Gardeners puzzled by recommendations to "buy a swoe," or confused when trying to understand the difference between "linear" and "obovate" leaves will find answers here, in understandable English and precise diagrams. It's a reference book that deserves a place on every home gardener's bookshelf. It defines more than 2,500 botanical and garden-related terms, translating technical information into ordinary language. You also get listings and definitions of a wide array of common gardening practices, garden tools and their uses, landscape methods, horticulture, soil analysis and care, fertilizing, controlling pests and diseases, and many other related topics. The book features unusually handsome and botanically accurate black-and-white line art--approximately 500 illustrations in all.