Have you just joined the cactus craze? Do you want to know how to make your little bundle of spikes thrive, flower and breed? This quirky pocket-sized book is your essential guide to pleasing your prickly pet. Your cactus may be surviving, but is it happy? There's so much more to these little green plants than just keeping them alive. Happy Cactus gets right to the point with practical advice from potting to propagating. Unearth the secrets of different cacti and succulents, with profiles on more than 105 popular varieties - from the cute, flowering pincushion cactus to the wacky prickly pear, discover what makes your plant unique and how it might behave when treated with a little bit of love. Find out where to put it, when to water it, what to feed it, what to look out for and how to encourage its distinctive traits, from flower stalks to fast growth. Flick through inspirational features to help you create a show-stopping cactus display. Whether you're a young urbanite seeking a stylish houseplant for your flat but struggling to keep more temperamental plants alive, or a green-fingered cactus enthusiast determined to get your precious plant to grow and flower this year, Happy Cactus is here to answer all your questions.

Compiled from the pages of "Fine Gardening" magazine, "Container Gardening" takes the reader by the hand and provides a tutorial on the three major aspects of container gardening: designing beautiful pots, combining plants that will thrive in any region of the country, and keeping the plants healthy and beautiful all season. The ideal option for renters, or those without the time and space for traditional gardening, container gardening is becoming increasingly popular. This thorough and comprehensive guide covers every conceivable nuance and even includes galleries of ideas for green-fingered inspiration. "Fine Gardening" magazine from The Taunton Press, combines breathtaking design ideas, helpful techniques and the know-how to get great results in your own garden.

Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors' bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even less planting. And here's one of the best parts -- no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even identify the plants that benefit most from compost and how the elements of a composted garden work together.
A natural Six-Way Compost Gardening System provides the ruling principles for successfully improving every garden with healthy compost. Readers will learn how to:
1. Choose labor-saving sites that keep gardens and compost piles as close to one another as possible.
2. Work with the compostable riches produced at home. Every yard and kitchen produces plenty of material -- easily identified with at-a-glance charts -- for a great start.
3. Help composting critters do their work by balancing ingredients, adding high-nitrogen meals when needed, and keeping the compost moist.
4. Reuse recycling bin items, such as large plastic buckets and cardboard boxes, as composting equipment.
5. Keep diversity in the mix. The magic is in the variety of the components and how they work together to create "gardener's gold."
6. Customize composting to suit specific garden needs, always concentrating first on soil care.
Adhering to these guidelines, Pleasant and Martin bring readers on a thorough, informative tour of materials and innovative techniques, leading the way to an efficient and rewarding home gardening system. Their methods are sure to help gardeners turn average vegetable plots into rich incubators of healthy produce, bursting with fresh flavor, and flower beds into rich tapestries of bountiful blooms all season long.

This title includes over 60 stage-by-stage construction and planting sequences, garden case studies, a comprehensive directory of plants and over 850 photographs. It shows you how to plan, design and plant up beautiful and easy-to-maintain garden courtyards, walled spaces, patios, terraces and enclosed backyards. You can create a courtyard in any style - a traditional patio, a Mediterranean-style terrace, an outdoor living and dining space, a productive area for growing fruit and vegetables, a peaceful retreat, or an ultra-modern design. It features step-by-step advice on all the practicalities, from planning a suitable layout and preparing the site, to sourcing all the elements and choosing the plants. This beautiful book is packed with creative ideas for making a successful courtyard space. There is advice on flooring, walls and screens, containers, structures, furniture, ornaments, water features and lighting. Inspirational examples are presented alongside step-by-step instructions to explain the features shown. Case studies with detailed plans explore the dynamics of the different designed spaces, and a plant directory gives a comprehensive listing of planting options. A section on maintenance shows how to keep your courtyard looking its best. If you have a space to design from scratch or one that needs an overhaul, this book provides all the advice you will need.

By reimagining how we design and use our gardens, we can all do our bit to support local wildlife, improve our health and help tackle the climate crisis. If we all take positive steps in our gardens, no matter how small, we can all really make a difference in the world. This book focuses on the activities and planting suitable for a Scottish climate but also contains lots of useful information relevant for gardeners throughout the UK. Practical information on planning is followed by expert guidance on: Planting for wildlife in nectar-rich borders, wildflower meadows, hedgerows, trees and shrubs Building for wildlife with bird boxes, bug boxes, feeders and ponds Green gardening approaches with fruit and veg production, rain gardens, green roofs, compost making and creating new plants through propagation Attracting birds, bees, butterflies and other insects, aquatic life and nightlife

This friendly, practical guide includes everything you need to know to pick up a spade, put in a pond and help wildlife flourish right outside your back door. Ponds are vital oases for nature. They are nursery grounds, feeding stops and bathing spots. They are genetic superhighways and vibrant ecosystems each brimming with life, interactions and potential. And they are for everyone. In The Wildlife Pond Book, Jules Howard offers a fresh perspective on ponds and encourages gardeners to reach for a garden spade and do something positive to benefit our shared neighbourhood nature. As well as offering practical tips and advice on designing, planting up and maintaining your pond, Jules encourages readers to explore the wildlife that colonises it with a torch, a microscope or a good old-fashioned pond-dipping net. With a foreword by award-winning wildlife-gardening author, Kate Bradbury, this helpful new guide includes a section outlining the hundreds of organisms that may turn up in your pond and is packed with creative ideas that have been tried and tested by author Jules Howard, an avid pond-builder, prolific pond-dipper and passionate voice for freshwater conservation for more than fifteen years. So, no matter how big your outdoor space is, The Wildlife Pond Book is the guide you need to create your very own haven for nature.

Maria Thun, a pre-eminent expert in biodynamic cultivation methods - sometimes referred to as "premium organic" - has here compiled over 100 of her best gardening tips based on 50 years' research. Find out: * how to produce abundant and tasty crops; * how special preparations can transform your soil and produce; * how the moon affects planting and growth; * the difference between 'root', 'leaf', 'blossom' and 'fruit' plants; * what the best storage methods are; and much more. Accompany the author on a journey through the seasons and discover lots of new tips and suggestions. There is a wealth of advice here for gardeners seeking to manage nature responsibly and successfully.

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.

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.

An updated edition of an underground classic This is the 4th edition of a self-published book that no respectable publisher would touch with a ten-foot shovel. The 1st edition was published in 1994 with a print run of 600 copies, which the author expected to watch decompose in his garage for the rest of his life. Now, 24 years later, the book has sold over 65,000 print copies in the U.S. alone, been translated in whole or in part into 19 languages and been published in foreign editions on four continents. The previous editions won numerous awards, including the Independent Publisher Outstanding Book of the Year Award, deeming the book "Most Likely to Save the Planet." The book has been mentioned on such diverse media outlets as: Mother Earth News, Whole Earth Review, Countryside Journal, The Journal of Environmental Quality, Natural Health, NPR, BBC, CBC, Howard Stern, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy Magazine, Organic Gardening Magazine, the History Channel, Tree House Masters, and many other national and international venues. The 4th edition is a completely revised, expanded, and updated version of what has become an underground classic bestseller. The author draws from 40 years of research, experience, and travel, to expand and clarify your knowledge and understanding of... your poop! Not only does the book address what to do with human turds, but it is also a priceless manual for anyone involved in composting or gardening, or looking for basic survival skills. There is no other book like this in print!

Brighten your garden all year round with a wide variety of bulbs. Ideal for first-time gardeners, Grow Bulbs contains everything you need to bring year-round colour into your garden with bulbs. Learn how to plant, care for, and divide your bulbs, create stunning displays including naturalistic drifts and eye-catching containers, and choose from a huge range of bulbs, corms, and tubers with the book's handy seasonal directory. Packed with practical, jargon-free know-how, this easy-to-use guide has everything you need to know to help your garden Grow.

This beautiful guide to indoor plants is a comprehensive compendium of succulents, cacti, flowering and foliage plants, with detailed instructions on how to care for each, alongside stunning full-page watercolour illustrations of each plant. Whether you are looking to cultivate an entire indoor garden, or simply wish to know more about your single cactus, you can be sure to find the right information for you amongst the more than seventy plants in this stylish guide. And the best bit? All the plants are easy to maintain so even the most timid of gardeners can enjoy turning their hand to this green-fingered pastime. Driven by the beautiful artwork of the phenomenally talented Maaike Koster, alongside insightful text from Emma Sibley, co-founder of London Terrariums, each entry offers a concise but complete guide to these plants, telling you their origins, how to care for them and where in your home they will thrive. Each plant is rendered in considered detail, taking up a full double page spread, with half of this space allotted to the illustration, facing a paragraph on the plant itself, care tips and any information about fellow species. The accessible text and simple instructions make this book just as well suited to those with no gardening experience as to those with years of practice. These plants can be grown in any in-door space and are easy to maintain, so you no longer need a large garden or hours of free time to maintain a vibrant collection of greenery in your home. These plants add interest, tranquility and colour to every corner of our lives, so embark on a verdant adventure with this beautiful and comprehensive guide!

We have lost touch with the planet that feeds us and its relationship to our health, happiness and climate. Through thought-provoking conversations with inspiring thinkers and writers, and seasonal recipes created by leading chefs, Recipes to Reconnect provides a blueprint for a better way of eating and living. Organised seasonally, each conversation is paired with a selection of recipes, carefully created by chefs in response to the ideas discussed. Themes explored include gut health, rewilding, mushrooms, farming, microbes, soil, fasting, sleep and mental health. Among the recipe and conversation pairings, Harry Boglione's discussion of regenerative farming is followed by Jeremy Lee's foraged dishes, Isabella Tree and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are paired on the theme of rewilding, Rachel de Thample's fermented recipes respond to Dr Alanna Collen's discussion of microbes, Simon Rogan's mushroom recipes are inspired by Merlin Sheldrake's passion for fungi and following Charlie Morley's interview on lucid dreaming are Skye Gyngell's recipes, all designed to enable good sleep.

Leading landscape architect Kim Wilkie is revered for his unusual vision and his acute grasp of how people have moulded their environment over the centuries. This updated version of his classic book, Led by the Land, has been expanded to include fresh thoughts on farming and settlement and new projects, both huge and intimate, from the designs for new cities in Oman and England to the Swansea Maggie's Centre, and from plans for London's Natural History Museum grounds to the sculptural setting of a furniture factory in Leamington Spa. Wilkie has taken his genius to many parts of the world - including the United States, Chile, Russia, Transylvania, Italy, the Middle East, the very edge of the Arctic Circle, as well as the British Isles - but to each undertaking he brings the same approach of reverence for the land and the creatures that inhabit it. He does not impose his inspiration on it but interacts with it. He allows the land to lead him. Led by the Land ruminates on our species' place in the environment, the way past masters have fashioned it and the hopes for our future fruitful connections and offers not only a rich account of an unusual talent, but also an optimistic vision for our future.

Ultimate Gardens & Swimming Pools Front cover image Wim Pauwels Not yet printed due - 05/19 9782875500656 Hardback Beta-Plus Publishing Territory: World Size: 340 mm x 270 mm Pages: 192 Illustrations: 200 colour RRP GBP69.95 This book features some of the world's most beautiful private gardens and swimming pools, realised by the best garden and landscape architects working today. Includes private gardens from the UK, France, Belgium, and Hong Kong. Text in English and French.