Product Description

Contains sections on garden flowers, shrubs, climbers and fruit, with details of cultivation accompanied by colour photographs. There are step-by-step explanations of practical gardening techniques including pruning, feeding and dealing with pests and diseases, plus plant selection charts and a year-round calendar of gardening tasks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #986468 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you buy this book for a present you will probably keep it yourself. It has over 700 pages crammed with information and advice for all types of gardens. Divided into four distinct sections, this is a manual that is simple to use yet deals with complex information. The first section gives an alphabetical list of more than 2,000 flower species and varieties, with detailed advice on cultivation, the best type of soil and positioning for the best results. Similar sections follow, covering trees and shrubs, practical DIY for building almost anything in a garden, and an alphabetical plant reference guide using botanical and common names.

This book is beautifully illustrated with superb photographs and drawings which make it compulsive reading. Unfortunately, the publishers saw fit to give this large and heavy book a soft cover, which makes it tricky to handle for armchair reading but this is a small price to pay for such a useful book. As Alan Titchmarsh says in his foreword, "It will go a long way to providing you with the information, encouragement and enthusiasm you need to turn your bit of earth into something that gives you endless pleasure." --Judy Wyles

Customer Reviews

Extremely helpful and comprehensive
Lovely illustrations - big photographs. Clear instructions for what the different varieties of plants prefer and how to look after them. Useful division of book into flowers, trees, shrubs etc. I am a total amateur gardener and this book is my bible! There is also a section on the more 'construction' side of gardening e.g. how to lay a patio. Also instructions for things like how to move trees, prepare plants for winter, split bulbs and so on. The only weakness is that the index sometimes makes it hard to find a specific plant, as some are not listed under their common names - hence 4 not 5 stars.