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Books > Health, Home & Family > Gardening > Specialized gardening methods > Natural & wild gardening
'This extraordinarily useful compendium should be required reading
for anyone aspiring to ... a gorgeous garden.' - New York Times
Book Review A stunning exploration of one of the hottest trends in
garden design, nature-based planting with an eco-aware approach,
featuring the work of leading designers such as Sean Hogan, Piet
Oudolf, and Dan Pearson Forget the mild, manicured gardens of the
past: planting today is undergoing a revolution in taste and
aesthetics. This is the first comprehensive overview of a new
planting approach that is wild and natural by nature, reflecting
the global turn towards sustainability and the current zeitgeist in
garden design. Featuring over 40 gardens - from a perennial meadow
in East Sussex, England to a private, drought-resistant garden in
Australia - each garden in this stunning book is brought to life
with beautiful photography and insightful text.
Federal Twist is set on a ridge above the Delaware River in western
New Jersey, USA. It is a naturalistic garden that has loose
boundaries and integrates closely with the natural world that
surrounds it. It has no utilitarian or leisure uses (no play areas,
swimming pools or outdoor dining) and the site is not an obvious
choice for a garden (heavy clay soil, poorly drained: quick death
for any plants not ecologically suited to it). The physical garden,
its plants and its features, is of course an appealing and pleasant
place to be but Federal Twist's real charm and significance lie in
its intangible aspects: its changing qualities and views, the moods
and emotions it evokes, and its distinctive character and sense of
place. Monty Don commented after his visit, "it made me rethink
what a garden can be and do." This book charts the author's journey
in making such a garden. How he made a conscious decision not to
"improve the land", planted large, competitive plants into rough
grass, experimented with seeding to develop sustainable plant
communities. And how he worked with light to provoke certain moods
and allowed the energy of the place, chance and randomness to have
its say. Part experimental horticulturist and part philosopher,
James Golden has written an important book for naturalistic and
ecological gardeners and anyone interested in exploring the
relationship between gardens, nature and ourselves.
First published in 1942 (and retailing at 1s 6d) in response to the
growing use of factory-made foods and essences, Wild Berries,
Fruits, Nuts & Flowers demonstrated how tasty dishes could be
made using the wild fruits and flowers of the countryside. Today
there is a growing interest in foraging. People have become more
connected with nature and are heading into the countryside and
collecting edible plants, mushrooms and fruits. This is combined
with an increasing desire to eat local seasonal produce in the
interests of sustainability. This timely reissue of a classic of
its kind is the perfect gift for the modern forager. It features
101 recipes for using wild berries, fruits, nuts, flowers,
mushrooms and seaweed. Nothing is known about the original author,
but this edition has a foreword by Barbara Segall, who suggested
republishing this book.
There is something uplifting about having butterflies in your
flowerbeds, frogs in your water feature and birds in your bushes,
and knowing they're there because of you. Rich in detail and
accessible in style, Gardening for Wildlife is the crucial
companion to novices and expert gardeners alike. Adrian Thomas
dispels myths and offers new insights and ideas, helping everyone
understand what to do so gardens, large or small, can become ideal
homes for wildlife. Building on the success of the award-winning
first edition, this expanded and updated edition reflects the
latest research and developments in nature-friendly gardening. The
book serves as an expert guide to the practical aspects of this
rewarding pastime and educates readers about the ecological
principles involved, while exploding commonly held misconceptions
that often deter people from pursuing a kinder approach to
gardening. Adrian Thomas provides a detailed guide to the many and
varied species that can contribute to a natural and healthy garden.
Practical sections help you create entire habitats, such as
woodland and meadow gardens, in your garden. And the massively
expanded catalogue of the top 500 best garden flowers, shrubs and
trees for wildlife, now includes colour photos of every species. If
you love wildlife and want to encourage more to visit your garden,
this inspirational book will help you sow the seeds and reap the
rewards.
This is an exciting introduction to the global seed-swapping and
grassroots gardening movement, exploring how we can rewild the
world around us with beautiful wildflowers. As seedbombing and seed
swapping become even more popular, passionate seed activist Josie
Jeffrey presents an invaluable handbook to the practices,
explaining how we can fill the world around us with beautiful
wildflower blooms, as well as why we should care about our plant
heritage. With an invaluable directory of all the best common seeds
to save and swap, alongside essential seedbomb recipes to transform
concrete oases into colourful wildlife havens, this timely handbook
provides all the tools you need to start your very own green
revolution. Endorsed by Kew, the Soil Association, Seedy Sunday UK,
Dr Vandana Shiva, Satish Kumar and The Heritage Seed Library, these
practices will transform any space into a riot of colour, and at
the same time help enrich the environment around where they are
growing. With essential husbandry and harvesting techniques and a
step-by-step guide to creating your own seedbank, this is an
empowering call-to-action every environmentalist or gardener will
dig into.
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.
Britain's gardens are a vast, living landscape and the home to
hundreds of species of birds. Learn to pay attention to these
visitors to your own garden or local park and you'll have a
front-row seat to the unfolding drama that is the garden bird's
year. As dawn breaks across your back garden, if you were paying
attention, you would notice that the robin and the blackbird are
always the first birds to arrive. These ground hunters have large
eyes, so don't mind the dim light of the early morning. And that's
just the beginning of what you can learn watching your own back
garden. Ornithologist Mike Toms has spent a year avidly observing
his own garden, and the result is a comprehensive picture of the
lives of garden birds. From the crowded yet quiet January garden
populated by migratory fieldfares and bramblings, to the riotous
gardens of spring, filled with songbirds competing for mates, the
garden ecosystem changes throughout the year. Learn to spot these
changes, to greet the arrival of the swifts in May and the new crop
of fledgling goldfinches and blackbirds in June, and you'll find a
new world opening up to you. A Garden Bird's Year is the perfect
introduction to this world. Supremely readable, it explains biology
and behaviour to paint a picture of the lives of common bird
species, while also offering practical information for watching and
feeding the birds in your own backyard. Toms details birds'
preferences for particular plants, seeds and feeders, so you can
learn to attract different species to your own garden. He also
charts fascinating recent adaptations - urban birds sleep later
than their rural counterparts, probably because cities are on
average a few degrees warmer, and they sing either earlier or
later, to avoid competing with local traffic; and the balance of
migratory birds to Britain is being affected by the world's
changing climate. Many species of garden birds are threatened, but
there is much that each one of us can do to support them, to
attract them, and to help them thrive through the year.
In this beautifully illustrated book, Glennie Kindred inspires us
to celebrate the bounties of our wild native plants and find a
richer relationship with the natural world around us. Season by
season, we are shown how to grow and manage native edible and
medicinal plants in our gardens or on the wild edges of the land.
Included are foraging tips and many recipes for making kitchen
medicines and delicious food from our finds. By letting the wild
native plants into our lives, Glennie helps us reconnect with our
rich herbal heritage and enter into a new relationship with our
local environment. She encourages us to forage, grow, and eat our
edible natives, season by season, and also to strengthen our health
with their healing properties. She explores many different ways to
mark and celebrate the seasons, especially outside on the land,
which support our ability to adapt and grow for the benefit of the
Earth and ourselves. This is a practical, optimistic and
inspirational treasure trove for a more creative, integrated,
self-reliant future.
The Netherlands is steeped in horticultural history and its gardens
have long been a place for innovation and progressive thinking,
exemplified by iconic figures such as the landscape architect Mien
Ruys and naturalistic plant pioneer Piet Oudolf. In this book, Noel
Kingsbury and Maayke de Ridder explore how the particularities of
landscape, history and culture in the Netherlands have given rise
to distinctive gardens and demonstrates how a new generation of
Dutch designers are reimagining outdoor space in such a
revolutionary way. At the heart of the story is a people intimately
engaged with their surroundings, as proud of the feats of
engineering used to reclaim their land from the sea as they are
passionate about nature and biodiversity. This creative tension is
played out in their parks and gardens: a clean, pared-back
aesthetic contrasts with billowing planting; water is managed and
made accessible with boardwalks; and meandering paths lead to
inviting outbuildings for work and relaxation. These inspiring
examples of sustainable, modern, liveable outdoor spaces will
appeal to forward-looking garden makers wherever they live.
A comprehensive, single source of information on the plants and
animals that live alongside us. This updated edition features new
material on climate change, recycling and wild spaces in gardens.
This friendly handbook is full of practical advice on attracting
wildlife to your garden and encouraging creatures to stick around.
A helpful introductory section includes expert tips on green
gardening, seasonal planting, how to deal with garden predators and
how to get children involved in gardening. A DIY chapter, with a
step-by-step guide on creating projects for your garden - from
building nest, bat and hedgehog boxes to making your own pond - is
also included. From foxes to finches and from lizards to ladybirds,
colour photographs illustrate almost 400 garden species, including
mammals, birds, insects, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians,
flowers, trees, shrubs and fungi, while the comprehensive text
explains everything you need to cultivate a haven for nature.
'Garden Book of the Year' - Garden Media Guild Awards 2022 The
perfect gift for National Trust members this Christmas. Discover
Britain's most beautiful and inspiring wild gardens, and how you
can make your own. Winner 'Best Garden Book of the Year' Garden
Media Guild Awards 2022 Despite our best efforts, and no matter how
much we prune, tidy and shape our gardens, they are inherently
wild. In fact, it is often the most unrestrained and untamed areas
that add drama and romance. In this glorious celebration of
exuberant, naturalistic planting, we take a walk on the wild side.
Be transported to lush valleys and tropical jungles with exotic
gardens shaped by Victorian plant hunters. Wander through beautiful
bluebell woods, blossoming orchards and magical wildflower meadows,
and explore prairie-style gardens inspired by North American
grasslands. Discover special places influenced by natural
landscapes, and sustainably managed spaces designed with wildlife
in mind. You'll find out how wild play areas can help children to
connect with nature and how immersing yourself in quiet woodland
can immediately benefit your sense of well-being. A helpful guide
also offers advice and tips on how to create and manage your own
wildlife-friendly garden so that you can attract birds, bees, bats,
bugs and many other wild and wonderful creatures.
Planting for Pollinators is an easy-to-use gardening guide to help
you encourage different types of insect pollinators into your
garden. Insect pollinators not only bring joy to our gardens, they
also provide an essential service for our planet. Without bees,
flies, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and beetles, some of our
favourite foods, flowers and plants would cease to exist. Whether
you have a large garden, an urban balcony or just a window box,
planting to encourage pollinators is a fantastic and surprisingly
easy first step in creating a wildlife-friendly space. Planting for
Pollinators features a wide range of plants, with guidance on the
best ways to nurture lawns and verges, pollinator predation and
tips on watching and photographing wildlife. Beautifully
illustrated throughout with images from award-winning wildlife
photographer Heather Angel, this essential guide will show you how
plants communicate with insects, and why it's so important to
protect our pollinators. Organised by season and featuring more
than 100 plant species - including bulbs, annuals, perennials,
shrubs and climbers - this practical guide will help you to
discover the short- and long-term benefits of having a variety of
pollinators visit your garden.
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Meadows
- At Great Dixter and Beyond
(Hardcover)
Christopher Lloyd, Fergus Garrett; Photographs by Jonathan Buckley, Carol Casselden; Contributions by Great Dixter Charitable Trust
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R956
R714
Discovery Miles 7 140
Save R242 (25%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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'To see a meadow in bloom is a great delight - it's alive and
teeming with life, mysterious, dynamic . . .' So Christopher Lloyd
began his much-admired instructive and celebratory account of
meadows, first published in 2004. Few people knew more about meadow
gardening than Lloyd, who spent much of his long life developing
the flowering tapestries in his garden at Great Dixter, creating
scenes of great beauty and a place of pilgrimage for lovers of
wildflowers and wildlife. In Meadows he imparted that lifetime's
learning, exploring the development and management of meadow areas,
explaining how to establish a meadow in a garden setting,
describing the hundreds of beautiful grasses, bulbs and perennials
and annuals that thrive in different meadow conditions and
detailing how to grow them. Lloyd's classic text remains at the
heart of this new book, which also includes - as well as much
stunning new photography - an extensive introduction by Fergus
Garrett, Lloyd's head gardener.
'Delightful... Pavey writes with warmth and spirit, and brings this
space to life' Penelope Lively 'Captivating and grounded... If this
book was not as much a pleasure to write as it is to read, I'll eat
my hat and gardening glove' Observer After years spent living amid
the thrum of London, Ruth Pavey yearned to reconnect with the
British countryside and she endeavoured to realise her long-held
dream of planting a wood. Touring to the West Country in the late
1990s, Pavey found herself in the Somerset Levels. On seeing this
expanse of reclaimed land under its wide, soft skies she was struck
by its beauty and set-out to plant a wood, tree by tree. She bought
four acres, and over the years transformed them into a haven where
woodland plants and creatures could flourish an emblem of enduring
life in a changeable world. A Wood of One's Own is the story of how
she grew to understand and then shape this derelict land into an
enduring legacy a verdant landscape rich with wildlife. Interwoven
with Pavey's candid descriptions of the practical challenges she
faced are forays into the Levels' local history, as well as
thoughtful portraits of its inhabitants both past and present.
Accompanied throughout by the author's evocative hand-drawn
illustrations, A Wood of One's Own is a lyrical, beguiling and
inspiring story; a potent reminder of nature's delicate balance,
and its comforting and abiding presence.
In this book, Sharon Amos explains how to design and create a
beautiful garden for little or no money, offering tips on bartering
for clippings, getting a bargain at garage sales or neighbourhood
fairs, digging up suckers or adapting wild species and controlling
them in a garden environment. She provides a comprehensive
directory of 80 plants including detailed advice on where and how
to grow a wide variety of garden favourites, from snowdrops to
poppies. With beautiful illustrations, Plants for Free is the
perfect gift book for cultivating your garden on a budget of
next-to-nothing.
Martin Crawford is an internationally acknowledged expert on
growing perennial food systems. It features a selection of the 100
best trees to grow. It includes appendices with lists of suitable
trees for specific situations. Martin Crawford has researched and
experimented with tree crops for 25 years and has selected over 100
of the best trees producing fruits, nuts, edible leaves and other
useful products that can be grown in Europe and North America. The
appendices makes choosing trees for your situation easy, with lists
of suitable trees for specific situations plus flow charts to guide
you. If you want to know about and use the large diversity of tree
crops that are available in temperate and continental climates,
then this book is both fascinating and essential reading by an
internationally acknowledged expert.
Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, sparked a
national conversation about the link between healthy local
ecosystems and human well-being. In his new book Nature's Best
Hope, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a
grassroots approach to conservation. Tallamy advocates for
homeowners everywhere to turn their yards into conservation
corridors that provide wildlife habitats and mitigate the effects
of development and corporate agriculture. This home-based approach
doesn't rely on the federal government and protects the environment
from the whims of politics. It is also easy to do, and readers will
walk away with specific suggestions they can incorporate into their
own yards. Nature's Best Hope is nature writing at its best -
rooted in history, progressive in its advocacy, and above all,
actionable and hopeful. By proposing practical measures that
ordinary people easily can do, Tallamy gives us reason to believe
that the planet can be preserved for future generations.
Turn your garden into a wildlife haven by growing the right plants
to encourage beneficial insects, aquatic life, backyard birds and
animals. This title includes illustrated directories of over 200
plant species, from annuals, bulbs and pond plants, to shrubs,
trees and climbers, with practical advice on cultivation and uses.
It features 80 of the most common garden bird species, with
identification illustrations and natural history information on
distribution, size, distinguishing characteristics, nesting, eggs
and feeding habits. It shows how to create beautiful borders, ponds
and meadows, and how to make all kinds of birdhouses, birdbaths,
bird tables and wildlife stacks. It is illustrated with over 1700
stunning practical photographs. One of the most enjoyable aspects
of creating and maintaining a garden lies in the feeling of
closeness to nature. These two books, written by award-winning
gardening experts, give advice on how to create a range of wildlife
gardens, with suggestions for the best flowers, shrubs, hedges and
trees to grow. There are 25 projects for tables, nest boxes and
birdbaths, as well as directories of over 200 wildlife-friendly
garden plants, from woodland and countryside locations to town and
city environments. With its helpful practical advice and over 1700
beautiful photographs and illustrations, this is the ideal source
book for gardeners, bird lovers and wildlife enthusiasts.
"By harnessing the power of plants to grow more plants, my garden -
which at the outset was always intended to be organic - quietly
became vegan by stealth. Realising I had crafted a vibrant,
nature-filled and no-dig garden from scratch, and was able to
sustain it without lifting a forkful of manure, or any of the other
grisly by-products (dried blood, bonemeal) of the animal-exploiting
meat, dairy, poultry and fishery industries, filled me with an
unexpected buzz. That same buzz has taken my growing, as well as my
thinking about how what I do in my garden affects our natural
world, way beyond just organic gardening. My vegan-organic
gardening journey delights and surprises and teaches me something
new each day, and I know of no better way to bring beauty and
abundance into our beleaguered, changing world." Our natural living
world is undergoing profound change, with implications for every
living thing on earth. To meet this challenge we must rethink many
aspects of our everyday lives, including the way in which we
cultivate our gardens. This book explains a mindful, gentle, yet
powerful way of gardening that is in harmony with nature. Vegan
gardening builds on the spirit and philosophy of organic gardening
- but goes way beyond it. We discover how our garden (or backyard)
is actually a living, dynamic ecosystem in its own right, and how
wildlife, in all its guises, is crucial to creating a healthy
ecological balance. Climate-friendly gardening is explored with
examples of how to take practical steps to reduce our 'gardening
footprint'. Peat composts deplete the world of non-renewable
resources, but there are effective (and easy) alternatives and
solutions for flourishing plants. Pests only need to be contained,
not killed - and beneficial wildlife can be encouraged.The no-dig
approach is better for the soil and the plants - as well as your
back! The concept of a vegan-organic, closed-loop garden,
self-sufficient in everything it needs - from soil-building compost
to plant supports - is shown in action.
'This is a clearly presented work, with accessible topic headings
and plenty of good advice sprinkled with engaging personal
anecdotes. The message at the book's heart is to adopt a greener
way of being and to see oneself as part of nature, not removed from
it. On this point it is exceptional, distinguishing itself from
many of the green gardening books written in recent years.' The
English Garden magazine 'Conversational, interesting, and personal
... it reaffirms the link between what we love to do and why we
should be doing it with nature, the planet and our health in mind.'
RHS The Garden magazine If you want a sustainable garden and a
better relationship with nature, A Greener Life is the guide you
need. Packed with inspirational images and practical tips, the book
covers garden planning, organic composting and vegetable growing,
as well as sustainable planting, rewilding and wildlife-attracting
environments. Learn traditional gardening techniques like
propagating and growing from cuttings to make your garden
self-sustaining, and discover plants that attract hover flies, bees
and butterflies. With Jack Wallington's warmth and expertise on
every page, this is an ideal book for new gardeners seeking greener
practices.
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