This beautiful book is packed with creative ideas for making a successful outdoor space of every shape and size. 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 how to create the features shown. Case studies with detailed plans explore the dynamics of the different designed spaces, and an illustrated 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 a bit of an overhaul, this book provides all the advice you need to create a bespoke garden retreat that captures the essence of outdoor living.

Jenny Hendy explains how topiary can be incorporated into garden styles, from traditional and contemporary to country-house and Japanese. A section on green architecture looks at larger topiary elements, including hedges, doorways and windows, and niches and alcoves. Achievable geometric shapes are also covered, from spheres and pyramids to turrets and helter-skelters. There are suggestions for more ambitious planting effects, such as knot gardens and parterres. Sculptural topiary is also explored, from the clipped creatures of cottage gardens to modern plant shaping. A plant directory then lists the best plants and the training to which they are suited. This fascinating insight into the art of topiary includes step-by-step instructions, spectacular photography and authoritative text. It shows how topiary can complement a range of garden styles and create design effects, such as defining an entranceway, marking a boundary or creating depth, and features projects for beginners through to experienced gardeners that show how to clip a spiral, create freehand figures, use topiary frames, train an arch, and tame a hedge.

This title includes fantastic ideas for making things, growing plants and flowers and attracting wildlife, with 60 practical projects and 175 photographs. It offers over 60 fun, child-friendly projects for gardening, with ideas for cultivating flowers, growing fruit and vegetables, making crafty projects and attracting insects, birds and animals. It contains an introduction with all the gardening basics includes advice on safety, equipment, understanding plants and a guide to commonly used gardening terms. It helps you grow a hyacinth in a glass, have tomatoes tumbling down the wall, spell your name in flowers, shape a den out of bamboo and make a mini-beast shelter. Every project features an at-a-glance 'you will need' list, growing times and a star rating guide to show you how easy or hard it is. Each idea has simple step-by-step instructions and there are over 175 fantastic colour photographs showing you what to do. A list of popular plants shows how to grow and use the plants in the book and many others, including where they like to live and how they like to be treated. Growing plants and making things for the garden is endless fun. This book is bursting with planting and gardening ideas to suit children from the ages of 5 to 12. It offers an introduction that arms the reader with all they need to know about plants, soil and tools. Then, over 60 step-by-step projects have ideas for doing things indoors, growing fruit, vegetables and flowers, making crafty bits and pieces for the garden and encouraging wildlife to visit. Whatever the weather, here are masses of ways to keep you occupied in and out of the garden, with fun activities for all children, from tiddlers to safari explorers.

This title offers fantastic gardening ideas for 5-12 year olds, from growing fruit and vegetables and fun with flowers to wildlife gardening and craft projects. It includes 120 fabulous projects, with easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions and more than 1200 stunning photographs to help children learn all about how plants grow. It includes topics ranging from edible treats and flower power to handicrafts, wildlife gardening and indoor ideas, as well as a useful directory of the most popular garden plants. It is the winner of the prestigious Garden Media Guild Practical Book of the Year Award. Getting your hands dirty and growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers in the garden is great fun. From flowering wellies, grotesque gourds and bird baths to wind chimes, butterfly pots and grass head men, there is a huge range of exciting projects that you can do in and out of the garden, whatever the weather. The book contains chapters covering everyday techniques, fruit and vegetables, craft projects, wildlife gardening and indoor gardening, plus a directory of plant profiles. Clear instructions and beautiful photographs make following the projects easy, while tips and growing ideas provide inspiration and encourage experimentation.

Create a harmonious garden style all the year round with innovative use of colour and pattern. Experience the soothing sounds of birdsong, the hum of insects, the rustle of leaves and the gentle trickle of water in the garden. Tempt your palate with sweet and edible flowers, plump summer fruits, delicious gourmet vegetables and fragrant herbs. Incorporate soft, velvety-textured plants and shrubs that cry out to be touched, and tactile floor surfaces that invite bare feet. Plant heady-scented roses, fragrant climbers and aromatic bulbs, annuals, herbs and shrubs to make your own pleasure garden. This beautiful book will show you how to add sensory elements into the garden, whether planting a fragrant honeysuckle near a window, adding a gently flowing water feature to attract wildlife, or planning beautiful borders to create romantic atmosphere or glorious year-round colour. Imagine the captivating scent of herbs and flowers, feast your eyes on a sunny summer border, hear the busy hum of bees, brush past soft foliage and taste sweet fruit freshly picked. A garden can incorporate all these elements whatever its aspect or size. With practical planting suggestions and delightful, evocative photographs of achievable garden schemes, "Creating a Garden of the Senses" will inspire you to make your garden a sensory paradise.

Green spaces represent freedom for children, an opportunity to rush around and explore their imagination. This energy can be channelled into a greater understanding of the garden, the things that grow in it, and the creatures that live there. With masses of ideas, this book provides a dure-fire way to occupy your kids constructively.