Matthew Biggs

Botanists are the trailblazers who first discovered how plants work and collected from around the world many of the species that we find in our gardens today. This informative and beautiful guide presents the stories of 35 plant collectors and gardening pioneers of the past and present, including Joseph Banks, Asa Gray and Marianne North. Arranged in chronological order, each profile covers one botanist, presenting their life story, discoveries and legacy, while special feature pages reveal their secrets, exploring the qualities that brought them success and showing what ordinary gardeners can learn from them. Illustrated with beautiful period botanical watercolours and vibrant photographs, RHS The Secrets of Great Botanists will provide inspiration and practical guidance for gardeners of all levels, from successful plant cultivation to adding interest to your garden.

and What They Teach Us About Gardening

RHS The Secrets of Great Botanists

"This new edition of the classic reference, Vegetable, Herbs and Fruit is updated in design and expanded by 60 pages, covering a total of over 70 vegetables, 100 herbs and 100 popular fruits. The most current information on plant varieties and cultivation techniques make it the essential sourcebook for all food gardeners, especially for anyone who would like to start growing their own produce, who feels they could use some expert advice"--Back cover.

an illustrated encyclopedia

The new vegetables, herbs & fruit

Roy Lancaster

Presents a vast array of houseplants designed for various home locations and conditions for year-round gardening

What Houseplant where

Lessons from the Great Gardeners

Once upon a time, potatoes, carrots and cabbages were just about the only vegetables the average gardener could contemplate growing - but not any more. In this completely revised and updated edition, the author expands the repertoire to include Kohlrabi and cardoons, celeriac and chicory, 16 varieties of pepper and 20 of onion.

Matthew Biggs's Complete Book of Vegetables

Illustrated with beautiful period botanical watercolours and vibrant photographs 'The Secrets of Great Botanists' delves into the lives of 35 revolutionary botanists driven by an insatiable desire to learn and discover, so that we might benefit from improved crops, medicines or gardens, showing what ordinary gardeners can learn from their legacies.

And What They Teach Us about Gardening

The Secrets of Great Botanists

Barry Bish

John Cushnie

GQT Techniques and Tips brings together the wisdom - and wit - of four current and past Gardeners' Question Time panellists, providing novice and experienced gardeners alike with highly practical advice on everything from planting, pruning, weeding, and propagating to pond building, lining a hanging basket and laying a path. The team cover a huge range of topics: chapters include 'Planning your Garden', 'Weed Control', 'Lawns' and 'Gardening under Glass'. With copious experience of listening to gardeners' questions, the panellists anticipate every necessity of the gardening calendar and every stage in the process of reaching your garden's full potential. With a fantastic store of professional tips and techniques, this is an indispensable reference bible for all gardeners. 'The perfect gift for gardeners... witty and opinionated, but always sound.' - Sunday Times 'Who better than the nation's favourite gardeners to guide you in the garden?' - Evening Standard

BBC Gardeners' Question Time Techniques and Tips

Jekka McVicar

Bob Flowerdew

Alphabetically arranged entries for a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, and fruit provide cultivation advice, information on pests and diseases, and facts on culinary use along with recipes.

An Illustrated Encyclopedia

Vegetables, Herbs & Fruit

Like heirloom seeds and grafts from trees, advice from great gardeners handed down through the centuries has shaped the science and art of gardens across the globe. Spanning gardeners from fifteenth-century Japan to the contemporary United States, Lessons from the Great Gardeners profiles forty groundbreaking botanists, nurserymen, and tillers of earth, men and women whose passion, innovation, and green thumbs endure in the formal landscapes and vegetable patches of today. Entries for each gardening great highlight their iconic plants and garden designs, revealing both the gardeners’ own influences and the seeds—sometimes literal—that they sowed for gardens yet to sprout. From André Le Nôtre in seventeenth-century France, who drew on his training as an architect and hydraulic engineer to bring the topiary form to Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles, to the work of High Line and Lurie Garden designer Piet Oudolf, and Thomas Jefferson’s advice on creating protected garden microclimates for help growing early crops and tender fruit like figs (with peas, a Jefferson favorite), Lessons from the Great Gardeners is a resource as rich as the soil from which it springs. Featuring lush illustrations harvested from the archives of the Royal Horticultural Society, as well as sections on a dozen international gardens that showcase the lessons of the greats, this homage to the love of good, clean dirt is sure to inspire readers to get out in the sun and dig.

Forty Gardening Icons and What They Teach Us

Discover more than 50 out-of-the-ordinary edibles, from cucamelons to strawberry popcorn, in this seed-to-plate guide that inspires you to cultivate amazing new fruit and vegetable crops. Whether you're a beginner and determined to make the most of limited space with a truly unique and heirloom harvest, or a seasoned grower looking to spice up your cooking with gourmet flavors, the step-by-step instructions give you the confidence to grow some unusually tasty crops. Choose from fruiting vegetables such as orange eggplants and hyacinth beans, salad greens such as fiddlehead ferns and sushi hostas, grains such as quinoa and chia, and luscious fruits such as honeyberries and white strawberries. All plants can be started indoors and transplanted, grown outdoors in the garden, or kept as houseplants. With versatile gardening advice for growing in a variety of spaces and situations, plus cooking suggestions and preserving options, a weird and wonderful harvest is guaranteed.

Grow Something Different To Eat

Thane Prince

Enter a world of tents, tea, and terrifically good jam with RHS Great British Village Show. Written by Thane Prince and Matthew Biggs, and with a foreword by Alan Titchmarsh, this is the only guide to a unique British tradition. Every year, hundreds of country shows and fairs take place across the UK. Celebrate this tradition and step behind the scenes of the British country show with insider facts and beautiful photographs that show you every aspect of preparing, presenting, and prize-winning on the big day. Discover how judges reach their nail-biting decisions by using official RHS guidelines for over 100 fruit, vegetable, and flower categories, and learn how to prepare show-quality preserves and bakes with tips from the experts. RHS Great British Village Show tells you exactly what the judges are looking for - and what to avoid. Packed with staging tips, expert guides, photo diaries, and prize-winning recipes, RHS Great British Village Show is a unique insider's look behind the scenes of a wonderful British tradition.

What Goes on Behind the Scenes and How to be a Prize-Winner

RHS Great British Village Show

'Never has the work of the Royal Horticultural Society been more important or more far reaching.' Foreword by Alan Titchmarsh The RHS is the world's largest gardening charity but what it does and why is little understood and rarely celebrated. From defining new gardening trends at the Chelsea Flower Show, to ranking the best dahlias to grow at the Wisley trial grounds, to inspiring communities with Britain in Bloom, educating children to grow and eat their veg through the Campaign for School Gardening, the RHS works tirelessly to improve the gardener's lot. With the use of evocative archive images and contemporary photos by award-winning Jason Ingram, this beautiful book explores the past, present and future of this most influential organisation by listening to the voices of those working today. From the thousands of volunteers in the society's five unique gardens (Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex, Harlow Carr in Yorkshire and new addition Bridgewater in Salford), to the one million visitors to its inspirational flower shows (including Chelsea, Hampton Court, Tatton Park, Cardiff, Wisley and Chatsworth); the society gives meaning to more than 475,000 members, millions of television viewers and visitors from around the world. The RHS is the best of gardening, and this book presents the best of the RHS. Behind the scenes, access all areas, this book will give lasting pleasure to anyone who enjoys their garden.

Matthew Biggs

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