Ben Raskin's wide-ranging work in varied locations makes The Woodchip Handbook a really useful overview of the possibilities afforded by woodchip. Charles Dowding, author of Charles Dowding's No Dig Gardening The first and only complete guide to sourcing and using woodchip - an abundant, inexpensive and ecologically sustainable material - for savvy growers and landscapers at any scale, from farm to garden to greenhouse. The Woodchip Handbook is the essential guide to the many uses of woodchip both in regenerative agriculture and horticulture. Author Ben Raskin, Head of Horticulture and Agroforestry at the Soil Association, draws on his extensive practical experience using woodchip, provides the latest research from around the world and presents inspiring case studies from innovative farmers. The book explores and unlocks the tremendous potential of woodchip to enhance soil health and plant growth: As a natural mulch for weed suppression, temperature buffering and water conservation As a growing medium for propagating plants As a decomposing source of warmth for hotbeds in the greenhouse or hoop house As a carbon-rich compost ingredient that supports beneficial fungi and microorganisms As a powerful soil health booster when applied as small-sized ramial chipped wood As an ideal substrate for growing many kinds of edible or medicinal mushrooms As a sustainable, versatile and durable material for foot paths and ornamental landscaping Some of these techniques, like mulching - or the renewable harvest potential from coppicing and pollarding trees - have been around forever. Yet there is always new science to be discovered, such as the role that salicylic acid from willow woodchip can play in preventing tree diseases or promoting livestock health when used as a bedding material. Whether you are a commercial grower or farmer, a permaculture practitioner or a serious home gardener producing your own fruit and vegetables, The Woodchip Handbook will show you how to get the most out of this readily available and renewable material. I did not know the world needed a whole book on woodchip, but from the first chapter I could not put this book down. Alys Fowler, author of The Edible Garden and The Thrifty Gardener

The definitive guide to hundreds of Britain's most outstanding gardens, in the care of the National Trust The National Trust has the finest collection of gardens in the United Kingdom. In this book, Stephen Lacey paints a vivid picture of the individual gardens, and places each one in its context within British horticultural history. All the major periods and styles of garden design are represented, from the formality of early gardens such as Hanbury Hall and Ham House, magnificent 18th-century landscapes like Stowe and Croome Park and the heady Victorian creations of Biddulph Grange and Waddesdon Manor to the famous plantsmen's gardens of the last century, such as Nymans, Hidcote Manor and Sissinghurst Castle. The text and pictures have been fully updated, with new entries including Allan Bank, High Close Arboretum and Wentworth Castle. Several gardens have undergone major redevelopment since the previous edition, while others have colourfully expanded the acreage open to visitors. Extensive tree planting, including reinstating a lost eighteenth-century avenue at Dyrham Park and recreating the pear tree arch at Rudyard Kipling's home, Bateman's, are just a few of the new and exciting additions to this classic guide to Britain's most outstanding gardens.

Landscape designing isn’t so much about rules that guarantee creation of the ‘perfect design every time’, but rather about a series of guidelines and suggestions that will help you save time and money, as well as generally reduce the frustrations resulting from many design forms.

Landscape Design for the Home Owner is a book filled with such guidelines, some for the new home owner to help with the many ‘first time garden’ situations and pitfalls that tend to arise, as well as some for the more experienced home owner who is being challenged with alterations, changes in garden styles or themes or simply looking at old sites in a new light.

Combine this with dozens of ideas, plant and hard landscape suggestions, as well as numerous beautiful photographs, it becomes a book that will help the informed, adventurous, beginner or even laid-back home owner to create beautiful and distinctive surroundings to their homes.

Beautifully and simply set out, it takes the home owner through a series of logical yet important steps intended to make garden designing a joy rather than a mystery or frustration – dealing with such aspects as site analysis, plant functions and choices, hard landscape options, thoughts on garden revamping, as well as realistic scenarios for costing a project and pointers on where to find professional assistance if stuck with a problem. Aspects such as water-saving concepts, ways to encourage wild life, and thoughts on environmental or regional approaches to garden design are also included. A list of current invader plants and useful contacts in South Africa are also included for the reader’s convenience.

This title includes over 60 stage-by-stage construction and planting sequences, garden case studies, a comprehensive directory of plants and over 850 photographs. It shows you how to plan, design and plant up beautiful and easy-to-maintain garden courtyards, walled spaces, patios, terraces and enclosed backyards. You can create a courtyard in any style - a traditional patio, a Mediterranean-style terrace, an outdoor living and dining space, a productive area for growing fruit and vegetables, a peaceful retreat, or an ultra-modern design. It features step-by-step advice on all the practicalities, from planning a suitable layout and preparing the site, to sourcing all the elements and choosing the plants. This beautiful book is packed with creative ideas for making a successful courtyard space. There is advice on flooring, walls and screens, containers, structures, furniture, ornaments, water features and lighting. Inspirational examples are presented alongside step-by-step instructions to explain the features shown. Case studies with detailed plans explore the dynamics of the different designed spaces, and a plant directory gives a comprehensive listing of planting options. A section on maintenance shows how to keep your courtyard looking its best. If you have a space to design from scratch or one that needs an overhaul, this book provides all the advice you will need.

How do you design a landscape book suitable for its intended uses? How can the natural qualities of a landscape be enhanced with new features and focal points? How can you make pedestrians stay on the footpath? What kind of plant, path or wall should you put where, and what sort of contract should you choose for your client's contractor? This refreshingly down-to-earth introduction to the vast subject of landscape design and construction answers all these questions, guiding new students through the many facets of professional practice and welding together the artistic, legal, financial, environmental and management issues which can seem so dauntingly disconnected. Illustrated with original drawings, photographs, sample plans and facsimiles, including a new colour plate section, this readable classic has been fully revised and updated throughout. It opens with a completely new chapter which explains design and aesthetic principles, explores the history of our relationship to landscape, and shows how design principles can be applied to influence reactions to the finished site. The author then considers different elements of hard landscape and their relative merits in different situations. The soft landscape section includes coverage of the effects of mass and form, natural and abstract planting, and the difficult subject of plant selection. A step-by-step guide through all the stages of managing a project, from initial discussions with clients, site inspection, surveying and quoting, through tendering, contracting, contractual agreements, development from concept design to final plans and drawings, as well as maintenance, now includes the current information on CDM regulations and provides readers with a plain-speaking reference on client management and contractual administration. Added to the guide to drawing and lettering is an extensive section on computer-aided design. A bibliography and list of useful organization are also included.

Increased awareness of the environment and an ever-present interest in curb appeal means that homeowners are eager for more sustainable, natural landscaping. And why shouldn't they be? In addition to supporting local flora and fauna, ditching grass for lush, native plants helps lower water bills and results in self-sustaining gardens long-term. In John Gidding's At Home with Nature, homeowners will find thorough blueprints to reap these benefits and bring their dream garden to life. Complete with specific information for every US bioregion, a glossary of native plants, illustrated yard renderings and photos and detailed explanations of suburban codes, this book has examples and techniques to build responsible natural spaces. And as an HGTV star with over a decade of design experience, Gidding is the landscaping expert readers need to get the job done. At Home with Nature is the ultimate resource for creating beautiful and beneficial home gardens.

Landscape designer Owen Wormser explains how to replace the deadscape we call lawn with low-maintenance, eco-friendly meadows. In this second edition of his award-winning book, he includes photos of meadows in progress plus more ways to cultivate your own organic meadow. This how-to book on growing your own wildflowers and native grasses is also about sustainability, regeneration, and beauty. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution. It is garden landscaping that is beautiful, all year round. Meadows establish wildlife and pollinator habitats, are low-maintenance and low-cost, have a built-in resilience that helps them weather climate extremes, and can draw down and store far more carbon dioxide than any manicured lawn. Wormser describes how to plant an organic meadow garden or traditional meadow, that's right for your site. His book includes guidance on: Preparing your site Designing your meadow Planting without using synthetic chemicals Growing 21 starter native grasses and wildflowers, including butterfly weed, smooth blue aster, purple coneflower, wild bergamot, blue grama grass, switchgrass, and many more Building support in neighborhoods where a tidy lawn is the standard. He also shares 28 color photos that highlight the multitude of ways you can cultivate your own organic meadow. To illuminate the many joys of meadow-building, Wormser draws on his own stories, including how growing up off the grid in northern Maine, with no electricity or plumbing, prepared him for his work.

The ideal, easy-to-use resource for growing healthy, resilient, low-maintenance trees, shrubs, vines and other fruiting plants from around the world - perfect for farmers, gardeners and landscapers at every scale. Illustrated with more than 200 colour photographs and covering 50 productive edible crops - from Arctic kiwi to jujebe, medlar to heartnut - this is the go-to guide for growers interested in creating diversity in their growing spaces. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts is a one-stop compendium of the most productive, edible fruit-and nut-bearing crops that push the boundaries of what can survive winters in cold-temperate growing regions. While most nurseries and guidebooks feature plants that are riddled with pest problems (such as apples and peaches), veteran growers and founders of the Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, focus on both common and unfamiliar fruits that have few, if any, pest or disease problems and an overall higher level of resilience. Inside Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts you'll find: Taste profiles for all fifty hardy fruits and nuts, with notes on harvesting and uses Plant descriptions and natural histories Recommended cultivars, both new and classic Propagation methods for increasing plants Nut profiles including almonds, chestnuts, walnuts and pecans Fertilisation needs and soil/site requirements And much more! With beautiful and instructive colour photographs throughout, the book is also full of concise, clearly written botanical and cultural information based on the authors' years of growing experience. The fifty fruits and nuts featured provide a nice balance of the familiar and the exotic: from almonds and pecans to more unexpected fruits like maypop and Himalayan chocolate berry. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts gives adventurous gardeners all they need to get growing. Both experienced and novice gardeners who are interested in creating a sustainable landscape with a greater diversity of plant life - while also providing healthy foods - will find this book an invaluable resource.

Widely acknowledged as the last great landscape designer of the eighteenth century, Humphry Repton created work that survives as a bridge between the picturesque theory of Capability Brown and the pastoral philosophy of Frederick Law Olmsted. By turns inspired by and in opposition to the grandeur of Brown s estates, Repton s contribution to the British landscape encompassed a tremendous range, from subtle adjustments that emphasised the natural features of the countryside to deliberate interventions that challenged the notion of the picturesque. This remarkable book explores 15 of Repton s most celebrated landscapes from the early maturity of his gardens at Courteenhall and Mulgrave Castle to more adventurous landscapes at Stanage, Brightling, and Endsleigh that would point the way toward how we envision parkland today. With photography by Joe Cornish commissioned specially for the book, and including reproductions of key illustrations and plans for garden design from the famous red books that shed light on Repton s vision and process, this book illuminates some of Britain s most beautiful gardens and parks and the masterful mind behind their creation.

Dream Gardens explores twelve dream gardens in challenging spaces, from tiny plots in the inner city, suburban blocks, sandy seaside properties to expansive country acreages. Michael McCoy, well-known garden designer and host of popular Australian TV series Dream Gardens (in which the book's twelve gardens also feature) shows us the challenges and the solutions for creating beautiful functional gardens. By drawing on great garden design each garden finds the perfect solution. In each challenging case, a beautiful garden is created to meet their owners needs. Dream Gardens explores the central ideas of garden design, and illustrates, with stunning photography, how we can use design to make simple changes to our gardens to enjoy beautiful and functional living spaces. The book also features interviews with well-known garden designers, including Fiona Brockhoff and Paul Bangay, discussing their featured gardens.

Designing real gardens on slopes for real people forms the central core of this book. It demonstrates that making plans for gardens on slopes of all types really works. Not only that, they are a necessary part of the process of turning challenging sites into attractive gardens. This is a really useful book that shows how good design helps to avoid costly common mistakes. It is a simple and informative guide detailing from survey to construction and planting. Not many gardens are completely flat. Just one step in a garden makes a big difference, adding more interest to the site. But slopes do present more of a challenge when designing gardens and definitely add to the expense of a building project. A select portfolio of beautifully designed gardens shows projects from start to finish. These are not simply attractive garden plans - they actually work! Not only does this book inspire, it will show how to master hilly sites. There are currently no books that deal specifically with this common problem: in fact, in many books, designing gardens on slopes is barely mentioned. Students of garden design, qualified garden and landscape designers, landscape builders and architects, and owners of sloping gardens will therefore find this book particularly useful.

2020 Independent Press Award Winner--Home & Garden Category Turn water scarcity into water abundance! Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 3rd Edition is the best-selling, award-winning guide on how to conceptualize, design, and implement life-enhancing water-, sun-, wind-, and shade-harvesting systems for your home, landscape, and community. This book enables you to assess your on-site resources, gives you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential, and empowers you with guiding principles to create an integrated, multi-functional plan specific to your site and needs. Clearly written with more than 290 illustrations, this full-color edition helps bring your site to life, reduce your cost of living, endow yourself and your community with skills of self-reliance and cooperation, and create living air conditioners of vegetation growing beauty, food, and wildlife habitat. Stories of people who are successfully welcoming rain into their life and landscape will invite you to do the same.

Step inside the world's most famous garden and understand the strength of its attraction in this beautiful and fascinating study. Since is was bought and transformed by writer Vita Sackville West and diplomat Harold Nicholson in the 1930s, this garden has captured imaginations with its unique and intricate design. This unforgettable garden of rooms is influential today for its design, its exuberant planting, and its effect on visitors as a complete garden experience. Author Tim Richardson explores its power and its magic, explaining the nuances of its evolution and shows how we can all enjoy it today. Beautiful photographs transport you to the National Trust property, showcasing it in all its brilliance.

A beautifully illustrated history of the world famous landscape garden at Stourhead, created by generations of the Hoare banking dynasty. Cross the south lawn at Stourhead and descend through the ancient and rare trees. Soon you will see a great lake appear, decorated with classical temples and arched bridge that lunges to the other side of the water. Continue on and you will find a mystical, jagged grotto; a gothic hideaway; gods, muses and saints. This is how Henry Hoare - known as Henry the Magnificent - would have approached the garden he designed with Henry Flitcroft. Did he imagine himself as a journeying Aeneas, or was he recreating a Claud Lorrain landscape? This is the first history - in colour - of a unique landscape created by generations of the Hoare banking family. It follows its evolution, describing how flights of folly, individual flair and tastes, combined with careful stewardship, have formed a national treasure and one of the finest example of the English landscape garden. The book includes a foreword by James Stourton and newly commissioned photography by renowned garden photographer Marianne Majerus.

A Bucket List Tour of Europe's Private Gardens. Acres of white-blooming garden rooms on the island of Mallorca. A seven-tiered wonder of stone, plants, and water above Germany's Rhine River. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in a quiet Scottish valley. These sumptuous landscapes are just three of the fifty destinations you'll visit on this exclusive tour of Europe's most beautiful private gardens. From Belgium to Ireland, Scandinavia to Wales, Carolyn Mullet is your guide through intimate retreats normally off-limits to visitors. Short profiles introduce the intriguing owners and rich histories of each garden and the land they inhabit. Among the featured gardens are works of eminent designers such as Tom Stuart-Smith, Andy Melengier, and Louis Benech. Whether you love exploring faraway places or creating your own landscape haven at home, Adventures in Eden is the ideal armchair getaway - glimpses into personal garden artistry that are sure to spark inspiration.

How do you design a landscape book suitable for its intended uses? How can the natural qualities of a landscape be enhanced with new features and focal points? How can you make pedestrians stay on the footpath? What kind of plant, path or wall should you put where, and what sort of contract should you choose for your client's contractor? This refreshingly down-to-earth introduction to the vast subject of landscape design and construction answers all these questions, guiding new students through the many facets of professional practice and welding together the artistic, legal, financial, environmental and management issues which can seem so dauntingly disconnected. Illustrated with original drawings, photographs, sample plans and facsimiles, including a new colour plate section, this readable classic has been fully revised and updated throughout. It opens with a completely new chapter which explains design and aesthetic principles, explores the history of our relationship to landscape, and shows how design principles can be applied to influence reactions to the finished site. The author then considers different elements of hard landscape and their relative merits in different situations. The soft landscape section includes coverage of the effects of mass and form, natural and abstract planting, and the difficult subject of plant selection. A step-by-step guide through all the stages of managing a project, from initial discussions with clients, site inspection, surveying and quoting, through tendering, contracting, contractual agreements, development from concept design to final plans and drawings, as well as maintenance, now includes the current information on CDM regulations and provides readers with a plain-speaking reference on client management and contractual administration. Added to the guide to drawing and lettering is an extensive section on computer-aided design. A bibliography and list of useful organization are also included.

Support and protect the natural world with tips from expert gardener Joe Swift.

With around 16 million UK gardens covering a larger area than all our nature reserves, you could say our largest nature reserve is one big garden! In this practical guide, Joe shows you how to support and protect our rich and varied wildlife habitats.

Joe's no-nonsense approach covers everything you need to know about doing your bit for wildlife. Learn how to manage soil and carefully select plants to create rich and varied habitats, from tall trees down to tiny, spring-flowering bulbs. In this book, Joe demonstrates how to manage your outdoor space sensitively, and debunks the common misconception that 'wildlife-friendly gardens' have to be unkempt.

From bug hotels to pollinators, he also shares his ideas on fun and innovative projects to help kids, as the future custodians of our planet, engage with nature. Joe Swift is an author, TV presenter and garden designer. He makes regular appearances on BBC's Gardener's World and the RHS Flower Shows

Born in Florence in 1910, Pietro Porcinai grew up on the classic grounds of the Villa Gamberaia in Settignano where his father served as head gardener. Although he studied agriculture in college, Porcinai's true interest lay in the landscape architecture practice he founded in 1938. Early projects centered in the area of Arezzo, whose style reflected modernA ized traditional models. In the postwar era the office flourished, producing modern gardens of remarkable design and use of plants. In these works, Porcinai convincingly demonstrated the affinity between historical architecture and landscapes unA compromisingly modern. During his long and productive career he also consulted on autostrada planning, and designed public parks, memorials, and even a Pinocchio theme park-at times collaborating with noted architects such as Renzo Piano, Carlo Scarpa and Oscar Niemeyer. This book, the first English-language study on Pietro Porcinai provides a comprehensive and richly illustrated overview of his life and remarkable achievements.

A unique, step-by-step five-year schedule to turn a neglected home landscape into a stunning garden that yields year-round pleasure. Written especially for the new home-owner, James draws on his experience to answer the hundreds of questions about growing and maintaining lawns, flowers, trees and shrubs, integrating outdoor furniture and lawn structures, and much more.