Create and maintain your perfect garden with the world's finest and most authoritative source of gardening tips and advice from the experts at the RHS, now fully revised and updated to encompass the eco-conscious gardener of today. Marking 30 years since its first publication, this revised edition of the RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening provides dependable, essential gardening advice while expanding on key topics that are important to the next generation of gardeners, such as wildlife gardening and sustainability. Originally compiled by Chris Philip and his partner Denys Gueroult, who were looking for interesting plants to grow in their garden and recording what nursery was selling what selection, the original Plant Finder listed 22,000 plants. Since then, the book has grown in terms of the plant groups it covers, its comprehensiveness and the number of genera, species and cultivars that are included. The appeal of gardening is thus multifaceted and wide in range. The garden is often the only place where someone without special training can exercise creative impulses as designer, artist, technician, and scientific observer. In addition, many find it a relaxing and therapeutic pursuit. It is not surprising that the garden, accorded respect as a part of nature and a place of contemplation, holds a special place in the spiritual life of many. Updated information for key topics including, environment, wildlife, edibles, pests and diseases, peat free/organic, and pruning and growing techniques.

Includes step-by-step guidance on everything from planting to pruning and propagation, and new photographs show the latest ideas in garden designGardening in its ornamental sense needs a certain level of civilization before it can flourish. Wherever that level has been attained, in all parts of the world and at all periods, people have made efforts to shape their environment into an attractive display. The instinct and even enthusiasm for gardening thus appear to arise from some primitive response to nature, engendering a wish to produce growth and harmony in a creative partnership with it.

All your gardening questions are answered in this updated classic guide to planning, planting, and caring for your outside space. Practical and spiritual aspects of gardening are shown in an impressive body of literature. In Western countries manuals of instruction date to classical Greece and Rome. Images of plants and gardens are profuse in the works of the major poets, from Virgil to Shakespeare, and on to some of the moderns. The inclusion of expert knowledge and advice ensure all your gardening ideas are achievable. This indispensable planting guide is filled with a wealth of information for all your gardening needs complementing its bestselling companion RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers.Germination - the physical and chemical changes that take place as a seed starts to grow and develop into a plant Another of gardening’s attractions is that up to a certain level it is a simple craft to learn. The beginner can produce pleasing results without the exacting studies and practice required by, for example, painting or music. Gardens are also forgiving to the inexperienced to a certain degree. Nature’s exuberance will cover up minor errors or short periods of neglect, so gardening is an art practiced in a relatively nonjudgmental atmosphere. While tolerant in many respects, nature does, however, present firm reminders that all gardening takes place within a framework of natural law; and one important aspect of the study of the craft is to learn which of these primal rules are imperatives and which may be stretched. Control and cooperation The RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening has a full and comprehensive glossary of gardening terms. Buy a copy of this essential guide to gardening and have a full and informative reference guide to all things horticultural.