Fusing memoir, horticulture and travel writing, Beth Lynch discusses her experience of relocating to Switzerland. Inspired by the garden at her childhood home in Sussex, she sets about creating a green place of her own in the rugged Jura region and discovers, as she tends to her hellebores, cornflowers and Japanese anemones, a renewed sense of wellbeing and belonging.

Illustrated with paintings of landscapes from the machair of the Outer Hebrides to the rolling South Downs, Richard Jefferson’s exploration of Britain's semi-natural grasslands describes the various types, their origins and the huge variety of wildlife they support. The book includes a map showing their location in nature reserves, and a glossary of names and terms.

The Austrian conservationist Georg Grabherr aims to inspire amateur horticulturalists to convert their outside space into a 'Noah's Ark' of threatened trees, plants and flowers. Featuring numerous images of his own garden through the seasons by the award-winning photographer Lois Lammerhuber, he explains how, over time, he has created an ecological haven in his back garden. Text in German and English.

With guidance on topics ranging from selecting salad leaf varieties to designing and constructing a wooden vegetable bed, this colourful guide pays special attention to architecture, landscaping and combining complementary colours and textures, providing the knowledge required to design, build and nurture your own vegetable garden in any size, shape or style.

In 1883 Monet began transforming the garden at Giverny, infusing the planting with the sense of colour and atmosphere that he expressed in his art. Vivien Russell explores his creative process and love of horticulture before discussing highlights from the garden, including the waterlilies, and demonstrating through hundreds of photographs the seasonal changes in its colour palette.

This illustrated book shows how to grow a variety of crops indoors, from planting cress and microgreens in muffin cases on a sunny windowsill to creating pots for shade-tolerant herbs and building a shelving unit with grow lights for use in darker areas. Step-by-step instructions are given for each project, with cook’s tips offering suggestions for using and preserving the produce.

The 18th-century English landscape garden, with its seemingly natural appearance, was a revolution in design and its legacy can still be seen in gardens and parks. In this well-illustrated history Symes traces the origins and evolution of the style; discusses its place in contemporary politics, philosophy and culture; and surveys its variations through the works of major designers, from William Kent and the ‘pictorial garden’ to Humphrey Repton and the Picturesque.

The opportunity to grow exotic fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices has never been greater, with a diverse range of seeds and plants now available. Matthew Biggs’ well-illustrated manual presents step-by-step instructions for growing over 50 varieties, including chickpeas, Chinese artichokes, turmeric and goji berries, with a handy quick reference section for each, and tips on cooking and storing them.

This updated edition of the classic guide to garden health builds on the comprehensive information in the original, detailing a further 25 pests and diseases, new treatments and resistant plants. The first section explains how to identify common problems, aided by clear photographs; the second offers an A–Z of symptoms, causes and control methods; and a final section details the problems associated with particular species.

Throughout history, monarchs have created magnificent gardens both for relaxation and to advertise their wealth and power. Illustrated with 150 colour photographs, this book explores 20 of the finest, including Louis XIV’s Versailles, Frederick the Great’s Sanssouci, the royal palaces of Fez and Edo Castle in Tokyo. Each entry explains the history of the garden, profiles its creators, describes its style, planning and principles, and includes interviews with the present owners.

A tireless rambler and observer of nature, Henry David Thoreau kept a daily record of the plants he observed on his walks around Concord, Massachusetts, along with notes on the weather and his own philosophical speculations. This chronological selection is illustrated with line drawings by Barry Moser, and includes an introduction, notes, a map and a key to place names.

Determined to counter the misconception that gardening is expensive, Huw Richards spent a year producing food at no cost. Illustrated throughout, his guide to making raised beds and containers, composting, harvesting seeds from shop-bought produce and sharing tools demonstrates the rewards of a frugal approach before showing how to grow a variety of fruits, herbs and vegetables.

Written for the reluctant gardener, this is a guide to what not to do in the garden. Rather than letting your plot revert to wilderness, Wareham (the gardener of Veddw House, near Tintern) encourages finding easier ways to do the jobs you dislike and suggests effective alternatives. The book is arranged by season, from what not to do in spring (grow roses – if you don’t grow them they won’t need pruning), to winter (washing empty pots – madness).

Accessible to gardeners as well as professional botanists, this manual assists with the accurate identification of ornamental flowering plants cultivated in Europe. It now appears in a revised edition, reorganized in line with new taxonomic methods; Volume I covers all the Monocotyledons, the grasses and sedges, the aroids and the large and diverse family of the Orchidaceae.

With a foreword by village fair stalwart Alan Titchmarsh and advice from cookery teacher Thane Prince and gardening expert Matthew Biggs, this illustrated compendium offers a unique insight into the particularities of a great British tradition. It looks at the RHS guidelines on selecting and presenting produce and includes interviews with show veterans and tried-and-tested recipes for cakes, chutneys and jams.

Intended to inspire both novice and experienced horticulturalists, this illustrated volume explains how to create a herb garden, whether in a window box or on a grander scale. It covers every stage of the process – from the initial planning and design, via soil preparation and choosing appropriate plants and tools, to successfully maintaining the space – and offers advice on preserving, storing and using herbs. Barcode on front of book.

After establishing the basics of running a successful allotment, this well-illustrated volume explains the tasks that need to be carried out each month, from buying seeds, to sowing, harvesting and storing produce. More detailed information on growing each type of fruit or vegetable follows, with the aim of having a supply of fresh produce throughout the year, and a troubleshooting section suggests solutions for common problems.

Norah Lindsay was a major influence on English garden design between the wars. Having developed her skills in her own Oxfordshire garden, she turned professional in 1924 when the collapse of her marriage left her penniless. Well-illustrated with historic and modern photographs, this book celebrates her life and work creating gardens for Nancy Astor, the Prince of Wales and royalty across Europe. It includes a directory of all her clients and the work she undertook for them.

Covering an extraordinary diversity of gardens across the world – classical Chinese aesthetics in Suzhou, cactus terraces in Lanzarote, a Persian oasis in Iran and Gertrude Jekyll’s Arts and Crafts garden at Upton Grey Manor in Hampshire – this is a survey to inspire gardeners and designers. The book looks at 100 exceptional gardens, describing, illustrating and explaining in detail the key elements of each one from a design perspective.

The five-acre garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll at Upton Grey in Hampshire had fallen into neglect when Rosamund Wallinger and her husband bought the house in 1984. This volume records her meticulous recreation of this horticultural masterpiece, and the painstaking research that informed it. Illustrated with Jekyll’s original plans, and photographs of the restored plantings throughout the year, the book showcases the skill that made her one of Britain’s most influential horticultural designers.

Matthew Biggs profiles the lives and achievements of 35 botanists whose work in fields such as plant collecting, plant-based medicine, genetics or hybridization has significantly increased our understanding of plants. Richly illustrated with horticultural drawings, portraits and photographs, and noting how each botanist can inspire today’s gardeners, the book is arranged chronologically from the ‘Father of Pharmacology’, Pedanius Dioscorides (fl. 50 CE), through figures including Linnaeus, Joseph Banks and Gregor Mendel, to Patrick Blanc, the pioneer of vertical gardening.

Vigorous, fragrant and easy to plant and prune, the montana is the most popular of the Clematis family. Suitable for both amateur and expert gardeners, this illustrated guide explains the history of each variety, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to choose the right plant for a particular plot, and offers advice on cultivation and display.

Joseph Hooker’s perilous explorations in the Himalayas between 1848 and 1851 resulted in the collection of some 5,000 different species of plants, none more celebrated than the rhododendrons. The three volumes of Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya (1849, 1851), with Hooker’s rough sketches transformed into lithographs by the botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch, were to have a lasting impact on British gardening. This facsimile edition presents the three volumes bound as one, along with short introductory essays. No jacket.

A Botanical Magazine Monograph, this illustrated volume covers the distribution, history, conservation, classification and cultivation of Calluna, Daboecia and those Erica species growing naturally in the northern hemisphere.

Covering a botanically diverse group of 133 species, this is a systematic and authoritative account of the ‘Cape hyacinths’.

The first section of this illustrated volume outlines the history of knot gardens from Tudor times to the present day, exploring their decorative and symbolic aspects. Anne Jennings then explores different ways of using the motif as a feature and offers clear advice on establishing a knot garden at home – from selecting a site and choosing plants to their ongoing care and maintenance.

A celebratory anthology of plants and flowers, this Florilegium was created by today’s botanical artists to mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. Australia’s extraordinary flora has beguiled botanists and plant collectors since Sir Joseph Banks, who arrived in Sydney Cove in 1770, and each of the 85 plants depicted in this volume is accompanied by notes on its history, including early admirers among plant hunters, as well as a botanical description.

Published in the popular Kew Growing series and sponsored by the Orchid Specialist Group, this guide is written for amateurs and professionals without access to sophisticated apparatus and chemicals. With straightforward text and diagrams, it explains the whole process of growing orchids, from selecting or making equipment, through pollinating flowers, obtaining and storing seed, sowing and germination, to transplanting and growing on seedlings.

In this illustrated guide to organic fruit growing and maintenance, the horticulturalist Yvonne Cuthbertson offers advice on choosing the best produce to suit the plot (whether a garden, allotment, terrace or window box), clearly describes how to plant, propagate, prune, harvest and store it and provides a comprehensive directory of popular varieties that are suitable to grow in the UK.

Many fundamentals of the gardening lexicon – from topiary and water features to the lawnmower and Dr Ward’s ground-breaking prototype terrarium – were once novelties, the result of aesthetic or technological innovation. This miscellany, illustrated with black-and-white line drawings by Dave Hopkins, celebrates fifty horticultural inventions and trends and considers how they have shaped the way in which we engage with our gardens today.

Inspired by the earlier book of the same title by the American author Bill Adler, the gardening expert Anne Wareham shares her own practical tips on how to outsmart garden pests large and small as well as offering advice on dealing with the horticultural challenges posed by weeds and the weather.

Wolfgang Oehme (1930–2011) spearheaded the ‘New American’ garden style that is defined by vast sweeps of herbaceous perennials and grasses. This volume, with photographs of his creations, documents his life in landscape architecture and includes a detailed glossary of the plants that featured in his projects in Germany and the United States.

The British passion for gardens stretches back hundreds of years and has produced an array of horticultural masterpieces from landscaped parks to hidden gems. This practical guidebook, organized by county, describes gardens open to the public and provides maps, directions and contact details. Beautiful photographs show some of these wonderful gardens, including the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Stourhead, Hatfield House, Beth Chatto Gardens, Castle Howard and Drummond Castle Gardens.

Aimed at the time-poor gardener who wants to achieve maximum yield with minimum effort, this book explains how to grow apples, pears, plums, cherries, soft fruit and nuts in even the smallest space. Illustrated with photographs of the author’s own garden, it offers practical, easy-to-follow advice on planning and design, what to grow, planting, pruning, mulches, compost, watering, weeding and dealing with pests and diseases.

Drawing on the expertise of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, this practical guide selects the best plants for a variety of purposes in and around the home. The varieties are arranged in order of character – structural or edible, for example – and Katherine Price selects those compatible with domestic spaces, from window boxes to bedrooms and bathrooms, and outlines the care that each requires.

In this volume, garden photographer Andrea Jones offers four approaches to garden design: ‘Connect’ provides ideas for paths, lawns and bridges linking spaces together; ‘Divide’ examines how hedges, walls, screens and borders can create rooms within a garden; ‘Space’ explores ways to fill a garden, whatever the size; and ‘Style’ covers every type of garden from formal to oriental. Including directories of designers, festivals, garden centres and public gardens, this is a comprehensive sourcebook for anyone seeking modern garden ideas.

First published in 1770, Thomas Whately’s comprehensive study of the English landscape garden became the standard text on the subject both in Britain and abroad. This first modern edition is accompanied by an introduction and commentary, alongside contemporary illustrations of the gardens and places discussed. It makes available to the modern reader a crucial primary source on what is often regarded as this country’s greatest original contribution to the arts.

Taking the wide range of National Trust garden styles as its inspiration, this illustrated design sourcebook demonstrates how even a small outdoor space can benefit from the details that are found in much larger gardens. There are planting ideas for all seasons, covering colour co-ordination, flower, vegetable, herb and container gardens, and imaginative suggestions for using steps, seats, paths, paving and topiary, with advice from the Trust’s head gardeners.

Behind the high walls of the Vatican, beautifully kept gardens offer the Pope a tranquil refuge, fragrant with sweet herbs and cooled by shade trees and fountains. Linda Kooluris Dobbs's photographs give us access to these normally hidden lawns and avenues, grottoes and parterres, with their fine statuary and fountains, and their imposing backdrop – the buildings of the Vatican and the dome of St Peter's. Kildare Dobbs's introductory essay accompanies this collection of over 140 photographs.

The garden created by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, at Kenilworth was one of the wonders of Elizabethan England. It was also the best-documented garden of its age, allowing English Heritage to recreate it in 2009. Comprising 17 essays by specialists and lavishly illustrated with reproductions, plans and modern photographs, this book charts the documentary and archaeological detective work that went into that project, but also represents a major addition to the study of English garden history.

Presenting works ranging from Leonard Knyff’s panoramic View of Hampton Court (c.1703) to Fabergé’s enamelled and jewelled flowers (c.1900), this volume draws on the Royal Collection to trace the changing design and function of gardens through the art they have inspired. After a short chapter on early Islamic examples, the history traces royal and aristocratic styles from medieval sacred gardens to the 19th-century ‘horticultural garden’, with a final chapter on ceramics and ornament. Foreword by Sir Roy Strong.

During the successful Dig for Victory campaign, which aimed to make wartime Britain self-sufficient, gardeners everywhere dug up their lawns to grow not only fruit and vegetables, but flowers too, inspiring ‘faith, hope, cheerfulness and courage’. From composting to harvesting, this playful history of the campaign features all aspects of wartime gardening, and is vividly illustrated by original pamphlets, recoloured photographs and instructional cartoons.

Part of the Reader's Digest Garden Basics series of straightforward, illustrated guides, this handy, ring-bound book is in two main parts: a seasonal guide to keeping the garden healthy and a directory of over 200 pests and diseases arranged by symptom, with special features on roses, slugs and snails, winter pruning and lawn care. The introductory section includes information on beneficial creatures and using organic treatments.

From formal topiary at Levens Hall, Cumbria, to the seemingly natural flower meadows of Piet Oudolf’s Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe Waterfowl Park in Norfolk, Ursula Buchan presents a thematic survey of English domestic gardens, illustrated with over 300 photographs by Andrew Lawson.

Charting the setting up of a community allotment in the Devon village of Cornworthy, the first-hand accounts in this book describe their initial planning and preparation, before progressing through the seasons. There is a wealth of practical advice given, on establishing a plot, choice of crops, rotation and how to deal with pests.

Combining specially commissioned drawings and a short history of each maze, this book allows the reader to trace a route through 60 of the world’s most beguiling life-size puzzles. Both real and imagined, they range from the Nazca Lines of Peru and Roman mosaics in Portugal and Pompeii to the Winchester labyrinth, supposedly constructed by a melancholy schoolboy, and the walls of yew around which an axe-wielding Jack Nicholson lumbers in Kubrick’s The Shining.

After analysing plant-covered garden structures and how they have been used over the centuries, this illustrated volume looks at five of Britain's finest pergolas, such as those situated at West Dean and Hestercombe. In addition, the landscape architect Paul Edwards explains in detail the process of designing, building and planting a pergola with reference to six of his own projects, including two for the National Trust.

Monet at Giverny, Renoir at Les Collettes, the American Impressionist Childe Hassam in Celia Thaxter’s garden at Appledore, and, contemporary with the Impressionists, Gertrude Jekyll’s creation of Munstead Wood; these are among the artists and the inspirational gardens described and illustrated – by both paintings and photographs – in this unusual study.

Starting with quiz night in the Prince of Wales on Highgate Hill, Mark Mason sets off in search of the perfect quiz question. In venues as far-flung as a hotel bar in Edinburgh and a village pub in Suffolk, he meets the aficionados of the quiz world and a veritable deluge of facts, figures and trivia.

Part horticultural memoir, part meditation on mental health, this volume follows the evolution of the beautiful garden Charlie Hart created from an untouched patch of meadowland in the grounds of his farmhouse in rural Essex. In the midst of grief and anxiety, his retreat into nature pulled him back from an impending breakdown, and here he celebrates the thrill of creation and the healing power of digging.

This practical guide show how hundreds of species of flora and fauna can be encouraged into a range of British gardens. Following photographs and brief descriptions of the most commonly seen mammals, birds, invertebrates, reptiles and plants, advice is given on planting for pollinators, creating different habitats, and building simple hibernation and nesting boxes.

Wordsworth was as passionate about his gardens at Dove Cottage and Rydal Mount as he was about the untamed world that surrounded them. With contemporary horticultural illustrations throughout, this book traces his interest in the natural world to his childhood fondness for gardening, before examining the references to flowers in his verse.

Looking at topics including what varieties to grow, when to water, and how to care for soil and plants, botanist and Gardeners’ Question Time panellist James Wong presents techniques to improve the taste and nutritional content of homegrown crops, while managing workload. Underpinned with extensive scientific research, his well-illustrated guide dispels long-held myths and covers fruits, vegetables, herbs and nuts as well as edible weeds and flowers and includes 36 simple recipes.

Ever energetic, Winston Churchill set about remodelling the grounds of his Chartwell estate in the 1930s, digging lakes, acquiring farmland and even taking up the bricklayer's trowel himself. This review of the statesman's residences focuses on this property but also discusses the many other houses in which he lived, including London state apartments, wartime accommodation and an ancient half-timbered farmhouse in Surrey.

Aimed at garden enthusiasts, planters and landscapers, this volume, illustrated with more than 450 annotated photographs, traces Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain's restoration of the once-neglected grounds at West Dean in Sussex. Now one of Britain's most impressive examples of practical horticulture, the plot boasts thirteen working Victorian glasshouses, an Edwardian pergola, a walled kitchen garden and a 50-acre arboretum.

Emily Chappell presents an inspiring sketchbook of ingeniously designed self-built allotment huts and their plots. She offers advice on sourcing and incorporating a diverse range of found and recycled materials such as repurposed conservatory windows, bus shelter panels and scaffolding netting.

The Cadogan Estate, an area including Sloane Square, the Chelsea Physic Garden and a stretch of the King’s Road, was formed in 1717 and is one of London’s few remaining ancient family estates. These eight essays are illustrated throughout with period photography, documents and maps, and discuss three centuries of architectural, horticultural and retail development in one of the capital’s most fashionable areas.

This well-illustrated volume introduces 55 herbs and explores their hidden meanings and their places in lore, language and literature. From the healing properties of Feverfew and Chamomile to the ritualistic uses of Tarragon and Bay Laurel, each entry explores etymology and historical uses, and features a line from literature celebrating the herb in question.

Celebrating the beauty created by landscapers in the most unlikely places, this highly illustrated exploration of the gardens found on Britain's islands takes in the Scottish Hebrides, Anglesey, the Isle of Wight and the Scilly Isles. Part travel inspiration, part horticultural guide, the diverse habitats it features, ranging from coastal machair to woodland, meadow and mountain, all share the unique atmosphere brought by proximity to water.

Aiming to make the prospect of tackling one's outside space less daunting and more enjoyable, the Gardenista contributor Kendra Wilson offers straightforward solutions to 48 garden management and design concerns. Each dilemma, such as 'my garden is too long and narrow', 'I don't have time to water regularly' and 'we have nowhere to sit', is illustrated with complementary photography.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, this catalogue explores the response of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists to the parks and gardens of France. The essays explore the development of horticulture in the 19th century, the vogue for domestic gardening, and the revival of floral painting, while the 172 colour illustrations include works by Monet, Manet, Matisse, Seurat, Cézanne and Van Gogh.

This dual biography follows the travels of the plant collectors John Tradescant (c.1570–1638), who visited Russia, the Middle East, the Netherlands and France, and his son, also named John (1608–62), who journeyed to Virginia. It explains how the specimens they brought to their house in Lambeth introduced many plants now familiar to British gardens, including magnolia, poppy, scented stock, Virginia creeper, and the hanging houseplant named after them.

To discover how the rose has insinuated itself into the consciousness and the gardens of so many ages and cultures, Jennifer Potter begins by tracing the flower’s origins in the wild briars of the northern hemisphere. She then examines its appearance in Christian iconography and other traditions; its development in early modern European gardens; the plant’s progress in China, the Middle East and North America; its role in medicine and perfumery; and the hybridization and changing fashions of modern roses.

Beginning with a concise introduction to plants that offer colour, scent or food for wildlife throughout the year, this comprehensive, well-illustrated volume offers a month-by-month guide to creating an attractive and productive garden. Details of general tasks, and those specific to trees and shrubs, ornamental species, fruit and vegetables, and lawns, are followed by an A–Z directory of over 350 plant varieties.

Few subjects have attracted as much received wisdom as gardening. In this collection of articles, Daily Telegraph gardening columnist Ken Thompson sorts the genuine from the hokum, the essential tasks from those that aren’t worth doing. This entertaining and informative miscellany contains advice on how to attract more wildlife to the garden, the ideal temperature for a compost heap, and how bees can improve a strawberry crop.

Well-illustrated throughout, this guide demonstrates how to create growing areas for balconies, patios and small gardens, from simple ideas such as converting a colander into a hanging basket for strawberries to making a vertical planter from a pallet. It then presents advice on maximizing yield, with tips on successive sowing, choosing reliable varieties and how to extend the season.