The Well Planned Vegetable Garden
Good planning turns hard work into steady progress--and makes growing more rewarding Productive gardens don't happen by accident. The Well-Planned Garden: A Grower's Guide shows how thoughtful organization, timing, and goal-setting can dramatically reduce effort while increasing yields--whether you're managing a home garden or a diversified market farm. Based on The Market Gardener Method, this practical, highly illustrated guide brings clarity to the many moving parts of food production. From space planning and crop rotation to season-long scheduling, it helps growers align daily tasks with long-term goals, working in harmony with natural cycles rather than reacting to problems as they arise. What this Book Offers A clear framework for organizing gardens and small farms for efficiency Practical guidance on crop planning, spacing, and rotation Tools for aligning production with climate, seasons, and available labor A perpetual garden calendar with monthly priorities and task summaries Strategies for balancing productivity, profitability, and quality of life Rather than overwhelming growers with rigid schedules, this guide encourages flexible planning that adapts to changing conditions while keeping the big picture in view. Who this Book is For Gardeners who want better results with less stress Market growers managing multiple crops and timelines Growers transitioning from reactive to intentional systems Readers seeking structure without rigidity Anyone aiming to grow more food with greater confidence Jean-Martin Fortier has spent decades refining systems that help small-scale growers succeed economically while maintaining ecological integrity. His planning approach reflects real-world experience managing complex gardens efficiently. The Well-Planned Garden is part of the Grower's Guides from the Market Gardener series--practical manuals designed to support growers with tools that build resilience, clarity, and long-term success. If you want your garden to work for you, not against you, this guide provides a clear path forward.
Lawns
A comprehensive guide to lawn care: the one-stop-shop to cut through the noise, giving you the confidence to create a thriving lawn. With more and more of us wishing to really understand our gardens and make the most of our outdoor space, seasoned lawn experts Luke and Marc are on hand.This accessible handbook helps you get started with essential equipment and how-to guides for each season, ensuring your lawn always looks its best. Tackle common garden issues, from stubborn weeds and patchiness to pets and pests - and debunk the most pervasive lawn care myths.As founders of So & Mo, Luke and Marc have over 30 years of lawn experience between them and have worked on everything from gorgeous private golf greens and tennis courts to petite residential lawns in need of a helping hand. So, there's no need to spend a fortune on grass care products or struggle through mountains of conflicting advice.With this comprehensive practical guide, you'll find everything you need to care for and perfect your lawn, so it can become the starring highlight of your garden. Includes: The Grass PlantLawn ConstructionMowingSeasonal MaintenanceNutrition & FeedingCommon ProblemsWeedsDiseasesGarden PestsEnvironmental ImpactTool Shed
Gardening on the Dry Side of Texas
Nearly three-quarters of Texans live on the "dry side" of Texas--the South and Central Texas expanse west of I-35, which includes the Rio Grande Valley north through San Antonio, Austin, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area--that receives fewer than 40 inches of rain annually. In Gardening on the Dry Side of Texas, Southwestern horticulturist Mary Irish presents a guide to the selection and care of plants that will be successful in these and other increasingly hot and dry conditions. Gardening on the Dry Side of Texas opens with a section on garden design; water conservation, capture, and management; and how plants cope in drought conditions. The heart of the book is 180 plant species included for their hardiness in Texas, even amid the challenges of a changing climate with longer and hotter summers, more erratic and less reliable rainfall, and increasingly costly and scarce water. These plants have low to moderate water needs and grow well in both the hot and cold conditions of the region. Most are native plants, with special consideration to those that are also reasonably available to the public. Many of the species presented will also be useful in the prairie and desert areas of West Texas and beyond, making Gardening on the Dry Side of Texas a valuable resource for gardeners looking to work with their local climate instead of against it.
Japanese Gardens
This book celebrates the exquisite beauty of more than 20 quintessential Japanese gardens, big and small, urban and rural, traditional and contemporary. Each Japanese garden seeks to invoke and imitate nature, and this expert author-and-photographer team excels at capturing, and explaining for the reader, the essential elements and techniques that distinguish Japanese gardens from those in other countries. The featured gardens range from large feudal-period, temple, private and countryside gardens to mountain flower, tea and miniature bonsai gardens. More than 300 specially commissioned photographs and plan drawingsCovers all types and sizes of Japanese gardensSpecial ideas, elements and techniques to learn from are highlighted in pictures and wordsThe magic of these gardens, where the efforts of nature, man and time complement each other to form a harmonious whole, are captured in stunning photographs and engaging text that brims with fascinating detail.
The Preserver's Garden
Discover how to plan, plant, and grow a garden with food preservation and long-term storage in mind--plus, meet seven different preservation techniques. Growing a garden with the intent to preserve the harvest and improve your self-sufficiency is an entirely different world than growing food for fresh consumption. When growing for preservation, your efforts need to be focused on the promotion of uniform ripening, high yields, and flavor that remains stable through the preservation process. Since the end goal is to have plenty of food to eat for months to come, how do you know how much to plant, which varieties are best, and which preservation method is ideal for each different vegetable and fruit? In The Preserver's Garden, you'll learn all that and so much more from a modern farming family with a pantry lined with jar after jar of preserved homegrown treasures, a fully stocked freezer, and endless bags of dehydrated and freeze-dried goodies! In addition to taking a deep dive into seven different methods of food preservation--including freezing, drying/dehydration, pressure canning, water bath canning, salting, freeze drying, and fermenting--authors Staci and Jeremy Hill of @goosberrybridgefarm teach you how to: Plan your garden around the veggies your family eats the most.Figure out how much to grow to meet your preservation goals.Decide which preservation methods are best for your harvest and your home.Safely prepare your harvest for processing and preservation.Achieve success in growing a lot of food organically, with less time and less work.Also included are 22 in-depth produce profiles--from tomatoes and squash to onions and berries--where you'll learn specifics about everything from growing requirements and harvesting tips to the best preservation methods and plant care techniques to increase the harvest. It's time to plan for your family's future with help from The Preserver's Garden.
How to Make Your Houseplants Love You
Beautifully packaged with stunning illustrations and photographs, this is the perfect gift for the plant lover in your life Covering 50 plant species, this is the complete guide to caring for your houseplants, from plant expert Joe Bagley (@ukhouseplants). Unlock the secrets to thriving house plants with this comprehensive guide. Organized into six chapters based on your plants' needs, this question-and-answer guide serves as an indispensable companion for emerging and experienced plant enthusiasts alike. How to Make Your House Plants Love You not only provides concise and expert solutions to these questions but also offers practical tips, personalized advice, and stunning photography and illustrations to inspire readers on their journey to becoming successful plant parents. Joe Bagley delivers information in an unadorned, easy to follow manner, including nuggets of plant-specific natural history, plants' behavioral quirks and curveball tips. This book will provide a new, distinctive experience for the reader as they journey through each question-and-answer scenario to become a house plant expert. Whether you're seeking to revive an inherited specimen or to create a lush indoor oasis, this book is your ultimate guide to leading a leafier life.
Women and Gardens
Judith M. Taylor's Women and Gardens highlights the depth and breadth of women's influence on gardens and landscapes in the last two hundred years and reveals many unknown or intentionally ignored facts concerning the roles of women in gardening and their contributions to horticultural science. Over eight chapters that investigate the obstacles and opportunities women have encountered in gardening, this book explores the history of women in horticulture, landscape design, and ornamental plant breeding from the Victorian era to today.
Homegrown Handgathered
Growing your own food is good for you and the planet. Backed by scientific research, Indigenous knowledge, and the authors' years of firsthand experience, Homegrown Handgathered offers field-tested techniques for beginners and experts alike to thrive off the bounty of the land with confidence. This complete manual for organic food production will show you how to select a site, plan your garden, source and start seeds, manage pests and weeds, compost, preserve your harvests, and more. Comprehensive growing guides for more than 15 essential crops--from beans, carrots, and corn to squashes, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes--detail favored growing conditions, processing tips, key nutrients, and more. Each crop chapter also features easy-to-follow recipes from a range of cultures that will transform your harvest into delicious, nourishing meals. From Jalape簽o Cornbread and Oyster Mushroom Grits to Venison Borscht and Walnut-Shiitake Burgers, gardening never tasted so good!
Biodynamic Gardening
Reap the benefits of a biodynamic, organic approach to gardening and grow abundant crops in tune with lunar cycles.Biodynamic Gardening has all you need to know about gardening by the moon: A biodynamic calendar enables you to plan the growing yearRecipes for making natural amendments that improve the health and vitality of soil and plantsEssential plant profiles of vegetables and flowers provide growing instruction from seed to harvest Gardening basics such as preparing beds, composting, and watering make Biodynamic Gardening suitable for beginners, as well as experienced gardeners looking for permaculture plus advice to fully synchronize with Nature's rhythms for optimal crops.
The Houseplant Handbook
The Houseplant Handbook is a useful guide on how to find perfect plant matches for your home environments with a sustainable and innovative approach. Focusing on working with the plants you already own, the book is divided in chapters detailing all the possible conditions: Extreme Sun/Heat, Dry Air/Central Heating, Deep Shade, High Humidity, Draughty, Cold. By matching awkward spaces in your home with environments in the natural world, this book shows you how to relocate plants to improve their growth and help them thrive. ​Features an extensive section with informative plant profiles that include their origin, easy-to-follow tips on feeding and watering, optimum conditions, prospective growth, and is concluded by a helpful troubleshooting chapter dealing with common problems, and what to try when all hope is lost.
The Container Gardening Handbook
Whether you have a roof terrace, a tiny balcony or just a window sill, there's no excuse not to get gardening. The Container Gardening Handbook shows just how easy it is to get started in the garden - and how to make the most of every little space. This is the perfect book for novice gardeners who may have mastered the art of indoor plants and are ready to take it outside. The chapters include the basics, how to make a garden in a day, weekend projects, one-pot wonders, window boxes and finishing touches. It features over 20 projects with a mix of small gardens, singular containers and window boxes, all of which are stylish and easy to manage. Isabelle also offers advice on how to upgrade store-bought containers with a lick of paint, transforming the look of your plants. With clear step-by-step instructions and advice on which plants suit your space, as well as how to care for them, this is an accessible book for anyone looking to start their own small garden.
Allotment Gardening
Allotment Gardening is the definitive beginner's guide to setting up and maintaining an organic allotment garden. Whether you're looking to acquire your first allotment plot or are completely new to growing, this friendly guide is packed with helpful gardening advice to grow a variety of plants. Written by allotment expert Susan Berger, Allotment Gardening covers everything - from tips on acquiring and organising your plot and guidance on what varieties to sow, through to harvesting, storing and cooking with your produce. This new edition provides comprehensive guidance on all of the basics, including soil type, crop rotation and pest control. An A-Z of produce contains detailed instructions on the cultivation of 72 individual fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs, along with recommendations for plant varieties and more than 60 delicious recipes. The book also includes a helpful month-by-month gardener's calendar, an overview of the waiting list situation and a list of suppliers. Allotment Gardening is the definitive beginner's guide to setting up and maintaining an organic allotment garden.
Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer lays out the essential practices for successfully operating a biodynamic farm, including the principles behind each technique and practice. He backs up these methods with scientific research and data, as well as his own experience as a farmer and researcher, describing what works and what doesn't. Pfeiffer covers soil qualities, making compost, crop rotation, best planting practices, using biodynamic preparations and sprays, and much more--all with the goal of growing the highest-quality foods by using sustainable methods and working with nature and caring for the earth.Bio-Dynamic Gardening and Farming (Vol.3) includes: A Preliminary Report on Humus Formation in the Root Areas of Plants Under Different Soil ManagementGreen Manuring, Organic Fertilizer, Composting in Spring?Compost Fertilizer on Peas (A Laboratory - Greenhouse Experiment)Raw Material Useful for CompostingComposting and Soil Problems in Southern, Warm and Dry ClimatesA General Review of the Problem of Composting (Composting Again - Small and Large)The Bacterial TreatmentThe Addition of Nitrogen Fertilizers to CompostSeaweedThe Biological Role of the EarthwormThe Earthworm and the ToadMastitis, It's Causes and TreatmentsAnswers to Specific QuestionsA Dynamic Concept of the WeatherDoes Bread NourishPhysical and Etheric EnergiesMoney, and Working for the Work
The Permaculture Garden
Harvest year-round from your bountiful and sustainable fruit and vegetable garden. Huw Richards' ultimate guide to permaculture gardening, outlining the regenerative methods that make gardening easier to do while being more productive. Huw shows you how to expand your growing beyond annual staples like tomatoes and cabbage to perennial fruits and vegetables, berry bushes, and fruit trees. By mixing your planting, gardening with the seasons, and optimizing your garden design, you will create a more beautiful and more sustainable garden that is better for the soil, local wildlife, and your crops - without costing more of your time. The book includes: What to grow: a substantial and comprehensive reference of all the edible plants and flowers you can grow - when to sow, grow, and harvest.Includes perennials that produce every year, maximizing yield for effort as well as introducing new plants to your garden.A permaculture approach: streamline the way your garden operates with ideas on building resilience (for example, how to store water), using vertical space, generating healthy soil, and mixed "polyculture" planting.Aesthetics and environment: how to make your kitchen garden look good year-round by planting ornamental edibles and flowering crops that attract pollinators.Maximizing space: a chapter on spaces helps you grow in shade or a south-facing corner and use pots and climbing varieties up walls and fences to bolster beds and under-cover growing areas. A roadmap for the year ahead guides you through the key moments throughout the four seasons.
Herbs in Every Season
An accessible exploration of how herbs can be used for medicinal and culinary purposes year round, from gardening to cooking--you'll learn how to use herbs in a myriad of life-changing ways. Herbs in Every Season offers gardeners, herbalists, cooks, and homesteaders a new way of looking at herbs throughout the year. Herbalists will learn how an herb's growth habits inform its medicinal capabilities, and gardeners will gain insight on herbs as integral culinary plants for the kitchen garden, pollinator plants for perennial borders, and key ingredients for a home apothecary. ​With detailed plant profiles, Bevin Cohen encourages a year-round perspective on growing and using herbs in tandem with the seasons. He assures any newcomer that herbs are not only easy to grow, but also forgiving. Readers will take delight in: -Simple, homegrown recipes and preservation techniques for tonics, teas, meals, and treats -Herbal remedies and useful DIY applications for common ailments such as sunburns and mosquito bites -Deep insight on how the life cycle of an herb contributes to its medicinal and culinary properties -How a seasonal herbal approach can provide a much-needed process of cyclical re-connection to the earth Start a new seasonal routine today with Herbs in Every Season!
For the Love of Plants
Wander through Adam's gardens as he reflects on the plants that have shaped his life. The scents of the lavender and rosemary lining the garden path instantly welcome you to what follows: a wildflower meadow, an ornamental kitchen garden, a shady courtyard, terrace and borders, gravel garden, and woodland walk, taking you on a tour through Adam's Garden. As you go, Adam explains his why, explaining his design and planting choices, drawing on personal feeling and memories as well as years of experience. Plant profiles provide inspiration for your own planting dreams, interspersed with practical know-how on plant care and design ideas to help you create flow and moments of pause using pathways, arches, water features, and pots.
Bird Haven Farm
A four-season photographic exploration of one of America's great contemporary private gardens. A fixture on The Garden Conservancy's Open Days tours, the historic 100-acre farm has been shepherded into the modern era and given a modern sensibility by the vision of its owner, Janet Mavec, also the book's author. Preserving and enhancing a property rich in narrative and natural beauty has been a twenty-year obsession for this property's owner. Mavec has called upon a host of well-known garden luminaries to help preserve what began as a farm with a solitary stone house originally owned by the publisher of the Nancy Drew mysteries while making it functional, productive, and beautiful for the twenty-first century. Today, a series of individual gardens rest within a natural hollow surrounded by native woodland, including a broad gathering space defined by whimsical cloud-pruned boxwood hedges, groves of lilacs, and dogwoods and hellebores that entice visitors into early-season walks with delicate color each spring, a stone-walled vegetable and flower garden whose geometry is inspired by medieval monasteries, winding perennial-lined paths, orchards that produce over five hundred pounds of apples each fall, a natural pond brimming with aquatic plants, and an elliptical hillside meadow farmed for hay. All lead intuitively back to the "town square," an open area tucked among the dwelling spaces featuring a broad ground-level fountain that clearly identifies it as the true heart of the farm. With plenty of inspiration and encouragement on what it means to steward land in an ecologically appropriate way while still fully enjoying its bounty, the volume also includes seasonal menus featuring ingredients grown on the farm or sourced locally. All is artistically documented by photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo in full-color photographs that draw the reader through every area of the garden and celebrate its scenic vistas as well as its loveliest small details.
Grow Your Groceries
Hacks for growing plants from produce you buy at the grocery. Have you ever wondered whether you could grow plants from the food you buy? Could you do something with those leftover apple seeds? What about growing your own kiwi plant? And what if you could make more plants from the herb sprigs you buy? This simple, fun, and easy-to-follow approach shares the best 40 hacks to help you save money and grow plants. It encourages everyone to give growing a try without having to buy an actual plant! Ideal for anyone with just a windowsill or a few containers: use the tips and tricks to get long-term plants from your short-term purchases. From food growing ideas (like saving seeds from raspberries and growing them) to simple plant care ideas (such as how to water plants when you're on vacation), this exciting and addictive approach to growing food and plants will help you get so much more from your weekly grocery trip.
The Greenhouse Book
The ultimate guide to gardening under glass. Thinking of buying a greenhouse but aren't sure what to grow in it, or how? Or maybe you've inherited a garden with a greenhouse, but haven't got a clue what to do with it? Whatever your journey to growing under glass, this book gives a clear, inspiring, and brilliantly illustrated approach to all things greenhouse. A protected growing environment provides shelter and warmth to a broad range of tender plants, both edible and ornamental, and can open up a fascinating new world of gardening. Starting plants off early under glass also enables you to extend the growing season, providing additional weeks and months of homegrown, sustainable produce to enjoy and flowers to admire. From initial planning considerations and ongoing maintenance to all the exciting and unusual plants that can be grown; from overwintering exotics, to hardening off seedlings and protecting summer crops against pests and diseases, there is a wealth of information to be shared. And you don't need a large garden: with a patio greenhouse, cold frame, and cloches, anyone with outside space can enjoy growing under glass.
Chickpea and Cowpea
This book explores the status of chickpea and cowpea in terms of its production, nutritional composition, processing mediated changes, and methods to remove antinutrients, bioactive peptides & their related health benefits.
Sustainable Market Farming, Second Edition
The complete year-round guide to organic vegetable production for market gardeners and small-scale farmers - now fully revised and updated Sustainable Market Farming is the comprehensive, go-to reference for serious growers in every climate zone. Extensively revised and updated, this brand new, fully illustrated edition is packed with detailed information on everything from planning to harvest, and features in-depth profiles of a full range of crops. Informed by the author's experience leading decades of intensive year-round organic vegetable production on a few acres to feed a community of 100 people, this complete practical guide includes: The most current farm-specific planning and organizational business skills to ensure a profitable, successful, smooth-running, professional enterprise Cutting-edge information describing new and efficient techniques, strategies for season extension, approaches for integrated pest, disease, and weed management, and preferred climate-smart, disease-resistant varieties to add to your repertoire Updated guidelines for improving and maintaining soil quality and finding resilient, regenerative solutions to align farming practices with new environmental challenges Precise growing guides for a cornucopia of vegetables, addressing selection of varieties, soil, water, and fertility requirements, sowing, cultivation, crop rotation, succession planting, common pests and diseases, harvest, storage, and more. Whether you are a beginning grower, an aspiring market gardener, or an established enterprise seeking to take your operation to the next level, Sustainable Market Farming is the book you will find yourself returning to again and again throughout a long farming career. An exciting, timely, and invaluable resource.
Landscape of Civilisation - Moody Gardens
The following is inscribed on page 308 of the author's copy of Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy: 'During this chapter decided to write a history of landscape architecture, at 10.05am Sunday 23rd May 1958', and 'completed at Taormina, Feb. 1975' Ten years later the idea of translating his great work The Landscape of Man into visible form was formulated at Seattle on the evening of 19 May 1985. The sketch plan, with little future deviation, was completed in time for breakfast the following morning. The Historical Gardens that this book describes are only part of a multi-million twenty year programme initiated by the Moody Foundation for the enrichment of Galveston, Texas - a city destroyed by inundation in 1900 and now materially recovered. The site of the gardens themselves is twenty-five acres of flat land adjoining sea marshes. This will be divided by artificial mountains into West and East. There will be fifteen cultures and the guide will take the visitor through them by water in a spectacular mile-long odyssey. First comes the western classical sequence, heralded by a succession of water trumpets: Eden, Egypt, Rome, Islam, the middle ages, 16th century Italy, 17th century France, 19th century England. Then follows a twisting tour through 18th century romantic Europe, through the awesome mountain within which lie the painted caves of universal pre-historic man. Thence through the three spheres of China: Taoism, Tao-Buddha, and pure Buddhism; and so home through Japan and primeval forest. The journey by water-bus should awaken visitors' interest to return on foot to study more closely what is in fact a cultural history of the world as seen in miniature through landscape. While it is essential that the interpretation of the spirit of history should be academically correct, this principal and, we hope, enchanting composition of cultures (elsewhere usually in opposition one to another in time, space and philosophy) is intended to be a single deeply suggestive work of surrealist art of our own time. Of the 200 black and white and 32 color illustrations, over 100 are fine detailed drawings and sketches by the author.
House of Plants (Revised Edition)
Learn how to care for your tropical plants, succulents, cacti and air plants with this beautiful but practical guide to indoor plants. These gorgeous, fashionable plants are handsome, hardy and perfect for urban living and this comprehensive companion is all you need to learn how to nurture and enjoy them, as well as how to arrange them stylishly in your home. House plant specialists Caro Langton and Rose Ray offer up their encyclopedic knowledge of house plants and their care in this beautiful guide. Explaining how to look after individual plants - running through the soil, watering, light, food and more - House of Plants also shows you how to take cuttings to share with friends; make gifts, terrariums and displays; and suggests other ways to make these fantastic plants part of your life. Whether you are looking for a first house plant to decorate a new space, or are a veteran indoor gardener seeking new design inspiration, this book will give you everything you need to grow a rich and verdant array of indoor plants. The original, best-selling book is now updated with the latest information including on sustainability, brand new projects and even more plant profiles.
Secret Gardens of Somerset
Secret Gardens of Somerset offers a personal tour of 20 of the UK's most beguiling gardens in this much-loved area of southern England, defined by its distinctive horticulture, rolling hills, picturesque villages and traditional English landscape. Abigail Willis and Clive Boursnell give you privileged access to 20 gardens, from a highly productive working flower farm to very personal private retreats, revealing their history, design and plant collections, in the company of their devoted owners and head gardeners. In the footsteps of artists and trend-setters - from Victorian designers such as Harold Peto, to planting visionary, Gertrude Jekyll as well as contemporary pioneer Piet Oudolf -we find a series of stunning country gardens of different sizes and atmospheres. Explore the bountiful snowdrops of East Lambrook Manor, the naturalistic Oudolf Field at Hauser & Wirth, and get an insider's view of the World's Best Boutique Hotel, The Newt. This is a celebration of rich landscapes, exemplary gardens and the owners who shaped them: a secret glimpse into Somerset's most beautiful spaces. Now in paperback. The gardens: The American Museum and Gardens, Barley Wood Walled Garden, Batcombe House, The Bishop's Palace, Common Farm, Cothay Manor, East Lambrook Manor, Elworthy Cottage, Forest Lodge, Greencombe Gardens, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Hestercombe, Iford Manor, Kilver Court, Midney Gardens, Milton Lodge gardens, The Newt in Somerset, Stoberry House, Westbrook House, and Yeo Valley Organic Garden.
The Kindest Garden
"Marian powerfully shares her passion and heart in a way that ensures you can breath life into your garden ecosystem, with clear explanations and so many practical tools and takeaways."- Nicole Masters, author of For the Love of Soil and director of Integrity Soils "I found myself crying 'yes, yes, yes!' to every page of this beautiful, inspiring, visionary yet practical and compassionate book. This is how we can garden to restore the planet, how we can all do our bit, and enrich our lives in the process." - Isabella Tree, author of Wilding"The Kindest Garden is a marvellous presentation of love and action for soil, plants and nature."- Satish Kumar, activist and speakerChange the world from your back garden. Leading landscape designer Marian Boswall has worked on some of the UK's most ambitious and innovative regenerative landscape projects, and now she shares her wisdom in this trail-blazing guide. A step-up from sustainable gardening, which focuses on minimising our impact on the earth, regenerative gardening is about making an active contribution to the health of the planet: improving and replenishing biodiversity through our gardens. Whether you have a shady patio, a large plot of land or a windowsill - you can make an impact. Drawing on lessons from forward-thinking farmers, foresters, re-wilders and nature itself, The Kindest Garden shows you how to create a garden that is both a beautiful sanctuary for yourself and also a place where nature can thrive. Come to understand the key elements of your garden (soil, water, ecosystems, materials, energy and planting) on a deeper level and discover how to harness each one for a garden that makes a positive impact. Apply new-found knowledge to practical projects, and plan your planting to nourish the soil. With beautifully-written text, clear explanations and practical takeaways - as well as planting advice, tools, useful diagrams and informative charts - The Kindest Garden is perfect for eco-conscious gardeners who want to make a real difference.
The Gardens of Mien Ruys
A celebration of 100 years of the Mien Ruys Gardens, where legendary designer Mien Ruys conducted her lifetime of experimentations and innovations that have deeply informed today's naturalistic gardening movement. Widely considered the Mother of the Modernist garden, Mien Ruys (1904-1999) is one of the most influential gardeners and landscape architects of the 20th Century. The Gardens of Mien Ruys is the first authorized book in English to discuss her life, influence, process, and designs, written by the head of the Mien Ruys Gardens who continues to steward Ruys's horticultural legacy. Part illustrated biography and part garden case study, this book is an important link to history that can help us put into context a future of gardening in line with nature, as informed by a strong, feminist leader. Ruys worked hard to break down the elitism of gardening, and was a woman far ahead of her time. She is known best for her use of small spaces, designing gardens without large lawns, and using materials like concrete, railroad ties, and exposed gravel long before they were in style. She was influential in bringing a modernist garden design into cities and public places where they could be enjoyed by all, rather than just behind the walls of the private estate. Ruys had an extensive knowledge of plants, especially perennials, and included in the book are some of her iconic planting plans. Also featured in the book are tips on how to design a small garden in the Ruys style, and a list of Mien's 100 favorite plants.