A mix of fact and fiction, fantasy and experience, the Bedside Companion for Gardeners is a treasure trove of green-fingered inspiration where practical advice blends seamlessly with poetry and prose from intrepid gardeners past and present. Dip in and out of this collection with an entry for every night of the year that draws on writing through the ages and from across the globe. The Bedside Companion for Gardeners incorporates practical advice from the 17th-century gardening diarist John Evelyn; inspiring prose from Elizabeth von Arnim and John Milton; astute commentary from Horace Walpole on William Kent and Nancy Mitford on the vulgarity of a Surrey garden. Kipling offers practical advice, while Tennyson waxes lyrical on an Arabian night garden. The perfect gift for any gardener, this magical book is an invaluable source of inspiration and guidance to revisit throughout the year.

In 1925 Harold Ross hired Katharine Sergeant Angell as a manuscript reader for The New Yorker. Within months she became the magazine’s first fiction editor, discovering and championing the work of Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, James Thurber, Marianne Moore, and her husband-to-be, E. B. White, among others. After years of cultivating fiction, White set her sights on a new genre: garden writing. On March 1, 1958, The New Yorker ran a column entitled “Onward and Upward in the Garden,” a critical review of garden catalogs, in which White extolled the writings of “seedmen and nurserymen,” those unsung authors who produced her “favorite reading matter.” Thirteen more columns followed, exploring the history and literature of gardens, flower arranging, herbalists, and developments in gardening. Two years after her death in 1977, E. B. White collected and published the series, with a fond introduction. The result is this sharp-eyed appreciation of the green world of growing things, of the aesthetic pleasures of gardens and garden writing, and of the dreams that gardens inspire.

How did the delphinium get its name? Which parts of the body lend their names to auriculas and orchids? Who are the gentian, lobelia and heuchera named after? Why are nasturtiums and antirrhinums connected? What does an everlasting pea have to do with Indian miniature paintings? These are some of the questions answered in Peter Parker's adventurous exploration of the mysteries of Botanical Latin. Evolved over many centuries and often thought to belong to the rarefied world of scholars and scientists, this invented language is in fact a very useful tool for everyday gardening. It allows us to find our way around nurseries; it sorts out confusions when two plants have the same English name; and it gives us all kinds of information about how big or small a plant will grow, what shape or colour it will develop, and what habitat it prefers. In his lively survey, Parker agues that Botanical Latin is not merely useful, but fun. The naming of plants draws upon geography, social and medical history, folklore, mythology, language, literature, the human body, the animal kingdom and all manner of ancient beliefs and superstitions. The book, beautifully illustrated with old woodcuts, explains how and why plants have been named, includes handy lists of identifying adjectives, and takes the reader down some of the stranger byways of human endeavour and eccentricity.

Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" was first published in 1898. It was instantly popular and has gone through numerous reprints ever since. This story is the main character Elizabeth’s diary, where she relates stories from her life, as she learns to tend to her garden. Whilst the novel has a strongly autobiographical tone, it is also very humorous and satirical, due to Elizabeth’s frequent mistakes and her idiosyncratic outlook on life. She comments on the beauty of nature and shares her view on society, looking down on the frivolous fashions of her time and writing "I believe all needlework and dressmaking is of the devil, designed to keep women from study." The book is the first in a series about the same character. Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941), née Mary Annette Beauchamp, was a British novelist. Born in Australia, her family returned to England when she was three years old; and she was Katherine Mansfield’s cousin. She was first married to a Prussian aristocrat, the Graf von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and later to the philosopher Bertrand Russel’s older brother, Frank, whom she left a year later. She then had an affair with the publisher Alexander Reeves, a man thirty years her junior, and with H.G. Wells. Von Arnim moved a lot, living alternatively in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, before dying of influenza in South Carolina during the Second War. Elizabeth von Arnim was an active member of the European literary scene, and entertained many of her contemporaries in her Chalet Soleil in Switzerland. She even hired E. M. Forster and Hugh Walpole as tutors for her five children. She is famous for her half-autobiographical, satirical novel "Elizabeth and her German Garden" (1898), as well as for "Vera" (1921), and "The Enchanted April" (1922).

THE BEST GARDENING BOOKS OF THE YEAR - GARDENS ILLUSTRATED 'Informative and enthusiastic' i Paper PLANT-BASED MEDICINE FOR A CALMER, HEALTHIER LIFE It's easy to turn to the pharmacy when we're stressed, sick or feeling under the weather, but what if you turned to your garden instead? In this accessible and easy to use manual, horticultural expert, former Gardener's World presenter and Guardian columnist, Alys Fowler, shows how to take control of your health by adopting a more natural lifestyle. For thousands of years, people who had no access to clinical medicine knew how to boost their well-being by using the ingredients they found in plants. Herbs are the people's medicine; often freely available and abundant, they are ready and waiting to be plucked from around you to soothe and heal your body and mind. With guides for how to use and grow over 100 herbs - for example how to use fennel for indigestion, camomile for anxiety and nettle for hayfever - you'll soon be heading into the garden, rather than opening the medicine cabinet. Offering a fusion of botanical, practical, cultural and historical information, A Modern Herbal reveals how common herbs are the simple, cleansing way to better health and happiness. AS SEEN IN THE GUARDIAN 'An important and accessible herbal for the 21st century . . . For anyone delving into herbs for the first time or those who want to broaden their herbal repertoire in the garden and home, this book is much needed' Gardens Illustrated

This revised, updated and expanded edition Joy Larkcom's classic guide to growing your own vegetables contains everything you need to know to create a highly-productive vegetable plot. It covers every aspect of vegetable gardening, including preparing soil; manures, composts and fertilizers; growing techniques; protection; pests, diseases and weeds; and making good use of space. The second half of the book provides cultivation information for over 100 vegetables, including site and soil requirements, cultivation, pests and diseases, and cultivars.