A richly illustrated survey celebrating humankind’s enduring relationship with the garden, explored throughout art, science, history, and culture Garden takes readers on a journey across continents and cultures to discover the endless ways artists and image-makers have found inspiration in gardens and horticulture throughout history. With more than 300 entries, this comprehensive and stunning visual survey showcases the diversity of the garden from all over the world – from the garden of Eden and the grandeur of the English landscape garden to Japanese Zen gardens and the humble vegetable plot. Spanning a wide range of styles and media – art, illustrations, and sculptures to photography, film stills, and textiles – Garden follows a visually arresting sequence, with works, regardless of period, thoughtfully paired, and features large-scale images, accessible texts, and reference information, including a glossary, illustrated timeline, and biographies. Offering a comprehensive introduction to the subject, Garden features work by a diverse range of both lesser-known and iconic artists, including Pierre Bonnard, Roberto Burle Marx, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Gertrude Jekyll, Claude Monet, Marianne North, Crispijn de Passe, William Robinson, Alma Thomas, and Howard Sooley, among others, including a variety of surprising examples that will appeal to specialists as well as the general reader. Aimed at a wide audience, this book has diverse appeal – from artists, designers, and art historians to garden enthusiasts, horticulturists, and everyone interested in the natural world around them.

Journey across 40 incredible habitats around the world to discover the biggest, boldest, and stinkiest plants Without plants there would be no life on Earth, but most people are blind to their impact. This stylish and informative introduction to plants sets out to cure ‘plant blindness’ by introducing children to 66 amazing plants from the six major climactic zones around the world. From the smelliest, such as the massive Titan Arum of the Indonesian rainforest, which stinks of rotting flesh to attract insects, to the hardest-working, including peat moss, an overlooked bog plant that helps protect our planet by trapping carbon dioxide, readers will learn about the vital role of plants in Nature through detailed, vibrant illustrations and fascinating facts. Children will also learn how to use their new-found knowledge of the plant’s natural environment to care for the plants around them and at home. Fully researched, written, and vetted by expert botanists from around the world, this book teaches children about plants in the context of their natural environment, and is ideal for geography and biology curricular tie ins, as well as being a book that will inspire children to love and care for the plants around them. This is the perfect compendium for plant-lovers, budding gardeners, and would-be botanists and nature-lovers alike. Ages 7 - 12

Enter a world of tents, tea, and terrifically good jam with RHS Great British Village Show. Written by Thane Prince and Matthew Biggs, and with a foreword by Alan Titchmarsh, this is the ultimate illustrated guide to a unique British tradition. Every year, hundreds of country shows and village fairs take place across the UK. Celebrate this tradition and step behind the scenes of the British country show with insider facts and beautiful photographs that show you every aspect of preparing, presenting, and prize-winning on the big day. Discover how judges reach their nail-biting decisions by using official RHS guidelines for over 100 fruit, vegetable, and flower categories. Learn the secrets behind growing perfect produce, preparing show-quality preserves and bakes with tips from the experts. RHS Great British Village Show tells you exactly what the judges are looking for - and what to avoid. Packed with staging tips, expert guides, photo diaries, and prize-winning recipes, RHS Great British Village Show is a unique insider's look behind the scenes of a wonderful British tradition.

With a foreword by Alan Titchmarsh, this beautifully illustrated book tells the story of the Royal Horticultural Society, the perhaps the foremost gardening institution in the world. The RHS is the world's largest gardening charity but what it does and why is little understood and rarely celebrated. From defining new gardening trends at the Chelsea Flower Show, to ranking the best dahlias to grow at the Wisley trial grounds, to inspiring communities with Britain in Bloom, educating children to grow and eat their veg through the Campaign for School Gardening, the RHS works tirelessly to improve the gardener's lot. With the use of evocative archive images and contemporary photos by award-winning Jason Ingram, this beautiful book explores the past, present and future of this most influential organisation by listening to the voices of those working today. Gardening expert and regular Gardener's Question Time panellist Matthew Biggs tells this story in rich and intimate detail, from the society's origins at the start of the 19th Century right through to the present day, with fascinating insight into the evolution and operations of the RHS throughout the years. From the thousands of volunteers in the society's five unique gardens (Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex, Harlow Carr in Yorkshire and new addition Bridgewater in Salford), to the one million visitors to its inspirational flower shows (including Chelsea, Hampton Court, Tatton Park, Cardiff, Wisley and Chatsworth); the society gives meaning to more than 475,000 members, millions of television viewers and visitors from around the world. The RHS is the best of gardening, and this book presents the best of the RHS. Behind the scenes, access all areas, this book will give lasting pleasure to anyone who enjoys their garden.

Matthew Biggs has been a professional gardener for over 20 years. In this comprehensive book, Matthew Biggs shares his extensive knowledge on a wide variety of vegetables and inspires the gardener to take on the fulfilling activity of vegetable growing. His advice is practical as well as encouraging and is applicable to the backyard, garden, glasshouse and kitchen. With an A-Z of vegetables and sections on the history of vegetable growing, harvesting and storing and over 200 recipes for vegetables in the kitchen, this is the practical guide that keen gardeners and beginners alike have been waiting for.

Like heirloom seeds and grafts from trees, advice from great gardeners handed down through the centuries has shaped the science and art of gardens across the globe. Spanning gardeners from fifteenth-century Japan to the contemporary United States, Lessons from the Great Gardeners profiles forty groundbreaking botanists, nurserymen, and tillers of earth, men and women whose passion, innovation, and green thumbs endure in the formal landscapes and vegetable patches of today. Entries for each gardening great highlight their iconic plants and garden designs, revealing both the gardeners' own influences and the seeds--sometimes literal--that they sowed for gardens yet to sprout. From Andre Le Notre in seventeenth-century France, who drew on his training as an architect and hydraulic engineer to bring the topiary form to Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles, to the work of High Line and Lurie Garden designer Piet Oudolf, and Thomas Jefferson's advice on creating protected garden microclimates for help growing early crops and tender fruit like figs (with peas, a Jefferson favorite), Lessons from the Great Gardeners is a resource as rich as the soil from which it springs. Featuring lush illustrations harvested from the archives of the Royal Horticultural Society, as well as sections on a dozen international gardens that showcase the lessons of the greats, this homage to the love of good, clean dirt is sure to inspire readers to get out in the sun and dig.