RHS Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening

Advantages: Everything you need in one book.
Disadvantages: Very Heavy.

...practical and not too technical, it had to have ideas for garden design and not only the plants but how to care for them and what kind of soil or light they prefered, a lot to be considered. Tht is how I found the R.H.S Encyclopedia Of Gardening. This is a real Reference book not the kind of book you take into the garden, you make notes from it. The loose cover is banded with black and has a close up of a plant, very nice and the writing is is Gold and White. At the bottom it states that this is the Revised and Expanded Edition. The Book is over 9 inches wide and 12 inches long, I must warn you though it weighs a ton, well a lot anyway. The book itself is split into two parts, ~~~Part 1 - Creating The Garden.~~~ 1 Garden Planning And Design. This section is great for if you have moved into a new house and are... Read review

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Advantages: Plenty to interest me all year.
Disadvantages: Too popular, so crowded, at peak times.

...I am a member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and as I live near RHS Hyde Hall in Essex, I have seen it in all seasons. I am a member because I like gardens, not because I am an expert, but you don't have to be an expert to enjoy it. *** History of the Estate *** For centuries this estate was a working farm, so the 18th century Hall was a farmhouse, but the area around it had been used for dumping rubbish. Then in the 1950s, Helen and Dick Robinson started to tidy it up. The clay soil on this cold and windy site on the top of a hill was gradually improved, with the help of the pigs by adding manure, and compost. Then flowers, a vegetable patch and young trees were planted near to their home. The estate was donated to the RHS in 1993, which has continued to develop and improve the area. Of the 320 acres... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Enviromentally caring and some stunning plants and views.
Disadvantages: Slightly hilly so may be difficult for wheelchairs though not impossible.

...prior to this been a farm over many centuries, so it had become a dumping ground for all sorts of agricultural rubbish, and was at the time an almost impossible task to make anything of it. The house on the site dates back to Tudor times and Mrs Robinson discovered the remnants of an old Tudor stable floor, and this was subsequently excavated to become a natural pavement garden. The site was donated to the RHS in 1993 and by then Mrs Robinson had certainly made strides into creating a superb garden, with herbaceous borders, and vegetable plots, and so it was a framework which in recent years has become a treasure for the RHS. They inherited 320 acres of which about 25 acres were cultivated, and their aim is to increase the cultivated areas to at least 60. Essex has very little prime land like this so it is now an extremely... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful