits that lend us their
pigments to beautify other areas of our lives. The richly
photographed book is divided between the garden and the dye
process, with garden layouts, plant profiles, dye extraction and
uses, step-by-step recipes and original, engaging DIY projects.
This is the book that bridges the topic of plant dyes to mainstream
gardeners, the folks who enjoy growing the plants as much as using
them in craft projects. www.agardentodyefor; and on Facebook: A
Garden to Dye For.
This title features: over 50 glorious gifts and ideas to create
from the natural produce grown in your own garden; how to create a
wonderful variety of practical and ornamental garden items, both
for your garden and as gifts for fellow enthusiasts; over 50 ideas,
gifts and projects, illustrated step by step with beautiful
photographs; create lovely decorative items like customized garden
furniture and containers, painted pots, a decoupage seed box, and a
lavender and herb garland. Try making useful tools and accessories
such as a gardener's first aid kit, citronella candles,
hand-painted plant labels and fruit-picking bags. It includes a
seasonal checklist of activities, and planting practicalities such
as growing from seed and potting on, to keep you busy in the
potting shed through the year. This book takes its inspiration from
the potting shed, the practical refuge that provides the perfect
space in which to enjoy the potential of your garden. Here are
dozens of projects to make, from decorated gift boxes and themed
plant baskets to all manner of ornamental garden accessories. Ideas
include items that you'll be tempted to keep for yourself, as well
as for gifts any gardener would be delighted to receive, such as
candle holders, a plant theatre, and a potted Mediterranean herb
garden. All the projects are shown with easy-to-follow
instructions. With over 350 glorious photographs by well-known,
award-winning photographer, Michelle Garrett, this book captures
and celebrates the creative spirit of gardening.
Planning and maintaining a successful garden is an enjoyable and
creative process. If you dream of borders of bright and scented
blooms, a healthy green lawn, a patio in which to relax, or even
low-maintenance ideas to lessen the workload, here are the skills
to guarantee success. There are plenty of tips to incorporate
aromatic shrubs and architectural plants into your garden, as well
as ideas for filling space with annuals. Schemes for attractive
hanging baskets and window boxes are also included. With over 1200
photographs illustrating both techniques and beautiful gardens, the
book contains everything you need to create a stunning outdoor
area.
From diggers and weeders, to artists and colourists, writers and
dreamers to trend-setters, plantswomen to landscape designers,
women have contributed to the world of gardening and gardens. Here
Deborah Kellaway, author of The Making of an English Country Garden
and Favourite Flowers , has collected extracts from the 18th
century to the present day, to create a book that is replete with
anecdotes and good-humoured advice. Colette, Margery Fish, Germaine
Greer, Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, Vita Sackville-West, Rosemary Verey,
Edith Wharton and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the writers
represented in this book.
"Texas Gardener's Handbook" is filled with need-to-know
information from popular Texas gardening experts. Each includes his
or her collective wisdom in a complete guide for Texas gardeners.
In addition to hundreds of proven plants, this resource has monthly
to-do calendars for each of more than ten plant categories, from
annuals to vines. Full-color photos and expert advice assist
gardeners with the proper care and timing for everything from
planting to watering. Information on gardening with less water
addresses the challenges of gardening in Texas.
Gardening in Texas is not for the faint of heart or weak-willed.
Given the remarkable variety of soils, climate ranges, and the
potential for stifling heat, humidity, and drought, the dedication
of so many gardening enthusiasts speaks to the powerful hold plants
have over people. Living and gardening in Central Texas since 1969,
Bill Scheick has celebrated successes and analyzed failures;
techniques and plants that worked in one yard did not necessarily
work in another just a few miles away. In Adventures of Texas
Gardening, Scheick shares, through personal accounts as well as
stories from fellow gardeners, big gardening efforts-transforming
an entire backyard, dealing with unruly pets and marauding
wildlife, and fostering vanishing bees. Attention is also given to
challenges like soil erosion and yard contamination. With a firm
understanding of horticulture and a good dose of humor, Scheick
offers beginning and experienced gardeners a resource for
inspiration, information, and commiseration as they pursue their
own gardening adventures in Texas.
Discover the joys of gardening using traditional plants and
planting methods that have withstood the test of time. Create and
maintain a garden filled with hues and scents of old-fashioned
plants. This book includes everything from natural horticultural
methods of propagation, soil fertilization, care and cultivation,
to period garden design and layout. This is an absorbing reference
for all those wishing to garden the traditional way.
**SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** The Garden Jungle is a wonderful
introduction to the hundreds of small creatures with whom we live
cheek-by-jowl and of the myriad ways that we can encourage them to
thrive. The Garden Jungle is about the wildlife that lives right
under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the
pavement, and in the soil beneath our feet. Wherever you are right
now, the chances are that there are worms, woodlice, centipedes,
flies, silverfish, wasps, beetles, mice, shrews and much, much
more, quietly living within just a few paces of you. Dave Goulson
gives us an insight into the fascinating and sometimes weird lives
of these creatures, taking us burrowing into the compost heap,
digging under the lawn and diving into the garden pond. He explains
how our lives and ultimately the fate of humankind are inextricably
intertwined with that of earwigs, bees, lacewings and hoverflies,
unappreciated heroes of the natural world. The Garden Jungle is at
times an immensely serious book, exploring the environmental harm
inadvertently done by gardeners who buy intensively reared plants
in disposable plastic pots, sprayed with pesticides and grown in
peat cut from the ground. Goulson argues that gardens could become
places where we can reconnect with nature and rediscover where food
comes from. For anyone who has a garden, and cares about our
planet, this book is essential reading.
Tending our gardens is a lifelong pleasure. As we age, our energy
and physical abilities become more limited. But gardens are
magical, evolving places, with the potential to keep us young at
heart, physically fit, out in the fresh air and full to the brim
with joy and expectation. This ground-breaking book shows how easy
it is for older people to carry on gardening. The different kinds
of garden set-up are considered first, along with planning
decisions and how best to keep safe and comfortable. An informative
chapter looks at the main gardening activities and appropriate
equipment, especially those that answer physical limitations.
Different styles of garden are then presented: flower, vegetable,
fruit, raised, herb, patio, vertical and indoor gardens, each one
including projects and techniques, from building a raised bed to
growing potatoes in containers. The final chapter is a directory
that profiles the many planting choices available. Packed with
projects, garden plans and step-by-step sequences designed for
older gardeners who may not be able to exert themselves in the same
way as they once could, this will appeal to active gardeners in
their early retirement through to seniors with more limited
abilities, and show how gardening can be a lifelong pleasure.
The potato is economically a very important crop in many parts of
the world. All improvements through potato breeding or
biotechnology must be based on a thorough knowledge of potato
genetics. This book fills a major gap in the current literature for
an up-to-date account of this topic and its implications for crop
improvement. Written by authorities from the UK, USA, Canada, Peru,
Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Poland, this major reference work
will be indispensible for workers in plant genetics, breeding and
biotechnology.
This is the fascinating story of a small group of
eighteenth-century naturalists who made Britain a nation of
gardeners and the epicenter of horticultural and botanical
expertise. It's the story of a garden revolution that began in
America.
In 1733, the American farmer John Bartram dispatched two boxes of
plants and seeds from the American colonies, addressed to the
London cloth merchant Peter Collinson. Most of these plants had
never before been grown in British soil, but in time the
magnificent and colorful American trees, evergreens, and shrubs
would transform the English landscape and garden forever. During
the next forty years, Collinson and a handful of botany enthusiasts
cultivated hundreds of American species. "The Brother Gardeners
"follows the lives of six of these men, whose shared passion for
plants gave rise to the English love affair with gardens. In
addition to Collinson and Bartram, who forged an extraordinary
friendship, here are Philip Miller, author of the best-selling
"Gardeners Dictionary"; the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, whose
standardized nomenclature helped bring botany to the middle
classes; and Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, who explored the
strange flora of Brazil, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia on the
greatest voyage of discovery of their time, aboard Captain Cook's
"Endeavour."
From the exotic blooms in Botany Bay to the royal gardens at Kew,
from the streets of London to the vistas of the Appalachian
Mountains, "The Brother Gardeners" paints a vivid portrait of an
emerging world of knowledge and of gardening as we know it today.
It is a delightful and beautifully told narrative history.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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