Gillian Vine takes a look at some excellent new books on gardening.
Authors Jane McMorland Hunter and Chris Kelly suggest looking at what you want, surveying what you have, then working out ways of bringing the two together.
They make planting suggestions for difficult places, including dry shade, windy sites, boggy places and flood-prone spots.
Designing, building and planting are well-covered in very user-friendly fashion.
Recommended.
Typically, succulents come from arid areas and have thick, fleshy leaves or stems designed to store moisture.
For an introduction to the subject, Terry Hewitt's Garden Succulents (Mitchell Beazley, pbk, $19.99) is a good starting point.
As a Royal Horticultural Society publication, readers can be confident about the accuracy of the information.
Coloured photographs are used to illustrate some of the most popular, from bronze-leafed aeonium to yuccas, whose flower stems can top 5m.
The emphasis is on food crops, mainly vegetables, with a lot of space devoted to preparing the ground properly to ensure optimum crops.
Old techniques, such as building a hot box for tender plants or early crops, are presented clearly and with excellent line drawings.
The book fills a significant gap in the market - the what to do, rather than concentrating on what to grow, although the latter is incorporated.
Those who are good at making things are catered for in the final chapter, Things to Make, although the non-handy can buy similar products from garden centres.
A very useful book.
