Engaging and quirky; full of ideas and inspiration for garden projects that you'll be itching to try for yourself. Dave Goulson, author of The Garden Jungle A thoughtful and practical guide Country Life Design a garden for the future - because what we grow matters. Transform your garden into a self-sustaining haven for nature and wildlife. Ecological garden designer Matt Rees-Warren shares inspirational design ideas and practical projects to help you create a garden that is both beautiful today and sustainable tomorrow. The Ecological Gardener will give you the tools to create an abundant, healthy garden from the soil up - a garden that welcomes birds and bees and allows native planting and wild flowers to flourish, with minimal carbon impact or need for fresh water. This book can guide both novice and experienced gardeners alike in their journey to a more ecological approach, and is full of practical projects and information, including: Finding the right design for your space Creating a wildflower meadow Building rainwater catchments and other tips for water conservation Making compost from kitchen waste, leafmould, compost tea and more Creating a space for wildlife such as hedgehogs, bees and other pollinators Finding beauty in your garden during the winter Matt will show you how to reimagine how you garden, working with nature instead of controlling it, to create a space that promotes both wildlife and beauty.

A practical guide to creating a beautiful native wildflower meadow or a colourful area of cornfield annuals, in even the smallest of gardens.

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.

'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.

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.

Humphry Repton (1752-1818) remains one of England's most interesting and prolific garden and landscape designers. Renowned for his innovative design proposals and distinctive before-and-after images, captured in his famous "Red Books," Repton's astonishing career represents the link between the simple parklands of his predecessor Capability Brown and the more elaborate, structured, and formal landscapes of the Victorian age. This lavishly illustrated book, based on a wealth of new research, reinterprets Repton's life, working methods, and designs, and examines why they proved so popular in a rapidly changing world.

Howard Resh is internationally known as a pioneering hydroponics researcher: previous editions of this book are known as the "Bible" of the industry. Comprehensive guide to soilless culture with extensively new and updated content - perfect for both commercial and hobby growers. Covers media, lights and nearly every method of hydroponic gardening, and provides charts, equations, and diagrams for easy understanding. Presents greenhouse environmental control systems and examples of sustainable greenhouse technology, and demonstrates uses of automation and robotics in harvesting, grading, and packing. Introduces indoor vertical farming, and vertical growing systems, as well as the expansion of tropical hydroponics and rooftop greenhouses. Provides information on automation in large-scale raft culture and nutrient film technique (NFT) operations in the growing of lettuce, leafy greens, and herbs.

Build healthy soil and grow better plants Robert Pavlis, a gardener for over four decades, debunks common soil myths, explores the rhizosphere, and provides a personalized soil fertility improvement program in this three-part popular science guidebook. Healthy soil means thriving plants. Yet untangling the soil food web and optimizing your soil health is beyond most gardeners, many of whom lack an in-depth knowledge of the soil ecosystem. Soil Science for Gardeners is an accessible, science-based guide to understanding soil fertility and, in particular, the rhizosphere - the thin layer of liquid and soil surrounding plant roots, so vital to plant health. Coverage includes: Soil biology and chemistry and how plants and soil interact Common soil health problems, including analyzing soil's fertility and plant nutrients The creation of a personalized plan for improving your soil fertility, including setting priorities and goals in a cost-effective, realistic time frame. Creating the optimal conditions for nature to do the heavy lifting of building soil fertility Written for the home gardener, market gardener, and micro-farmer, Soil Science for Gardeners is packed with information to help you grow thriving plants.

With over 300 beautiful color photos and an informative text offers practical knowledge for the planning, building, and care of water features in gardens. From design to maintenance, all necessary steps are made clear, including planning, building processes, material uses and techniques, and using rainwater as they apply to fountains, biotopes, brooks, swimming pools and ponds, plants and animals. Step-by-step instructions, informative suggestions, maintenance tips, lists of plants, and plans are included. This book is essential for anyone intending to include a water feature in their landscape design.

Enjoy discovering the hows and whys behind growing a beautiful garden through 293 color images. From learning the profiles of each individual plant and their basic needs to maintaining a garden community, this book offers a fun and whimsical approach to developing your green thumb. You'll learn how to choose the right plants for growing your best garden. Think of it as staging a theatrical production, with tips for lighting, temperature, drainage, and developing a sustainable landscape. The text is entertaining, with easy-to-remember facts and suggestions for putting on the best garden show ever. This book is great for both the beginner and seasoned gardener, landscape artists, horticulturalists, and everyone who just loves looking at beautiful flowers and plants.

The New York Botanical Garden was established with a mission to seek knowledge about plant life, conduct research, offer courses of instruction, and provide a place for the public to learn about botany. This historical study of the New York Botanical Garden provides the first and only comprehensive social history of this vital institution. The monograph is intended for the general public as well as the scientific community. In order to familiarize the reader with the nature and historical development of the modern botanical garden, the narration begins long before 1891, and goes back as far as the Ancient Egyptians and Romans. In addition, the work discusses the interesting local history and people who inhabited the area where the great institution was established. The story continues with the foundations of The Garden, and its early history and developments through the Depression. The book also considers the growing importance of environmental issues and the growth of the conservatory, library, and herbarium. The history concludes with the major events of the late 1970s, with an overview of the garden up to the year 2000. Every institution or organization has a mission. The New York Botanical Garden provides a public service to improve human life, and has assumed a certain charisma that permeates its very foundation. Reading the institution's story illuminates this charisma, which has characterized the Garden throughout its history.

Bring butterflies back is a follow-up to the much acclaimed bring nature back to your garden by the same authors. It is unique in being the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information on all indigenous South African butterfly larval food-plants. The book emphasises the contribution people can make to nature by actually providing food for caterpillars, giving practical examples. It includes a chapter with the Latin and common names of all our approximately 670 butterfly species. There is an intriguing further chapter on bizarre butterfly lifestyles: few people know, for example, that some butterfly larvae are carnivorous and abuse the hospitality of ants which host them, by eating their unsuspecting offspring. Most useful are descriptions of over 500 plants selected by our butterflies themselves. All known indigenous larval food-plants are included.

Twenty years ago, Dan Pearson was invited to make a garden at the 240-hectare Tokachi Millennium Forest in Hokkaido, Japan. Part of the intention was to entice city dwellers to reconnect with nature and improve land that had been lost to intensive agriculture and this was achieved along with much more. By tuning into the physical and cultural essence of the place and applying a light touch in terms of cultivation, this world-class designer created a remarkable place which has its heart in Japan's long-held respect for nature and its head in contemporary ecological planting design. The bold, uplifting sweep of the Meadow Garden mixes garden plants with natives while the undulating landforms of the Earth Garden bring sculptural connection with the mountains beyond. Under the skilful custodianship of Midori Shintani, the garden has evolved beautifully to reflect principles that lie at the heart of Japanese culture: observation of seasonal changes, practical tasks carried out with care and an awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things. This beautiful, instructive book allows us all to experience something of the Tokachi effect, gain expert insights into how to plant gardens that feel right for their location, and reconnect with the land and wildlife that surround us.

Ecological gardening with ease and simplicity. Gardening Naturally offers a wealth of information and practical advice for growing indoor and outdoor plants based on sustainability, a rejection of artificial chemicals, and respect for biodiversity and the natural world. From advice on planning your garden and dealing with disease, insects, and the arrival of cold weather, to tips for starting your own compost, repotting effectively, and choosing which local and native flowers to best attract pollinators, Gardening Naturally will interest anyone who wants to add flowers, edibles, and greenery to their daily life, no matter the size of their balcony or the extent of their garden.

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.

The essential resource for managing turfgrasses in the Transition Zone In the Transition Zone, where temperature and precipitation vary greatly from season to season, maintaining healthy, high-quality turfgrass requires year-round focus. Turfgrass managers must practice intensive maintenance of cool-season grasses or use warm-season grasses, which become dormant in the cool days of fall and winter. Turf Management in the Transition Zone covers all the fundamental principles of maintaining turfgrass in this complex growing area. It helps turfgrass managers in transition areas develop a deeper understanding of: The growth cycles of cool- and warm-season grasses Turfgrass physiology, nutrition, and soil science Cultural practices, including mowing and irrigation Management of climate-specific diseases and insects Complete with more than 100 illustrations and tables,Turf Management in the Transition Zone offers expert advice for everyday turf-maintenance issues faced by golf course superintendents, sports turf managers, greenkeepers, lawn care specialists, and golf course architects and builders.

Whether you love growing, love creating, or just want to liven up your outdoor space, a container garden is just the answer. So many of us nowadays are crammed into our homes and a garden is a luxury that few can afford. But there is always room for a bit of greenery; whether it's herbs and spices to add fresh flavour to your food, or putting a jungle on your windowsill, a container can enable growers to bring nature to the most inhospitable and smallest spaces. Frances Tophill covers the sustainable, crafty and culinary aspects of container gardening. From urns and troughs to chimney stacks and hanging baskets alongside what to grow inside them - bonsai to annuals, bulbs, grasses and bamboos, tumbling and creeping plants and flowers - there are also 40 ideas on how to pair plants and pots, including upcycling existing items and creating your own containers.

The New England Gardener's Book of Lists contains essential information for anyone gardening in the unique climates of the upper northeast. This vital guide provides expert advice on choosing appropriate annuals, biennials, and perennials, tending bulbs, roses, shrubs, and vines, and selecting trees, native plants, ferns, grasses, and groundcovers for particular conditions.

We don't need to poison the earth in order to grow better food, and what is harmful to the environment when improperly disposed of often can be turned back to the soil in a beneficial way through composting - if you know how. Here's how. Malcolm Beck's Garden-Ville is one of the largest commercial composting operations in the country. He shares his insight into the processes of decay that can transform everything from lawn trimmings to sewer sludge into life-giving earth. Coupled with Beck's insight into nature and practical advice are remarks from Charles Walters, author, founder of Acres U.S.A.

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.