Flourish: New Zealand Women and Their Extraordinary Gardens by Barb Rogers; Juliet Nicholas

$30.00 NZD

Category: Gardening

This book celebrates the endeavours and achievements of women gardeners who are responsible for some of the most-admired gardens within New Zealand. Often starting as a home-based hobby, fitting around child care and other domestic tasks, the gardens developed by the women featured in this book have evo lved into living works of art. Scattered from the far north to Stewart Island, these gardens have a few things in common. Each one has been developed by a woman responding to her own landscape and locale with energy and verve. Often an outlet for a creative urge, the gardens portray a wide cross-section of styles. The stories of the gardeners also share common bonds - hard work and a passion for the landscape - but also stories of combating isolation, loss and joining a sisterhood of gardeners. Some gardens are well known and justly celebrated both here and overseas- Bev McConnell's Ayrlies in Auckland, and Margaret Barker's garden at Larnach Castle in Dunedin. Others are undiscovered gardens worthy of wider attention. Gracious country rose gardens, inner city courtyards and edible gardens all feature. ...Show more

It's a Long Road to a Tomato - Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart; Flavia Bacarella (Illustrator)

$14.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

A new edition of longtime farmer Keith Stewart's deeply personal and highly acclaimed book on the hows and whys of running a small organic farm in 21st century America--updated with five new essays, a foreword by Deborah Madison, and gorgeous new woodcuts by Flavia Bacarella Keith Stewart, already in hi s early forties and discontent with New York's corporate grind, moved upstate and started a one-man organic farm in 1986. Today, having surmounted the seemingly endless challenges to succeeding as an organic farmer, Keith employs seven to eight seasonal interns and provides 100 varieties of fresh produce to the shoppers and chefs who flock twice weekly, May to December, to his stand at Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan--the only place where his produce is sold. It's a Long Road to a Tomato opens a window into the world of Keith's Farm, with essays on Keith's development as a farmer, the nuts and bolts of organic farming for an urban market, farm animals domestic and wild, and the political, social, and environmental issues relevant to agriculture today--and their impact on all of us. ...Show more

1,000 Years of Gardening in New Zealand by Helen Leach

$55.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Royal Horticultural Society Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Year Planner: What to Do When for Perfect Produce by Royal Horticultural Society

$16.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Written by RHS experts with more than 50 years of combined growing experience, RHS Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Year Planner provides the life-changing advice that gardeners need to grow a year-round supply of healthy fruit and vegetables for their table. The book starts with planning what to grow and where to grow it, whether that's an allotment, a series of containers, raised bed or veg patch, then how to get the best from your soil, and how to get started. Next, in season-by-season chapters, the book takes the reader from sowing to harvesting with simple, clear instructions that will help them stay on top of the challenges and joys of a productive garden. From apples to asparagus, raspberries to radishes, this book will show how to apply age-old techniques to get the most from your plot. ...Show more

Plant Love: How to Care for your Houseplants by Alys Fowler

$16.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Houseplants are more than just decorations. They turn a room into a living space and breathe life into our interiors. Not all of us can have a garden or even a window box, but everyone can own a houseplant - and everyone should. Not only are they an affordable and attractive way to add a decorative and personal touch to a space, indoor plants also have unique air purifying properties and their presence is good for our health and wellbeing. In this practical yet inspiring guide, gardening expert Alys Fowler explores all the possible indoor plant options available, helping you to find the perfect plant for any location, from cool, shady bedrooms to warm, sunny kitchen windowsills. As well as more traditional indoor plants, Alys looks at specialist plant groups such as indoor tropical edibles, orchids, cacti, succulents and climbers. With her encyclopedic knowledge and trademark inspirational style, this definitive guide will give you all the knowledge you need to care for your plants. ...Show more

Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques: A Step-by-Step Guide to Key Skills for Every Gardener by Royal Horticultural Society

$35.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

This step-by-step guide to essential Royal Horticultural Society gardening practice is a must-have reference showing modern methods to a new generation of gardeners. Compiled by leading RHS specialists in every area of gardening, the book contains a vast amount of expert information clearly demonstratin g the tried-and-tested techniques honed by the world's leading gardening authority. Using more than 1,600 artworks in more than 400 step-by-step sequences, the book covers every aspect of gardening from pruning to sowing, watering to feeding, and propagating to planting. Covering all plants including trees, flowers, shrubs, climbers, lawns, vegetables, fruit and herbs, it shows how to create water features and patios, and add lighting. It also includes organic techniques, recycling and how to treat pests and diseases. The wealth of practical information makes this book an essential purchase for both professional and amateur gardeners. ...Show more

The Virago Book of Women Gardeners by Deborah Kellaway

$15.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

From diggers and weeders, to artists and colourists, writers and dreamers to trend-setters, plantswomen to landscape designers, women have contributed to the world of gardening and gardens. Here Deborah Kellaway, author of The Making of an English Country Garden and Favourite Flowers , has collected ext racts from the 18th century to the present day, to create a book that is replete with anecdotes and good-humoured advice. Colette, Margery Fish, Germaine Greer, Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, Vita Sackville-West, Rosemary Verey, Edith Wharton and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the writers represented in this book. ...Show more

War Gardens: A Journey Through Conflict in Search of Calm by Lalage Snow

$16.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: near fine

"This extraordinary book...warm and engaging...like a photograph magicked to life." Spectator A journey through the most unlikely of gardens: the oases of peace people create in the midst of war In this millennium, we have become war weary. From Afghanistan to Iraq, from Ukraine to South Sudan and Syria , from Kashmir to the West Bank, conflict is as contagious and poisonous as Japanese knotweed. Living through it are people just like us with ordinary jobs, ordinary pressures and ordinary lives. Against a new landscape of horror and violence it is up to them to maintain a modicum of normality and colour. For some, gardening is the way to achieve this. Working in the world's most dangerous war zones, freelance war correspondent and photographer Lally Snow has often chanced across a very moving sight, a testimony to the triumph of the human spirit in adversity, a celebration of hope and beauty: a war garden. In Kabul, the royal gardens are tended by a centenarian gardener, though the king is long gone; in Camp Bastion, bored soldiers improvise tiny gardens to give themselves a moment's peace; on both sides of the dividing line in Jerusalem families tend groves of olives and raise beautiful plants from the unforgiving, disputed landscape; in Ukraine, families tend their gardens in the middle of a surreal, frozen war. War Gardens is a surprising, tragic and beautiful journey through the darkest places of the modern world, revealing the ways people make time and space for themselves and for nature even in the middle of destruction. Illustrated with Lally Snow's own award-winning photography, this is a book to treasure. ...Show more

Passion Flowers - Passion Flowers and Passion Fruit by John Vanderplank

$20.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Reference book on every sort of passion flower.

Vireya Rhododendrons by J. Clyde Smith

$10.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: good

Very good softcover copies. Good introduction to Vireyas with useful explanations of cultivation and propagation techniques.  

Vireyas for New Zealand Gardens by John Kenyon

$15.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Series: Godwit New Zealand Gardening Guides Ser. | Reading Level: very good

This illustrated guide is an introduction to the possibilities of cultivating vireya rhododendrons. It includes information on: the discovery and cultivation history of these relative newcomers; details of cultural requirements, care and maintenance, and propagation; suggestions for using vireyas in lan dscaping; and a discussion of suitable companion plants, along with lists of vireyas with notable attributes. The book includes a comprehensive descriptive list of species and the numerous hybrids in cultivation throughout the world. Jacqueline Walker is the author of "The Subtropical Garden". ...Show more

The Looking-Glass Garden : Plants and Gardens of the Southern Hemisphere by Peter Thompson

$30.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: near fine