Of the 25,000 known species of bee worldwide, only seven species are honeybees. Bees and plants have a sophisticated and delicate symbiosis. In recent years, the shrinking of green spaces has endangered the honeybee. Now Planting for Honeybees shows you how you can help these delightful pollinators to flourish by creating a garden as a habitat for them. No matter how small or large your space - from a window ledge in the city to a country garden - Sarah Wyndham Lewis offers practical advice on which plants to grow, and when and where to plant them. Charmingly illustrated with delicate drawings, this a jewel of a guide to treasure.

Fill your garden with flowers all-year round with inspiration, planting ideas and expert advice from Sarah Raven.

Colour and scent are the hallmarks of Sarah Raven's style – and they are simple luxuries that everyone can bring into their garden.

A Year Full of Flowers reveals the hundreds of hardworking varieties that make the garden sing each month, together with the practical tasks that ensure everything is planted, staked and pruned at just the right time.

Tracing the year from January to December at her home, Perch Hill, Sarah offers a complete and transporting account of a garden crafted over decades. Sharing the lessons learned from years of plant trials, she explains the methods that have worked for her, and shows you how to achieve a space that's full of life and colour.

Discover long-lasting, divinely scented tulips, roses that keep flowering through winter, the most magnificent dahlias and show-stopping alliums, as well as how to grow sweet peas up a teepee, take cuttings from chrysanthemums and stop mildew in its tracks.

This is passionate, life-enriching gardening; it's also simple, adaptable and can work for you. Sarah has made the garden central to her life – this book shows you how you can too.

'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.

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.

"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.

From cocoa farming in Ghana to the orchards of Kent and the desert badlands of Pakistan, taking a practical approach to sustaining the landscape can mean the difference between prosperity and ruin. Working with Nature is the story of a lifetime of work, often in extreme environments, to harvest nature and protect it - in effect, gardening on a global scale. It is also a memoir of encounters with larger-than-life characters such as William Bunting, the gun-toting saviour of Yorkshire's peatlands and the aristocratic gardener Vita Sackville-West, examining their idiosyncratic approaches to conservation. Jeremy Purseglove explains clearly and convincingly why it's not a good idea to extract as many resources as possible, whether it's the demand for palm oil currently denuding the forests of Borneo, cottonfield irrigation draining the Aral Sea, or monocrops spreading across Britain. The pioneer of engineering projects to preserve nature and landscape, first in Britain and then around the world, he offers fresh insights and solutions at each step.

'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.

'Breathtakingly beautiful' i 'Tender and wholehearted' Helen Jukes LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE INDEPENDENT, FINANCIAL TIMES, I and GARDENS ILLUSTRATED When she suddenly finds herself uprooted, heartbroken, grieving and living out of a suitcase in her late twenties, Alice Vincent begins planting seeds. She nurtures pot plants and vines on windowsills and draining boards, filling her many temporary London homes with green. As the months pass, and with each unfurling petal and budding leaf, she begins to come back to life. Mixing memoir, botanical history and biography, Rootbound examines how bringing a little bit of the outside in can help us find our feet in a world spinning far too fast.

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.

An easy-to-follow gardening guide to help you encourage different types of wildlife into your garden. If you want to attract more bees, birds, frogs and hedgehogs into your garden, look no further than Wildlife Gardening for Everyone and Everything. Kate Bradbury offers tips on feeding your neighbourhood wildlife and explains how you can create the perfect habitats for species you'd like to welcome into your garden. With handy charts tailored to the needs of every size and style of garden, this easy-to-use book also includes practical projects such as making bee hotels or creating wildlife ponds, compost corners and wildflower meadows, as well as fact files for the UK's most common garden species. Everyone can garden with wildlife in mind, and in this practical new guide, Kate has teamed up with the Wildlife Trusts and the RHS to help you discover how you can make your garden, balcony, doorstep or patio a haven for garden wildlife.

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.

Naturalistic planting design offers an exciting alternative to traditional garden making. Rich in plants, sustainable and good for the environment, naturalistic gardens are also beautiful, uplifting places that resonate with the energy of the natural world - but they can be challenging to get right. In this seminal book, leading exponent of the technique Nigel Dunnett shares his peerless ecological and horticultural wisdom and fascinating working methods to ensure success with every project. By following a simple set of rules and principles in a unique 'Planting Design Toolkit' discover how to read the landscape and create 'designed plant communities' that are layered to sustain interest throughout the year. Learn how to design planting that captures the spirit of nature, fosters immersive, emotionally engaging experiences and reduces the need for maintenance. The information is in-depth, practical and generously supported by a wealth of case studies, illustrations, plans and diagrams. This is the essential go-to guide for anyone wishing to join the adventure and plant the naturalistic way.

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.

This title includes a comprehensive directory of plants and a bonus chapter on photographing butterflies. This latest title, from a growing and successful series, is by a UK author. You can turn your garden into a haven for butterflies by giving them the right plants to feed on and providing suitable places to breed and hibernate. This beautifully illustrated book brings together all the information you will need to encourage garden butterflies in temperate countries. Every garden has the potential to attract butterflies - no matter how large or small or its location. Learn about the basics of butterfly lifecycles, preferred habitats, human impact on populations, types of garden, breeding and overwintering. Delve into the handy directory listings of plant species to attract butterflies, common garden butterflies and food plants for caterpillars. A bonus chapter on photographing butterflies describes the practicalities of capturing them in photographs. This title includes on butterfly species from temperate parts of Britain, continental Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

"An invaluable resource" Huw Richards If you want to grow your own food, become more self sufficient, zero waste or eco friendly, or even go fully off grid, Liz Zorab is the perfect guide to help you explore the world of green living and permaculture. Grounded is the story of her gardening journey: from bare field to bountiful feast; from poor soil to fertile abundance; from rookie errors to successful sustainability. Liz and her husband, Mr J, transformed a tired 0.8 acre field into a fertile homestead that provides 80% of their food and drink - with enough left over to stock a community veggie box scheme! An inspiring blend of practical tips and ideas with personal narrative and a good smattering of humour, Grounded will show you how to: ` Fill your garden without emptying your pocket ` Make the most of the space you have ` Be creative with resources ` Achieve more without exhausting yourself ` Become more resilient ` Enjoy the process as much as the results This is a tale of courage and imagination that will inspire you to grow your own productive paradise and live your dreams.

Planting, by famed landscape architects Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury, is a groundbreaking moment in horticulture. It is the first book to share Oudolf s original planting plans and plant groupings and the only book to explicitly show how his gardens and landscapes are made. An intimate knowledge of plants is essential to the success of this approach and Planting makes Oudolf s considerable understanding of plant ecology and performance accessible, explaining how plants behave in different situations, what goes on underground, and which species make good neighbors. Extensive plant charts and planting plans will help you choose plants for their structure, color, and texture as well as the way they perform in the landscape. A detailed directory, with details each plant s life expectancy, the persistence of its seedheads, its tendency to spread, and propensity to self-seed, is an invaluable resource.Planting is an essential resource for designers and gardeners looking to create plant-rich, beautiful gardens that support biodiversity and nourish the human spirit."

Plan Your Landscape or Garden to Help Beloved Backyard Visitors The presence of birds, bees, and butterflies suggests a healthy, earth-friendly place. These most welcome guests also bring joy to those who appreciate watching them. Now, you can turn your yard into a perfect habitat that attracts them and, more importantly, helps them thrive. Acclaimed author and expert entomologist Jaret C. Daniels provides all the information you need in this must-have guide for northern Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Learn how to landscape and create pollinator gardens with native plants. The book begins with an in-depth introduction to native pollinators and to birds. It's followed by a "field guide" section to more than 100 native plants that are widely available to utilize, are easy to care for, and provide great benefit to birds, bees, and butterflies. The species are organized by level of sunlight needed and then by plant types. Each species includes full-color photographs and information about hardiness zones, what they are most likely to attract, soil requirements, light levels, and Jaret's notes. As an added bonus, you'll make use of blooming charts, tips on attracting specific species, and more! Plus, the invaluable garden plans and projects show you just what to do and can be customized to suit your own specific interests. Plan, plant, and grow your beautiful garden, with native plants that benefit your favorite creatures to watch and enjoy.

Birds are a delight in the garden, not only for their beauty and birdsong, but also because they eat many harmful garden pests. This book contains a wealth of feeding ideas for backyard birds, from seeds, grains and peanuts to fruits, suet cakes and fat balls, and suggestions for the best flowers, shrubs, hedges and trees to plant to encourage birds into the garden. There are step-by-step projects for tables, nest boxes, birdbaths and birdhouses that will enhance and decorate your garden, and the book also features illustrated directories of the most common garden birds in the UK and in the USA, from woodland and countryside locations to town and city environments, with information about identification, distribution, habitat and feeding habits. With its helpful practical advice and superb photographs and illustrations, this is the ideal source book for all wildlife enthusiasts Learn what to feed garden birds, from seeds, grains and peanuts to fruits, suet cakes and fat balls, as well as how to attract birds by planting the right flower borders, trees and shrubs, and by making wildlife hedges and ponds * Features practical step-by-step projects for making your own feeders, tables, birdbaths and nest boxes, from simple designs to highly ornamental creations * Includes a visual directory of all the most common garden bird species, with natural history information on distribution, size, nesting, eggs and feeding habits * Explains how birds live - from flying and feeding to egg-laying and migrating - with a guide to birdwatching in urban, country, woodland and aquatic locations * With over 760 beautiful photographs and illustrations.

If you want to do your bit to support local biodiversity, start your own wildlife pond in your back garden. Whether you are looking to do something to help the environment, building a feature pond as a family landscaping project, or attracting local wildlife to your garden; a wildlife pond is a perfect addition to your gardening efforts. Learn everything there is to know about wildlife ponds with: - Photographic and illustrative step-by-step guides on planning, creating, and maintaining your pond - A variety of pond types covered, including natural-style ponds, container ponds, and more traditional, formal-style ponds that still attract wildlife - What to expect throughout the seasons, the creatures that will visit, and the aquatic plants that will thrive - Tips on what to look out for in your pond, encouraging a natural eco-system, and how to maintain your newly built pond throughout the year Find out everything you'll need to know to create a natural sanctuary in your garden! This book shows you how to create a backyard pond without filters, pipes, and chemicals, and how to attract and support local species. RHS How to Create a Wildlife Pond provides easy-to-follow steps on how to dig your own pond line, advice on which pond plants to choose from, and how to make sure local wildlife can enjoy your pond safely. This book will also give you advice on how to take care of your newly built water feature so that you're able to enjoy the local animals, insects and birds for years to come. You can expect to see blackbirds bathing in your pond, hedgehogs using it as a water source, and bats flying over at night to catch insects. This wonderful book is filled with photographs and illustrations that will make planning and creating your own pond a therapeutic and fulfilling experience! Complete the Series: There are so many ways for you to enjoy your garden! If you're looking for tips on environmental changes and landscaping ideas, DK books have even more gardening guides and projects for you to explore. Discover RHS How to Garden the Low Carbon Way, or bring even more feathered friends to your garden with How to Attract Birds to Your Garden.

William Robinson's revolutionary book, "The Wild Garden, " envisioned an authentically naturalistic approach to gardening that is more vital today than ever before. First published in 1870, "The Wild Garden" evolved through many editions and remained in print through the remainder of the author's lifetime (1838 1935). In the book, Robinson issued a forceful challenge to the prevailing style of the day, which relied upon tender plants arranged in rigidly geometrical designs. In sharp contrast, Robinson advocated for the use of hardy, locally adapted native and exotic plants arranged according to local growing conditions. Robinson's vision was inspired by his first-hand observations of natural habitats in Europe and North America, and he put his ideas into practice in his own garden at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex. "The Wild Garden" was ground-breaking and hugely influential in its day, and is stunningly relevant to twenty-first century gardeners and landscape stewards seeking to adopt sustainable design and management practices.
In addition to the complete original text and illustrations from the fifth edition of 1895, this expanded edition includes new chapters and 112 color photographs by award-winning photographer and landscape consultant Rick Darke. His new material places wild gardening in modern context, underscoring Robinson's importance in the evolution of ecological design and illustrating an inspiring diversity of contemporary wild gardens.
The potent combination presented here makes this new edition of a timeless classic an essential resource for all who wish to know how we have arrived at our present understanding of gardens and what opportunities lie ahead. As will be immediately clear to anyone who leafs through this book, Robinson's urgent message continues to resonate.
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Plan Your Landscape or Garden to Help Beloved Backyard Visitors The presence of birds, bees, and butterflies suggests a healthy, earth-friendly place. These most welcome guests also bring joy to those who appreciate watching them. Now, you can turn your yard into a perfect habitat that attracts them and, more importantly, helps them thrive. Acclaimed author and expert entomologist Jaret C. Daniels provides all the information you need in this must-have guide for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. You can learn how to landscape and create pollinator gardens with native plants. The book begins with an in-depth introduction to native pollinators and to birds. It's followed by a "field guide" section to 109 native plants that are widely available to utilize, are easy to care for, and provide great benefit to birds, bees, and butterflies. The species are organized by level of sunlight needed and then by plant types. Each species includes full-color photographs and information about hardiness zones, what they are most likely to attract, soil requirements, light levels, and Jaret's notes. As an added bonus, you'll make use of blooming charts, tips on attracting specific species, and more! Plus, the invaluable garden plans and projects show you just what to do and can be customized to suit your own specific interests. Plan, plant, and grow your own beautiful garden, with native plants that benefit your favorite creatures to watch and enjoy.