Our climate is in a state of flux. Weather patterns are changing and therefore the way we manage our gardens are changing too. This offers a new and exciting challenge for all gardeners. This new book looks at the garden styles of nine regions which have always dealt superbly with heat, drought and water shortage - the Italianate Garden, the Islamic Garden, the Patio Garden, the Mediterranean Garden, the Gravel Garden, the Desert Garden, the Bush Garden, Cape Colour and the Jungle Garden. Each chapter explains the style and includes a practical tutorial, typical plant forms, a planting plan and a project. The final chapter is a useful plant directory introducing the key plants along with cultivation advice for growing them yourself. This is a critical read for gardeners, a practical and inspirational insight into the classic gardens defined by sunshine, humidity and lack of water that will continue to inform the gardens of tomorrow.

Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that's taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with The New Organic Grower published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine.

Now, with his long-awaited new book, The Winter Harvest Handbook, anyone can have access to his hard-won experience. Gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.

Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest, this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.

Coleman offers clear, concise details on greenhouse construction and maintenance, planting schedules, crop management, harvesting practices, and even marketing methods in this complete, meticulous, and illustrated guide. Readers have access to all the techniques that have proven to produce higher-quality crops on Coleman's own farm.

His painstaking research and experimentation with more than 30 different crops will be valuable to small farmers, homesteaders, and experienced home gardeners who seek to expand their production seasons.

A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it "just can't be done."

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.

Master the art of growing miniature trees with this fun, jargon-free guide to bonsai. The Little Book of Bonsai will make you an instant expert in the art of growing miniature trees. It is packed with myth-busting surprises, the first of which is that growing bonsai really isn't as hard as most people think. In fact, they are no more difficult to look after than other pot plants, and easier than many. This book makes the job even easier by breaking down the subject into three clear sections: Getting Started, Ongoing Care and Species Profiles. Jargon-free text and dozens of photographs and diagrams make this the ideal guide for complete novices, as well as a handy companion for more experienced growers. Whether you want to grow from seed or source an established plant, everything you need to know is contained in this guide, which, like bonsai themselves, is small but perfectly formed.

Colourful and hardy succulents meet the simple principles of Japanese Bonsai and Ikebana in this unique guide to container gardening. Inexpensive projects presented along with the spare aesthetic of Japanese design will appeal to everyone from interior designers to small space enthusiasts to gardeners. Stylish Succulents approaches container gardens as an art form ranging from low-key to lush. Trendy and low-maintenance succulents come in a variety of colours, sizes, shapes, and textures as do containers making each project one-of-a-kind. Projects are carefully explained and include step-by-step photo instructions. Learn how to: Choose colours, shapes, and textures to fit your personal space Utilize wall spaces with simple planters and dramatic hanging gardens Make a succulent wreath Create thoughtful and inexpensive giftsEvery level of gardener can create these miniature works of gardening art using containers and plants of their choosing. The possibilities are truly endless!

Forest gardens are much in the news as an exemplary form of resilient, sustainable, small-scale agriculture and plenty has been written about them already. But little has been written about the role of those who 'look after' them. A forest garden is edible, fertile, abundant and beautiful because it functions as an ecosystem. The forest gardener is an integral part of this ecosystem - which raises the question of what exactly the forest gardener should be trying to do. This book answers that question. At the heart of a forest garden is the unique relationship between the garden and the gardener. The 'garden of equal delights' after which this book is named is Anni Kelsey's forest garden high on a wet and windy Welsh hillside. Rejecting control and a regimen of planned interventions in favour of a more intimate, knowing and connected relationship with her garden, Anni describes how she learned to garden as an intrinsic - and equal - part of the ecosystem. She uses her years of experience to formulate and explain in very practical terms a set of principles that other forest gardeners can follow in their own preferred way. So this is a challenging and inspiring story for experienced, new and would-be forest gardeners and for anyone with a love of nature and a longing to engage with it on a deeper level. A forest garden is a different garden which needs to be gardened differently by a different gardener.

If you want a vibrant, chemical-free vegetable garden, companion planting is the solution. Did you know tomatoes produce a natural insecticide that can help protect carrots against pests? Or that planting mint near lettuce can repel slugs? Every gardener knows that the key to an abundant harvest in their vegetable garden is controlling pests and disease, while still maintaining a healthy growing environment. But it is possible to have a healthy, thriving vegetable garden without using dangerous chemicals? It is, as long as you know how to pair up the right plants. Organic gardeners have known for years that planting the right plants together is the key to minimizing pests, improving soil quality, and increasing the yield of their gardens, and almost any vegetable you can grow likely has a beneficial companion. Companion planting is the ideal way to avoid using chemicals, while still increasing the efficiency of your garden. Expert organic gardener Brian Lowell will teach you how to use plants to create a beautiful, vibrant vegetable garden that will be free of toxic chemicals. Here's what you'll find inside: Handy companion planting pairings for all of the most common garden vegetables Practical, simple photography and colorful illustrations for dozens of beneficial planting configurations Expert advice from a master gardener that is specifically designed for beginners Loads of troubleshooting tips for fixing common issues with companion-planted gardens Tips for setting up the perfect vegetable garden, including practical advice on watering, soil management, troubleshooting, and more

'A beautifully photographed guide for gardeners' - Daily Telegraph 'Nick offers solutions for every season' - Country Living 'A thought-provoking and beautifully written book' - Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener, Great Dixter In 365 Days of Colour in Your Garden BBC Gardeners' World presenter Nick Bailey shows you how to plant and manage your garden, whatever its size, to ensure year-round colour and interest. Initially explaining simple colour theory principles and how to apply them to your garden, the book goes on to highlight beautiful plants and planting combinations for every season no matter what type of garden you have. With chapters covering the longest flowering plants, pot recipes and gorgeous plants for difficult sites, along with a comprehensive seasonal directory, this book will inspire and delight both experienced gardeners and beginners alike.

A no-fuss guide to caring for your indoor plants - ideal for first-time gardeners! Do you want to know how to keep your houseplants alive and thriving indoors but don't know where to start? This gardening book for beginners will help you care for over 60 houseplant varieties. You don't have to be a horticulture expert to create an indoor garden, this indispensable reference book will take you through every single step! It includes: - Easy indoor gardening tips and expert advice on indoor gardening for beginners - Packed with practical, jargon-free know-how, this easy-to-use guide has everything you need to know to help your - houseplants grow - Easy-to-follow format to help grow your gardening skills - Learn how to look after, rescue, and propagate plants including a rubber plant, fiddle fig leaf, a bread plant and more! Houseplants can magically transform any living space but looking after them can be tricky. If you are new to owning plants, this easy-to-use guide is packed with essential care tips and expert advice for happy and thriving indoor plants. Gorgeous, full-colour photography and simple step by step instructions will show you how to care for a wide range of indoor plants. This indoor gardening book for beginners also includes a plant directory of over 90 houseplants to practice your new gardening skills! Delve into the right succulents to plant, how to grow a fern and choosing the perfect trailing plants for your indoor spaces. Grow Houseplants is perfect for first-time gardeners, especially renters and people who live in smaller spaces. Make your green-fingered dreams a reality with the Grow series from DK. Learn how to sow, grow, and harvest vegetables successfully in Grow Easy Veg, or discover how to garden more sustainably in Grow Eco-Gardening. Alternatively, there are more titles to explore such as Grow Pruning & Training and Grow Compost.

Planted freshwater aquariums combine the DIY aspects of terrariums with a sophisticated palette of gorgeous foliage plants. Sunken Gardens is packed with everything someone new to the hobby needs to know; it details the equipment needed to get started; surveys the best plants for aquascaping; and shows how to design, plant, and maintain an aquascape.

This book will teach you everything you need to know about feeding your garden, orchard or smallholding with homemade and chemical-free `teas'. It is packed with recipes for creating nutrient-rich, healthy soil, to give you healthy plants and ecosystems. Author, Eric Fisher, provides an in depth history of organic agriculture and the rise in chemical inputs. He then goes on to explore the importance of nutrients, their cycles and the structure of soil. This enables the reader to truly understand their soil and own ecosystem, so they can manage it properly. Once we understand how soil and nutrients work, it is easier to diagnose the problems and find a natural remedy. Eric provides recipes for a wide range of compost teas that can remedy many different problems, as well as for natural pesticides and insecticides. Eric shows the reader how to use the plants growing around them to create these `teas', using aerobic and anaerobic processes, as well as how to grow specific plants to encourage beneficial insects for healthy ecosystems. Eric's aim is for growers to feel confident in diagnosing plant disease and pest problems, and then be able to create the right remedy for the problem. If we can care for the health of our plants and soil without using chemicals, we can save money, encourage others to do the same, and show agri-business that their chemical inputs are not necessary.

Bokashi is Japanese for "fermented organic matter." Bokashi composting is a safe, quick, and convenient way to compost in your kitchen, garage, or apartment, using a specific group of microorganisms to anaerobically ferment all food waste (including meat and dairy). Since the process takes place in a closed system, insects and smell are controlled, making it ideal for urban or business settings. The process is very fast, with compost usually ready to be integrated into your soil or garden in around two weeks. While bokashi has enjoyed great popularity in many parts of the world, it is still relatively unknown in North America. From scraps to soil, Bokashi Composting is the complete, step-by-step, do-it-yourself guide to this amazing process, with comprehensive information covering:* Background--the history, development, and scientific basis of the technique* Getting started--composting with commercially available products or homemade systems* Making your own--system plans and bokashi bran recipes using common materials and locally sourced ingredients* Growing--improving your soil with fermented compost and bokashi "juice" This essential guide is a must-read for gardeners, homeowners, apartment dwellers, traditional composters, and anyone who wants a safe, simple, and convenient way to keep kitchen waste out of the landfill. Adam Footer is a permaculture designer with a focus on soil building, food forestry, cover crops, water conservation and harvesting, and natural farming. He is a tireless promoter of bokashi to maximize the recycling of food waste and runs the website bokashicomposting.com.

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.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson explains why we should welcome wildlife to our yards and provides foundational advice for doing so. Through personal narratives, profiles of home gardeners and interviews with scientists, the book applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own backyards.

Know, grow, and create beautiful bonsai Step-By-Step Bonsai is the ultimate introduction to bonsai trees, with illustrated step-by-step projects to make bonsai for beginners simple and achievable. With an A-Z directory of bonsai tree care, you'll learn the key techniques needed to create your own beautiful miniature landscapes. Author and internationally renowned bonsai artist Peter Warren has taught and worked all over the world and brings you the best of Japanese bonsai. His expertise will introduce you to the tools you'll need, tips for bonsai tree care, styling ideas and how to get the best from your bonsai plants. A complete 'how to' on planting, propagation, pruning and training techniques, plant care, and siting. Bonsai trees will bring serenity to your garden and make your landscape truly unique, even in an urban setting. With traditional techniques, display ideas and 20 contemporary projects for your miniature trees, Step-By-Step Bonsai uses photographic guides to make growing bonsai easy and approachable.

This title is a practical guide to designing and planting your garden, with 15 plans and over 200 inspirational pictures. It helps how to successfully plan a garden, from a large family space to patios, balconies and even roof gardens. It contains advice, tips and great ideas on the basics of good garden design, as well as how to create a style that suits your needs. It offers over 15 plans for well-planned gardens, with stunning photographs showing them in all their glory. It gives step-by-step guidance on a range of hands-on projects, including constructing a trellis, building overheads, creating shade, and installing garden lights. It is an inspirational and practical book that will guide you from drawing your first plans through to planting preferences and adding the finishing touches. Often gardening is about maintaining the status quo, but sometimes it is about new plans and a change of design. This book will guide you through such exciting opportunities, offering help and advice on how to make the most of your garden shape and size, planning the different areas and elements, and filling the new spaces with exactly the right planting schemes for you. Divided into three sections, the book first takes you through initial surveying, basic patterns and different kinds of design. The next chapter gives guidance on boundaries, walling, creating shape and focal points and other practicalities. The last chapter offers ideas and projects to follow for gardens, patios, balconies and roof gardens, ranging from entertaining areas to chill-out zones, and different styles from elegant formality to an enchanted jungle. Illustrated throughout with 200 images, this is an invaluable guide to garden planning.

Not all weeds are ugly uncontrollable brutes. Yes, they can be difficult and intimidating, but by learning how to grow weeds in unexpected ways you will become a better gardener with a more interesting garden. This book profiles over 50 weeds and shows you surprising ways to grow them, no matter what your garden type: from borders to boxes, sunny to shady, poor soil to rich, tropical to formal, Japanese-style to prairies. With interviews, tips and advice from celebrated gardeners, learn how to let weeds flourish without taking control. Wild about Weeds is the must-have guide for modern gardeners that explains how to tame and nurture the most challenging of plants.

Smart gardeners know that soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and thus become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial, often toxic, substances. But there is an alternative to this vicious cycle. We can garden in a way that strengthens the soil food web the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants. "Teaming with Microbes" extols the benefits of cultivating the soil food web. First, it clearly explains the activities and organisms that make up the web. Next, it explains how gardeners can cultivate the life of the soil through the use of compost, mulches, and compost tea. The revised edition updates the original text and includes two completely new chapters on mycorrhizae (beneficial associations fungi form with green-leaved plants) and archaea (single-celled organisms once thought to be allied to bacteria). With Jeff Lowenfels' help, everyone from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals can create rich, nurturing, living soil.

The threat of global mass extinction of bees, and the alarming decline in many native bird species, are key topics of discussion today. The main causes of this situation is intensive cultivation of monocultures, and the wide-scale use of pesticides, that in turn lead to destruction of traditional habitats and the various food sources they provide. We know that if just one species in a food chain is lost - and thus no longer able to perform its particular function - this will inevitably lead to the extinction of further species, and a reduction in the stability and productivity of the entire ecosystem. The preservation of biological diversity is guaranteed only if pollinators are able to survive - and each of us can contribute to supporting and strengthening them by creating a natural garden that welcomes and sustains these species, providing what they need to flourish. The spirit and magic of a natural garden stems from the fact that it is not created by human hands - at least not in the usual sense, with a great deal of effort and expenditure. A natural garden is about creating an ecologically balanced slice of nature - one that is not shaped by external forces, but works with what is already there. Turn your garden into a wildlife wonderland - and help to save the environment!

Hypertufa containers - also known as troughs - are rustic, striking, versatile, and perfect for small, Alpine plants. A mix of cement, perlite, peat, and water, they are simple and affordable to make at home. Hypertufa Containers details everything a home gardeners needs to know to make their own troughs and successfully garden in them. Readers will discover the amazing variety of plants that thrive in troughs. Plant portraits include growing and cultivation information along with potting tips. The book features step-by-step instructions for making hypertufa containers in a variety of shapes and sizes. The instructions are easy to follow and feature colour photography. Hypertufa Containers is for container gardeners, rock gardeners, and people looking for a new DIY project.

This informative guide tells readers everything they need to know about growing marijuana. Packed with over 700 full-colour illustrations and photographs detailing more than 150 affordable grow set-ups, it is ideal for beginners and aficionados alike.

With a revolutionary new "Climate Battery" design for near-net-zero heating and cooling By the turn of the nineteenth century, thousands of acres of glass houses surrounded large American cities, becoming a commonplace symbol of the market garden and nursery trades. But the possibilities of the indoor garden to transform our homes and our lives remain largely unrealized. In this groundbreaking book, Jerome Osentowski, one of North America's most accomplished permaculture designers, presents a wholly new approach to a very old horticultural subject. In The Forest Garden Greenhouse, he shows how bringing the forest garden indoors is not only possible, but doable on unlikely terrain and in cold climates, using near-net-zero technology. Different from other books on greenhouse design and management, this book advocates for an indoor agriculture using permaculture design concepts-integration, multi-functions, perennials, and polycultures-that take season extension into new and important territory. Osentowski, director and founder of Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI), farms at 7,200 feet on a steep, rocky hillside in Colorado, incorporating deep, holistic permaculture design with practical common sense. It is at this site, high on a mountaintop, where Osentowski (along with architect and design partner Michael Thompson) has been designing and building revolutionary greenhouses that utilize passive and active solar technology via what they call the "climate battery"-a subterranean air-circulation system that takes the hot, moist, ambient air from the greenhouse during the day, stores it in the soil, and discharges it at night-that can offer tropical and Mediterranean climates at similarly high altitudes and in cold climates (and everywhere else). Osentowski's greenhouse designs, which can range from the backyard homesteader to commercial greenhouses, are completely ecological and use a simple design that traps hot and cold air and regulates it for best possible use. The book is part case study of the amazing greenhouses at CRMPI and part how-to primer for anyone interested in a more integrated model for growing food and medicine in a greenhouse. With detailed design drawings, photos, and profiles of successful greenhouse projects on all scales, this inspirational manual will considerably change the conversation about greenhouse design.