Most gardens do not have smooth, flat lawns and borders of rich, easily dug soil. We have to put up with damp, sunless corridors between houses, awkward slopes or plots shaded by trees or neighbouring buildings. Equally difficult to plant are seaside gardens exposed to gale-force winds and salt spray; waterlogged plots, where the drainage is poor; and dry ground exposed to the glare of the sun day after day, without the slightest shade. In short, few gardens benefit from perfect conditions. What you need for these sites are tough plants that will not only shrug off all the worst conditions in your garden but will actually thrive in them. Tough Plants for Tough Places includes a directory of nearly 100 plants that are practically invincible in the specific hostile conditions they have evolved to cope with.

In this book, Sharon Amos explains how to design and create a beautiful garden for little or no money, offering tips on bartering for clippings, getting a bargain at garage sales or neighbourhood fairs, digging up suckers or adapting wild species and controlling them in a garden environment. She provides a comprehensive directory of 80 plants including detailed advice on where and how to grow a wide variety of garden favourites, from snowdrops to poppies. With beautiful illustrations, Plants for Free is the perfect gift book for cultivating your garden on a budget of next-to-nothing.

'Garden Wisdom' is an inspiring mix of practical advice, traditional garden lore, and eco-friendly ideas compiled to help you make the most of your garden. This book tells you everything you need to know about the preparation, cultivation, and maintenance of a garden, be it large or small, lawn or terrace, or even just a windowbox, and provides indispensable advice both for fair-weather gardeners and for those who garden at every opportunity, whatever the weather. The book is divided into four broad sections: earth, air, water and plant alchemy. Earth covers everything from newfangled ways of making compost to tips for ageing terracotta, and examines pest control techniques, both ancient and modern. The section on Air deals with topics as varied as plants that thrive in shade, how to create an old-fashioned hot bed greenhouse and how best to store garden produce. Water consists of ways of preserving what is fast becoming our most precious resource and how to use it effectively in the garden. Finally, plant alchemy begins with the art of companion planting - where one species appears to protect another against attack or disease.