Book excerpt: Our bestselling practical gardening book fully revised and updated. This new edition of the ever popular Yates Garden Guide has been fully revised and updated to help today's gardeners tame big backyards, create stylish retreats, tend productive and decorative plantings, and get the most out of smaller spaces. With chapters on planning gardens, choosing decorative plants, growing trees, shrubs, fruit, vegetables and lawns, the new Yates Garden Guide provides details on more than 1000 exotic and native plants, advice on soils, climate, planting, feeding and maintaining gardens, and comprehensive problem-solving charts help you identify and deal with all kinds of pests and diseases. Sections on water-saving gardens, community gardens, keeping chooks, encouraging bees, growing native plants, kitchen gardens and keeping healthy indoor plants have been expanded and updated to cater for modern living arrangements, in apartments and smaller spaces, with increased awareness of the goodness of homegrown and environmentally friendly growing. Full of comprehensive, reliable and practical gardening advice for old hands and keen beginners, Yates Garden Guide is the essential companion for every gardener.