Laetitia Maklouf is a garden writer and busy mother of three who has realised that the secret of gardening without becoming overwhelmed is to do something small every day. She’s packed this book with little bursts of activity – spruce, chop, nurture, fuss or tackle a larger project – that can all be managed in five-minute forays. Spruce the lawn by raking fallen leaves in October, or fuss with your snail defences in May. Nurture your hardy annual seedlings in December, and chop your hydrangeas in March. Every day, rain or shine, do something for your garden with whatever time you can spare. Before you know it, you will have a daily gardening habit and a beautiful garden you can enjoy all year round.
Ideal for early years to KS1 children who are learning at home. Daisy Upton has two little kids. She loves them - but they drive her mad. So, to try and keep her sanity she started to come up with quick, easy games using stuff from around the house. And @FiveMinuteMum was born. In her first book, she has collected 150+ games that take 5 minutes to set up & 5 minutes to tidy up. From pasta posting to alphabet knock down, it's a recipe book for guilt free parenting! And as Daisy was a teaching assistant, your little ones will be learning while they play! What could be better? GIVE ME FIVE is the perfect companion for anyone who wants five minutes peace. Also available: Five Minute Mum: Time For School Five Minute Mum: On the Go "I love Five Minute Mum. She's managed to come up with a huge array of activities for kids that are fun and educational yet don't require an Art degree or Diploma in Patience to execute."Sarah Turner, aka Unmumsy Mum
In the Western Garden The 20-Minute Gardener learn the secret to achieving a beautiful garden with minimum effort, paying attention to it in brief time increments all week and season long rather than devoting long days on weekends. Make the process fun. Take an early-morning stroll through your garden, picking off spent blooms as you go, or in the evening after work; pull stray weeds or harvest tomatoes for dinner. This informative guide helps seasoned and new gardeners alike plan easy-to-tend garden spaces, choose low-maintenance plants, grow edibles that keep on giving (artichokes, asparagus, blueberries, citrus) and monitor your plants daily rather than weekly. With garden techniques and projects you will find all the tips and step-by-step instruction needed to create a stylish yet easy-to-maintain outdoor space.
There was a time when garden designer Cleve West thought making a garden was a frivolous pursuit for the privileged. Two things changed his mind: designing a garden for a hospital and adopting a vegan lifestyle. Cleve's transition to veganism was a profound and varied learning experience. He learned more about nutrition than when he studied it as part of a sports science degree. He learned a great deal about propaganda in the food industry and how, contrary to what he'd been led to believe, the cows and chickens in the dairy industry are far from "happy." He learned that animal agriculture is a leading cause of climate change and a whole range of environmental catastrophes. He found that many illnesses have their origins in the consumption of animal products. He learned that a plant-based diet can alleviate some of these illnesses and sometimes even reverse them. He learned that a drive towards a plant-based diet could offset many of the environmental aspects of animal agriculture and make a positive transition to a more sustainable future. Everything started falling into place. It was all about plants. Suddenly, his role as a garden designer didn't seem so trivial after all. The Garden of Vegan charts Cleve's journey from its tentative beginnings to an understanding of the restorative power of gardens and a realization that some of the most destructive aspects of the Anthropocene can be mitigated or even fixed by plants.
Wild about Weeds is the must-have guide for modern gardeners that explains how to tame and nurture the most challenging of plants. Not all weeds are ugly uncontrollable brutes. Yes, they can be difficult and intimidating, but by learning how to grow weeds in unexpected ways you will become a better gardener with a more interesting garden. This book profiles over 50 weeds and shows you surprising ways to grow them, no matter what your garden type: from borders to boxes, sunny to shady, poor soil to rich, tropical to formal, Japanese-style to prairies. With interviews, tips and advice from celebrated gardeners, learn how to let weeds flourish without taking control. Gardening Book of the Year 2019 - The Times Best Gardening Reads of 2019 - Daily Mail Best Gardening Books of the Year - Gardens Illustrated Top Garden Books of 2019 - The English Garden "This well-argued advocacy for rebel plants shows why we should all be growing a few in our gardens." Gardens Illustrated "In this excellent guide, garden designer Wallington rehabilitates the lowly weed...Wallington's humor ("part of me - the rebellious, weed-like part! - likes weeds purely because people tell me not to") and passion for his subject shine through on every page. This new spin on an old subject will encourage both new and seasoned gardeners to look at what's already growing in their garden (and what could be) with fresh eyes." Publishers Weekly "A lovely, practical gardening book that celebrates the beauty and ecological value of the gorgeous plants that we have been silly enough to overlook. Gardens with native 'weeds' are quintessentially English, tangled and tousled, and self-deprecating. Yet they burst with life, for these are plants that have evolved alongside our pollinators such as bees, and other insects that offer themselves to birds. Wild about Weeds sensibly distinguishes between the under-appreciated plants that conjure life into our gardens, and those potentially invasive species that are undesirable for good reason." Jonathan Drori CBE, author of Around the World in 80 Trees
Shameless shortcuts for a great garden super-fast Love being in the garden but not keen on spending the whole weekend making it look perfect? If so, then 30 Minute Gardening is just the book you've been looking for. This will have you sitting down enjoying a drink on the patio after just 30 minutes of stress-free, guilt-free gardening. Packed full of shameless shortcuts and practical tips and ideas that have instant impact, all the know-how is broken down into simple steps and picture sequences including 122 projects on creating beautiful borders, perfect patio pots and how to keep your salad growing all summer. 30 Minute Gardening is the perfect rescue remedy for anyone who loves gardening but has little time on their hands. It's all about how to have a neat garden, a pretty garden, a productive garden...and still have a life.
Experts Clare Foster and Sabina Rüber share their gardening wisdom in this how to garden guide. Growing flowers from seed is an easy and cheap way to enhance borders and bring instant colour to tired gardens. Use this step-by-step guide to grow beautiful blooms and bouquets to brighten your home, all within a single growing season. Author Clare Foster and photographer Sabina Rüber have been experimenting with growing flowers from seed for several years. In this book they pass on that invaluable experience, explaining how and when to sow and grow a huge range of flowers from Aquilegia to Zinnia.
“Uprooted reveals how a late-life uprooting changed Dickey as a gardener.” —The Wall Street Journal When Page Dickey moved away from her celebrated garden at Duck Hill, she left a landscape she had spent thirty-four years making, nurturing, and loving. She found her next chapter in northwestern Connecticut, on 17 acres of rolling fields and woodland around a former Methodist church. In Uprooted, Dickey reflects on this transition and on what it means for a gardener to start again. In these pages, follow her journey: searching for a new home, discovering the ins and outs of the landscape surrounding her new garden, establishing the garden, and learning how to be a different kind of gardener. The surprise at the heart of the book? Although Dickey was sad to leave her beloved garden, she found herself thrilled to begin a new garden in a wilder, larger landscape. Written with humor and elegance, Uprooted is an endearing story about transitions—and the satisfaction and joy that new horizons can bring.
At a difficult time in my parenting life, where I wanted to be "anywhere but here" with regard to my children, I embarked upon a daily Time In routine. It would be supremely succinct of me to say that this practice - of interrupting myself to spend five minutes a day with my young children - saved my disintegrating relationships with them. Yet this statement, while entirely true, doesn't reflect truth entirely because it lacks the crucial details demonstrating just how this change came about. A wise high school English teacher said a hundred times if she said it once, "With your words, don't tell me. Show me." And so this book is a deeply personal illustration of my, a floundering parent's, attempts to overcome the cycle of disengagement with a search for charity through small-dosed intentionality. Time In changed the relationship dynamic between myself and each of my five children for the better. I'm talking about a 180-degree reversal. Or at least a 90-degree pivot. Or whatever number of degrees it takes to conceivably point me in a better parental direction and confirm that this crazy simple five-minute experiment works. In real life. It works. My biggest hope is that each customized application of Time In renders an equally rewarding outcome for all parents and the small humans we are blessed to raise. (Visit brittneysmart.me for more of Brittney's stuff.) (Cover photo by Savannah Merrill @smerillphotography) Readers' Unsolicited Praise for The Five-Minute Time In: - "Unbelievably pertinent to the way I've been feeling lately." - "Engaging and thought provoking." - "The message couldn't have been more timely for me. Thank you for reminding us all of the importance of connection and the power that lies in small doses of intentionality." - "All the thumbs up. Can't wait to share it with my kids." - "I asked [my daughter] what was wrong, and she kept telling me, 'nothing.' But tonight during that five minutes before she went to bed, she poured her little heart out to me. It made me realize she's really noticing when I'm actually 'listening.'" - "The best parenting book I've ever read. It's quick and speaks to my soul." - "Full of intelligence, humor, and a down-to-earth outlook at motherhood." - "Motivat[ed] me to be better." - "There are things in here I need right now." - "I could not BELIEVE how much this book hit home. ... I finished it in one night and started implementing the 'Time In' approach the next day. It has been less than a week, and I can't tell you the difference that is already taking place in my mind and home." - "Read it in one setting and really enjoyed it." - "Highly, strongly, lovingly recommend." - "I bawled through a lot of the first part of the book. Relating in so many ways. ... Inspiring and just so real."
