Gardening Made Easy by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall

Description Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall is a leading garden designer and consultant. She has planned and planted gardens in Britain and abroad and has exhibited six gardens at Chelsea Flower Show, winning two Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medals. Her previous books are Rose Gardens, Historic Gardens and Ivies. She is married, has two grown-up children, and lives in Gloucestershire. Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall’s philosophy is simple: it is knowledge that transforms gardening from a chore to a pleasure. With its clear, step-by-step instructions, her Gardening Made Easy will double the satisfaction you get from gardening and your garden, while halving the work you put into it. The book is divided into three major sections, ‘Making or Remaking a Garden’, ‘Looking After Your Garden’ and Becoming a Specialist’ The first part discusses the fundamentals of gardening: how to plan and design a garden, taking into account your needs and its soil, climate, location and size; how plants live and reproduce; how to choose the right plants, with imaginative suggestions for plant coordination; and how to create a garden from scratch, from clearing neglected waste ground, to planting/transplanting and laying a new lawn. The chapters in the second section outline the techniques vital for maintaining the garden: pruning, weeding, watering, feeding, fighting diseases and pests, and basic propagation. For the more confident gardener, the third section explains more specialized skills, with separate chapters on the kitchen garden, water gardening, containers, and tending plants with special needs: roses, alpines, herbs and wild flowers.