The City Gardener Urban Oasis

Channel 4's The City Gardener, Matt James, is back with a new series and a new book, full of practical advice and design inspiration to turn your weed-filled wasteland into the hippest urban playground on the block * Where to start -- in this first section Matt gets straight down to business, providing practical answers to the question all first-time gardeners ask, 'where on earth do I start? ', including: how to carry out a site survey, deciding what style of garden you want and how to reflect your lifestyle in the design, where to buy plants and how to spot a good one.; Making the skeleton -- this is where we begin to get creative and learn how to plan out a garden, starting with the bare bones of the basic structure and moving onto how to hard landscape your design, turning theory into practice* each can be used to combat an urban-specific problem like noise pollution, or create a particular effect, such as lending architectural form or providing seasonal interest; Putting It All Together -- this is where Matt shows how to bring together everything you've learnt about planning, hard landscaping and plants to create sensational planting layouts; specific topics covered include using height and space, colour, texture and scent, and planting styles such as prairie, formal and exotic, to create the garden you want* Plant Directory -- a problem-solving look at the best plants for particular places and conditions e. g. plants for damp spots, shady corners, specific soil types and garden aspect