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Keeping garden soil in good health is an essential part of gardening, and compost is the home gardener's most effective way to maintain fertile, well aerated, and moisture-retentive soil. This abundantly illustrated book gives gardeners all the guidance they need to start making, storing, and using their own compost. It offers information on the different types of compost and their ingredients, advice on constructing a compost bin, and detailed explanations of wormeries, green manuring, and seed and potting composts. There's no better or easier-to-follow guide for anyone wanting to make and use their own compost.

Home Gardener's Bonsai is the essential guide to the art and craft of growing bonsai in the garden or in the house. With topics ranging from watering and feeding to spirit and aesthetics, it provides an all-in-one guide to this ancient and fascinating hobby. The book features advice on looking for and raising trees; handling pests and diseases; using composts; potting; choosing containers; pruning the plants; and displaying them. A convenient A-Z guide covers virtually every species of indoor and outdoor tree.

No matter what the type of garden or outdoor space, trees and shrubs are usually featured. This is because they are so versatile. Depending on the species chosen, shrubs and trees can form the background to a garden, be a focal point or add height to an overlooked garden. Whatever your garden needs, a tree or shrub can provide it. This book details the basics of choosing, buying, planting establishing and transplanting. A comprehensive plant directory has A-Z lists of species within different categories - seasons, colour, size etc. The final section of the book looks at how to care for shrubs and trees, giving practical advice on how to prune and clip, and the pests, diseases and other problems to watch out for.

Home Gardener's Small Gardens is the essential guide to improving a small garden and turning the most modest-sized space into a stunning outdoor area. It offers lushly illustrated strategies for making the most of a confined space-whether backyard, terrace or courtyard. Get started with an informative discussion of small garden types, appropriate plants, problems and opportunities, design, and planning. The excitement truly begins with a look at the wide variety of stylistic options. The gardens range from Mediterranean to wildflower, secluded to low-maintenance, container to balcony. And a plant directory covers it all: summer-flowering annuals, herbaceous perennials, shrubs, small trees, climbers, water plants, bamboos, culinary herbs, fruits, vegetables, and even more. For a finishing touch, there's practical information on garden construction, with step-by-step instructions for making paths, patios and other garden structures.

In order to be a successful gardener you have to know how to prune-whether to improve growth, increase fruiting qualities or to enable the plant to grow in space-restricted areas or cold environments. This practical book provides advice on pruning garden plants, from infancy to maturity. Included is detailed advice on renovating neglected plants, from shrubs and climbers to fruit trees and bushes. There is also a fun element, with instructions for creating topiary in the garden.

Home Gardener's Herb Gardens is the essential guide to growing herbs and designing, planting, improving, and caring for herb gardens. People now use herbs in their cooking on an everyday basis and there's nothing nicer than being able to go out into your garden, snip some fresh herbs and put them straight into the pot. The beauty of an herb garden is that it does not have to be big - it can be part of a larger garden or it can merely be a window box. More than 330 color illustrations and diagrams, backed with easily followed text, help gardeners at all skill levels learn to buy, plant, tend, and harvest a rich bounty of herbs. Complete herb identification and growing instructions are provided for annuals, biennials, bulbs, herbaceous perennials, and shrub-like herbs. There are also planting patterns for a compact cartwheel garden, corner and narrow planting beds, and formal herb gardens, and much more-plus information on preparing herbs for culinary use.

Beginning gardeners and experts alike will appreciate this practical advice on virtually every aspect of gardening-from choosing a plot to selecting flowers and water features. The instructions and advice encompass plans and proven techniques for planting traditional English, Japanese, herb, and rock gardens, and building structures such as fences and walls, arches, pergolas and trellises, as well as decking and pathways. More than 300 color photographs, illustrations and diagrams ensure that anyone can create a glorious garden.

Home Gardener's Container Gardens is the essential guide to gardening with attractive urns, troughs, tubs, hanging baskets, window boxes, and wall pots. No matter how big or small a garden is, there is always room for a container. They can be used on terraces and patios to soften their appearance, form a point of interest at the end of a path, or showcase a particularly wonderful plant. Whatever is needed in a garden, a container can be the answer. This amply illustrated guide covers everything that you need to know about container gardening-from the basics of which container to choose, guidance on seasonal displays, and creating a herb garden to container water features, indoor hanging baskets, and planting a strawberry barrel. There is also invaluable information on looking after plants, raising new plants, attaching brackets and supports and pests and diseases.

Planting annuals is a great way to quickly add color and texture to any garden, border, or landscape. Because annuals only last for one growing season, homeowners can change the overall look of their gardens every year. Home Gardener's Annuals shows readers how to prepare the soil, select the right plants, when and how to plant the plants, fertilize the plants, and maintain their gardens. Hundreds of step-by-step color photographs illustrate the gardening tasks that will achieve the best results. This guide to creating beautiful gardens with eye-catching annuals also offers tips for saving time and money, along with useful advice on dealing with common garden pests and diseases.

Perennials are the types of plants that bloom every year, and because they know what to expect in terms of color, blooms, and textures, many gardeners use them to provide a basic structure to their gardens, borders, and the overall landscape. Home Gardener's Perennials & Bulbs provides essential information on designing gardens, improving the soil, planting, fertilizing, and maintaining perennials and bulbs. The book offers information on buying plants, starting plants from seed, and transplanting. Hundreds of step-by-step color photographs illustrate basic gardening techniques. This guide to creating beautiful gardens with eye-catching perennials also offers tips for saving time and money, along with useful advice on dealing with common garden pests and diseases.

Home Gardener's Garden Pests & Diseases is the essential guide to identifying, targeting, and banishing common pests and diseases from the garden. All gardeners know the disappointment of finding their flowers nibbled, or their prized produce riddled with rust. Armed with this essential guide, you can stop the destruction. Get acquainted with all the common pests and diseases that afflict ornamentals, vegetables, fruits, and houseplants, and learn the best ways to deal with them. The effective options include both biological controls-increasingly popular in the gardening world-as well as the better-known organic and chemical methods. At-a-glance checklists explain which ailments generally afflict various plant types, from roses and rock-garden plants to soft fruits and vegetables.

Home Gardener's Orchids is the essential guide to choosing and growing orchids successfully in any climate. Orchids have a reputation for being hard to grow, but this comprehensive manual will lead gardeners straight to the best variety to cultivate in their climate, and provide all the necessary information to make their flowers flourish. Dozens of dazzling photographs showcase many of these exotic blooms, while detailed sections discuss how to raise them indoors and in growing cases, as well as in greenhouses, and give plenty of advice on watering, misting, composts, heating and cooling, repotting, and dealing with pests and diseases. This remarkable illustrated A-to-Z features important tips for every orchid, and includes notes on whether it's easy to grow and where to grow it, what temperature it needs, and much more.

Ponds and water features have been popular in gardens for thousands of years. This book is aimed at anyone who is thinking of building a pond, anyone who has bought some of the materials but doesn't know how to start or anyone who has a pond and needs to know how to keep it at its best.

Patios is the essential guide to enhancing outdoor spaces with attractive patios, divisions, levels, seating areas, walkways, and more.