Making Fairy Garden Accessories Anna-Marie Fahmy; Andrew Fahmy

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review.
If you are looking for easy and amusing crafts, here's a good instruction manual. Miniatures, especially when they provoke a second look, are currently trending. And fairy gardens have been around for a while, a small second-look in a garden or outdoor space that bring a smile.

I recommend the clear instructions and many photos to gardeners wants a quick project, to parents and kids who need something pretty to make together, and to those who like surprising guests by making them with a double-take in the yard.

Have fun with this one!

Kew Answers for Everyday Gardeners by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens

 

★★★★★  The publisher provided a copy for review. 
You know it's going to be good if Kew has a hand in it. If you've ever wondered how their gardens thrive, here are 101 answers. (Actually more.)

Whether you're thinking about gardening, starting out, or dealing with a problem as an experienced gardener, you'll want this to-the-point guide. Bugs, compost, sunshine and water, soil ... plush pictures of lush plants that incite envy. Don't let the understated cover fool you.

What's not to love? For basic and skilled gardeners, here is your short answer manual for all your questions.

Edible Garden Bloom Gardener's Guide by Vicky Chown

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review.
If you love to garden, if you like to eat healthy, this is for you. Chown starts with the reasons to garden and takes the novice or experienced gardener step by step through growing various plants. 

The soil preparation and maintenance, seeding different crops and keeping them healthy, warding off pests ... it's all here.

If you are starting a garden for the first time or trying to grow a new kind of vegetable or edible, you'll love the clear instructions and labeling, accompanied by photo identification.

The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Trees: The Art and Science to grow with confidence by Tony Kirkham

★★★★★  The publisher provided a copy for review before publication.

When you need an expert, you need look no further than Kew's gardens and greenhouses. Part of a series published by master gardeners directing the flourishing of the Kew Eden, this book will give you confidence to choose, buy, and plant trees in your own spaces.

What I enjoyed was the step-by-step assumption that everyone can learn and appreciate gardens and their components. Kirkham explores the lovely giants that give our yards and businesses structure and backdrops for other plantings. Dive in as deep as you want, or just flip through the pages to the section that applies to you.

Whether you have good intentions for green spaces as an experienced or beginner gardener, (or if you just want a yard to relax in), whether you have a green, brown, or killer "thumb" when it comes to plants, you'll want this book on your shelf. Kirkham starts with shapes or growth and leaves, types of trees and habitats, and moves through the process of nurturing beauty overhead. Recommended.

RHS Gardener's Five Year Record Book by Royal Horticultural Society

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review. 

 Do you remember your garden once you put it to sleep? Do you remember the seeds, seedlings, the soil, and the tools that are waiting in the shed to be used when spring comes? 

I don't have perfect recall - and in fact, I find myself wondering about seed companies and the best hoes and shovels. But with this journal, you'll have a 5-year record of what's worked on your plot. You'll be able to track diseases, bugs, and solutions in the weekly layouts, too.

It's beautiful. It's waiting to be hung in your garden storeroom or tucked into your bookshelf while you pore over garden catalogs. Get your copy - and enjoy the memories of nature, weather, and nourishing your mental and physical self in the garden.

Urban Botanics: An Indoor Plant Guide for Modern Gardeners by Emma Sibley

★★★★ ☐ The publisher has provided a copy for review. 
Gardeners and DIY decorators, do you ever wonder what plant is thriving on your windowsill? May you have something green turning brown or yellow and need a "how to resuscitate" guide? 

Or do you just want to copy some gorgeous watercolors of botanicals?

Here's your book! Enjoy the  illustrations, descriptions, and helpful instructions. A beautiful practical volume for artists and green-thumbs alike.

Nature into Art by Thomas Christopher and Ngoc Minh Ngo

★★★★★ The publisher has provided a copy for review.
When words and photography and passion come together, you may grow a garden like this one - and a book as beautiful as it is instructive.

The photography captured my eyes first. Then came the chapters on how and why the garden exists, its borders and specialty areas - and the seasons as they progress through the plantings and backdrop of Wave Hill.

The book is descriptive, with a manual of gardening basics on every page. I delighted in it. And though my garden is now tropical, I loved the beds and borders and intentionality - and the wildness that nature insists on.

Well worth a space on your gardening bookshelf as well as on your coffee table for guests to ooh and aah over.

A Garden Miscellany by Suzanne Staubach

★★★★★ The publisher has provided a copy for review.

Most gardens have the same basic elements. You expect certain things from a garden. We've all met luxury additions in the landscape, but some things are ... well, what make a space a garden.

And in Staubach's book, you'll find delightful illustrations that feel familiar, no matter where you are gardening. You might find new ideas of how to take your garden to the next level. You may also find out what was missing - that thing that would make your space complete.

This artsy visual encyclopedia of gardening is a delight for the eye as well as the mind. It's equally interesting as a coffee table book, a art illustration idea book, and a gardener's go-to. 

Enjoy it!