Published in 1947, Armchair Gardening is a meditation on the sensual and spiritual aspects of gardening. Thomas Hubbard McHatton believes gardening is an art—a method of expression analogous to sculpture or dance. He carefully dissects the delicate components of a garden, explaining how one can pinpoint the intricate and harmonious tastes, sounds, and odors fl owing freely among the plants. McHatton includes a chronicle of America's interest in gardening, starting with its genesis, expanding to explain its role in universal gardening, and concluding with a written pilgrimage through some of America's most famous gardens.
The Armchair Book of Gardens is a collection of indiviual essays focused on understanding gardens in a different light/perspective. The book concentrates on the emotional, social, spiritual, and politicial aspects of the garden.
"Though an old man," Thomas Jefferson wrote at Monticello, "I am but a young gardener." Every gardener is. In Gardening in Eden, we enter Arthur Vanderbilt's small enchanted world of the garden, where the old wooden trestle tables of a roadside nursery are covered in crazy quilts of spring color, where a catbird comes to eat raisins from one's hand, and a chipmunk demands a daily ration of salted cocktail nuts. We feel the oppressiveness of endless winter days, the magic of an old-fashioned snow day, the heady, healing qualities of wandering through a greenhouse on a frozen February afternoon, the restlessness of a gardener waiting for spring. With a sense of wonder and humor on each page, Arthur Vanderbilt takes us along with him to discover that for those who wait, watch, and labor in the garden, it's all happening right outside our windows.
Inspiration, planting ideas and expert advice for a beautiful garden all-year round Colour and scent are the hallmarks of Sarah Raven's style – 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 – this book shows you how you can too.
Set in Seattle amid sensuous garden beauty and lush summer evenings, The Garden House is about finding meaning in the second half of life. Turning fifty has Miranda re-evaluating her life now that her two children have left the nest. In an attempt to rediscover the thrill and hope of her younger days, she decides to convert the garden house into an artist studio – only to find that her husband has already rented it to a somewhat mysterious young man. Though Miranda at first welcomes the shy tenant, she soon develops a sense of unease about him. Is he the nice man he appears to be? Or is he the reason behind her increasingly disturbing dreams? An uplifting – and sometimes suspenseful – story about a woman who pursues a life of love, creativity, and beauty. “I was completely swept away by this tale. I was engaged in the mystery, the confusion and all the secrecy….This book is one that will definitely test your intuition.” – NetGalley Review “Mahkovec’s prose is sharp and fluid, building tension in small domestic scenes….The premise is a fun one, and Miranda is a finely drawn character.” – Kirkus Reviews
This step-by-step guide will answer all of your questions about how to create beautiful gardens designed to welcome beneficial pollinators across the South. Combining up-to-date scientific information with artful design strategies, Danesha Seth Carley and Anne M. Spafford teach gardeners of all levels to plan, plant, and maintain successful pollinator gardens at home and in shared community sites. Everyday gardeners, along with farmers, scientists, and policy makers, share serious concerns about ongoing declines in bee and other pollinator populations, and here Spafford and Carley deliver great news: every thoughtfully designed garden, no matter how small, can play a huge role in providing the habitat, nourishment, and nesting places so needed by pollinators. This book explains all you need to be a pollinator champion. *Covers USDA hardiness zones 6, 7, 8, and 9, including twelve southern states *Explains what makes pollinators happy—bees, for sure, and many others, great and small *Brings science and art together in gardens of all types, including urban, food, container, community, school, and large-scale gardens *Provides step-by-step instructions for choosing locations, preparing soil and garden beds, selecting the best plants, considering seasonality in your garden design, managing your garden throughout the year, and much more *Richly illustrated with photographs, design plans, and handy charts and lists
“An extraordinary collection of 21st-century gardens that will arouse wanderlust… Whether you are a garden globetrotter or an armchair explorer, this book is definitely one to add to your collection.” —Gardens Illustrated A steep hillside oasis in Singapore, a garden distinguished by shape and light in Marrakech, a haunting tree museum in Switzerland—these are just a few of the extraordinary outdoor havens visited in Gardenlust. In this sumptuous global tour of modern gardens, intrepid plant expert Christopher Woods spotlights 50 gardens that push boundaries and define natural beauty in significant ways. Featuring both private and public gardens, this journey makes its way from the Americas and Europe to Australia and New Zealand, with stops in Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Along the way, you'll learn about the people, plants, and stories that make these iconic gardens so lust-worthy. As inspiring as it is insightful, Gardenlust will delight your passion for garden inspiration—and the many places it grows.
Gardening is one of the most popular leisure activities today and most people take it for granted that suitable plants, equipment and information are easily available. This was not always the case. Anne Wilkinson's engaging book recreates the world of amateur Victorian gardeners - those who had no idea how to start gardening, and no information to help them.In the 1860s gardening was mainly the preserve of professionals who worked on large estates, but a new breed of gardeners was emerging - ordinary householders. Their gardens range from country cottage and rectory gardens to urban gardens behind terraced houses. With no help from the professionals - who refused to believe that gardens in towns were a practical possibility - those innovators laid down the foundations for modern amateur gardening as it is today.This book, richly illustrated with images from contemporary magazines and other sources, explores their journey to create their own piece of England's 'green and pleasant land'.
How to grow your own food in the Rockies! Growing vegetables requires regionally specific information—what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are based on climate, weather, and first frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Mountain States tackles this need head on, with regionally specific growing information written by local gardening expert, Mary Ann Newcomer. Monthly planting guides show exactly what you can do in the garden from January through December. The skill sets go beyond the basics with tutorials on seed saving, worm bins, and more. For home gardeners in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, eastern Washington and Oregon, northern Nevada, and the southernmost parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
