miss ribena, if you are looking for a really friendly gardening book then you couldn't do better than The Complete Gardener by Monty Don. He is, in my opinion, the best gardener that the BBC ever had. He is totally organic and would cringe at some of the notions here about weedkiller etc. Everything we do in our gaqrden reflects on the thousands of species that live there. We should stop kidding ourselves by saying its only a little bit of weedkiller now and again, as even once off treatment can change the ecological composition of our gardens forever. He uses the flame gun for treating weeds on patios etc and the good old garden hoe for others. Gardening does involve a bit of work, and as someone (I can't remember who), once said 'low maintenace is low braintenance'. 