Lauren Springer and Rob Proctor have long been good friends and garden writing colleagues. Here, readers will be entertained, informed, and inspired by the pair's practical wisdom, wit, and tales of perseverance. Garden success depends on the most appropriate plant selections, the best gardening techniques, and maximizing the seasons. Every subject the authors tackle--from early snows to slugs, from bulbs to botanical Latin--urges readers to make the most of the gardens they tend. Passionate Gardener takes the gardener through the seasons in a comprehensive, yet pleasurable and accessible way, as the authors celebrate a diversity of plants for every site and every season. They champion sound, ecologically friendly gardening techniques, from soil and water issues to pest management. They also offer up stories of their horticultural adventures as their personal gardens have evolved, making this lively, information-packed reading with a personal, real touch.--From publisher description.

Turn a shady yard into a sumptuous garden Shade is one of the most common garden situations homeowner’s have, but with the right plant knowledge, you can triumph over challenging areas and learn to embrace shade as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. Glorious Shade celebrates the benefits of shade and shows you how to make the most of it. This information-rich, hardworking guide is packed with everything you need to successfully garden in the shadiest corners of a yard. You'll learn how to determine what type of shade you have and how to choose the right plants for the space. The book also shares the techniques, design and maintenance tips that are key to growing a successful shade garden. Stunning color photographs offer design inspiration and reveal the beauty of shade-loving plants.

“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.

Bees are our most important pollinators and they are in decline the world over. They love to live in urban environments, where it's a short flight path from one type of plant to the next. But conventional gardens that favour lawns and pesticides over flowers and edible plants are scaring the good bugs away. The Bee Friendly Garden is a guide for all gardeners great and small to encouraging bees and other good bugs to your green space. Includes: - How bees forage and why your garden needs them - A comprehensive plant guide to bee friendly plants - Simple changes anybody can make - Ideas for gardens of all sizes - Natural pest control and companion planting advice

Featuring five new chapters and a new Introduction, this new edition takes readers to gardens everywhere, including the grounds of Blithewold, the turn-of-the-century Rhode Island seaside mansion, with chief horticulturist Julie Morris. 24 illustrations.

In a time of climate change and mass extinction, how we garden matters more than ever: “An outstanding and deeply passionate book.” —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals Plenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much—not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal communities. Our landscapes push aside wildlife and in turn diminish our genetically programmed love for wildness. How can we get ourselves back into balance through gardens, to speak life's language and learn from other species? Benjamin Vogt addresses why we need a new garden ethic, and why we urgently need wildness in our daily lives—lives sequestered in buildings surrounded by monocultures of lawn and concrete that significantly harm our physical and mental health. He examines the psychological issues around climate change and mass extinction as a way to understand how we are short-circuiting our response to global crises, especially by not growing native plants in our gardens. Simply put, environmentalism is not political; it's social justice for all species marginalized today and for those facing extinction tomorrow. By thinking deeply and honestly about our built landscapes, we can create a compassionate activism that connects us more profoundly to nature and to one another.

There’s no more breathtaking signal of summer’s onset than the blooming of peonies. Stunningly beautiful and relatively easy to grow, peonies are a favorite flower everywhere they can be cultivated and for good reason: the heady fragrances and enchanting colors of a peony-rich display create an immersive experience that has enamored generations of garden lovers across the world. This passion is on full display each June at the historic Peony Garden of the University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum. Originally planted in 1922, the Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden now boasts North America’s largest public collection of heirloom herbaceous peonies. The Peony Garden has become a sacred space for the Ann Arbor community, a not-to-be-missed sensation when it erupts each season, as the Ann Arbor Observer once wrote, in “a riot of color, of crimson, rose and shell pink intermingled with fluffy pompoms of creamy white.” The rather short period of peak bloom—about two fleeting weeks each year—only seems to intensify the garden’s appeal, drawing thousands of visitors annually to this spectacular “living museum” on campus that showcases upwards of 10,000 blossoms. Richly illustrated with hundreds of striking color photos, Passion for Peonies collects twenty short essays that celebrate the story of the Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden as well as the rich social history of peony gardening that it is an integral part of. Together these pieces comprise a love letter both to a magical public space at the University of Michigan and to the broader history and culture of peony gardening. The book will appeal to readers interested in the University of Michigan, the history of public gardens, and of course peonies!

In this best-selling book Elizabeth Murray discusses the development and maintenance of Claude Monet's Giverny estate as well as Monet's color theories, design elements, and use of light and shade. Richly illustrated with Murray's lush photographs of the present-day Giverny gardens, Monet's Passion also offers full-color illustrations of the gardens drawn to scale and four Giverny-based garden plans that can be executed anywhere.

From a New York City Green Guerrilla to the Texas Rose Rustlers and a Colorado tomato fanatic, Chotzinoff serves up colorful profiles of americanca’s quirkiest, most fervent gardeners.