A treasure trove of gardening facts and curiosities, notes and quotes. Packed with useful and fascinating information, The Gardener's Companion will let you into many secrets, including how Joseph Paxton, designer of Crystal Palace and landscape gardener extraordinaire, rose from poverty to become a multi-millionaire, where London's hidden gardens are located, which tree provided sixteenth-century Europeans with a cure for venereal disease, how to perform the soil fist test to determine soil type, and what Nelson Mandela grew in his prison garden.