In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore an eighteenth-century walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work brought to light a crucial question for our age: Who gets to live in paradise, and how can we share it while there's still time? Moving between real and imagined gardens, from Milton's Paradise Lost to John Clare's enclosure elegies, from a wartime sanctuary in Italy to a grotesque aristocratic pleasure ground funded by slavery, Laing interrogates the sometimes shocking cost of making paradise on earth.

But the story of the garden doesn't always enact larger patterns of privilege and exclusion. It's also a place of rebel outposts and communal dreams. From the improbable queer utopia conjured by Derek Jarman on the beach at Dungeness to the fertile vision of a common Eden propagated by William Morris, new modes of living can and have been attempted amidst the flower beds, experiments that could prove vital in the coming era of climate change. The result is a humming, glowing tapestry, a beautiful and exacting account of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens: not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of encounter and discovery, bee-loud and pollen-laden.

Can you really have a productive garden without plowing, hoeing, weeding, cultivating, and all the other bothersome rituals that most gardeners suffer through every growing season? Sure, says Ruth Stout, a prolific author and writer at 80 years young. The reason that Ruth can throw away her spade and hoe and do her gardening from a couch is a year-round mulch covering, 6 to 8 inches thick, that covers her garden like a blanket. Thousands of curious gardeners have visited her Redding, Connecticut garden, including university scientists and horticulture experts. The experts have been dazzled by the technique used by the queen of mulch! But the results of 41 years of gardening experience can't be denied. The Ruth Stout No-Work Gardening Book gives Ruth's unique advice on growing techniques and tells how she has escaped the bugaboos that haunt most gardeners. Her poison-free method of combating slugs and other insects, her scheme for growing tasty vegetables all year, her method of foiling both drought and frost -- these and many other growing secrets are revealed -- secrets that have brought this perky organic gardener season after season of growing pleasure.

If you're tired of being a slave to your garden, yet still want to enjoy it without the bother of sprays, weeding, hoeing or other toilsome garden chores, The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Books has the information you need. It's completely tested gardening method, perfected during more than 40 years experience and reported in the pages of Organic Gardening magazine, eliminates gardening strain and toil, and does it organically with no dangerous chemical fertilizers or toxic sprays. Take it easy. Put nature to work in your garden.

An elegantly illustrated celebration of Jane Austen's life and literature as told through the flowers, plants, and landscapes that inspired her.

Through explorations of the botanical inspirations and symbolism in Austen's work and personal life, as well as historical information about the gardens and landscapes of the Regency Era, Jane Austen's Garden will transport readers back in time to the lush English landscape of the early 1800s. Woven throughout are DIY projects to help you create a home garden worthy of a surprise visit from Lady Catherine de Bourgh or maybe just give your dining table a bit of historical flair. Accessible, entertaining, and enhanced by the enchanted illustrations of celebrated artist Jessica Roux, Jane Austen's Garden is a fun twist on a familiar subject that will delight plant lovers and Janeites alike.

A unique collaboration from two of America's leading artists that explores the fascinating and hidden history of the plant world.

In this witty, deeply original book, the renowned novelist Jamaica Kincaid offers an ABC of the plants that define our world and reveals the often brutal history behind them.

Kara Walker, one of America's greatest visual artists, illustrates each entry with provocative, brilliant, enthralling, many-layered watercolors.

There has never been a book like An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children--so inventive, surprising, and telling about what our gardens reveal.

From an award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening--and the philosophies that work conjures.

Debbie Millman always thought of herself as a bad gardener. Nevertheless, she kept trying. Over the years she came to realize that no one is a bad gardener--a garden is a journey that develops over time, through space, and evolves along with our hearts. In Love Letter to a Garden, Debbie Millman shares her journey to make and grow a garden--and the plants she has collected along the way--a process that started with handed-down houseplants from beloved friends and a lone peony.

Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden's ingredients from Millman's wife, bestselling author Roxane Gay. Love Letter to a Garden is a little gem of a book--an inspiring, impulse-friendly story that can be read in one setting, then shared, experienced, pollinated, and perpetuated.

Kincaid gathers a sparkling selection of new and beloved poetry and prose about each author's favorite flora.

The passion for gardening and the passion for words come together in this inspired anthology, a collection of essays and poems on topics as diverse as beans and roses, by writers who garden and gardeners who write.

Among the contributors are Daniel Hinkley on hellebores; Marina Warner, who remembers the Guinée rose; and Henri Cole, with the poems Bearded Irises and Peonies. Ian Frazier pulls weeds in Memories of a Press-Gang Gardener, and Michael Pollan defends a gothic cousin of the sunflower in Consider the Castor Bean; Ken Druse stalks the sexy jack-in-the-pulpit, and Elaine Scarry contemplates steep slopes of columbine. Most of the pieces are new, but Colette, Katharine S. White, William Carlos Williams, and several other old favorites also make appearances.

Jamaica Kincaid, the much admired writer and a passionate gardener herself, has assembled this diverse crew and provides a spirited introduction. A wonderful gift for green thumbs, My Favorite Plant is a happy collection of fresh takes on old friends.

From Arcadia to Guerilla Gardening, Bomarzo to Little Sparta, Roberto Burle Marx to Fritz Haeg, the Anthropocene to Vibrant Matter: a brilliant and radical A-Z of garden history and garden politics

Organized as an inventive abecedarium, On the Necessity of Gardening tells the story of the garden as a rich source of inspiration.
Over the centuries, artists, writers, poets and thinkers from Capability Brown to Derek Jarman have each described, depicted and designed the garden in different ways. In medieval art the garden was a reflection of paradise, a place of harmony and fertility, shielded from worldly problems. By the 18th century this conception had shifted: the garden had become a symbol of worldly power and politics. Today, the Anthropocene, the era in which humankind dominates nature with disastrous consequences, forces us to radically rethink the role we have given the garden historically. As a result, there is renewed interest in the garden among contemporary makers, thinkers and writers, driven not by romantic desire for retreat but rather a call for a new awareness of our relationship with the earth.
Through essays, illustrations and an extensive abecedarium, On the Necessity of Gardening reflects on the garden as an abiding metaphor for society and culture.
Entries include: Anthropocene, Arcadia, Bouquet, Roberto Burle Marx, Compost, Dumbarton Oaks, Edible Estates, Ermenonville, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Herb Garden, Japanese Garden, Derek Jarman, Kew Gardens, Lawn, Park, Quaker Garden, Queer Ecology, Roots, Vita Sackville-West, Versailles, Vibrant Matter and Zen Garden.

This fun, engrossing book takes a look at the surprising influence that gardens and gardening have had on mystery novels and their authors.

With their deadly plants, razor-sharp shears, shady corners, and ready-made burial sites, gardens make an ideal scene for the perfect murder. But the outsize influence that gardens and gardening have had on the mystery genre has been underappreciated. Now, Marta McDowell, a writer and gardener with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, illuminates the many ways in which our greatest mystery writers, from Edgar Allen Poe to authors on today's bestseller lists, have found inspiration in the sinister side of gardens.

From the cozy to the hardboiled, the literary to the pulp, and the classic to the contemporary, Gardening Can Be Murder is the first book to explore the mystery genre's many surprising horticultural connections. Meet plant-obsessed detectives and spooky groundskeeper suspects, witness toxic teas served in foul play, and tour the gardens--both real and imagined--that have been the settings for fiction's ghastliest misdeeds. A New York Times bestselling author herself, McDowell also introduces us to some of today's top writers who consider gardening integral to their craft, assuring that horticultural themes will remain a staple of the genre for countless twisting plots to come.

This book is dangerous. A veritable cornucopia of crime fiction and gardening lore, it faces the reader with multiple temptations--books to seek out, plants to obtain, garden tours to book. --Vicki Lane, author of the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries

Gardening Without Work is the detailed and helpful guide by Ruth Stout, the American author famous for her lazy gardener approach to gardening. Stout started gardening in 1930, when she was 46, and over the next decade came to understand just how demanding of an activity it can be. In 1944, she decided on a different approach and developed many techniques, including a year-round mulch, that significantly decreased the amount of work needed to garden successfully. Stout published her first work detailing her new methods in 1955, titled How to Have a Green Thumb without an Aching Back, and began a successful writing career. First published in 1961, Gardening Without Work expands upon her mulching methods for easy gardening and details in an easy-to-understand format exactly how to begin and maintain an effortless garden. Written with her trademark humor and wit, Stout shows readers how to get the most out of gardening with less effort and time so that you are free to enjoy both a productive garden and all the fun that life has to offer. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

In his articles and in best-selling books such as The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan has established himself as one of our most important and beloved writers on modern man's place in the natural world. A new literary classic, Second Nature has become a manifesto not just for gardeners but for environmentalists everywhere. As delicious a meditation on one man's relationships with the Earth as any you are likely to come upon (The New York Times Book Review), Second Nature captures the rhythms of our everyday engagement with the outdoors in all its glory and exasperation. With chapters ranging from a reconsideration of the Great American Lawn, a dispatch from one man's war with a woodchuck, to an essay about the sexual politics of roses, Pollan has created a passionate and eloquent argument for reconceiving our relationship with nature.

Jamaica Kincaid invites us into her garden in this irresistible stream of horticultural consciousness (Michael Pollan).

Jamaica Kincaid's first garden in Vermont was a square plot in the middle of her front lawn. There, to the consternation of more experienced gardener friends, she planted only seeds of flowers she liked best. In My Garden (Book): , she gathers all that she loves about gardening and plants, and examines it in the same spirit: generously, passionately, and with sharp, idiosyncratic discrimination.

Kincaid's affections are matched in intensity only by her dislikes. She loves spring and summer but cannot bring herself to love winter, for it hides the garden. She adores the rhododendron 'Jane Grant, ' and appreciates ordinary Blue Lake string beans, but abhors the Asiatic lily and dreams of ways to trap small plant-eating animals. She also examines the idea of the garden on Antigua, where she grew up and where one of her favorite school subjects was botany, and she considers the implications of the English idea of the garden in colonized countries. On a trip to the Chelsea Flower Show, she visits historic English gardens on English soil. My Garden (Book): is an intimate, playful, and penetrating book on gardens, the plants that fill them, and the gardeners who tend them.

Part essay collection, part gardening guide, The Heirloom Gardener encourages readers to embrace heirloom seeds and traditions, serving as a well-needed reminder to slow down and reconnect with nature. --Modern Farmer

Modern life is a cornucopia of technological wonders. But is something precious being lost? A tangible bond with our natural world--the deep satisfaction of connecting to the earth that was enjoyed by previous generations?

In The Heirloom Gardener, John Forti celebrates gardening as a craft and shares the lore and traditional practices that link us with our environment and with each other. Charmingly illustrated and brimming with wisdom, this guide will inspire you to slow down, recharge, and reconnect.

2017 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Ruth Stout was best known for her No-Work gardening books and techniques. In the Spring of 1944, Stout decided that she wasn't going to wait for the plowman, nor was she going to plow on her own. Instead she planted the seeds and covered them, waiting to see what would happen, and discovered surprising success. As the years progressed, Stout refined her techniques, eventually adopting a year-round mulch which virtually eliminated the labor associated with traditional gardening. Her minimalist approach launched a long-running career as a gardening expert and a large following.

Uncover Darwin's most important writings about plants with this important collection featuring expert interpretations and rare illustrations.

Charles Darwin is best known for his work on the evolution of animals, but in fact a large part of his contribution to the natural sciences is focused on plants. His observations are crucial to our modern understanding of everything from the amazing pollination process of orchids to the way that vines climb. Darwin and the Art of Botany collects writings from six often overlooked texts devoted entirely to plants, and pairs each excerpt with beautiful botanical art from the library at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, creating a gorgeously illustrated volume that never existed in Darwin's own lifetime, and hasn't since. Evolutionary botanist and science historian James Costa brings his expertise to each entry, situating Darwin's words in the context of the knowledge and research of the time. The result is a new way of visualizing Darwin's work, and a greater understanding of the ways he's shaped our world.

A glorious celebration of plants, gardens, and gardeners from Times columnist Ann Treneman.

A glorious celebration of all things horticultural - a treasure trove for garden-lovers from the creators of the bestselling Latin for Gardeners and Botany for Gardeners.

This wonderfully diverse collection of facts, figures and foliage is a celebration of plants, gardens and gardening. All things horticultural can be found here, from the phantasmagorical to the practical and everything in between. Delve into the cut-throat world of the plant hunters. Meet the first garden gnomes. Find a recipe to create a cocktail flower garden. See the world through the eyes of a bee. Here is a book to inspire gardeners and dig down into all aspects of a horticultural world where plants can heal and hurt, attack and retreat, survive and even come back from the dead.

Beautifully illustrated with botanical diagrams and graphics, this miscellany will inform and delight gardeners and plant lovers. A 'pick and mix' of horticultural knowledge, it ranges from local to global, filled with maps, historical biographies, scientific explorations, plant profiles, fun and unbelievable facts, recipes and tips.

From artist and activist Derek Jaman, a visual and narrative exploration of his singular, paradisiacal garden, set in a most inhospitable place.

Derek Jarman, a passionate gardener from childhood, combined his painter's eye, horticultural expertise, and ecological convictions to produce a landscape that combined flints, shells, and driftwood to create a unique paradise. This book is Derek Jarman's own record of how this garden evolved, from its earliest beginnings in 1986 to 1994, the last year of his life.

More than 150 photographs taken by his friend and photographer Howard Sooley capture the garden at all its different stages at every season. For both gardeners and admirers of this extraordinary man, this 30th anniversary edition, with a foreword by Jamaica Kincaid, marks three decades of the book as a gardening classic, and the ongoing impact of Jarman's transformative garden--proof of the garden space as one of ideas, philosophy, and myth--more than just a place of retreat.

Winner of the 2022 Communication Award from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents

Southern Gardening All Year Long approaches southern landscapes from a different perspective. Instead of encyclopedic lists and articles focused on botanical gardens or someone else's landscape, author and host of Southern Gardening Gary R. Bachman connects with his audience through personal stories that share his expertise gained over decades of planting, all told in an easily digestible format.

Most stories in Southern Gardening All Year Long focus on Bachman's hands-on experience with gardening. He recounts tales about his own personal gardens--plants that have thrived and failed--and presents his advice in a common-sense style. Bachman's personal, conversational writing makes Southern Gardening All Year Long an old-fashioned, over-the-fence chat with a knowledgeable and helpful neighbor.

Just as he has done in newspapers, and on television and radio, with Southern Gardening All Year Long, Bachman hopes to help gardeners be successful in their own landscapes, alleviate some of the apprehension new gardeners feel, and inspire experienced gardeners to try new plants instead of the same old plantings every year. Gardening success doesn't always follow steps 1-2-3, but Bachman encourages readers not to worry about plants that don't survive. Failures happen in gardens every season. Offering a variety of tips and tricks and over 170 color images, Southern Gardening All Year Long will become a gardener's best friend.

While everyone loves eating fresh garden produce, not everyone has the time and energy to create a productive garden. But what if growing delicious crops required hardly any effort? What if you could have succulent strawberries, perfect peas, and terrific tomatoes without needing to touch a spade, hoe, or plow—without needing to worry about irrigating, spraying, sowing a cover crop, weeding, cultivating, or building a compost pile? If that sounds good, the Stout System is the answer for you!

Ruth Stout has shown tens of thousands of gardeners how to greatly reduce their gardening workload. Let Ruth (and within a few chapters, she will feel like a friend!) show you how you can rejuvenate the soil and make your fruits, vegetables, and flowers thrive with low-maintenance mulch gardening.

Widely renowned as a gardening expert (and sister of the famed mystery writer Rex Stout), Ruth Stout wrote extensively about how to simplify gardening. Her techniques have brought people from all over the world to her garden, and now her advice can help you maximize your garden's output with minimal effort. In addition to the time-saving tips provided, Stout's joyous perspective on life and gardening makes this book a delight-and is a must-read for anyone growing food or flowers.

A romantic journey through forty captivating gardens lost to time.

All over the world, once-flourishing horticultural spaces have been abandoned and forgotten. From the once-crumbling grandeur of the Villa d'Este and the magic of the Lost Gardens of Heligan, to the sculptural surrealism of Las Pozas and the colourful rebirth of Le Jardin Majorelle, there are countless gardens around the world with fascinating stories to tell.

Author and journalist Sandra Lawrence takes readers on a tour of 40 horticultural gems from around the world that have been lost either through neglect, abandonment or destruction. Many have been consigned to history, never to be seen again, while others have been revived and restored by the care and dedication of new owners and communities. These marvels of horticulture take many forms: stately homes, floating allotments, roof gardens and more. But all of them have one thing in common: the romance of paradise lost.

Featuring one bespoke illustration of each garden by renowned artist Lucille Clerc, this book is a written celebration of our love of nature, and the importance of keeping these oases of green alive and well - if not in reality, then at least on the page.

These charming gardens are brought back to life, including:

• The Lost Gardens of Heligan, England
• Las Pozas, Mexico
• Le Jardin Majorelle, Morocco
• The Garden of Dreams, Nepal
• Villa d'Este, Italy
• Paleis Het Loo, Netherlands
• Crowninshield Garden, USA

Discover the remarkable stories behind the creation, decline and occasional rebirth of these astonishing spaces, and meet the people and societies that first created and enjoyed them.

The perfect gift for garden lovers, armchair travellers and cultural enthusiasts.

Gardening should be a joyful retreat, not a source of discomfort. But all too often, back pain turns this beloved hobby into a chore. Back-Friendly Gardening is your go-to guide for nurturing your garden while protecting your back. Discover simple, smart techniques that keep you connected to nature without the aches and pains. From proper posture to ergonomic tools, this book offers practical tips and mindful approaches that transform gardening into a soothing, rewarding experience. Whether you're an experienced gardener or just starting out, this book will help you cultivate a beautiful garden while taking care of your body. Embrace the joy of gardening, pain-free!