John Kallas makes it fun and easy to learn about foods you've unknowingly passed by all your life. Through gorgeous photographs, playful, but authoritative text, and ground-breaking design he gives you the knowledge and confidence to finally begin eating and enjoying edible wild plants. Edible Wild Plants divides plants into four flavor categories -- foundation, tart, pungent, and bitter. Categorizing by flavor helps readers use these greens in pleasing and predictable ways. According to the author, combining elements from these different categories makes the best salads.

    A forest garden imitates young natural woodland, with a wide range of crops grown in vertical layers. Species are chosen for their beneficial effects on each other, creating a healthy system that maintains its own fertility, with little need for digging, weeding or pest control. The result of this largely perennial planting is a tranquil, beautiful and productive space.This book is a bible for permaculture and forest gardening, with practical advice on how to create a forest garden, from planning and design to planting and maintenance. It explains how a forest garden is designed from the top down: the canopy layer first,then the shrub layer,the perennial ground-cover layer,the annuals & biennialsnext, the climbers and nitrogen fixersand finally the clearings, living spaces and paths.Whether in a small back garden or in a larger plot, the environmental benefits of growing this way are great. Forest Gardens are a viable solution to the challenge of a changing climate: we can grow food sustainably in them without compromising soil health, food quality or biodiversity.Forest gardens:store carbon dioxide in the soil and in the woody biomass of the trees and shrubs.enable the soil to store more water after heavy rains, minimizing flooding and erosion.boost the health of the ecosystem, ensuring a balance of predators and beneficial insects because mixed planting is crucial to the scheme.allows the soil to thrive because it is covered with plants all year round.Creating a Forest Garden includes a detailed directory of over 500 trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals, root crops and climbers. As well as more familiar plants such as fig and apple trees, blackcurrants and rosemary shrubs, you can grow your own chokeberries, goji berries, yams, heartnuts, bamboo shoots and buffalo currants.Forest gardens produce fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds, salads, herbs, spices, firewood, mushrooms, medicinal herbs, dye plants, soap plants, and honey from bees.This book tells you everything you need to create your own forest garden with beautiful illustrations and helpful tips throughout.

    He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure—worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value—but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.With his trademark humor, his years of experience writing about both farming and waste management, and his uncanny eye for the small but important details, Logsdon artfully describes how to manage farm manure, pet manure and human manure to make fertilizer and humus. He covers the field, so to speak, discussing topics like:• How to select the right pitchfork for the job and use it correctly• How to operate a small manure spreader• How to build a barn manure pack with farm animal manure• How to compost cat and dog waste• How to recycle toilet water for irrigation purposes, and• How to get rid ourselves of our irrational paranoia about feces and urine.Gene Logsdon does not mince words. This fresh, fascinating and entertaining look at an earthy, but absolutely crucial subject, is a small gem and is destined to become a classic of our agricultural literature.

    The chapters are organized by topic-garden techniques and tricks, the flower garden, the edible garden, container gardening, garden design and landscaping, attracting wildlife, and so on-and packed with information. Readers will discover tips and techniques for maintaining a garden year-round; harvesting herbs; designing by bloom season; turning garden refuse into garden rewards; building teepees, trellises, and other plant supports; and much more.

    This haven of ecologically friendly practices has been the focus of BBC Two's popular series It's Not Easy Being Green, a title at least somewhat belied by the simplicity of the practical changes suggested in Self Sufficiency for The 21st Century. (Hand-selling tip: It's important to realize that low impact living isn't generally a one-jump leap. The incremental changes recommended in this book can help people take their first major steps in that direction.)

    In the last half of The Resilient Gardener, Deppe extends and illustrates these principles with detailed information about growing and using five key crops: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs.In this book you'll learn how to:-Garden in an era of unpredictable weather and climate change-Grow, store, and use more of your own staple crops-Garden efficiently and comfortably (even if you have a bad back)-Grow, store, and cook different varieties of potatoes and save your own potato seed-Grow the right varieties of corn to make your own gourmet-quality fast-cooking polenta, cornbread, parched corn, corn cakes, pancakes and even savory corn gravy-Make whole-grain, corn-based breads and cakes using the author's original gluten-free recipes involving no other grains, artificial binders, or dairy products-Grow and use popbeans and other grain legumes-Grow, store, and use summer, winter, and drying squash-Keep a home laying flock of ducks or chickens; integrate them with your gardening, and grow most of their feed.The Resilient Gardener is both a conceptual and a hands-on organic gardening book, and is suitable for vegetable gardeners at all levels of experience. Resilience here is broadly conceived and encompasses a full range of problems, from personal hard times such as injuries, family crises, financial problems, health problems, and special dietary needs (gluten intolerance, food allergies, carbohydrate sensitivity, and a need for weight control) to serious regional and global disasters and climate change. It is a supremely optimistic as well as realistic book about how resilient gardeners and their vegetable gardens can flourish even in challenging times and help their communities to survive and thrive through everything that comes their way -- from tomorrow through the next thousand years. Organic gardening, vegetable gardening, self-sufficiency, subsistence gardening, gluten-free living.

    More and more Americans are looking to grow clean, delicious produce at home, saving money and natural resources at the same time. And food plants have been freed from the backyard, gracing the finest landscapes—even the White House grounds!Creasy’s expertise on edibles and how to incorporate them in beautifully designed outdoor environments was first showcased in the original edition of Edible Landscaping (Sierra Club Books, 1982), hailed by gardeners everywhere as a groundbreaking classic. Now this highly anticipated new edition presents the latest design and how-to information in a glorious full-color format, featuring more than 300 inspiring photographs.Drawing on the author’s decades of research and experience, the book presents everything you need to know to create an inviting home landscape that will yield mouthwatering vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries. The comprehensive Encyclopedia of Edibles—a book in itself—provides horticultural information, culinary uses, sources, and recommended varieties; and appendices cover the basics of planting and maintenance, and of controlling pests and diseases using organic and environmentally friendly practices.

    In Practical Self Sufficiency, they show you how to make practical, sustainable changes that will have a big impact on your life - without having to transform your lifestyle. Sharing their experiences, tips and techniques, the Strawbridges provide all the step-by-step advice you need for successful eco projects, large and small. Learn to grow your own vegetables and fruit, make your own homebrew, raise chickens, try foraging for wild food, and more. Each undertaking is realistic, achievable and sustainable. You won't need to go the whole hog - just pick and mix to suit your needs, for long-lasting dividends.

    However, there are a number of plants that manage to grow spontaneously in sidewalk cracks and roadside meridians, flourish along chain-link fences and railroad tracks, line the banks of streams and rivers, and emerge in the midst of landscape plantings and trampled lawns. On their own and free of charge, these plants provide ecological services including temperature reduction, oxygen production, carbon storage, food and habitat for wildlife, pollution mitigation, and erosion control on slopes. Around the world, wild plants help to make urban environments more habitable for people.Peter Del Tredici's lushly illustrated field guide to wild urban plants of the northeastern United States is the first of its kind. While it covers the area bounded by Montreal, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Detroit, it is broadly applicable to temperate urban environments across North America. The book covers 222 species that flourish without human assistance or approval. Rather than vilifying such plants as weeds, Del Tredici stresses that it is important to notice, recognize, and appreciate their contribution to the quality of urban life. Indeed their very toughness in the face of heat islands, elevated levels of carbon dioxide and ubiquitous contamination is indicative of the important role they have to play in helping humans adapt to the challenges presented by urbanization, globalization and climate change.The species accounts--158 main entries plus 64 secondary species-feature descriptive information including scientific name and taxonomic authority, common names, botanical family, life form, place of origin, and identification features. Del Tredici focuses especially on their habitat preferences, environmental functions, and cultural significance. Each entry is accompanied by original full-color photographs by the author which show the plants' characteristics and growth forms in their typical habitats. Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast will help readers learn to see these plants-the natural vegetation of the urban environment-with fresh appreciation and understanding.

    In Grow Great Grub, Gayla Trail, the founder of the leading online gardening community (YouGrowGirl.com), shows you how to grow your own delicious, affordable, organic edibles virtually anywhere.                    Grow Great Grub packs in tips and essential information about: - Choosing a location and making the most of your soil (even if it’s less than perfect)- Building a raised bed, compost bin, and self-watering container using recycled materials- Keeping pests and diseases away from your plants—the toxin-free way- Growing bountiful crops in pots and selecting the best heirloom varieties- Cultivating hundreds of plants, from blueberries to Thai basil, to the best tomatoes you’ll ever taste - Canning, and preserving to make the most of your garden’s generosity - Green-friendly, cost-saving, growing, and building projects that are smart and stylish- And much more! Whether you’re looking to eat on a budget or simply experience the pleasure of picking tonight’s meal from right outside your door, this is the must-have book for small-space gardeners—no backyard required.  GAYLA TRAIL is the creator of the acclaimed top gardening website yougrowgirl.com. Her work as a writer and photographer has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, Budget Living, and ReadyMade. A resident of Toronto who has grown a garden on her rooftop for more than 10 years, she is the author of You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening.

    There are garden projects, both for the outdoors—grow a container snacking garden, a pumpkin patch in a pot—and the indoors, i.e., how to use something called "indoor garbage gardens" to grow pineapple tops, sweet potato vines, peanuts, and more. Cooking projects, both in the sunshine—baking in a solar oven—and in the kitchen—what child will ever forget the time the two of you made Potato Volcanoes with Lava? And lots of rainy-day activities for times when nature's in a cranky mood. Created by Sharon Lovejoy—a grandmother of four and the author of two classic books of garden activities for grown-ups and kids, Sunflower Houses and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots—Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars is an ecologically inspired guide that combines more than 130 green activities with timeless grandparenting advice. Illustrated with Lovejoy's distinctive, delicate watercolors, it's an inventive resource for grandmother and grandchild to connect with each other through nature. It is the book to make sure an afternoon, a day, or a weekend turns into a memory that lasts forever.

    With their colorful leaves, sculptural shapes, and simple care, succulents are beautiful yet forgiving plants for pots. If grown in containers, these dry-climate jewels—which include but are not limited to cacti—can be brought indoors in winter and so can thrive anywhere in the world. In this inspiring compendium, the popular author of Designing with Succulents provides everything beginners and experienced gardeners need to know to create stunning container displays of exceptionally waterwise plants. The extensive palette includes delicate sedums, frilly echeverias, cascading senecios, edgy agaves, and fat-trunked beaucarneas, to name just a few. Easy-to-follow, expert tips explain soil mixes, overwintering, propagation, and more.

    Plans and design ideas for kitchen gardens of all sizes, as well as easy-to-follow guidelines for composting, building raised beds, and more. Growing season details for all regions of the West, including Alaska and Hawaii. Timely tips from edibles experts around the West-British Columbia to New Mexico. More than 300 pages of color photographs, practical advice, and inspiration from the editors of Sunset magazine, the West's authority on gardening.

    Author Pam Peirce explains strategies for growing common favorite vegetables and herbs, plus unusual ones that bring variety to the garden. She includes information on organizing a garden, dealing with pests, assessing a microclimate, cultivating fruit trees, gardening on a rooftop, harvesting the crop, and creating delicious gardener's dishes. This third edition also contains new or updated information on resources for specific seeds, tomato planting, organic gardening, and vegetables not included in previous editions, including amaranth, shell beans, Chinese broccoli, broccoli raab, Florence fennel, oca, okra, and quinoa. Charts, sidebars, maps, and online resources help make the vegetable gardening experience easier and more fun.

    Rodale has been the category leader in organic methods for decades, and this thoroughly updated edition features the latest science-based recommendations for battling garden problems. With all-new photos of common and recently introduced pests and plant diseases, you can quickly identify whether you've discovered garden friend or foe and what action, if any, you should take.No other reference includes a wider range of methods for growing and maintaining an organic garden. The plant-by-plant guide features symptoms and solutions for 200 popular plants, including flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs, and fruits. The insect-and-disease encyclopedia includes a photo identification guide and detailed descriptions of damage readers may see. The extensive coverage of the most up-to-date organic control techniques and products, presented in order of lowest impact to most intensive intervention, makes it easy to choose the best control.

    Her own garden, Glebe Cottage in Devon, as seen on Gardeners' World, is almost grown entirely from cuttings and seeds and in this book she's on a mission to share her joy in working with nature to cultivate the plants she loves. Too often gardeners are intimidated by propagation, assume it's not for them and go for ready-grown plants from the garden centre. But Carol, a gifted communicator with her infectious enthusiasm, boundless horticultural expertise and easy practical explanations, shows just how simple and satisfying it is to grow your own plants, not to mention sustainable and cheap. She demonstrates, step-by-step, how to divide herbaceous perennials, nurture seedlings or grow new stock from root cuttings, stems or leaves, showing how there is no mystique involved and anybody can do it.In Grow Your Own Garden Carol offers a refreshing new approach to propagation, and, just as she did with Grow Your Own Veg, she brings her own unique style to an inspirational, accessible and practical gardening guide that will have great appeal to novices and more experienced gardeners alike.

    Most recipe books recommend fresh herbs, which can be expensive and difficult to find. Store-bought herbs never seem to last very long either - wilted, blackened leaves in the bottom of the fridge is a familiar sight to many cooks. The Cook's Herb Garden shows you how to grow your own supply of herbs close to hand on a window ledge, balcony, in pots just outside the backdoor, or in a vegetable garden.The book begins with eight planted-up window boxes with different culinary themes so you can choose a selection that best matches your culinary habits. A photographic catalog of around 150 herbs and varieties describes the culinary components of the plant and how best to use them in cooking. Follow the expert gardening advice in the Plant, Nurture, and Harvest sections to guarantee a full haul every time you pick. Learn the best way to store herbs - home-grown and store-bought - so that they last, and when you are ready for a treat, choose from more than 30 recipes in which herbs take center stage. Finally, discover herbal teas and tisanes - a world of infusions.Cooking with fresh herbs is a joy every cook knows. With The Cook's Herb Garden you can enjoy an unlimited resource at your fingertips. Why should your cooking ingredients be limited to your kitchen?The Contents:Seven chapters guide you through the practicalities of choosing, planting and growing to the pleasures of feasting and brewing: Window boxes/Herb Catalog, Plant, Nurture, Harvest, Keep, Cook, Brew.

    Takes us through the year with delicious recipes for different holidays and events in the calendar, from Easter lunches and summer picnics to camping feasts around the fire, Hallowe'en parties and Christmas.

    Full-color images illustrate the more than 25 citrus, fruits and berries featured, plus more than 35 vegetable recommendations. Helpful icons, charts and maps assist gardeners in planting the right edibles for where they live in Florida.

    And few things taste more delicious than fruit picked straight from the tree or bush and eaten when perfectly ripe, perhaps still warm from the sun. This is fruit the way nature intended, not fruit that has been flown in from hundreds or thousands of miles away or stored in climate-controlled warehouses before being sealed in plastic for supermarket shelves. What could be fresher, tastier, more local, and more seasonal than fruit you've grown yourself, in your own garden or allotment, picked at just the moment when it's at its most perfect?This book shows just how easy it is to grow your own fruit. You don't need a huge garden or a dedicated orchard. It's possible to get a perfectly good harvest from plants grown in containers on balconies or patios and from even the smallest of town gardens. Pick the right varieties for the conditions you've got, invest in a bit of planning and preparation, follow the instructions contained in these pages, and you can be harvesting and eating your own strawberries, plums, pears, apricots, blackberries, redcurrants, melons, and figs.

    Whether you're fed up with your hormones, worried about your baby's nappy rash, your partner is prone to a sore-throat, or leg-waxing is proving just too expensive to maintain, Grow Your Own Drugs: A Year With James Wong offers over 100 great new remedies to soothe all manner of common conditions and beauty problems - whenever they might flare up. James shows how easy it to have access to the right ingredients whatever the weather, with his easy-to follow seasonal focus - whether you've got a window box, a roof terrace, a country garden (or a computer to order the goods online!). His seasonal planner takes you right through from Spring to Winter, making sure you know what to plant when, the best time to harvest and how to create your own mini-apothecary (or store-cupboard) at home. Packed with James's personal top tips and easy solutions for both growing and making remedies, this is your must-have companion to help ward off any ailments and complaints which might crop up throughout the year, the natural, James Wong way. FEATURES: / Over 100 new remedies / New seasonal guide - how to make sure you have all the ingredients you need for a healthy body and mind all year round / New non-gardener's guide: if you're not green-fingered or don't have a garden, James reveals how to identify plants and how to source good quality ingredients online / More about James's personal inspirations: how he came to a career in ethnobotany, how he goes about living his own GYOD year and why a seasonal approach is important and easy to adopt / James's top tips and new gift flashes (perfect for cheap, thoughtful presents) / New case studies: how people who've tried and tested the remedies have got on / New HOME section: brilliant natural and cheap remedies for home life. Contains pet flea powder, horsetail metal polish, wood polish, carpet deodoriser

    It covers the diverse natural community thrives in the milkweed growing along our highways and woodland edges; in our open fields, fragmented prairies and vacant lots; and in our lovingly tended gardens. Several kinds of insects depend on milkweed as a food source. The best known of these are the monarch butterflies whose late summer generation graduates from milkweed nurseries all over North America to join in an impressive migration. Some fly as far as 4800 kilometers (3000 miles) from the northern United States and Canada to the mountains of Michoacan, Mexico. That incredible accomplishment by such a small, seemingly delicate creature has captured our imaginations and awakened many of us to the milkweed community. We invite you to explore the milkweed growing in your neighborhood for a fascinating glimpse into the complex interdependence of life on our planet. In the six years since the publication of the first edition, Milkweed, Monarchs and More has found its way into classrooms, homes, and nature centers. The larger type and pictures in Milkweed, Monarchs and More, The Enlarged and Updated Second Edition are in response to requests for a larger format-­­­­more classroom friendly for student reports and easier on older eyes. We've also updated many of the sections, and added more information on milkweed. We hope you enjoy it!

    Authors highlight how to select, grow, and harvest a host of vegetables that will succeed in the region and offer tips for extending the season.

    This essential reference book explains why compost teas have such powerful, beneficial effects for all plants. The global compost tea revolution is in its infancy. Readers will begin to grasp the importance of rejuvenating the microbial life in our agricultural soils world-wide. Seasoned with the authors incurable dry humor, elegant prose, photographs, and interviews with professionals, this book demystifies the often-confusing ideas and techniques used to make compost teas. With simple recipes, techniques, and equipment, the actual making of compost tea is easy. Learn why compost teas are so powerful and effective--How to brew compost teas--Compost tea applications--How to put together a simple compost tea brewer--How to make compost specifically for compost teas. How to create worm castings for compost teas--How to build practical, movable worm bins--How to combine EM products with compost tea to increase its potency

    It provides systematic coverage of climate zones, water needs, plant lists and planting palettes on more than 2,100 plants in a beautifully designed and illustrated book.

    This acorns-to-wrens guide helps readers create a backyard that's right for them and right for their local birds.The book targets all skill levels, offering new birders plenty of basics while intriguing longtime birdwatchers with new ideas. Here readers will learn:• which birdhouses are a smart buy and which ones to leave on the shelf• how to choose a birdseed mix to attract colorful songbirds—rather than pesky crows• why easy homemade suet blocks are irresistable to hungry birds in every season• how to offer shelter to species dealing with disappearing natural habitatsAlong with the ins and outs of feeding, behavior, nesting, and gardening advice, each of the 200-plus entries is sprinkled with super-simple step-by-step projects, bird treat recipes, and planting ideas, along with plenty of fascinating bird lore and Roth's own observations on bird behavior.

    * Safer natural insecticide for homes, gardens, animals, birds, barns, farms, kennels, grains, crops, schools, parks, etc. * Learn what DE is, where it comes from, & how to use it. * Learn tools, application methods & recipes for applying DE. * Learn how to read labels correctly to choose the right kind of DE. * Learn how to identify and distinguish from unsuitable industrial filtering grades. * Learn about health risks linked to toxic chemical pesticides. * Discover eco-stories & anecdotal comments from all kinds of successful users of DE. * Find healthier & more contented birds & animals: DE rids fleas, ticks, lice & parasites. * Use DE as an animal feed additive for improved nutrition & health. * Use DE in animal feed as an anti-caking agent for anti-clumping, easy flow & mixing. * Use DE as a deodorizer on manure for drier mangers, barns, & stables for less flies. * Use DE as a soil amender for clay soils for more porosity & supply 14 trace minerals. * Use DE for protecting & storing grains & seeds. * Use DE to clean up oil spills. * Use DE to clean & polish tarnished silver & copper. * Use DE to dry leaves & flowers for arrangements. * Use DE as a non-scratching soft scrub. * Use DE to remove light scratches from vehicles. * Use DE as a deodorizer in shoes, kitty litter, refrigerator, vacuum bags & garbage cans, etc.

    The food that Monty and Sarah Don eat at home at Ivington is more in the tradition of the Women's Institute than the celebrity chefs. They try to eat food that is as local as possible (often harvested from the back garden) and has a good story. Their book is full of things that you really want to eat - roasts and warming puddings for the winter, the most delicious salads and lightest fools for the summer; recipes that use timeless, thrifty farmhouse techniques such as baking, stewing, braising, salting, pickling, bottling and freezing. In short: good, honest home cooking. Monty Don is a national treasure, and was the much loved presenter of BBC Gardeners' World for five years.

    In Ready Set Grow step-by-step photographs show young gardeners how to grow plants from seed, how to propagate plants, when to harvest seeds, how long different plants take to grow, what to do about pests, and much more.

    An expert guide to growing fruit, vegetables and flowers on an allotment or equivalent plot, this book explores best practice growing advice, allotment life and its numerous benefits.

    It is both an eye-catching coffee table book and the most informative, up-to-date variety resource guide available. The Big Book of Buds Volume 4 provides information for connoisseurs and gardeners alike: descriptions of appearance, cultivation preferences, range of highs, and medicinal qualities. Spanish and California strains are included for the first time, offering more outdoor selections to gardeners in southern climates. Exciting new award-winning varieties from Dutch and Canadian seed companies provide even more choices for everyone. With valuable gardening tips and insightful reflections on the role of marijuana as a social unifier and catalyst, this is the book for marijuana lovers and cannabis converts that are coming out of the closet.

    She's in a hurry, running to her daughter's tennis lesson and away from the reality of her mother's illness when her daughter notices a primitive sign on the side of the road which reads, "Baby Goats 4 Sale."Even though Renea has no interest in smelling goats, she pulls into the drive on that hot day and meets a man who would change her life. Wearing faded cotton overalls, and walking with a slight stoop, seventy-seven year old Billy Albertson shakes Renea's hand and captures her heart.Join these unusual friends in the garden as they lean on each other, push through obstacles, and face life's challenges with integrity and hope.

    Their sculptural leaves and appealing textures make it difficult to stop at one, and it is easy to fill a garden with them. Help is at hand with this attractive guide to the popular new small hostas that take up less space and are ideally suited to container cultivation. They can be used on their own or with companion plants to make charming displays on the patio, porch, or even windowsill.Many small hostas are simply scaled-down versions of classic hostas, while others offer distinctly new attributes in terms of color, leaf shape, and patterning. Like full-size hostas, small hostas can be upright, flat, or cascading; there are varieties that are full of substance, and others that are fine and delicate; there are green ones, gold ones, blue ones, variegated ones, and splashed ones. Some are better garden plants than others, and a valuable function of this book is to showcase the very best of the new introductions. Photographs of the hostas in garden settings show how admirably they respond to imaginative display in a wide range of situations including waterside, woodland, and rock gardens.Beautifully illustrated and highly informative, this handpicked selection of diminutive hostas will inspire hobbyists and gardeners alike and provide inspiration for new planting schemes.

    The beautifully illustrated Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East approaches landscape design from an ecological perspective, encouraging professional horticulturalists and backyard enthusiasts alike to intensify their use of indigenous or native plants. These plants, ones that grow naturally in the same place in which they evolved, form the basis of the food web. Wildlife simply cannot continue to survive without them-nor can we.Why indigenous plants, you may ask? What makes them so special to butterflies and bees and boys and girls? For Carolyn Summers, the answer is as natural as an ephemeral spring wildflower or berries of the gray dogwood, "As I studied indigenous plants, a strange thing happened. The plants grew on me. I began to love the plants themselves for their own unique qualities, quite apart from their usefulness in providing food and shelter for wildlife.Emphasizing the importance of indigenous plant gardening and landscape design, Summers provides guidelines for skilled sowers and budding bloomers. She highlights . . . The best ways to use exotic and non-indigenous plants responsiblyEasy-to-follow strategies for hosting wildlife in fields, forests, and gardensDesigns for traditional gardens using native trees, shrubs, groundcovers as substitutes for exotic plantsExamples of flourishing plant communities from freshwater streams to open meadowsHow to control plant reproduction, choose cultivars, open-pollinated indigenous plants, and different types of hybrids, and practice “safe sex in the gardenFrom Maine to Kentucky and up and down the East Coast, Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East lays the "gardenwork" for protecting natural areas through the thoughtful planting of indigenous plants. Finally we can bask in the knowledge that it is possible to have loads of fun at the same time we are growing a better world.

    Embodies in the poems of Jeanne Larsen's WHY WE MAKE GARDENS are plantings profuse and varied, actual and metaphoric--alive with 'the passions of making / the passion of being / unmade.' Gardens, in her sure hands, are vibrantly real--'dust-purple / asters, the monkshood's last / campanile / orange suns of bittersweet'--and illustrative of our human condition. Each poem is acute, oblique, precise and complex; hers is an art to wonder at, to savor, to praise--Carol Moldaw.

    

    Form and texture are valued as much as color, and perennials--prized for their beauty throughout a natural life cycle--are used almost exclusively. Oudolf challenges conventional approaches to gardening that rely on short-lived bursts of color and constant maintenance and shows the delights of working with versatile, expressive perennials to create lasting, ecologically sound panoramas that relate to the greater landscape and the shifting seasons. This glorious full-color volume features twenty-three of Oudolf's most beautiful public and private gardens, including the widely acclaimed High Line and the Battery in New York City; the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park in Chicago; Wisley, the Royal Horticultural Society Garden in Surrey, England; the Pensthorpe Nature Reserve and Gardens in Norfolk, England; the Trentham Estate in Staffordshire, England; Il Gardino delle Vergini at the 2010 Venice Biennale; the Dream Park in Enkoping, Sweden; and his own perpetually evolving garden in Hummelo, The Netherlands. Insightful, accessible text by gardening author Noël Kingsbury places Oudolf's work in context and explains how each garden and the plants selected for it fit the specific environment. Oudolf's detailed plans provide inspiration and insight for all interested in small personal gardens and the design of large-scale public landscapes alike.

    The content is well sourced and there are plenty of references in the appendices.

    "Vegetable, Fruit, & Herb Gardening" from Better Homes and Gardens is packed with simple step-by-step guidance on starting your own easy and affordable kitchen garden.The book includes explanatory diagrams, photographs and charts, and clear instructions that make planting, feeding, and harvesting your garden a breeze. This easy-to-follow guide covers it all-from container gardens, to large-scale garden projects, to a little herb garden on the balcony.Features more than 150 encyclopedia entries of vegetables, fruits, and herbs with step-by-step instructions on planting, growing, and harvestingIllustrated with more than 450 beautiful full-color photographs that offer helpful guidance and plenty of inspirationIncludes special sections on storing your harvested foods as well as tips on composting and helpful seasonality chartsOffers garden projects and planting plans with shopping lists for tools and plants.Whether you want to start a major new edible garden project or just add a little fresh produce to your pantry, "Vegetable, Fruit, & Herb Gardening"is the easy-to-understand, comprehensive guide you need.

    In 144 sensuously detailed watercolours she depicts the unrivalled range of form, colour and texture which characterize such varieties as Beauty of Bath, Peasgood Nonsuch, Cox's Orange Pippin and Egremont Russet. She shows the apples together with their blossom, twig and leaf and has written a detailed description recording their shape, colour, aroma, flavour and season as well as something of the history of each variety. Marginal line drawings in cross-section complete a comprehensive guide to identification and a source of inspiration for apple growers. The book's usefulness is enhanced by a practical essay on apple growing by Harry Baker, fruit officer for many years at the Royal Horticultural Society and one of Britain's foremost authorities on apple growing. First published in 1988 as The English Apple and still the most trusted and sought-after book for apple identification in the UK, this new edition is revised and updated for an international readership and includes an additional 22 varieties.To watch a video of Rosie Sanders painting her wonderful apples for The Apple Book click here

    Each herb is described in detail, including its Latin and common names as well as:Its botanical features and varieties A history of the herb in cooking How to harvest and use the herb Non-culinary uses The most important and useful varieties of that herb Suggestions for using excess harvest Jekka's Herb Cookbook also features 250 original recipes that use her top-50 garden herbs. The recipes include:Salads Sandwiches Stews Beverages Desserts Meat Poultry Seafood dishes Condiments and sauces There are international recipes, such as salsa verde, and familiar favorites, such as caraway seed cake. Extraordinary color illustrations highlight McVicar's knowledgeable and enthusiastic descriptions.For cooks and herb gardeners, Jekka's Herb Cookbook is a fascinating guide to using herbs in practical and inspiring recipes.

    It is written by Australians for Australian conditions. Based on 30 years of experience at our Digger’s Club gardens, it is the perfect gift for you, your family, and your friends.“The most nutritious and best tasting fruit and vegetables never reach the market because super markets only buy rock hard fruits of deception that improve their bottom line” says author Clive Blazey.Exerpt from Digger's Club website

    In ignoring the environmental consequences of such landscape planning, ecosystems are being destroyed and replaced with chemically maintained monocultures. Author and photographer Catherine Zimmerman combines her expertise in photography, storytelling, environmental issues, horticulture and organic practices to offer meadowscaping as a lawn alternative. Zimmerman weaves her personal journey of changing her own landscaping choices into a guide that demonstrates both the need to change current detrimental landscaping practices and the practical knowhow and resources to accomplish that change.Four experts in meadow establishment lend their knowledge for site preparation, design, native plants, planting and maintenance. Plant lists and resource sections for nine regions across the United States provide local sources to assist the meadow creator.

    A humorous, light-hearted chronicle of the writer’s love affair with good food, prairie traditions and flavours from her childhood with recipes peppered throughout.Fueled by nostalgia and her taste buds, she set out to rediscover the flavours of her childhood – the flavours of natural, local, farm-fresh prairie food. When she vowed to serve only locally produced food at her own dinner table for one year, the pursuit took on a life of its own.Beautiful photographs enhance Amy Jo’s mouth-watering menus, recipes and her adventures in the pursuit of home grown prairie food.It is not about miles, but a way of life. It is our community, our history and an opportunity to find ourselves in the food we eat.Prairie Feast is a love story, a celebration of every good thing this bountiful land has to offer. It will inspire all conscious consumers to follow their taste buds home for dinner.

    It presents a wonderful variety of garden-design ideas, ranging from modern sophistication to lush romanticism, and from small city plots to large gardens in breathtaking rural locations. Each garden is photographed to show all its key features and essential details, while concise descriptions offer a rare insight into the aims and achievements of some of today's leading gardeners. With captions identifying the plants depicted, this book is an invaluable source of information and inspiration.

    With more than 50,000 strains of herb from around the world currently catalogued by various botanical societies and a small percentage of those serving solid, universally recognized medical purposes, it is no wonder that many people have taken up the hobby of growing their own herbs at home to help with basic things like healing burns or relieving headaches. This book will guide you through the step-by-step process of learning about and growing your own healing herbs, starting with the basics of what each herb can do and proceeding to show you everything you need to cultivate them yourself. The first things you will learn in this guide are the basics of all healing herbs, starting with a complete breakdown of the numerous healing herbs known to be easily cultivated in temperate climates. Matching the right herbs to your region, you will then be able to start learning about how herbs grow, what they need from the soil, water, the weather, and feeding. You will learn which pests are most likely to appear with each herb plant and which planting conditions are best for your herbs, from indoor potting to outdoor containers, or in ground fields. You will learn which plants grow best together and which style of herbs are going to be best for selling and which are best for personal growing. Experts in the field of healing herbs have provided their insights into issues such as how to harvest the healing herbs best and how to dry or preserve them for use as healing materials. Learn how you can make a number of common treatments for various ailments with your herbs and how you can benefit best from your new found gardens. This book is a complete guide for anyone who has ever wanted to try something different and grow it themselves. Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

    Loaded with helpful tips, charts and user-friendly recipes for beginners and experts alike, you will enjoy the season's bounty all year long!Top Five Reasons To Preserve Your Own FoodEat from known, local food sources—year round!Fill your cupboards with foods free from chemical additives and preservatives.Lock in peak flavors and nutrition by reserving the bounty of the season.Taste the full flavors of homemade—store-bought brands just can’t compare!Preserve foods while they’re plentiful, and the benefits last all year—with tastes you won’t soon forget."What a treat to be reminded that it's not just technically possible to keep summer in your pantry all year long, but incredibly delicious. There's nothing at the supermarket that comes close to the tastes in these pages—and nothing that will help much more in the fight to build a local food system to replace the vulnerable, unhealthy, and sprawling mess that is our current lot."—Bill McKibben, author Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet"What a great idea to combine lessons for canning, freezing, pickling, and drying all in one book—with recipes for everything from making spicy kimchi to black raspberry jam! What a delicious way to extend our gardens."—Catherine Walthers, author of Raising the Salad Bar and Soups + Sides"It is heartening to see the renewed interest in gardening and in eating locally—actually, the interest in eating real food! It is long overdue. With this encouraging trend comes the need for a comprehensive guide to canning and preserving the garden bounty to enjoy the rest of the year. Saving the Seasons fills this niche perfectly. Its colorful pages, clear instructions, and many recipes will stimulate the novice as well as the seasoned canner."—Elsie Kline, Farming Magazine"A must-have follow-up to Simply in Season, Saving the Seasons takes eating locally and seasonally to the next step—beyond fresh. Now one can eat locally and seasonally year round with the knowledge of how to preserve or save the seasons. With the aid of the simple steps and photos, the novice will feel quite comfortable saving the seasons, and the experienced will learn new tricks. All will have wonderful recipes to try."—Mary Beth Lind, co-author of Simply in Season"With the voice of a trusted friend, Saving the Seasons offers comprehensive guidance and easy-to-follow instructions to the lost art of food preservation. It's the next best thing to having Mom or Grandma in the kitchen with you—possibly even better (sorry, Mom)."—Cathleen Hockman-Wert, co-author of Simply in Season"As a mother-daughter team with many years of farming between them, including both rural and urban agriculture, the Meyers are well-placed to present this updated guide on preserving food. They provide simple instructions and a great selection of recipes, from basic jam, pickles, and relish to international favorites like kimchi and chutney. Their tips offer terrific extra tidbits geared toward beginners while useful notes are included on foods for babies and kids."—Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen, organic, sustainable, and local food/agriculture writerA great addition for those who are cooking seasonally with Simply in Season!

    The effects of the moon on plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables are explained in simple but ample detail, and recommendations for the ideal times to sow, transplant, rotate crops, and harvest are provided. This guide explains how animal husbandry, beekeeping, and even brewing beer and wine making yield better results when done in concert with the lunar cycle. In addition to gardening and farming advice, suggestions for living life in tune with the moon are offered, such as the optimum time for a haircut, a fast, and even when and what to eat. An extensive color-coded daily diary section makes it easy to record reminders and daily gardening tasks. This biodynamic approach to gardening in harmony with the moon is a simple, inexpensive, and green way to boost garden yields and live a better life.

    Her gentle, friendly, and humorous tone creates a nurturing environment in which to practice mindfulness in our very own gardens. Beginning meditators will find practical easy-to-follow suggestions. Lapsed meditators can refresh their pract... Full description

    Giubbilei is known for the understated elegance of his designs, but is constantly evolving his approach, both in response to individual clients and as his ideas develop. His work draws on his Italian heritage, especially the Renaissance gardens of the Villa Gamberaia in Tuscany, and a distinctively classical combination of restraint and opulent materials.This book examines 12 significant gardens from Giubbilei's portfolio. Each project is fully documented, from the preparation of mood boards to final planting and finishing. Sections on site development, nursery production and the sourcing of plants, and the artists and craftsmen with whom Giubbilei works complete the in-depth account of his working methods and sources of inspiration.Fully illustrated with planting plans, documentary images and photographs by Steven Wooster, this is the definitive work on the gardens of an acclaimed designer.

    It's easy to have the best groomed and most productive garden when you understand how plants grow and know what and when to prune.Pruning for Flowers and Fruit shows you techniques from the most basic to the most advanced of espaliers and topiary. The book covers a wide range of ornamental plants, vegetables, fruit trees and bushes with special emphasis on popular plants such as roses, hydrangeas, citrus, nuts and berries. It will show you how to choose the best plants at the nursery, maintain your secateurs like a professional, prune weather damaged plants and renovate your ornamental or fruiting trees and shrubs.Whether you live in a cool temperate zone or the tropics this book shows you how to bring out the best in your garden.Key features- Prune with confidence following detailed step-by-step instructions and easy to follow diagrams- Learn how to choose the best plant at the nursery for your garden- Whether a beginner or more experienced gardener, become an expert and bring out the best in your garden

    Its exuberant plantings have drawn legions of green-fingered visitors for decades. But Great Dixter's influence extends way beyond the gardening world and affects all who pass through it in a very particular way. * Well-known garden writers and celebrities such as Alan Titchmarsh, Anna Pavord, Helen Dillon, Hugh Johnson, Simon Jenkins and Mary Keen remark upon their Dixter experiences * Photographers and designers such as Howard Sooley, Jonathan Buckley, Andrew Lawson, Jerry Harpur and Allen Pollok-Morris have also contributed a range of stunning photographs.

    

    This book introduces gardeners to 89 herbs and spices suited to cultivation in Florida. Each plant is covered in a detailed profile, which includes illustrations, growing techniques, climate requirements, and distribution maps.Unique tropical plants such as vanilla, pandanus, and curryleaf grow in southern portions of the state. By making minor adjustments, the Florida gardener can raise nearly any popular northern herb, such as parsley and basil.You will find herbs and spices, both native and exotic, suitable for planting in every region of Florida. Find familiar plants along with those that are rare or obscure. Discover a unique mix of scents, flavors, textures, and colors. Growing your own herbs and spices will bring plants into your garden that look and smell good as well as providing fresh, interesting, and chemical-free tastes for your cooking. You can also save money as you add flavor.We at Pineapple Press are confident that this book, like its companion volume, Florida's Best Fruiting Plants, will be regarded as a gardening classic.

    These landscapes have a unique historical significance due to the design elements and spiritual meanings that have been traced to the yards and gardens of American slaves and further back to their prior African heritage. These deceptively casual or whimsical foliage arrangements are subtle and symbolic reminders of the divine in everyday life, the cycles of nature, and implied right and wrong ways to live. In the spirit of “outsider” art traditions, blues musical roots, and other such folk manifestations, these gardens have a unique aesthetic and cultural significance. Over 20 years in the making, this is the first collection of fine art photography to document this subject and, as such, it adds greatly to our understanding and appreciation of this disappearing element of African American culture.

    Creating an Australian Garden not only passes on the knowledge gained from Angus's extensive experience as a plant breeder-it empowers us all to unlock the secrets of cleverly designed Australian gardens that provide year-round color, vibrant foliage, and havens for wildlife. Creating an Australian Garden contains practical tips on planning a garden from scratch, adapting an existing garden, using water-saving methods, creating mounds and raised beds to ensure the drainage many Australian plants require, growing native plants in containers, choosing the best plants for your environment, easy-to-follow basics of soil preparation, and 450 of the best Australian plant varieties, including many that are newly released. Find out how to choose the ideal plants for your climate, or create a microclimate to accommodate the spectacular native plants you'd like to grow. See how versatile native plants can be, becoming part of any garden style you envisage for your backyard. Most importantly, learn everything you need to know, from planning to planting, to allow you to create a stunning native garden, wherever you live.

    The Tulip Anthology is a beautiful and comprehensive celebration of this most astonishing and beloved of flowers. Ron van Dongen's lush color photography is paired with visual art from the last thousand years, as well as writings on the mystery and wonder of the tulip from throughout human history. A foreword by best-selling author and tulip expert Anna Pavord explores the bloom's rich cultural history and rounds out this vast and sumptuous anthology. A deluxe gift for flower lovers, this book rivals the beauty of the tulip itself.

    Square Foot Gardening to the rescue! Using Mel Bartholomew's groundbreaking techniques, households the world over can enhance their food security, reduce their food costs, earn extra money, and enjoy the satisfaction of a healthy and productive harvest. Square Foot Gardening is simply a better way to garden. It uses 80 percent less space and 90 percent less water, and it takes a fraction of the time and effort of traditional gardening methods while dramatically increasing yields. Uniquely suited for children, the elderly, or those with physical limitations, Square Food Gardens are bite-sized landscapes that are: Scaleable Organic Beautiful Efficient Easy to maintain Published in 1981, the original Square Foot Gardening became the most popular gardening book ever, selling over one million copies in the United States. Packed with plans, illustrations, tips, recipes, and many new improvements, All New Square Foot Gardening to the Rescue brings this innovative method to a new generation, and is a must-read for gardeners, homeowners, apartment dwellers, and anyone who wants to become more self-sufficient and food secure. Mel Bartholomew is a civil engineer, inventor, and the founder of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. He has written numerous books, including the original Square Foot Gardening, and his Square Foot Gardening TV shows ran on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the Learning Channel for eight straight years.

    There is something uplifting about having butterflies in your flowerbeds, frogs in your water feature and birds in your bushes - and knowing that they're here because of you. But if you want a 'nice' garden too, don't worry! This new book busts the myths that wildlife gardens have to be 'wild', or that you can only garden for wildlife in a 'wildlife garden'. You can easily fit in wildlife gardening alongside everything else you want from your garden. The secret is understanding the 'home needs' of your guests. Tap into their needs and you can create a five-star hotel for birds, bees, butterflies and more. As well as looking at a host of different species,there are sections to help you create entire habitats, such as woodland and meadow gardens, and a catalogue of over 300 of the very best garden flowers, shrubs and trees for wildlife. So no matter how large or small your garden, whether it is formal or a family football pitch, there are all sorts of things you can do. If you love wildlife and want to encourage more, this inspirational book will helpyou sow the seeds and reap the rewards.

    Allen Smith, America’s best-known gardener and garden designer, celebrates the bounty of each season with recipes of flavorful fruits, vegetables, and herbs at their garden-fresh best. P. Allen Smith’s Seasonal Recipes from the Garden features 120 recipes: 30 for each season. These are dishes that everyone loves to eat. Taking delicious advantage of ingredients as accessible as bell peppers and carrots and as beloved as fresh peaches and tomatoes, the recipes are Allen’s favorites, most from his own kitchen and some adapted from family and friends. They are perfect for those who garden as well as anyone who simply enjoys fresh food. They include:SPRING: Chilled Pea Soup with Bacon and Whipped Cream; Grilled Salmon Sandwich with Lemon-Dill Mayo; Salad of Asparagus, Edamame, Arugula, and Cheese; Radish Top Pasta; Speckled Strawberry Ice CreamSUMMER: Savory Grit Cakes with Oven-Smoked Tomatoes; Zucchini and Lemon Salad; Aunt Martha’s Corn Pudding; Rosemary-Garlic Smoked Pork Tenderloin; Peach Moon TartFALL: Parmesan Pecan Crisps; Roasted Red Pepper Soup; Citrus-Glazed Turkey Breast; Goat Cheese and Leek Tart; Allen’s Favorite Sweet Potato PieWINTER: Cranberry Spice Cocktail; Slow-Cooker Lamb Stew; Savory Rosemary Butternut Squash; Tiny Orange Muffins; Old-Fashioned Blackberry Jam CakeThe recipes, many of which are Southern-inflected, include delightful personal stories, full of Allen’s much-loved wit and charm. All-American Blueberry Muffins evoke memories of him and his siblings roaming the woods searching for wild berries; Lady Peas with Red Tomato Relish reminds him of shelling peas with Ma Smith in his grandparents’ kitchen after supper; and Blue Cheese and Onion Cornbread conjures up the great sweet-versus-unsweet Southern cornbread debate.Allen offers cooking tips as well as advice on selecting fresh vegetables. There is also a how-to guide with basic gardening suggestions for growing the best varieties of produce. If you are new to gardening edibles, you’ll learn that you should consider starting with zucchini (the most “overachieving” of vegetables) and herbs (a windowsill gives you all the space you need). So, as Allen says of gardening and eating, those well-matched passions, “Dig in!”

    The essential guide to creating Japanese gardens in locations ranging from large gardens to small yards.

    His experience and knowledge will help us all become better native plant gardeners."--Steven P. Christman, editor,Floridata.com Best Native Plants for Southern Gardens highlights and illustrates several hundred readily available and easy-to-grow native species for gardeners and landscapers living in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.These native plants include shrubs, small and large trees, and a collection of perennials, all of which have proven to be extremely successful landscape plants in the southeastern United States. The average homeowner will be able to find many of these species in local retail nurseries whether or not these nurseries specialize in native plants.Gil Nelson has created an indispensable, authoritative publication that describes and recommends high-performing native plants, tells readers how to avoid the use of invasive species in their gardens, and highlights the design of several specialty and wildlife gardens. With the help of regional experts, the included species have been selected based on field visits to retail and wholesale nurseries, private and public gardens and arboreta, personal knowledge and experience, and discussions with landscape and gardening enthusiasts, professionals, and experts throughout the region. The inclusion of more than 600 color photos makes this an easy-to-use, valuable addition to any gardener's library.

    Included in the DVD:The history of season-extension farming in EuropeInformation on moveable greenhouses and using fabric coversGrowing tips in terms of nutrition and marketabilityRodent controlCuring and packing using sustainable materialsHow to work with restaurants and chefs (and create a demand)Information on tools, soil health, and vegetable varieties that survive well in the coldAdditional photos, diagrams, and climate mapsAnd more...Experience a workshop with bestselling author and expert in season extension, based on a filmed daylong workshop and extensive interview. Complete with a slide show, images from Coleman's own farm over the years, his travels to Europe, and detailed plans for his model of season extension, this film is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sit down with a master.

    This title showcases the winners and best entries for the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

    His creation is the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex, and it is a tribute to his vision and achievement that, after his death in 2006, the Heritage Lottery Fund made a grant of £4 million to help preserve it for the nation. This enjoyable and revealing book - the first biography of Christo - is also the story of Dixter from 1910 to 2006, a unique unbroken history of one English house and one English garden spanning a century. It was Christo's father, Nathaniel, who bought the medieval manor at Dixter and called in the fashionable Edwardian architect, Lutyens, to rebuild the house and lay out the garden. And it was his mother, Daisy, who made the first wild garden in the meadows there. Christo was born at Dixter in 1921. Apart from boarding school, war service and a period at horticultural college, he spent his whole life there, constantly re-planting and enriching the garden, while turning out landmark books and exhaustive journalism. Opinionated, argumentative and gloriously eccentric, he changed the face of English gardening through his passions for meadow gardening, dazzling colours and thorough husbandry. As the baby of a family of six - five boys and a girl - Christo was stifled by his adoring mother. Music-loving and sports-hating, he knew the Latin names of plants before he was eight. This fascinating book reveals what made Christo tick by examining his relationships with his generous but scheming mother, his like-minded friends (such as gardeners Anna Pavord and Beth Chatto) and his colleagues (including his head gardener, Fergus Garrett, a plantsman in Christo's own mould).

    She touts the joys creating front yard-friendly raised beds and container gardens that take up only a small amount of space and look beautiful to boot, and shares ideas for tucking productive gardens in other small nooks and corners.Teegen's unique cuisine-based planting methods mean herbs, vegetables, and edible flowers grow next to each other in comingled plots quickly, reliably, and efficiently. You'll find more than 40 top picks for small-space vegetables that yield big and are trouble-free, plus a variety of menus and 50 recipes for fresh and delicious summer dishes.With food prices on the rise and concern over pesticide residues on produce ever present, the number of home owners growing vegetables nearly doubled in the last year. Homegrown shows that even urban and suburban dwellers can grow their own vegetables in easy-to-tend plots and spaces.

    By the 1860s, gardens were highly popular in France; the introduction and cross-breeding of new plant and flower species and the opening to the public of the former royal parks had stimulated a great horticultural movement. With their delight in colour, plein-air effects and modern-life themes, the Impressionists and their followers naturally turned to gardens for artistic inspiration. This book follows the spread of the Impressionist garden in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and illustrates not only masterpieces of Impressionism by Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley and others, but also works by such forebears as Delacroix, Corot, Courbet and later figures like Van Gogh, Gauguin, Klimt and Sargent. With its spectacular illustrations and accessible, engaging text, it will appeal equally to the scholar, student, art lover or gardening enthusiast.

    The book explains how to identify different species of ginseng and how to find the plant in the wild. Detailed information about growing ginseng yourself is given, from preparing the plot to protecting the plants from pests and diseases to harvesting. The book also discusses the legends, rumors, and facts about the plant's medicinal properties.

    Americans are staying closer to home – literally tending to their gardens, by the millions. And they’re reaching out for help and advice. Doug Oster, popular radio talk show gardening expert and newspaper garden & food columnist, gets more questions about tomatoes than any other vegetable. #2 is garlic, with basil close behind. It’s time for a book about these favorites of the American kitchen. With color photos throughout, this book is a balance of easy-to-use organic gardening tips, a little horticultural history, serious and funny cautionary gardening tales…and 30 simply delicious recipes (the gastronomic payoff). No matter if a garden is a loft balcony or a backyard in the ‘burbs, Doug leads his readers step by step with his trademark “how I do it” humor and Julia Child honesty…with a bonus prize of all those recipes as a reward for their labors. For beginners and old-timers alike.

    With a lift of each foldout flap, kids can watch the seeds take root in the soil, sprout from the ground, and finally, make the fruits we love to eat! A tomato seed grows ripe tomatoes, an orange seed grows juicy oranges, a pea seed grows crunchy pea pods, a pepper seed grows shiny bell peppers, and blueberry seeds grow plump blueberries. Each cardstock page of this book folds out into a large 14" x 14" inch page that reveals a child enjoying the healthy and delicious fruits of the seeds.

    

    Allen Smith shows how with this card collection. It features 27 of Smith's favorite herbs and vegetables, as well as corresponding recipes for a true garden-to-table experience. This package also includes an hour-long DVD with additional how-to projects, organic care and pest control tips, and garden tours.

    All art begins with inspiration, the breathing in of ideas, visions, and energy from the Master Creator of the universe. When we come to the garden, we offer our talents and present our willingness to engage in this hard but satisfying work. Then we wait in expectation for that inspiration--for how we should garden, and how we should live. Based on wisdom learned while cultivating her own garden, Garden Graces is Janice Elsheimer's hope and help for growing things. Filled with practical insights, reliable gardening information, and Bible-based truths, this resource will offer readers gardening tips alongside metaphors for life that will help them cultivate their gardens-and their spiritual journey.For those who find themselves pursuing the perfect bulb or pulling the persistent weed, Elsheimer's charm and grace in the garden will help you recognize that nowhere else do we experience the oneness between the Creator and creation as intimately as we do in the garden.

    She has talked and teased with owners, in the process admiring some of Italy's finest gardens, both large and small. She has even delved into the past and explored the future. The result is a book full of wonderfully fresh insight into those most marvelous of creations — the great gardens of Italy. At Villa Barbarigo in the Veneto, Count Pizzoni Ardemani recounts childhood tales of playing in the garden and talking to the statues. Countess Pietromarchi persuades roses to thrive in the challenging climate of central Italy, sharing this secret — and many others — in her garden at La Ferriera in southern Tuscany. Each garden has been specially photographed by Alex Ramsay and he, too, brings readers the people behind the plants in this spectacular, unique look at beautiful gardens.

    Mike Woolnough has discovered that worms and their by-products improve his crops enormously, making use of household scraps and rubbish that previously went into his bin. Starting from a small wormery in the conservatory or garden, the author takes you step by step up to a sophisticated system capable of handling all your garden waste, or processing that huge heap of livestock manure that you were wondering how to dispose of, plus a host of other waste items along the way.

    From the Fertile Crescent, it runs west to Europe and east to China and Japan. Asia's fringe was a zone of interchange: a vast landscape in which herders encountered farmers and the design of symbolic gardens began. It appears that as they became settlers, nomads retained a love of mobility, hunting and the wild places in which their ancestors had roamed. Central Asian and Indian ideas influenced the garden culture of China, Japan and South East Asia.In West Asia, Aryan settlers made hunting parks known as paradises. They were walled enclosures stocked with exotic plants and animals. In East Asia, great landscape parks were used for similar purposes and had a sacred role. Across Asia, gardens were influenced by religious and other beliefs: polytheist, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Daoist, Shinto and Modernist. Early parks and gardens symbolized wild and civilized nature, sometimes conceived as the realms of the Sky God and the Earth Mother. Asian Gardens: History, Beliefs and Design explores the ways in which designs were guided by beliefs.Tom Turner has been researching and teaching the theory and history of garden design for some forty years. His visits, research, drawings and photographs are brought together in detailed studies of West Asia, South Asia and East Asia. The period covered extends from the earliest gardens to the present. Using maps, diagrams and photographs, the author explores how and why Asian gardens developed their characteristic forms and functions. Treating garden design as a 'word and image' subject, the account is coherent, comparative and readable. Further details of all the gardens are available on the gardenvisit.com website, which the author edits.

    'Take Chelsea Home' is a practical compendium of the best of design, planting, decoration, style and inspiration from the world-famous annual event, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

    More than 300 plant selections in eleven gardening categories from annuals to tropicals. Monthly to-do calendars assist gardeners in the proper care and timing for everything from planting to watering. Includes water-wise plant selections and advice on gardening with less water.

    It is also for anyone who has never grown anything before but has wondered how we will feed a growing population in a world of shrinking resources. Although a practicing scientist in the field of water and agriculture, the author has written, in story form accessible to a wide audience, about the drama of how the world feeds itself. The book starts in his own fruit and vegetable garden, exploring the "how and why" questions about the way things grow, before moving on to stories about soil, rivers, aquifers and irrigation. The book closes with a brief history of agriculture, how the world feeds itself today and how to think through some of the big conundrums of modern food production.Features * Gives an in-depth understanding on how plants and soil work using stories more than the language of science. * It is not a "how to" book, but a framework over which to lay your own experience, to learn and reflect. * Information for gardeners on the challenge of growing food and feeding a family in the city * Covers plants, soil and rivers and the journey from hunter-gatherer to modern agriculture * Reflects on the way scientists conduct their craft * A book for anyone interested in food, how it is grown and how the world feeds itself

    Nature.

    Up until now there has been no comparable source of information. Featuring horticultural notes from a network of growers and enthusiasts, backed up by data from recent scientific studies, the book presents a remarkable amount of information in a fashion accessible to amateurs as well as specialists. More than one hundred line drawings and nearly six hundred photographs—many portraying rarely seen trees—offer aids to identification. Introductory chapters covering conservation and modern techniques of tree-growing, and a comprehensive glossary and bibliography, round out the volume and make New Trees incomparable—and indispensable.

    This allows you to save more free space on your Kindle and makes for faster searches and quicker navigation. We sincerely hope these features will enhance your studies and maximize your reading experience.Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible is an EXHAUSTIVE study tool, used by countless scholars and laymen for well over 100 years. This commentary covers every chapter and nearly every verse in the Bible, providing a thorough commentary on the Holy Scriptures.Ever since it was finished, this reference has been an invaluable tool to theology students everywhere. If you're scouring scripture, or just casually studying, you will find this commentary very insightful.

     The earth's longest living organisms, trees exemplify nature's great strength as well as its majestic beauty. Serving as virtual lungs for our planet, trees provide us with food, medicine, and our most versatile building material. To plant a tree is to plant hope, and as an act of commemoration, it literally gives life to that remembered. While it is in-deed a practical book that explains exactly how to plant and care for a tree, How to Plant a Tree is so much more. Drawing on the ancient rituals and folklore that surround particular trees, the author explores their symbolism and traditional uses, and offers suggestions for various commemorative tree-planting acts, such as: A marriage ceremony A new baby ceremony A new home ceremony A memorial for a loved one With lovely original black-and-white illustrations throughout, How to Plant a Tree encompasses a wealth of both useful and inspiring information, including fascinating miscellany on some of our most beloved tree species like the willow, the oak, and the plum; how to calculate a tree's age; and how you can use trees to fight climate change.How to Plant a Tree will inspire readers to view trees as living structures of hope that will be treasured for generations to come.

    All she has to do is admire the scenery and bring back her notes." -Nicole Robertson

    Accomplished landscape architect and award-winning garden historian James R. Cothran provides the most complete portrait to date of Briggs, his continuing impact on the iconic gardens of Charleston, and his legacy in the complex historical tapestry of the lowcountry.A native of New York and a graduate of Cornell University, Briggs first visited Charleston in 1927 to experience firsthand the city's incomparable springtime beauty and picturesque charm. He opened a seasonal office in Charleston in 1929 and for the next three decades divided his practice between his summer office in New York and his winter office in Charleston. Briggs became a permanent resident of Charleston in 1959.Briggs completed an impressive array of private and public landscape projects, including Mepkin, McLeod, Mulberry, and Rice Hope plantations; Charleston's Gateway Walk; the William Gibbes house garden; and the South Carolina Memorial Garden, but he is best known for his designs of many small Charleston gardens. He is credited with designing more than one hundred private gardens in Charleston's historic district alone. In these plans Briggs drew on his remarkable sense of scale, harmony, and tradition to work wonders in limited urban spaces. Featuring a distinctive emphasis on outdoor rooms, some of these gardens survive today while others have been lost over time to natural causes, redesign, or neglect. Today Charleston is in danger of losing one of its most enviable but fragile assets--its legacy of Briggs' gardens.Cothran's comprehensive work champions a renewed appreciation of the contributions Briggs made to Charleston's landscape tradition and serves as a timely call to action to preserve Briggs' gardens and legacy. The book also provides an inventory of Briggs' projects found in Charleston archives as a resource for further research, exploration, and documentation.

    She is also remembered as the author of The Mummy! an early work of science fiction and as editor of The Ladies' Companion. Her knowledge of plants and gardening was gained from her husband, the landscape designer John Claudius Loudon, whom she married in 1830, and from attending the lectures of the botanist John Lindley. Her notes from these were published as articles in John Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. This book, first published in 1840, was an immediate success, selling 1,350 copies on the day of publication and more than 200,000 in total. Written in the approachable style typical of her works, it covers all the elements of horticulture, and helped to encourage many Victorian women to take up gardening as a hobby.Having married a gardening expert, it seemed to Jane C. Loudon, that everyone around her knew far more about plants and gardening than she did, but she quickly learned the art of horticulture from her husband and decided to pass his teachings on to other ladies to help them enjoy the delights of the garden. Gardening for Ladies was, and still is, an entirely practical book that describes how a lady can make the most of her garden in a clear and precise way. Digging over a flowerbed might have been work for a rough-handed, rope-muscled garden worker, but Jane explained how a lady could tackle the job without undue strain, and explained why it was necessary. The advice and instruction in this classic gardening book is as relevant today as it was when it was written 180 years ago.

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    This is the first book in English about his work. A master of composing with perennials, grass, and bulbs, Nordfjell also has a deep engagement with the landscapes that surround his gardens. Materials such as Swedish granite, steel, and timber give his gardens structure and a powerful identity, animated by water and light. Every detail of his composition is meticulously worked out, and the gardens reveal new aspects through the seasons. This book covers 14 of Nordfjell's gardens, including his 2009 Best in Show and 2007 Gold Medal gardens at Chelsea. Accompanying Ulf Nordfjell's thoughtful and lucid text are Jerry Harpur's superb photographs, which were taken over several years and represent the gardens in all seasons in both general views and details.

    Experienced gardener and landscape designer Phil Dudman breaks down the design process into a series of simple steps that you can follow at your own pace, in your own time. Learn how to draft your design, develop your style and draw a master plan and planting plan.

    Her writings allow readers to share in the experience of her extensive travels, from the waterways of Britain's Castle Howard to the Japanese gardens of Kyoto, and home again to New York City's Central Park. Collected for the first time, the essays in Of Gardens record her great adventure of continual discovery, not only of the artful beauty of individual gardens but also of the intellectual and historical threads that weave them into patterns of civilization, from the modest garden for family subsistence to major urban developments. Deitz's essays describe how people, over many centuries and in many lands, have expressed their originality by devoting themselves to cultivation and conservation.During a visit to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine, Deitz first came to appreciate the notion that landscape architecture can be as intricately conceived as any major structure and is, indeed, the means by which we redeem the natural environment through design. Years later, as she wandered through the gardens of Versailles, she realized that because gardens give structure without confinement, they encourage a liberation of movement and thought. In Of Gardens, we follow Deitz down paths of revelation, viewing A Bouquet of British Parks: Liverpool, Edinburgh, and London; the parks and promenades of Jerusalem; the Moonlight Garden of the Taj Mahal; a Tuscan-style villa in southern California; and the rooftop garden at Tokyo's Mori Center, among many other sites.Deitz covers individual landscape architects and designers, including Andr� Le N�tre, Frederick Law Olmsted, Beatrix Farrand, Russell Page, and Michael Van Valkenburgh. She then features an array of parks, public places, and gardens before turning her attention to the burgeoning business of flower shows. The volume concludes with a memorable poetic epilogue entitled A Winter Garden of Yellow.

    Each chapter focuses on one calendar month, setting out the tasks to be done and featuring crops that will be ripe for harvesting.

    These infestations increasingly erode forest productivity, hindering forest use and management activities, and degrading diversity and wildlife habitat. Often called nonnative, exotic, nonindigenous, alien, or noxious weeds, they occur as trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns, and forbs. This book provides information on accurate identification of the 56 nonnative plants and groups that are currently invading the forests of the 13 Southern States. It lists other nonnative plants of growing concern. Recommendations for prevention and control of these species are provided in a companion booklet, “A Management Guide for Invasive Plants of Southern Forests,” published by the Southern Research Station as a General Technical Report. Basic strategies for managing invasions on a specific site include maintaining forest vigor with minimal disturbance, constant surveillance and treatment of new unwanted arrivals, and finally, rehabilitation following eradication.

    Perfect for seasoned home gardeners in search of new ideas, this book presents 80 outstanding home garden designs with inspirational stories and helpful advice on putting these ideas to work in your own home garden.The book covers charming country landscapes, cottage style gardens, formal florals, and even Asian-influenced designs. Each entry includes details on why the design works and simple, handy advice on personalizing these designs for your own use.Explores more than 80 beautiful gardens illustrated with more than 250 gorgeous full-color photosOrganized by garden style, so it's easy to find the kind of design you're looking forIncludes simple, helpful advice for growing your own dream garden based on these wonderful designsNo matter what kind of garden you want to grow, "Dream Gardens Across America" provides the inspiration, insight, and advice you need to succeed spectacularly.

    This book will guide you through the processes and pitfalls of fruit-growing, from propagating your first seeds, or planting your first fruit tree, to selecting the ripe fruits for your dinner table.Includes:* guidance on selecting all types of fruit for home growing* handy tips for maximizing flavour and cropping* illustrated A-Z profiles of recommended fruit* practical advice on care, harvesting, storage, pruning, propagation and pest control* step-by-step illustrations showing essential techniquesAlan Titchmarsh imparts a lifetime of expertise in these definitive practical guides for beginners and experienced gardeners. Step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions guide you through the basic gardening skills and on to the advanced techniques, providing everything you need to grow delicious fruit in your garden.

    They increasingly have become interested in the techniques for “putting up” their bounty. Driven by the recession; the need for healthier, chemical-free food,and taste, people everywhere are preserving the abundance of fruits, vegetables, and herbs harvested from their garden (or someone else’s). You don’t even have to grow your own to preserve freshness; non-gardeners too are learning to preserve with locally grown produce bought from local markets. Targeted at anyone who wants to capture the flavor of freshness, whether it’s from making tomato sauce, drying herbs, or preserving jams and jellies.

    Top herbalists present about three dozen articles with tips on growing and gathering herbs, and on using herbs for natural health and beauty, as well as in cooking, crafts, and magic.

    

    For Rural Australian Gardens, he travels from subtropical and temperate to alpine and arid regions around the country to find the best and most unusual gardens. From newly established gardens to those that have evolved over generations, he discovers that Australians’ approach to their properties is as diverse and unexpected as the landscape itself – and that resourcefulness and a sense of place are essential ingredients in creating the most successful of them. As well as revealing the stories behind the gardens, Rural Australian Gardens also includes practical horticultural information on using trees, hedges, shrubs, perennials and groundcovers in rural settings around Australia.

    The amazing range of colours, size, textures and perfumes make growing herbs an infinitely rewarding experience. Perfect for the organic gardener, herbs attract beneficial insects and wildlife and are often tough and resilient to pests and disease. Practical advice on planning a herb garden, propagating, planting, harvesting, drying and storing is included along with a handy calendar of jobs. The A–Z directory of herbs will inspire planting ideas and give background information of known culinary, medicinal and cosmetic uses for each herb.

    Patricia Damery finds answers through unconventional teachers and her relationship to the land –answers that are surprisingly intertwined.During Patricia’s individuation process she experiences the importance of being rooted in a particular place, guided by the tenets of Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamic® agriculture. Her professional journey to become a Jungian analyst is a path filled with review committees and unorthodox teachers.Farming Soul offers perspective on the complex dynamic of the therapist/patient bond and a personal account of when to rely on one’s inner authority. This is a book about soul embodied and the essential recognition that spiritual, ecological, and psychological exploration is essential to reconnecting to our deeper selves.