Home & Garden

This waterproof log book is the perfect place for recording your work in the garden. Use this journal throughout the seasons, from building catalog wish lists early in the year, to noting the first signs of spring, to recording what vegetable crops you planted and their yield, to organizing yourself for bulb planting in fall, to, finally, putting the garden to bed for the winter. A five year grid at the beginning of each month offers space to note annual garden cycles over time, and journal entry pages are lined for notes or graphed for diagramming plantings. Whether you tend a window box, a cutting garden, or many raised vegetable beds, this is the perfect write-in companion to your gardening.This weatherproof five-year log book includes the following features:   ·Sturdy waterproof cover to protect pages from rain and muddy soil   ·Lined pages and gridded paper for plotting beds   ·Five years of 12-month bloom and harvest grids for recording what you planted and when   ·Authoritative appendices on composting, pruning, pest and disease control, and container gardening   ·Useful reminders by season on fertilizing, mulching, and transplanting   ·Space for listing your favorite sources and suppliers.

At Clay Bottom Farm, author Ben Hartman and staff practice kaizen, or continuous improvement, cutting out more waste--of time, labor, space, money, and more--every year and aligning their organic production more tightly with customer demand. Applied alongside other lean principles originally developed by the Japanese auto industry, the end result has been increased profits and less work. In this field-guide companion to his award-winning first book, The Lean Farm, Hartman shows market vegetable growers in even more detail how Clay Bottom Farm implements lean thinking in every area of their work, including using kanbans, or replacement signals, to maximize land use; germination chambers to reduce defect waste; and right-sized machinery to save money and labor and increase efficiency. From finding land and assessing infrastructure needs to selling perfect produce at the farmers market, The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables digs deeper into specific, tested methods for waste-free farming that not only help farmers become more successful but make the work more enjoyable. These methods include: Using Japanese paper pot transplanters Building your own germinating chambers Leaning up your greenhouse Making and applying simple composts Using lean techniques for pest and weed control Creating Heijunka, or load-leveling calendars for efficient planning Farming is not static, and improvement requires constant change. The Lean Farm Guide to Growing Vegetables offers strategies for farmers to stay flexible and profitable even in the face of changing weather and markets. Much more than a simple exercise in cost-cutting, lean farming is about growing better, not cheaper, food--the food your customers want.

Regenerative practices for the farm, garden, orchard, forest, and landscape Mycorrhizal fungi have been waiting a long time for people to recognize just how important they are to the making of dynamic soils. These microscopic organisms partner with the root systems of approximately 95 percent of the plants on Earth, and they sequester carbon in much more meaningful ways than human "carbon offsets" will ever achieve. Pick up a handful of old-growth forest soil and you are holding 26 miles of threadlike fungal mycelia, if it could be stretched it out in a straight line. Most of these soil fungi are mycorrhizal, supporting plant health in elegant and sophisticated ways. The boost to green immune function in plants and community-wide networking turns out to be the true basis of ecosystem resiliency. A profound intelligence exists in the underground nutrient exchange between fungi and plant roots, which in turn determines the nutrient density of the foods we grow and eat. Exploring the science of symbiotic fungi in layman's terms, holistic farmer Michael Phillips (author of The Holistic Orchard and The Apple Grower) sets the stage for practical applications across the landscape. The real impetus behind no-till farming, gardening with mulches, cover cropping, digging with broadforks, shallow cultivation, forest-edge orcharding, and everything related to permaculture is to help the plants and fungi to prosper . . . which means we prosper as well. Building soil structure and fertility that lasts for ages results only once we comprehend the nondisturbance principle. As the author says, "What a grower understands, a grower will do." Mycorrhizal Planet abounds with insights into "fungal consciousness" and offers practical, regenerative techniques that are pertinent to gardeners, landscapers, orchardists, foresters, and farmers. Michael's fungal acumen will resonate with everyone who is fascinated with the unseen workings of nature and concerned about maintaining and restoring the health of our soils, our climate, and the quality of life on Earth for generations to come.

A comprehensive sourcebook of the best contemporary ideas for garden owners, architects and designers.

This beautifully illustrated guide unlocks the mysteries of botanical Latin explaining what plant names mean and the descriptive clues they conceal.

Venture into the tiny worlds of terrariums and discover how to create a universe of your own. Like an artist, you'll learn how to use planting and hardscaping to make stunning terrarium compositions. Plus, master the fundamentals of successful growing - soil, water, and light - so your plants thrive.Put theory into practice with step-by-step projects of 13 terrariums:- Repurpose a spice jar to create a stunning yet small terrarium on a budget- Replicate natural environments in your home with planting and hardscaping choices, such as the fallen branch terrarium- Express yourself by including playful figurines to create fun imaginary worlds- Try a bioactive terrarium, adding custodians to thrive in these mini ecosystemsWith a combination of projects and deep dives into plant groups and care advice, you'll be well on your way to curating your own terrarium wonderland with Hello Tiny World.

With more than 1,000 images and descriptive texts, this is the ultimate celebration of the world's most gorgeous gardens - now with a stunning fuchsia pink cover

Best-selling author Niki Jabbour provides an essential, in-depth guide to creating controlled growing spaces for productive vegetable gardening, using row covers, shade cloth, low tunnels, cold frames, hoop houses, and more.

Learn how to create and maintain your own underwater ecosystem. Aquascaping is the art of creating beautiful aquariums with natural materials and live plants. From the brilliance of Takashi Amano and numerous other innovators, aquascapes have become a popular way to enjoy aquariums. In Aquascaping: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planting, Styling, and Maintaining Beautiful Underwater Aquariums, planted aquarium expert George Farmer teaches how to create the perfect aquascape. Included in this book are full-color photographs that will supply readers with: Step-by-step instructions on setting up your tankDifferent styling suggestions that best suit your landscapeHow to pick plants, rocks, driftwood, substrate, and aquatic lifeUnderstanding the chemistry and biology involved in keeping a healthy aquariumMaintenance and upkeepAnd much more Creating an underwater ecosystem is not only a rewarding experience, but can bring much peace and relaxation to your life. So whether you're a novice aquarist or seasoned aquascaper, Aquascaping will teach you all the tricks of the trade so that your beautiful aquarium can be enjoyed by family, friends, and, most importantly, yourself.

A SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERFill your garden with flowers all-year round with inspiration, planting ideas and expert advice from Sarah Raven.Colour and scent are the hallmarks of Sarah Raven''s style ΓÇô and they are simple luxuries that everyone can bring into their garden.A Year Full of Flowers reveals the hundreds of hardworking varieties that make the garden sing each month, together with the practical tasks that ensure everything is planted, staked and pruned at just the right time.Tracing the year from January to December at her home, Perch Hill, Sarah offers a complete and transporting account of a garden crafted over decades. Sharing the lessons learned from years of plant trials, she explains the methods that have worked for her, and shows you how to achieve a space that''s full of life and colour.Discover long-lasting, divinely scented tulips, roses that keep flowering through winter, the most magnificent dahlias and show-stopping alliums, as well as how to grow sweet peas up a teepee, take cuttings from chrysanthemums and stop mildew in its tracks.This is passionate, life-enriching gardening; it''s also simple, adaptable and can work for you. Sarah has made the garden central to her life ΓÇô this book shows you how you can too.

Gardens of the High Line, by Piet Oudolf and Rick Darke, offers an in-depth view into the planting designs, plant palette, and maintenance of this landmark achievement. It reveals a four-season garden that is filled with native and exotic plants, drought-tol-erant perennials, and grasses that thrive and spread.

A visual troubleshooting guide for your favourite houseplants

Bestselling author and BBC presenter Monty Don and photographer Derry Moore explore the exquisite beauty of Japanese gardens on a personal journey to complement the BBC2 series, Monty Don's Japanese Gardens.

It was 11pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever.

Peonies have always been a favourite with gardeners and cut-flower fans alike, but in 2016 their popularity went beyond bridal bouquets as the blooms took over social media - their gramming power was so huge this year that by May, Elle UK had already crowned the flowers as `The New Avocado'.

A guide to planning your dream garden. It includes over 8,000 easy-to-find plants and thousands of photographs that give you the guidance you need.

A story of a flower that has made men mad. This book tells how the tulip arrived from Turkey and took the whole of Western Europe by storm. Illustrated from a range of sources, it also features descriptions of eighty wild-species tulips and several hundred garden varieties.

Monty Don made a triumphant return to our screens as presenter of Gardeners' World. A firm favourite with viewers, Monty's infectious enthusiasm for plants, attention to the finer details of gardening technique and easy charm have seen the ratings soar. Here Monty invites us into the garden at Longmeadow, to show us how he created this beautiful garden, and how we can do the same in our own.Following the cycle of the seasons, Gardening at Longmeadow will introduce readers to the garden from the earliest snowdrops of January through the first splashes of colour in the Spring Garden, the electric summer displays of the Jewel Garden, the autumn harvest in the orchard, and on to a Christmas feast sourced from the vegetable gardens. Describing the magic of each area at different times of the year, Monty will explain the basics of what to do when and how to get the most from each plant. He'll talk through the essential techniques and more complex processes, accompanied by easy-to-follow, step-by-step photography.Longmeadow is a gardeners' garden, but this will be a book for gardening enthusiasts of all skill levels who have been inspired by what they've seen, and who would like to achieve something similar for themselves.

A handbook for bringing the natural world into your life

Discover stylish, creative and contemporary ways to use weeds in your garden - in window boxes, borders, walls, containers and more.

For years dahlias have been dismissed for being garish, gaudy additions to gardens and arrangements, but when you find the right variety it's hard to think of a better garden plant or more striking cut flower. The next title in Pavilion's series of stylish floral gardening guides celebrates the diversity and return to fashion of the dahlia.