This practical pocket guide includes 194 edible fruits, nuts and seeds, flowers, greens and vegetables, herbs, roots, whole plants, fungi, seaweeds and shellfish that you can forage in the UK and Europe.

Each species account includes accurate artworks and concise descriptions outlining essential details to help you identify species in the field, as well as information on where you can find species and helpful tips on how to cook and bake with the food you forage.

The author's introduction offers practical advice on foraging safely and legally and outlines how to prepare and preserve your foraged foods, including making mead and jam, drying herbs, storing mushrooms for later use and how to safely prepare foraged shellfish. The helpful fold-out poster shows common edible species grouped by season and by habitat.

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.

Easy and effective remedies are explained in a clear and practical way; step-by-step photographs show how to store water when it rains using water butts, containers and ponds, and how to conserve water used in the home. Practical advice is given on using compost to conserve water, and on lawn treatments. Special treatments and planting methods are covered in detail and help is given on grouping plants, correct watering and drought resistant plants. This is a book for all gardeners. It is superbly illustrated throughout and it contains all you need to know about creating a perfect garden when there is a water shortage.

Loaded with plants that conjure visions of tropical islands and pina coladas, this book makes real every gardener's dream of living in a private Eden. Detailed, step-by-step instructions guide gardeners through the process of cultivating their own tropical gardens with thick foliage and bright, bold plants.

Easy-to-read information and full-color photography guide the readers to information on the best grasses that grow in the hot, humid South, and instructions on planting and maintenance for each season of the year.

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.

Ponds and water features have been popular in gardens for thousands of years. This book is aimed at anyone who is thinking of building a pond, anyone who has bought some of the materials but doesn't know how to start or anyone who has a pond and needs to know how to keep it at its best.The book starts with the basics of assessing the garden, checking the site, planning and preparation, tools and materials and electrical wiring and safety. With the basics established the authors introduce the many different types of pond and how they can be created, maintained and enhanced.From split-level ponds to wildlife ponds, plant and fish and adding sculptures, bird houses, stones and bridges, each subject is presented in a clear way with box features, lists and questions and answers. The final chapter looks at water features - a rock pool or stream for a large garden or a small wall mask or trough for a tiny back garden.

Originally published in 1936, this book is a detailed guide to the cultivation of the mushroom. Full of detailed information and instruction on growing and harvesting, this book is still of great practical use to today's grower. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. Contents Include: Introduction - The Nature of the Mushroom - Site and Soil - Buildings - Manures - Spawns - Making up Beds - Care of Beds - Diseases and Pests and Their Control - Picking and Packing - Exhibiting - Some Companion Crops - Marketing and Costings - Cooking Recipes

Charles Dowding draws on his years of experience, to show how easy it is to start a new vegetable garden. Any plot - whether a building site, overgrown with weeds or unwanted lawn - can be turned into a beautiful and productive vegetable area. Charles's no-nonsense and straightforward advice is the perfect starting point for the beginner or experienced gardener. The book takes you step-by-step through: * Planning and early stages * Clearing the ground * Mulch - what, why, how? * Minimizing digging * Sowing and planting across the seasons * Growing in polytunnels and greenhouses It is filled with labour-saving ideas and the techniques that Charles uses to garden so successfully and is illustrated throughout with photos and tales from Charles's first year in his new vegetable garden.

Originally published in 1881, this is a'Practical treatise on the cultivation of the most profitable outdoor crop known'. Wonderfully detailed, it presents a complete system for the growing, cutivating and harvesting of all types of mushrooms.

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.