Garden Whimsy

Text and photos showcase the amusements of innovative gardeners, ranging from miniature doll houses and topiary animals to sculpture and outdoor collections

“A practical guide to maintaining a shade garden with a useful calendar of seasonal tasks, plant directory and inspiring design ideas.” —Gardens Illustrated Shade is one of the most common garden concerns homeowner’s have, but with the right plant knowledge, you can learn to embrace shade as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. In Glorious Shade, Jenny Rose Carey celebrates the benefits of shade and shows you how to make the most of it. This information-rich, hardworking guide is packed with everything you need to successfully garden in the shadiest corners of a yard. You'll learn how to determine what type of shade you have and how to choose the right plants for the space. The book also shares design and maintenance tips that are key to growing a successful shade garden. Stunning color photographs offer design inspiration and reveal the beauty of shade-loving plants.

Brighten Your Day with Playful New Designs from Piece O' Cake. Use just one block or all twenty to make pretty garden quilts. Have fun with these light-hearted designs. Includes ideas for using these blocks in other ways, such as a smaller twelve-block quilt, a purse, or a table topper. Patterns are great for solids and small prints in any color way. Blocks also look beautiful in bigger sizes and are easy to enlarge. Bring cheery flowers and cute, chirping birds indoors with Piece O' Cake's newest appliqué blocks. Mix and match up to twenty blocks to create unlimited quilt variations.

Garden Party is a collection of charming sketches and quotes from artist Helen Dardik. Dardik's pen-and-ink drawings are replicated from her sketchbooks and interspersed with quotes from classic novels such as Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden. Dardik's illustrations of girl-fairies, flora, and fauna create a magical, dreamy world. Many of her characters are hybrid girl/plant creatures whose friends include a menagerie of cats, dogs, and other critters. • Her illustrations are predominantly black-and-white, with a limited palette of accent colors. • Aesthetic feels equal parts vintage Scandinavian modern folk art and Japanese Kawaii culture, • Girl-powered and nature themed This is a charming, girl-centric book that is perfect for all occasions, whether it's a graduation or Mother's Day or simply for yourself. The book's design is also a delight—it looks and feels like an actual sketchbook. • A perfect book for teens, young adult women, and moms • Dardik's unique illustration style is at once elegant and whimsical. • Great for those who loved In the Garden of My Dreams: The Art of Nathalie Lété by Nathalie Lété. and How to Be a Wildflower by Katie Daisy

“This is a love story about a couple and their relationship with an acre-and-a-half of land. . . with exceptional plant descriptions that read like character references for old friends. . . . beautiful photographs and prose await.” —Library Journal Marietta and Ernie O’Byrne’s garden—situated on one and a half acres in Eugene, Oregon—is filled with an incredible array of plants from around the world. By consciously leveraging the garden’s many microclimates, they have created a stunning patchwork of exuberant plants that is widely considered one of America’s most outstanding private gardens. In A Tapestry Garden, the O’Byrnes share their deep knowledge of plants and essential garden advice. Readers will discover the humble roots of the garden, explore the numerous habitats and the plants that make them shine, and find inspiration in photography that captures the garden’s astonishing beauty. There is something here for every type of gardener: a shade garden, perennial borders, a chaparral garden, a kitchen garden, and more. Profiles of the O’Byrne’s favorite plants—including hellebores, trilliums, arisaemas, and alpine plants—include comprehensive growing information and tips on pruning and care. A Tapestry Garden captures the spirit of a very special place.

Interactive Alphabet Book - Learn ABCs while Discovering Plants and Animals in a Garden Exploring the Garden with the Little Rose is based on the #1 best-selling book, The Little Rose, and takes children on an educational adventure! Your little one will have fun learning the alphabet and identifying the plants and animals of the garden while exploring our natural world alongside the Little Rose. Exploring the Garden with the Little Rose won a Gold Medal in the Readers Favorite International Book Awards for Best Children s Concept Book. Themes include: Learning the Alphabet, Garden Vocabulary, Exploring Nature, Environment, ABCs

Originally meant to trap bad spirits, bottle trees arrived in the U.S. with the African slave trade and first took root in the South. Now it's a popular art form, a national phenomenon that's showing up at garden shows, craft fairs and farmers markets. Garden writer and photographer Felder Rushing has encountered thousands of bottle trees and other glass garden art in his travels across America and around the world. In BOTTLE TREES he presents 60 of his favorites, from the backyards of Mississippi to the Chelsea Flower Show to the glass fantasies of Dale Chihuly. With humor and affection he tells the stories behind the photographs: the history and lore of bottle trees and glass sculpture, and the inspired people who make them.

“Be forewarned that this book honors people like the woman in my hometown who paints the numbers of her favorite NASCAR drivers on her elephant ears, and a Tokyo gardener with over a hundred bonsai plants.” So says renowned garden journalist Felder Rushing in his new book Maverick Gardeners: Dr. Dirt and Other Determined Independent Gardeners. In this book, Felder delves deeply into the psychology of what motivates and sustains the Keepers of the Garden Flame. For thousands of years, a loosely connected web of unique, nontraditional gardeners has bonded people across race, culture, language, and other social conventions through sharing unique plants and stories. Found in nearly every neighborhood worldwide, these “determined independent gardeners” (DIGrs) are typically nonjoiners who garden simply and exuberantly, eschewing customary horticultural standards in their amateur pursuits of personal bliss. Included in Maverick Gardeners are classic “passalong plant” lists, a dollop of how-to, numerous color photographs, and thought-provoking essays on quintessential tools, sharing with others, getting away with wildflowers in suburbia, and organizing a plant swap. The centerpiece of this unique gardening journey is the no-holds-barred story of a ten-year cross-cultural collaboration between the horticulturist author and a flamboyant rebellious gardener who called himself Dirt. Through swapping plants and garden lore—and rubbing shoulders with fellow DIGrs—they unraveled their shared humanity. From the practical to the inspiring, Maverick Gardeners is the perfect book for those nonconformist souls who see no sense in trying to fit in and follow the footpaths of others.

Presents advice on low-maintenance gardening, with tips for easy landscaping, short-cut composting, container gardening, and reliable plant combinations.