Highly successful author and innovative designer Stafford Cliff has visited hundreds of gardens in the course of his travels over the last forty years all over the world, taking photographs and making notes. With his designer's eye and experience, he has created a revelatory work - a unique sourcebook of the very best ideas providing choices and inspiration for every single garden dilemma and possibility, from colour and planting to hard surfaces and features. For every new choice a gardener wishes to make, for every change they wish to introduce, there is a complete wealth of options - the plants, the path, the paving, the pots - they are all shown.

From ornamental gates, to water features, sundials and beyond, myriad images are shown to fascinate, inspire and enthral the reader. The book is simply stunning, a veritable visual jigsaw delights the eye with the quirky set alongside the classic, the modern set against the traditional, and it is as practical as it inspiring, with a comprehensive directory of suppliers to help the reader realise their vision.

"1001 Gardens" is an extraordinary showcase of the best examples of man's artistic taming of nature from the world's most outstanding landscape gardeners. From the famous gardens of the Moorish Alhambra to hidden gems, such as the Leichtag family's Healing Garden, created for patients at the San Diego Children's Hospital, this lavishly illustrated guide will delight both lovers of natural beauty and gardeners alike. Covering the entire globe, the guide presents the very best example of every gardening style, whether it is the inspirational European floral display of impressionist painter Claude Monet's garden at Giverny in France or the exuberant diversity of the lush tropical gardens of Bali. Everywhere, gardens speak of the intimate relationship between man and the environment. Worldwide and from person to person our conceptions of beauty may differ, but gardeners are united in their desire to create visions of heaven on earth, places that stimulate the imagination and restore the spirit.

After an introductory chapter on how to get started, 14 further chapters supply dozens of tips for every area of the garden, from the kitchen garden to ponds, lawns, patios and containers. Pippa Greenwood uses her years of experience to reveal the most life-changing tricks that can make a dramatic difference, save time, save money and save energy. Tips are ordered logically, by area and by season, from the most fundamental to the most sophisticated.

Chapter introductions explain what decisions you need to make about your priorities before you start and how to analyse the potential of your garden in order to get the most from it.

There is nothing more stunning than a garden bursting with colour. Whether you want glorious borders or striking pots, "101 Bold and Beautiful Flowers" is full of plant ideas and aftercare tips. Grouped by colour and with advice on each flower, you can find the perfect plant solutions for your garden.

With opulent photography accompanying every suggestion, this little book is a wonderful inspiration.

There's nothing better than the taste of fruit and veg that you've grown yourself. It has flavour and freshness that no supermarket produce could ever hope to beat. Whether you've grown your own all your life or are just getting into gardening, "Gardeners' World 101 Grow and Eat Ideas" is packed with inspiration. There are ideas for growing salads, fruit, herbs and veg. You don't even need a garden to enjoy our planting recipes for pots that taste as good as they look as they'll do equally well on a windowsill as a patio. You'll never eat tasteless fruit and veg again with "Gardeners' World 101 Grow and Eat Ideas". "Gardeners' World Magazine" is Britain's biggest selling gardening magazine, providing fresh ideas and clear advice every month. From plants and flowers to gardens and design, allotments and kitchen gardens to shopping guides and tried and tested reviews, "Gardeners' World Magazine" features the top names in BBC gardening, such as Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh, Carol Klein and the Gardeners' Question Time team.

Anyone can have a beautiful garden regardless of the conditions they have to work with and "101 Plants for Problem Places" shows you how. You'll soon find the best plants for every corner of your outside space. Including damp shade, dry shade, heavy clay, hot and dry, windy and exposed, and stony and chalky, there are plenty of ideas for all locations.

Full of no-nonsense information and advice from "Gardeners' World Magazine", getting the most out of your garden has never been so simple.

Few gardens have constant sun, but this doesn't mean they have to be gloomy. Even the most shaded gardens can be full of colour and variety. From delicate, vibrant Dicentra spectabilis to large, lobed evergreen Fatsia japonic, 101 Shade-Loving Plants is full of diverse ideas to suit all gardens. Packed with expert instruction on planting and aftercare, and a full-colour photograph to accompany each flower idea, banish the dark from shady-places once and for all.

Achieving genuine self-sufficiency of the kind described in John Seymour's classic guide is sadly beyond the vast reach of the urban majority today. Few have the space, and for those few there are comprehensive guidebooks. But where do the rest of us look for the answers to questions like how much effort does it really take to grow your own food? Is beekeeping difficult? Is solar power really worth the bother?From a small terraced house in the middle of a big city, Paul Waddington has made it his business to find out, and while trying it himself, has created a practical and absorbing guidebook along the way.

It includes easy-to-read lists, tables, personal anecdote, and stunning illustrations, and more importantly demystifies the subject with practical tips that get to the heart of the matter to show you how you can enjoy the fulfilling aspects of the smallholding life without the hassle and expense of 'going all the way'. If you want to go back to the land without leaving home, this is the perfect guide.

Trees and shrubs are a valuable asset to a garden bringing structure, shade, year-round interest and the all-important vertical dimension. However, choosing the right ones for small gardens is a fine art, and it's all too easy to end up with heavyweight shrubs overtaking the border, dysfunctional climbers, or trees outgrowing their designated spaces. In this practical reference, woody-plant expert Diana Miller takes the anguish out of the process by recommending plants and cultivation techniques that excel in small garden spaces.

Small gardens require careful planting, and the book starts by considering plants that fulfill a particular design function, such as trees that provide the right levels of shade for an underplanting of choice bulbs, columnar or weeping trees for very restricted spaces, and specimen shrubs that provide an effective foil for herbaceous perennials in a mixed border. Pruning, coppicing, topiary and container-planting restrict growth and are helpful techniques in the small garden armory. Useful too are scaled-down versions of favorite trees, such as Prunus 'Amanogawa', that take up less space, and create less shade, than other cherry trees. At the heart of this book is a comprehensive plant directory that provides detailed descriptions, including full cultivation advice for over 400 top-performing trees and shrubs. Further advice on pruning, information on planting to encourage wildlife and handy lists that allow readers to search by color, height and other characteristics are invaluable.

Color photographs complement the plant descriptions, aid identification and complete this practical plant reference.

As founder of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, Sian has been instrumental in influencing London's congestion charge and its punitive rates for unnecessarily large cars. The tide is turning and sales of 4x4s are falling while bike purchases have risen (to 4.5 million in the UK in 2004). But Sian is not asking you to give up cars and never to go on holiday abroad again, but will show you instead how to reduce your carbon footprint in small but effective ways.

Similarly, we are now saying no to carrier bags and asking questions about the antecedents of the cheap clothes we buy. Sian will look at the choices we can make, not just in consumables, but also in our food purchases, gifts to friends and family, in restaurants, and beauty services. Change the world without changing your life.

As founder of the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, Sian has been instrumental in influencing London's congestion charge and its punitive rates for unnecessarily large cars. The tide is turning and sales of 4x4s are falling while bike purchases have risen (to 4.5 million in the UK in 2004). But Sian is not asking you to give up cars and never to go on holiday abroad again, but will show you instead how to reduce your carbon footprint in small but effective ways.

Similarly, we are now saying no to carrier bags and asking questions about the antecedents of the cheap clothes we buy. Sian will look at the choices we can make, not just in consumables, but also in our food purchases, gifts to friends and family, in restaurants, and beauty services. Change the world without changing your life.

Climate change is no longer a theoretical subject debated by scientists. We can all see the changes in our weather, the decline of ice bergs and the worldwide problems of flooding and drought. The same is true of energy sources, fish stocks and landfill sites.

Together with the growing awareness of these changes is the realisation that we will have to alter our lifestyle - before we are forced to. These books will show you how to make small and big changes in a positive and practical manner. Accompanied by full-colour illustrations and photographs, each book will give you 50 ideas to make your house (and garden) greener, save water and energy and how to be a greener shopper and traveller without asking you to change your life completely or turning you into a bore.

Climate change is no longer a theoretical subject debated by scientists. We can all see the changes in our weather, the decline of ice bergs and the worldwide problems of flooding and drought. The same is true of energy sources, fish stocks and landfill sites.

Together with the growing awareness of these changes is the realisation that we will have to alter our lifestyle - before we are forced to. These books will show you how to make small and big changes in a positive and practical manner. Accompanied by full-colour illustrations and photographs, each book will give you 50 ideas to make your house (and garden) greener, save water and energy and how to be a greener shopper and traveller without asking you to change your life completely or turning you into a bore.

In this stunning follow-up to "75 Exciting Vegetables for Your Garden", gardener and garden designer, Jack Staub, brings the same charming detail, quirky and remarkable stories, and lovely writing voice to "75 Remarkable Fruits for Your Garden". After tireless hours of research to bring the most accurate and up-to-date information, as well as the most intriguing facts and historical illuminations "75 Remarkable Fruits for Your Garden" provides a history of each plant, thoughts and tips on growing it, and ends with a simple recipe for serving up these mouth-watering fruits in salads, side dishes, breads, and desserts.

Find your own slice of the 'The Good Life' Bake bread. Start a wormery. Shop locally. Plant a tree. Find out how to get closer to the soil, without going the whole hog. Discover 80 simple, eco projects you can dip in and out of, from growing salad on your window-sill, to collecting rainwater. Pick up what you need using the directory of useful organic stockists and websites, then choose a project to suit your pocket and lifestyle. You don't need a garden, special equipment, or even much time. It includes an introductory comment by Sheherazade Goldsmith, wife of organic spokesman and Ecologist editor, Zac Goldsmith.

Andy Garnett and his wife, the writer Polly Devlin, bought Cannwood Meadow in 1983. Realizing that this Somerset meadow, which has benefited from benign husbandry over many years, contains an amazing variety of wild flowers, grasses and rushes that provide feeding for moths, butterflies and other insects - some of them very rare - they asked English Nature if they would be interested in making a survey of the field. As a result of this survey Cannwood Meadow was nominated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by the Nature Conservancy Council. This book presents an illustrated record of Cannwood Meadow through the seasons, an account of its ecology and a review of its plants, animal life and husbandry, compiled by the Garnetts with the assistance of botanist Dr Chris Smith. A special feature is that it includes reproductions of pressings of 108 plants, which can thus be examined in minute detail. It is an invaluable record of a year in the life of an English meadow

Allotment gardening is becoming increasingly popular and there are many obvious benefits to growing your own fruit and vegetables. There is nothing quite like picking your own apples or unearthing a batch of new potatoes. The freshness and flavours of home-grown produce are second to none. Keeping an allotment is also a great way to help keep fit and healthy! So this is a cookbook with a difference. A comprehensive A-Z glossary covers all the most popular fruit and vegetables grown on an allotment. Each entry features tips on storage, freezing, preserving and preparation techniques, along with quick and original ideas on how to make the most of the produce while it is in season without getting fed up with it! Next comes the recipe section, featuring 60 delicious recipes (32 of which are photographed) to give readers greater instruction and fantastic new ideas on cooking their produce. There are soups, starters, light meals, salads, main meals, accompaniments, desserts and preserves, using only the tastiest ingredients, fresh from the allotment!

This is a major book on the life of the alpine flower for gardeners and professionals, co-published with the Alpine Garden Society. The book covers the key aspects of the alpine flower relevant to those wishing to get the most of their plants in the garden by understanding them in the wild. Well illustrated throughout, the book covers: Introduction: with a working definition of the term 'alpine plant'; arctic and alpine ecosystems; survival, growth and development, including hazards, pests and diseases; climate: the effect of low temperatures, precipitation and drought tolerance with relevance for the gardener; the impact of snow cover; geology and soils; mineral nutrition: the essential mineral elements contained in soils; reproduction: development of the flower; various methods of pollination, attracting pollinators/facilitating a good seed set; seed dispersal and germination; vegetative propagation; impact of global climate change and dealing with changes and rainfall pattern disruptions in lowland gardens; and, factors influencing the origin and present distribution of arctic and alpine plants.

The forty plants presented in this book comprise both herbs and other plants that were important for culinary, medicinal and cult purposes in classical antiquity. Thus olive and pomegranate, myrtle and rose join coriander and marjoram, garlic and thyme. In the introduction, the author draws on her extensive knowledge of ancient practices to pant an intriguing image of the many and varied uses of and myths about plants from Greek and particularly Roman kitchen gardens. Quotes from classical authors testify to ancient practices, some curious, some still standard today. The delightful illustrations reproduce drawings from early nineteenth-century botanical publications, which often show the plants at various stages of growth, from seeds through ripe fruits. It is an attractive compendium of ancient herbal lore. It is an intriguing mix of medicinal, religious and culinary uses. It includes colourful botanical illustrations throughout.

Relocated from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the first year of the family's experiment. Discarding processed, factory - farmed foods transported long distances, in favour of growing their own food, they set out to prove that a local diet is better for the economy, the environment and the soul.Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, and full of original recipes, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" is a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the centre of family life, and diversified farms at the centre of our diet.

And what gardener is not anxious? In "The Anxious Gardener" Roszika Parker wittily addresses the worries evoked by a series of gardening tasks over the course of a year. Each episode involves a dialogue between the Anxious Gardener and the Gardening Mentor, who offers practical solutions to the AG's all-too-emotional dilemmas. A third voice, belonging to Maud-Next-Door, dispenses understanding and envy in unequal measure through the latticework of trellis surrounding the AG's flowerbeds.

As the AG sows the seeds of desire, is led into temptation, insists on monogamy, unwillingly accepts ageing, fails to leave well alone, this book explore the emotional life of the gardener: the envy, anxiety, guilt, rage and satisfaction unearthed, or unleashed, by the spade.

The 18th-century landscape garden is the only art form to have originated wholly in Britain which then went on to influence the rest of the world. Tim Richardson here tells the extraordinary story of the gang of eccentrics who created these gardens, a small group of politicians and poets, farmers and businessmen, heiresses and landowners whose obsession with their gardens went on to change the course of artistic history. The cast of characters includes: Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Sussex, official mistress of George II, who had eminent men falling over themselves to help design her new house and garden in 1724. Jonathan Tyers, the entrepreneur who founded Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, who was also a religious fanatic whose private Surrey garden was designed as a symbolic biblical fantasy land. Stephen Duck, poet and antiquary, who was chosen by Queen Caroline to be her 'librarian' in Merlin's Grotto, a subterranean structure with bookshelves and sofas designed for the gardens at Richmond Lodge. Thomas Wright, the astronomer who discovered the Milky Way, who also designed elaborately rusticated arbours, grottoes and swimming pools.These pioneers of the landscape garden were part of an extraordinary flowering of horticultual talent. They visited each other's gardens, wrote learned papers on the subject and discussed the principles involved earnestly and vehemently. It was an extraordinarily creative and innovative period - Newton published his "Optics", Defoe wrote "Robinson Crusoe" and Hume's "Treatise of Human Nature" came out around the same time. The landscape garden similarly reflected important debates about man's place in the world and his relationship with nature. Tim Richardson's book is a wonderfully engaging account of a period bursting with creativity and an artform which is today both enormously popular and hugely undervalued. He seeks to redress this balance and bring to the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the great gardens of Britain every year a new appreciation of the glories they see there.

Originally published in 1988 as the first truly comprehensive review of one of the largest and most popular plant families, "Aroids" was enthusiastically welcomed by botanists and horticulturists alike for its attention to scientific detail and delightful writing style. Now in this completely updated second edition, we learn of discoveries made in the last decade as the family has grown from about 2500 species to nearer 3200. The latest taxonomic and nomenclatural revisions are noted in the checklist of genera, and all the original drawings are included plus twice as many color photos.

A new guide to the cultivation of ornamental aroids completes this well-rounded introduction to a remarkable family.

'If I have learned only one thing from my travels around the world it is that no garden is an island. Context is everything.' Monty Don visits each continent in this landmark series on gardens of the world. We are introduced to the unique floating gardens of the Amazon and the colourful alpine flower meadows of Norway, modest domestic gardens in Havana and Bali, Monet's world-famous Giverny and the Dutch tour-de-force Het Loo, the formal magnificence of Renaissance Italian water gardens, the tropical planting traditions of Thailand, and the intriguing fusion of indigenous and colonial garden cultures in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Each garden is placed in context, horticultural preconceptions are abandoned and Monty is constantly surprised by the unexpected locations where gardens thrive. A vivid account of travel, adventure, beauty and the pursuit of knowledge.

Lavishly illustrated with Clive Nicols' own award-winning work, this is an inspirational book as well as a practical one. Aimed at the many photographers who find their greatest satisfaction in capturing the beauty of individual plants or their own or other people's gardens, the book provides expert advice on all aspects of the work - selective focus, the harmonious use of colour, light, coping with the weather, composition and a host of others. The subjects covered range from close ups of details such as bark or petals, to individual plant portraits and through to the composing of vistas that reveal the grandest of gardens in all its glory. Clive Nichols has photographed gardens in many different parts of the world and has practical advice to offer on travel and equipment for different locations and conditions, from frost and fog to tropical sunlight. There are also chapters on bringing a garden to life by including it's inhabitants, both people and birds and insects.Finally, there are step by step instructions on the post-capture phase in which digital technology can be used to sharpen, enhance, tone or otherwise perfect an image to achieve a finished picture that matches the vision in the photographer' mind at the instant the shutter was released.

Profiles fifty contemporary landscape practices from around the world. With between four and six case studies for each designer, this title presents an encyclopaedic look at the advanced thinking in garden design and offers an archive for practitioners and enthusiasts alike.

The story of how Beth Chatto created her gravel garden on "possibly the driest, and the most windswept, piece of soil in England". The results, portrayed in Steven Wooster's specially commissioned photographs taken through the seasons, testify to the triumphant outcome of the adventure.

Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003) was among the most influential architects in southeast Asia in the last decades of the 20th century, and the principal force behind what is today known globally as 'tropical modernism'. This brilliantly illustrated volume looks back at his life and career and at the continuing legacy of Bawa's influence through the work of contemporary architects working across southeast Asia.

We all know the Earth is in crisis. We should know that it is big enough to sustain us if we can only mobilise politicians and economists to change course now. This book explores environmental, economic and social ideas to save our planet.

It helps us understand what is happening to the planet today, exposes the actions of corporations and the lack of action of governments, weighs up new technologies, and champions innovative and viable solutions. Tackling a huge range of subjects - it has the potential to become the seminal reference book on the state of the planet - the one and only environmental book you really need.

Each autumn in villages all across Britain, marquees fill up with giant vegetables of every description - onions the size of cannonballs, carrots like drainpipes, pumpkins that could sink a ship. In what seems a peculiarly British tradition (though it also thrives in North America), gardeners compete fiercely against one another for the honour of having grown the largest specimen, with frequently comic results.These monstrous vegetables are the result of a year's dedicated feeding and cosseting, usually conducted in secrecy, with potential prize-winners being guarded against saboteurs as the autumn show approaches. To produce a carrot more than 17 feet long and get it to the show bench undamaged requires a level of strategic planning comparable to a military campaign.

It is a bizarre world with more than a little of The League of Gentlemen about it.In "The Biggest Beetroot in the World", Michael Leapman explores the strange community of giant vegetable growers, closely shadowing the four leading competitors through an entire season as they prepare for the 2007 shows. Published to coincide with the 2008 autumn shows, this is the fascinating tale of a very British extreme sport and the men who play by its rules.

In "Bloom", respected floral photographer Ron van Dongen works in colour for the first time. His bold still-lifes of richly coloured flowers on solid backgrounds delight and inspire. In sculptural images of perfect flower specimens grown in his own garden van Dongen displays a palpable devotion to the natural world. From common daisies to exotic lillies and orchids, van Dongen offers 150 colour photographs that blur the line between nature's handiwork and works of art. An introduction by the artist and a foreword by gallerist Peter Fetterman round out the work.

As good design is the key to a successful garden, this book has collected together some of the best of today' s structural garden plans, providing practical solutions for smaller gardens in both town and country. After an introduction that gives specific advise on the advantages and restrictions of designing a garden for a smaller space and how problems can be resolved, the book features some 150 structural garden plans divided into thematic chapters. The plans include those for problem sites, such as small, narrow, shaded or sloping gardens, as well as key garden features such as steps, decking, boundaries, water features, lighting, and ornaments, together with key planting.