Gardening

Sometimes the story of a garden is also the story of a life. Both private retreat and conservation exercise, this sprawling Australian bush garden uses nature as muse to reveal the arresting beauty of the natural landscape.

Imprint: Thames & Hudson Publishing
RRP: $70.00

In Australian Dreamscapes, Claire Takacs showcases the varied gardens found in the Australian landscape, from lush green oases to semi-arid settings. Claire profiles Australian gardens, gardeners and garden designers who are drawing on the international movement towards a more naturalistic approach to planting design. Similar to the New Perennial movement and Prairie-style, these gardens take into consideration how plants grow in the wild and have created highly textural, visually pleasing gardens that appeal not only to our love of beauty, but that sit gently in their surrounding landscapes, giving a strong sense of place.

Across 15 chapters and 22 gardens, Claire's stunning photography is accompanied by essays written by the garden owners or designers. The chapters detail the journey to establishing the gardens, their motivation, and the struggles and rewards the gardens bring day in, day out. Beautifully presented, Australian Dreamscapes is a stunning journey through the diversity of gardens in Australia.

Imprint: Hardie Grant Books
RRP: $70.00

A highly illustrated, authoritative and practical book focused on all aspects of using native plants in the home garden, from design through to plant choice and cultivation.


This authoritative and practical book--written in an approachable and accessible style--focuses on growing and using native plants in the home garden. It provides expert information on the fundamentals--soils, cultivation techniques, pruning, fertilising and maintenance--and looks at different styles of garden design, using Australian plants not only for aesthetic reasons but for creating droughtproof gardens, fire resistant gardens, and environments attractive to native fauna as well. Growing your own bush foods is also covered. Highly illustrated and information-packed, The Australian Native Garden showcases some of the best designed Australian gardens and explores rural areas around Australia where indigenous species thrive in the wild, representing a fascinating source of inspiration and information.

Imprint: Murdoch Books
RRP: $49.99

Banksias are Australia's most iconic plants after Eucalypts - known for thousands of years to Australians and - through writing and art - to many more who have never visited this land.

This extensively revised edition includes the most recently discovered Banksia, vincentia, with descriptions and illustrations of all 79 known species with many new photographs and updated species descriptions. It provides the history of their discovery, evolution, how to find and grow them and how they have inspired artists and artisans. With some 400 beautiful colour illustrations it is the comprehensive, up-to-date guide to these unique and fascinating plants.

Tables list which Banksias to grow for particular purposes and the three authors have between them, studied and grown all 79 species of Banksia, their combined experience totalling over a hundred years.

Imprint: BLOOMINGS BOOKS
RRP: $69.95

Wake up to the beautiful sound of birdsong every day.

Discover how to identify the most common garden birds, and how to choose, grow and maintain the native plants that will attract them to your backyard.

From acacias to eucalypts, and from honeyeaters to kookaburras, this essential guide will help transform any garden across Australia into an avian paradise.

Featuring plant and bird directories illustrated with superb colour photographs and line drawings, as well as comprehensive planting tables and expert advice, this book has all you need to create a refuge for birds - and so preserve Australia's amazing natural heritage and biodiversity.

The definitive sourcebook for growing, harvesting and cooking herbs in Australia.

Jekka McVicar is passionate about herbs and this passion permeates her authoritative and immensely practical book.

Here she covers over 150 herbs - from the most common such as mint and basil to the more exotic, such as turmeric and lemon grass. For each herb she outlines various species, its history, cultivation, propagation and harvesting and then looks at cosmetic, medicinal and culinary uses, with over 250 recipes.

Having grown herbs for over 30 years, Jekka knows the most common pitfalls to avoid. She offers plans for planting herb gardens, be it for aromatherapy or cooking, and guidance on propagation, harvesting, herbs in containers, pests and diseases as well as a yearly calendar.

This definitive sourcebook is the herb gardener's essential companion.

Imprint: Simon & Schuster
RRP: $35.00

Dreamscapes is a stunning collection of over fifty of the world’s most beautiful gardens from across the globe, photographed by internationally renowned and awarded photographer Claire Takacs. Dreamscapes includes many gardens designed by famous designers such as Piet Oudolf, Paul Bangay, and Spanish designer Fernando Martos among others, with photographed locations including Australia, New Zealand, UK, USA, Europe and Asia. This book will astound and delight you with the diversity and creativity of the gardens featured, all portrayed at that rare moment when they are at their most stunning.

Iconic gardens included are the stunning Welsh garden Dyffryn Fernant, Australia's Cloudehill, Martha Stewart's private garden, the beautiful Edwardian idyll of Bryan's Ground in Herefordshire, the former home of Vita Sackville-West, Long Barn in Kent, the naturalistic French garden of Le Jardin Plume in Normandy, Hermannshof in Germany at the forefront of planting design, and Kenrokuen one of Japan's most beautiful public gardens.

Imprint: Hardie Grant Books
RRP: $70.00

The Edible Garden Cookbook & Growing Guide is a book about growing food wherever you may be and however much space you have. It is about cooking simply with fresh, seasonal produce and about celebrating life through sharing food with friends and family and the community around you.

The book has lots of practical gardening advice, with information on how to set up a garden using a sunny windowsill, courtyard, backyard and even no yard! There are step-by-step guides to building a no-dig garden and the best way to compost depending on the space you have, as well as an A-Z guide for growing the most popular veg. Paul then shares more than 70 simple, produce-driven recipes that are bursting with freshness and flavour. And finally, Paul looks at how to develop relationships around food and shares some wonderful ideas for various events, from throwing a pickle party and hosting a harvest festival to building a mud-brick oven in your backyard and inviting your neighbours over for a wood-fired pizza night!

The Edible Garden Cookbook & Growing Guide is for everyone who is interested in food and community. It will inspire and give you confidence to try your hand at growing your own produce and making more of your own food, and help you to find real meaning in everyday life.

Imprint: PLUM
RRP: $39.99

A lavishly photographed celebration of renowned Australian landscape designer William Dangar's unique and highly creative approach to garden making.

William Dangar's Garden is a journey through a series of twenty-one inspiring, emotive and lyrical gardens. Each is photographed at its optimum moment - not when newly planted, but when nature has reasserted itself and there is a certain expressiveness, a sense of wildness, breaking through the original structure and order. Each project is described through Will's frank perspective, chronicling the challenges, the planting choices, the collaborations, the relationships and the joy that make these gardens significant.

Imprint: MURDOCH BOOKS
RRP: $59.99

The inspirational resource for garden designers and garden-lovers - now available in a compelling compact format.

The ultimate garden book - both a collection of gardens from around the world and a resource for those seeking inspiration on garden design and planting. Featuring over 250 permanent gardens by leading garden designers, horticulturalists and landscape architects, from the 14th century to the present day, and covering all key types and styles of garden, this well-illustrated compendium combines images, text, key information and captions for each of the featured gardens, appealing to both amateur and professional gardeners, as well as garden designers.

Imprint: PHAIDON
RRP: $49.95

This internationally bestselling inspirational resource for garden designers and garden lovers sports a gorgeous new cover design - bringing the book's winning blend of authority and visual appeal to a wider-than-ever audience.

THE GARDENER'S GARDEN spans seven centuries to spotlight more than 250 of the globe's finest permanent gardens by leading garden designers, horticulturalists, and landscape architects, brought to life via more than 1,000 sumptuous photographs and in descriptive texts by leading garden writers.

Imprint: PHAIDON
RRP: $49.95

Our homes’ outdoor spaces can—and should—be as welcoming and carefully considered as our living rooms; when treated as extensions of our homes, these spaces enrich our lives immeasurably. That was the guiding principle when, under the direction of editor in chief Michelle Slatalla (whose New York Times style columns were weekly must-reads for a decade), the team behind Remodelista.com launched sister site Gardenista.com. Like Remodelista, Gardenista caters to an older, more established audience (75% of readers are over the age of 35) and is known for its sophisticated, well-edited aesthetic.

The book contains lushly photographed tours of 12 enviable gardens; planting guides for a variety of climates and colour palettes; in-depth case studies on more than a dozen outdoor structures (from yoga studios to chicken coops); DIY projects and a guide to timeless everyday objects for the outdoors; plus advice from landscape professionals. Equal parts inspiration and expert intel, Gardenista is both a perfect starting point and an all-in-one bible.

Imprint: ARTISAN
RRP: $75.00