With Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide, Gladstar offers a fresh introduction for a new generation of gardeners and natural health and self-sufficiency enthusiasts.Thirty-three of the most common and versatile healing plants are profiled in depth to get the budding herbalist off on the right foot. Readers will learn how to grow, harvest, prepare, and use each herb. Step-by-step instructions explain how to prepare herbal teas, salves, syrups, tinctures, oils, and liniments to stock the home medicine chest. Simple recipes explore each plant's healing qualities - aloe lotion for poison ivy, dandelion-burdock tincture for sluggish digestion, and lavender-lemon balm tea for stress relief. Gladstar shows how easy it is to make safe, all-natural, low-cost healing remedies for common ailments.

    Growing tree fruits and berries is something virtually anyone with space and passionate desire can do - given wise guidance and a personal commitment to observe the teachings of the trees. A holistic grower knows that producing fruit is not about manipulating nature but more importantly, fostering nature. Orcharding then becomes a fascinating adventure sure to provide your family with all sorts of mouth-watering fruit."The Holistic Orchard" demystifies the basic skills everybody should know about the inner-workings of the orchard ecosystem, as well as orchard design, soil biology, and organic health management. Detailed insights on grafting, planting, pruning, and choosing the right varieties for your climate are also included, along with a step-by-step instructional calendar to guide growers through the entire orchard year. The extensive profiles of pome fruits (apples, pears, asian pears, quinces), stone fruits (cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums), and berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, currants, and elderberries) will quickly have you savoring the prospects.Phillips completely changed the conversation about healthy orcharding with his first bestselling book, "The Apple Grower," and now he takes that dialogue even further, drawing connections between home orcharding and permaculture; the importance of native pollinators; the world of understory plantings with shade-tolerant berry bushes and other insectary plants; detailed information on cover crops and biodiversity; and the newest research on safe, homegrown solutions to pest and disease challenges.All along the way, Phillips' expertise and enthusiasm for healthy growing shines through, as does his ability to put the usual horticultural facts into an integrated ecology perspective. This book will inspire beginners as well as provide deeper answers for experienced fruit growers looking for scientific organic approaches. Exciting times lie ahead for those who now have every reason in the world to confidently plant that very first fruit tree!

    New plants, techniques, materials, and lifestyles are constantly broadening the choices you have and reshaping the way you garden in the West. In response to this natural evolution, the editors of Sunset-the West's most trusted source of gardening information for more than 80 years-have completely redesigned and updated The Western Garden Book in this new 2012 Ninth Edition. Following the best-selling success of the previous editions of The Western Garden Book, this edition includes a fresh new look, thousands of color photographs, fresh illustrations, and an easy-to-follow format. Written by experts for gardeners in the West, this book is an indispensable reference for beginning and expert gardeners alike.The New Western Garden Book features include:A photo gallery shows the West's most innovative gardens, from all-edibles front yards to stylish water-wise and fire-wise gardens to living walls and green roofs-all with ideas you can use.Climate Zone Maps and growing-season graphs for all regions of the West including Alaska and Hawaii.A new "Plant Finder" section helps you choose plants for their garden's problem areas or for special effects."A to Z Plant Encyclopedia" lists some 8,000 plants that thrive in the West, including more than 500 new ones. Gorgeous color photographs illustrate all plant entries-for the first time ever in The Western Garden Book."Gardening From Start to Finish" is a new visual guide that leads readers through all steps of making a garden, from soil prep through planting, growing and care, with special sections on natives, veggies, grasses and more.

    This present condition of global trauma is not "natural," but a result of humanity's destructive actions. And, according to Masanobu Fukuoka, it is reversible. We need to change not only our methods of earth stewardship, but also the very way we think about the relationship between human beings and nature.Fukuoka grew up on a farm on the island of Shikoku in Japan. As a young man he worked as a customs inspector for plants going into and out of the country. This was in the 1930s when science seemed poised to create a new world of abundance and leisure, when people fully believed they could improve upon nature by applying scientific methods and thereby reap untold rewards. While working there, Fukuoka had an insight that changed his life forever. He returned to his home village and applied this insight to developing a revolutionary new way of farming that he believed would be of great benefit to society. This method, which he called "natural farming," involved working with, not in opposition to, nature.Fukuoka's inspiring and internationally best-selling book, The One-Straw Revolution was first published in English in 1978. In this book, Fukuoka described his philosophy of natural farming and why he came to farm the way he did. One-Straw was a huge success in the West, and spoke directly to the growing movement of organic farmers and activists seeking a new way of life. For years after its publication, Fukuoka traveled around the world spreading his teachings and developing a devoted following of farmers seeking to get closer to the truth of nature.Sowing Seeds in the Desert, a summation of those years of travel and research, is Fukuoka's last major work-and perhaps his most important. Fukuoka spent years working with people and organizations in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, to prove that you could, indeed, grow food and regenerate forests with very little irrigation in the most desolate of places. Only by greening the desert, he said, would the world ever achieve true food security.This revolutionary book presents Fukuoka's plan to rehabilitate the deserts of the world using natural farming, including practical solutions for feeding a growing human population, rehabilitating damaged landscapes, reversing the spread of desertification, and providing a deep understanding of the relationship between human beings and nature. Fukuoka's message comes right at the time when people around the world seem to have lost their frame of reference, and offers us a way forward.

    A firm favourite with viewers, Monty's infectious enthusiasm for plants, attention to the finer details of gardening technique and easy charm have seen the ratings soar. Here Monty invites us into the garden at Longmeadow, to show us how he created this beautiful garden, and how we can do the same in our own.Following the cycle of the seasons, Gardening at Longmeadow will introduce readers to the garden from the earliest snowdrops of January through the first splashes of colour in the Spring Garden, the electric summer displays of the Jewel Garden, the autumn harvest in the orchard, and on to a Christmas feast sourced from the vegetable gardens. Describing the magic of each area at different times of the year, Monty will explain the basics of what to do when and how to get the most from each plant. He'll talk through the essential techniques and more complex processes, accompanied by easy-to-follow, step-by-step photography.Longmeadow is a gardeners' garden, but this will be a book for gardening enthusiasts of all skill levels who have been inspired by what they've seen, and who would like to achieve something similar for themselves.

    There's only life, waiting for the right conditions-sun and water, warmth and soil-to be set free. Everyday, millions upon millions of seeds lift their two green wings.At no time in our history have Americans been more obsessed with food. Options- including those for local, sustainable, and organic food-seem limitless. And yet, our food supply is profoundly at risk. Farmers and gardeners a century ago had five times the possibilities of what to plant than farmers and gardeners do today; we are losing untold numbers of plant varieties to genetically modified industrial monocultures. In her latest work of literary nonfiction, award-winning author and activist Janisse Ray argues that if we are to secure the future of food, we first must understand where it all begins: the seed.The Seed Underground is a journey to the frontier of seed-saving. It is driven by stories, both the author's own and those from people who are waging a lush and quiet revolution in thousands of gardens across America to preserve our traditional cornucopia of food by simply growing old varieties and eating them. The Seed Underground pays tribute to time-honored and threatened varieties, deconstructs the politics and genetics of seeds, and reveals the astonishing characters who grow, study, and save them.

    Suitable for Canadian climates.

    Written in the accessible, easy-to-follow style that’s won The Rev so many followers, this book sifts through the jargon surrounding organic marijuana growing and gets straight to the heart of the matter: the living soil. True Living Organics provides several different ways to create a high-quality living medium for marijuana plants. Dispensing with the basics of how to grow pot, this guide instead gives the reader a new education on what cannabis plants really need and the best way to give it to them. With over 200 color photos illustrating every topic, this book is as easy to use as it is insightful.

    The Jepson Manual, second edition, integrates the latest science with the results of intensive fieldwork, institutional collaboration, and efforts of hundreds of contributing authors into an essential reference on California's native and naturalized vascular plants.The second edition includes treatments of many newly described or discovered taxa and recently introduced plants, and reflects major improvements to plant taxonomy from phylogenetic studies. Nearly two-thirds of the 7,600 species, subspecies, and varieties the volume describes are now illustrated with diagnostic drawings. Geographic distributions, elevation ranges, flowering times, nomenclature, and the status of non-natives and native taxa of special concern have all been updated throughout. This edition also allows for identification of 240 alien taxa that are not fully naturalized but sometimes encountered. A new chapter on geologic, climatic, and vegetation history of California is also featured.

    Take a closer look, though, and you'll see that the diversity and variety of plant species that form hedgerows, and the animals and insects that they shelter, are a complete world of delight.Angelica to ash, bird cherry to borage, pineapple weed to plantain and wild garlic to wimberries, The Hedgerow Handbook is a directory of our best known and most useful hedgerow plants, each entry botanically illustrated in colour to help you identify the plant or flower, along with its history and folklore, and its culinary and medicinal uses, from the traditional to the unusual.The ultimate guide for nature-lovers and foragers alike, discover how you can transform wild and natural hedgerow ingredients into fresh and delicious recipes. From Elderflower Champagne and Blackberry Sorbet to Wild Raspberry and Meadowsweet Jam, the hedgerow has more possibilities than you could ever imagine.

    And while mastery of the classical language may not be a prerequisite for pruning perennials, all gardeners stand to benefit from learning a bit of Latin and its conventions in the field. Without it, they might buy a Hellebores foetidus and be unprepared for its fetid smell, or a Potentilla reptans with the expectation that it will stand straight as a sentinel rather than creep along the ground.An essential addition to the gardener’s library, this colorful, fully illustrated book details the history of naming plants, provides an overview of Latin naming conventions, and offers guidelines for pronunciation. Readers will learn to identify Latin terms that indicate the provenance of a given plant and provide clues to its color, shape, fragrance, taste, behavior, functions, and more.  Full of expert instruction and practical guidance, Latin for Gardeners will allow novices and green thumbs alike to better appreciate the seemingly esoteric names behind the plants they work with, and to expertly converse with fellow enthusiasts. Soon they will realize that having a basic understanding of Latin before trips to the nursery or botanic garden is like possessing some knowledge of French before traveling to Paris; it enriches the whole experience.

    She’s a farmer. It’s “as big as a B-size potato.” As her bombarded land turns white, she and her husband Martin huddle under a blanket and reminisce: the one-hundred-mile-per-hour winds; the eleven-inch rainfall (“that broccoli turned out gorgeous”); the hail disaster of 1977. The romance of farming washed away a long time ago, but the love? Never. In telling her story of working the land, coaxing good food from the fertile soil, Atina Diffley reminds us of an ultimate truth: we live in relationships—with the earth, plants and animals, families and communities.A memoir of making these essential relationships work in the face of challenges as natural as weather and as unnatural as corporate politics, her book is a firsthand history of getting in at the “ground level” of organic farming. One of the first certified organic produce farms in the Midwest, the Diffleys’ Gardens of Eagan helped to usher in a new kind of green revolution in the heart of America’s farmland, supplying their roadside stand and a growing number of local food co-ops. This is a story of a world transformed—and reclaimed—one square acre at a time.And yet, after surviving punishing storms and the devastating loss of fifth-generation Diffley family land to suburban development, the Diffleys faced the ultimate challenge: the threat of eminent domain for a crude oil pipeline proposed by one of the largest privately owned companies in the world, notorious polluters Koch Industries. As Atina Diffley tells her David-versus-Goliath tale, she gives readers everything from expert instruction in organic farming to an entrepreneur’s manual on how to grow a business to a legal thriller about battling corporate arrogance to a love story about a single mother falling for a good, big-hearted man.

    His farm is an intricate network of terraces, raised beds, ponds, and waterways, well covered with productive fruit trees and other vegetation, in dramatic contrast to his neighbors' spruce monocultures. Fans of Sepp Holzer have come from all over the world to see the productivity of his farm, a veritable permaculture paradise. His first book, "Sepp Holzer's Permaculture," offers a detailed guide to what Holzer has achieved on his farm. Many readers might have wondered-but how can we achieve this on a global scale? Luckily, his newest book, "Desert or Paradise," examines Holzer's core philosophy for increasing food production, earth health, and reconnecting mankind with nature, applied to reforestation and water conservation across the world.Through years of consultation with other countries, Holzer has developed a core philosophy for reconnecting mankind with nature even in arid or otherwise "lost-cause" regions. He details a process he calls ""Grundierung,"" a term from painting meaning "base coat," which goes into great detail the importance of water, and "Desert or Paradise" offers his concept and guide to construction of large water reservoirs in arid, rainfall-dependent regions with examples from Greece, Turkey, Spain, and Portugal. Holzer describes the ecological and economic benefits of these changes, as well as the use of a variety of plant and animal species for further integration and regeneration of the surrounding areas, including reasons for reforestation and the cause and use of forest fires.Holzer also outlines his ten points of sustainable self-reliance and how these methods can help feed the world, such as the need to regulate the water budget, eliminate factory livestock farming, bring more fallow or unused areas into production, enlarge crop areas by using terracing and Holzer-style raised beds, regionalize instead of globalize, fight for land reform and engage in community building, go back to the ancient farming wisdom, and change the educational system. Also included are Holzer's ideas on beekeeping, humane slaughtering, nature spirits, the loss of roots in our society in general, and in politics especially.

    In Desert or Paradise he inspires us to look beyond previously tried, tired and failed ‘solutions’ to drought by following his catalogue of successes, furnishing each case study with photographs, illustrations and anecdotes.These restored or newly-constructed lakes not only reaquify the surrounding landscape to turn back the tide of encroaching desertification, but also support abundant edible landscapes of orchards and crops planted along the banks, and provide freshwater mixed aquacultures. Desert or Paradise explains why natural water management is at the centre of any earth restoration.Injected with Sepp’s unique style and opinions, Desert or Paradise gives hope to those who see an apparently barren landscape as a failure from which there is no return. Sepp helps us move beyond conventional methods that trap us in a cycle of dependence. He offers a wealth of information for the gardener, smallholder and alternative farmer, yet the book’s greatest value is in the attitudes he teaches. He reveals the thinking processes based on principles found in nature that create his productive systems. These can be applied anywhere.Learn…how to design water retention areas that produce ‘living’ waterhow to prevent and reverse desertificationhow to prevent floods and soil erosionhow to build nature-inspired dams…and much more!

    In Desert or Paradise, Holzer applies his core philosophy for increasing food production, earth health, reconnecting mankind with nature, and reforestation and water conservation across the world. He urges us to look beyond failed “solutions” to drought by learning from his lengthy catalog of successes in arid, rainfall-dependent regions such as Greece, Turkey, Spain, and Portugal.Holzer offers a wealth of information for the gardener, homesteader, permaculture designer, and sustainable farmer, yet the book’s greatest value is in the attitudes it teaches and in demonstrating that the simple principles found in nature used to create Holzer’s productive systems can be applied anywhere.Holzer also outlines his ten points of sustainable self-reliance and how these methods can help feed the world, such as the need to: Regulate water usage; Eliminate factory livestock farming; Bring more fallow or unused land into production; Enlarge crop areas by using terracing and Holzer-style raised beds; Engage in community building; and much more.Expressed with Holzer’s unique style and opinions, Desert or Paradise gives hope to those who see an apparently barren landscape as a failure from which there is no return, and helps us move beyond conventional methods that trap us in a cycle of dependence.

    From goji berries to food-mile free sweet potatoes, James’ revolutionary approach to edible gardening will show you how to grow, cook and eat all manner of superfood crops that are just as easy (if not easier) and far more exciting to grow than the ‘ration book’ favourites.Inspiring, fun and full of plant know-how, this book is set to revolutionise the whole concept of ‘growing your own’ for newbie growers and seasoned allotment veterans alike. You’ll never look at your garden the same way again!

    Over 2,500 beautiful full color images covering over 1,000 plants and what health conditions they have been historically used for. What common neighborhood plants make a great shampoo, soap and toothpaste? Which ones make a wonderful non-caffeine coffee substitute? Or milk substitute? Or perfume? Or ant, moth and mosquito repellant? Which plant boosts sex drive like crazy? What flowers and common house plants are edible? Learn all this and more in this incredibly fascinating, power-packed book resulting from centuries of research and 3 years of putting it all together. 480 pages of fascinating facts and beautiful images. Be sure to read the beginning of the book, which teaches plant basics, and also how you can grow your own. There is a whole section showing toxic plants and what they look like, and a HUGE section in the back listing almost any health condition you can imagine and what plants have been used for them. This is as packed as it gets. Those wild plants growing just outside your house are some of the best free food and medicine you could ever have! Weighing in at almost two pounds, (!) it is still compact enough to take outside with you... which is what it was designed for. Enjoy !(Full COLOR kindle version)

    Imagine how much more self-reliant our communities would be if thirty million acres of lawns were made productive again. Permaculture is a practical way to apply ecological design principles to food, housing, and energy systems, making growing fruits, vegetables, and livestock easier and more sustainable.The Permaculture Handbook is a step-by-step, beautifully illustrated guide to creating resilient and prosperous households and neighborhoods, complemented by extensive case studies of three successful farmsteads and market gardens. This comprehensive manual casts garden farming as both an economic opportunity and a strategy for living well with less money. It shows how, by mimicking the intelligence of nature and applying appropriate technologies such as solar and environmental design, permaculture can:Create an abundance of fresh, nourishing local produce Reduce dependence on expensive, polluting fossil fuels Drought-proof our cities and countryside Convert waste into wealthPermaculture is about working with the earth and with each other to repair the damage of industrial overreach and to enrich the living world that sustains us. The Permaculture Handbook is the definitive practical North American guide to this revolutionary practice, and is a must-read for anyone concerned about creating food security, resilience, and a legacy of abundance rather than depletion.Peter Bane is a permaculture teacher and site designer who has published and edited Permaculture Activist magazine for over twenty years. He helped create Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina, and is now pioneering suburban farming in Bloomington, Indiana.

    But you can keep chickens and have a beautiful garden, too! In this essential handbook, award-winning garden designer Jessi Bloom offers step-by-step instructions for creating a beautiful and functional space while maintaining a happy, healthy flock. Free-Range Chicken Gardens covers everything a gardener needs to know, from the basics of chicken keeping and creating the perfect chicken-friendly garden design to building innovative coops.

    As a boy in suburban New York in 1940s, Clyde Wachsberger daydreams about storybook gardens where magic happens under the huge leaves. Through the 1960s and 1970s, when most gay men disdained monogamy, the author—an artist and set-designer in New York City—searches unsuccessfully for a soul mate. In 1983, approaching middle-age and having given up on finding love, he moves to a three-hundred-year-old house on a third of an acre, where he channels his passion into creating a garden appropriate to his historical home. Then remarkable circumstances lead him to Charles—a connoisseur of art, a gardener, and the man who will become his life-partner. Together they create a garden of sensuous wild beauty.Into the Garden with Charles is infused with the author's artistic sensibility and is written in a voice that is unaffected, generous, and straightforward. Enriched with the author's paintings—giving it the look and feel of an antique children's book—Into the Garden with Charles is a unique and moving memoir about growing old and falling in love.

    Complete with breed descriptions, common medical concerns, and plenty of chicken trivia, this illustrated A-to-Z reference guide is both informative and entertaining. Covering tail types, breeding, molting, communication, and much more, Gail Damerow provides answers to all of your chicken questions and quandaries. Even seasoned chicken farmers are sure to discover new information about the multifaceted world of these fascinating birds.

    Findinginspiration and value in 18th-century plants, tools, and techniques, the gardeners at Colonial Williamsburg have discovered that these traditional vegetable-growing methods are perfectly at home in today's modern organic gardens. After all, in the 18th century, organic gardening was the only type of gardening and local produce the only produce available.Author Wesley Greene founded the Colonial Garden in Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area in 1996. He and his colleagues have painstakingly researched the ways the colonists planted and tended their vegetable and herb beds, most of which are more relevant than ever. Along with historical commentary and complete growing instructions for 50 delicious vegetables, including colonial varieties still available today, gardeners and folklorists will find weather-watching guidelines, planting techniques, and seedsaving advice for legumes, brassicas, alliums, root crops, nightshades, melons, squash, greens, and other curious and tender produce.

    Over an entire year, the author and her husband-experienced farmers themselves-took a sabbatical and traveled the length and breadth of the United States to live and work alongside some of the nation's most innovative farmers. Along the way they learned about best practices, and a whole lot about what doesn't work. Farms with a Future shares this collective wisdom in an inspirational yet practical manner; it will help beginners avoid many of the common mistakes that first-time farmers make. Just as importantly, it discusses positive ideas that can help make any farm enterprise vibrant and financially profitable. Profiles of more than a dozen representative farms help round out the invaluable information and encourage farmers to embrace their inner entrepreneur. Younger growers, in particular, will benefit by learning about "the right stuff" from both their peers and longtime experts.This book provides a useful reference for beginning and experienced farmers alike. While many other books address agricultural production, there are very few that talk about business management for long-term sustainability. Farms with a Future offers an approachable, colorful take on building a triple-bottom-line farming business.

    Through his courses at Lower Farm in Somerset and his three previous books, he has won a keen following. Beginners and experienced veg growers alike find that his methods work and that he opens their minds to new possibilities. Now he has distilled the essence of his courses and ideas into one book. In it you will find out how to grow vegetables the Charles Dowding way. Charles Dowding's Vegetable Course is both a straightforward guide to success and an inspiring source of ideas for achieving a more productive vegetable garden for less effort.Lower Farm, run by Charles and Susie Dowding, has been part of Sawday's Special Places to Stay collection for 12 years. Click the link on the left to visit Sawday's to find out about accommodation at Lower Farm and our other characterful, independently-run places to stay across the UK and Europe. All have been inspected and selected because we like them - what makes each 'special' varies hugely, but common to all are owners whose personality, friendliness and local knowledge ensure a memorable stay.

    Plants, flowers, and trees were Marie-Antoinette’s passion; she transformed the Petit Trianon’s gardens into an enchanted escape from the oppressive shackles of Versailles. Based on archival documents, this book meanders through Marie-Antoinette’s estate as the queen herself would have walked it: traversing hyacinths, buttercups, and anemones in the French Gardens, via winding paths in the Anglo-Chinese Gardens, through the conifers of the Belvedere Gardens—where fabulous nocturnal parties were hosted—past the entrancing aromas of the shrubs surrounding the Temple of Love, to the wildflowers of the Garden of Solitude. This fascinating reconstruction includes descriptions of the cosmetic and medicinal uses of the garden’s plants, anecdotes from the royal court, and watercolors of the herbarium.

    The result is a nonstop parade of color that begins with a tapestry of heirloom daffodils and hellebores in spring and ends with a jewel-like blend of Asian wildflowers at the onset of winter.The Layered Garden shows you how to recreate Culp's majestic display. It starts with a basic lesson in layering; how to choose the correct plants by understanding how they grow and change throughout the seasons, how to design a layered garden, and how to maintain it. To illustrate how layering works, Culp takes you on a personal tour through each part of his celebrated garden: the woodland garden, the perennial border, the kitchen garden, the shrubbery, and the walled garden. The book culminates with a chapter dedicated to signature plants for all four seasons.As practical as it is inspiring, The Layered Garden will provide you with expert information gleaned from decades of hard work and close observation. If you thought that a four-season garden was beyond your reach, this book will show you how to achieve that elusive, tantalizing goal.

    He is celebrated for his unique ability to blend strikingly contemporary elements with the traditional design vernacular. He has worked in ultramodern urban hotels and some of Japan's most famous classic gardens. In each project, his work as a designer of landscape architecture is inseparable from his Buddhist practice. Each becomes a Zen garden, "a special spiritual place where the mind dwells."This beautiful book, illustrated with more than 400 drawings and color photographs, is the first complete retrospective of Masuno's work to be published in English. It presents 37 major gardens around the world in a wide variety of types and settings: traditional and contemporary, urban and rural, public spaces and private residences, and including temple, office, hotel and campus venues. Masuno achieved fame for his work in Japan, but he is becoming increasingly known internationally, and in 2011 completed his first commission in the United States which is shown here.Zen Gardens, divided into three chapters, covers: "Traditional Zen Gardens," "Contemporary Zen Gardens" and "Zen Gardens outside Japan." Each Zen garden design is described and analyzed by author Mira Locher, herself an architect and a scholar well versed in Japanese culture.Celebrating the accomplishments of an influential, world-class designer, Zen Gardens also serves as something of a master class in Japanese garden design and appreciation: how to perceive a Japanese garden, how to understand one, even how to make one yourself. Like one of Masuno's gardens, the book can be a place for contemplation and mindful repose.

    Easy garden additions like strawberries and raspberries can provide delicious fruit for your family in a year or less. Add homegrown eggs from your new chicken flock and you'll have a feast. Meanwhile, buying non-perishables in bulk will save money while ensuring you have plenty of food during emergencies. Finally, an informal apprenticeship is the perfect way to learn hands-on skills like milking a cow or fermenting grapes into wine.For those of you who are new to Weekend Homesteader, this series walks you through the basics of growing your own food, cooking the bounty, preparing for emergency power outages, and achieving financial independence. Technically, the series began in May (or November in the southern hemisphere), but most of the projects are designed to be accessible even to someone starting from square one each month. This ebook, and each other volume in the series, presents one easy and fun project for each weekend so that you'll keep making headway without becoming overwhelmed.

    New plants, techniques, materials, and lifestyles are constantly broadening the choices you have and reshaping the way you garden in the West. In response to this natural evolution, the editors of Sunset-the West's most trusted source of gardening information for more than 80 years-have completely redesigned and updated The Western Garden Book in this new 2012 Ninth Edition. Following the best-selling success of the previous editions of The Western Garden Book, this edition includes a fresh new look, thousands of color photographs, fresh illustrations, and an easy-to-follow format. Written by experts for gardeners in the West, this book is an indispensable reference for beginning and expert gardeners alike.The New Western Garden Book features include: A photo gallery shows the West's most innovative gardens, from all-edibles front yards to stylish water-wise and fire-wise gardens to living walls and green roofs-all with ideas you can use. Climate Zone Maps and growing-season graphs for all regions of the West including Alaska and Hawaii. A new "Plant Finder" section helps you choose plants for their garden's problem areas or for special effects. "A to Z Plant Encyclopedia" lists some 8,000 plants that thrive in the West, including more than 500 new ones. Gorgeous color photographs illustrate all plant entries-for the first time ever in The Western Garden Book. "Gardening From Start to Finish" is a new visual guide that leads readers through all steps of making a garden, from soil prep through planting, growing and care, with special sections on natives, veggies, grasses and more.

    This guide is for those new to composting and the following topics are covered:* Types of compost bins and the pros and cons of each (as well as "no bin" options)* Composting accessories and which are essential (answer: none!)* What to put in your compost bin -- and what to avoid (sorry, dog poop is out)* An easy way to balance carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials (no math involved!)* Compost troubleshooting -- common problems and how to solve them (from sulfur to slime - it's covered)Whether you just want a pile in the backyard, or the latest in compost tumbler technology, this guide will get you off to a great start.

    Jasko and Biggs are committed to turning you into a healthy, happy farmer even if you live in a big city high-rise. Built around eight comprehensive sections (Know, Start, Grow, Plant, Plan, Make, Eat, and Store), this wonderful 128-page guide walks you through all the steps of successfully nurturing a crop of delicious, healthy vegetables. Everyone from the base beginner to the seasoned farmhand will find something for them in these pages. (The recipe section alone is enough to keep you comin' back to this gem for years!) Narrated in a friendly, helpful tone by Jasko and buoyed by Biggs's great illustrations, this book is the definition of awesomely useful. Super, super, SUPER inspiring. Grow your own everything!

    The beginner's guide to creating a garden from scratch together with inspirational plant recipes for all the seasons.

    A reference book that reads like a magazine, the Almanac contains “everything under the Sun, including the Moon”—facts, feature articles, and advice that are “useful, with a pleasant degree of humor.”   The 2013 edition, which marks the publication’s 221st anniversary, will feature     • weather predictions for every day and climatic trends for each season, plus hints of how a low sunspot cycle could influence conditions in the coming years     • the most accurate astronomical data in the solar system, with best-viewing recommendations for every month     • safe and easy home remedies for each season’s most common—and uncomfortable—aches and ailments     • fail-safe gardening tips to ensure a hefty harvest, ideas for using vegetable plants as ornamentals, plus gardening by the Moon     • delicious recipes for homebaked cakes, cookies, and pies; plus readers’ best bacon dishes     • amusing and enlightening articles on raising children, kisses, and why pets bite (and how to stop them)and much, much more!   Added value this year:     • 80 full-color pages     • full-color national weather maps of winter and summer forecasts

    Filled with beautiful photographs and covering a wide variety of topics, from agrofuels and food sovereignty to practical tips about specific tools, All the Dirt is the must-read how-to book about small-scale organic farming. But beyond the practical applications, it is also the inspiring story of three friends who followed their dreams and became successful business partners.Authors Rachel Fisher, Heather Stretch, and Robin Tunnicliffe, co-owners of Saanich Organics, a farmer-run local food distributor, share entertaining stories of three farmers' lives, while also providing practical information about how to start a farm. They relate their personal and collective experiences as women, mothers, and farmers through anecdotes, and discuss the compelling reasons why Canada needs more organic farmers.All the Dirt proves that there is no one right way to start a farm and no single solution to any problem. But that by working together, farmers can create a resilient agriculture that is vibrant and fun, as well as economically viable.Rachel, Heather, and Robin have co-owned Saanich Organics since 2002. The business has been featured in numerous publications, including the Times Colonist, West Jet’s Up! magazine, EAT Magazine, and The Province. It has also been featured in Island on the Edge (a documentary film), as well as on CBC radio. By working co-operatively to grow and distribute top quality produce, the business has earned the respect of the farming community, the restaurant community, organic consumers, and activists. Visit Saanich Organics online at www.saanichorganics.com.

    For some gardeners, they bring back warm memories of a grandparent's garden; for others, they're a cutting-edge plant with a seemingly endless capacity for producing new forms and patterns.As the manager of Rainbow Iris Farm and co-editor of the Bulletin of the American Iris Society, Kelly Norris is the authority on gardening with bearded irises. His introductory chapters offer tips for successful growth, garden design, plant selection, and "creating" new irises. A Guide to Bearded Irises also provides portraits of the most outstanding plants in each of the six recognized categories, from the dainty miniature dwarf bearded irises to the stately tall bearded irises. A resource section lists specialty nurseries, organizations devoted to bearded irises, and public gardens with notable iris collections.

    Radio host and gardener Mike McGrath has a growing legion of fans who love his trademark wit. In You Bet Your Garden Guide to Growing Great Tomatoes, McGrath doesn't disappoint, delivering both sound advice and plenty of laughs to help gardeners beat the heat and have a great tomato harvest. In this book McGrath explains why readers should grow their own tomatoes in the first place: You just can't beat the taste. Tomatoes are the most popular home garden vegetable crop, and heirloom tomatoes are older, open-pollinated varieties that have stood the test of time. More and more gardeners are finding heirloom vegetables to be superior in flavor, color and disease resistance to the more common hybrid commercial varieties. Based on McGrath's personal adventures in tomato-growing, You Bet Your Garden Guide to Growing Great Tomatoes guides would-be gardeners through choosing seeds, germinating, planting, staking, caging, nurturing, watering and harvesting homegrown tomatoes. Readers also get tips on how to control pests and deal with disease. Along the way, he weaves in fascinating tomato lore and tips. This is a book for everyone who loves to laugh, loves to eat, and loves to grow beautiful tomatoes.

    Plants are grouped by type and individual species are listed alphabetically by botanical names.

    Exploring the Garden with the Little Rose is based on the #1 best-selling book, The Little Rose, and takes children on an educational adventure! Your little one will have fun learning the alphabet and identifying the plants and animals of the garden while exploring our natural world alongside the Little Rose.

    All disguised to look like overgrown underbrush so that nobody knows you have food growing there. —This book will show you how!

     At the same time THE JEWEL GARDEN is the story of a creative partnership that has weathered the greatest storm, and a testament to the healing powers of the soil. In his weekly column for the Observer, Monty Don has always been candid about the garden's role in helping him to pull back from the abyss of depression; THE JEWEL GARDEN elaborates on this much further. Written in an optimistic, autobiographical vein, Monty and Sarah's story is truly an exploration of what it means to be a gardener.

    With the mainstreaming of ideas about environmental and ecological preservation, the organic movement has come to ornamental gardening. And one of the primary spokespeople for that movement is Sasquatch’s longtime author Ann Lovejoy. This new book is a complete handbook for ornamental gardening follows the principles and techniques of organic and sustainable gardening. Gardening naturally does mean going without products like Roundup, Weed and Feed, and chemical fertilizers. It also means that gardeners may opt for a selection of native plants that are compatible with local climate and soils. Some of the paradigm shift has to do with getting over the notion that one’s garden needs to be as spotless and tidy as something on a magazine cover. Gardening is all about process, and the methods that Ann Lovejoy explains in this book emphasize good soil preparation, composting, drainage, mulching, and right plant selection. This comprehensive book covers the steps from landscaping and designs to soil preparation to planting beds. She covers all of the elements of the garden: ground covers, lawns, shrubs, bulbs, trees – all with an eye to building a sustainable garden that grows without chemical fertilizers and pest control. You can try to make an Arizona backyard look like a Connecticut estate, but it’s going to take a lot of work, constant maintenance, more water than all the other gardens on your block, and a fat checkbook. There’s a simpler, more gratifying way to garden that is also good for people, pets, and wildlife. This practical book tells gardeners how to achieve that.

    Building Soils Naturally shows gardeners how to grow more nutritious food and have more healthy, pest-resistant flowers and ornamental plants. Whether experienced or just getting started, gardeners are likely to encounter some perplexing (and common) setbacks certain fruit and vegetable plants that don't produce as expected, ornamental plants that fail to thrive, and plant predators that chew plants to the ground. All of these issues point to plants that aren't at optimum health. So, what could be wrong? Plants may be lacking in proper nutrition, missing beneficial microorganism companions, or short of energy to reach their full nutrient-dense potential. The advice most often given is start with the soil, but what specific steps should gardeners do? Building Soils Naturally shows how to create productive, living soil using a simple, practical, hands-on plan that includes:Using compost and microbial inoculants to balance the soil food webControlling plant predators and weeds forever, without chemicalsSoil testing and full-spectrum organic fertilizingHealthy soil doesn't happen just by composting, fertilizing or using companion planting. It happens by using a holistic approach outlined in this book and crafted right in the garden.

    In this horticultural memoir Alan finally reveals all about this secret garden, explaining with his trademark warmth the personal stories behind its design and evolution. Accompanied by beautiful photographs taken by Jonathan Buckley throughout the eight years in which the garden has been made, My Secret Garden allows us access to all of the successes and failures of this diverse and ambitious project.Comprising many different styles and spaces - from an acre of formal beds and ponds to wild flower meadows and a stunning winter garden - Alan's tales of development and cultivation will be applicable to all gardeners. With the plot encompassing fruit trees, a handsome greenhouse and wildlife-friendly plantings, gardeners of all styles and levels of expertise will find something to enjoy. Driven by Alan's infectious and informative style, My Secret Garden is a fascinating, amusing and inspiring book.

    Now, for the first time ever, she turns her own photographic lens to that passion with Flowers, showcasing more than 300 images of the varieties in her abundant gardens, all captured at their most vibrant and exquisite moments throughout the season. With a gardener’s intimate understanding and a designer’s elegant eye, Roehm shows us the flowers she has cultivated for decades in and around Weatherstone, her historic Connecticut home. While alternating dramatic close-ups with portraits of lovely arrangements and sweeping views of her land, Roehm writes with wit, emotion, and affection of what flowers have meant to her, as well as of the joys and travails of the committed gardener’s life.What began as a casual hobby ultimately became a multi-year endeavor, as Roehm used her camera to explore the special relationship a gardener enjoys with her carefully nurtured beauties. The outcome is a remarkably personal visual essay: sumptuous, surprising, and as revealing of the sensibility behind the camera as the magnificent species that stand before it. This beautiful objet d’art—a flower garden in a book—is Carolyne Roehm’s most significant and singular volume yet.

    Each plant profile page includes three recommended plants, with full-color images, helpful icons for sun and shade requirements, and planting and growing information. Twelve months of around-the-garden maintenance information for each plant category assists the gardener with what to do to maintain a Rocky Mountain garden in the states of Colorado, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming. Includes helpful charts, illustrations, and full-color plant images.

    Companion planting is the age-old practice of planting different plants in close proximity so that they can help one another in some way.

    While vegetable gardening has been the hot trend, fruit growing is now taking a bite out of the market. This timely and comprehensive book, Grow Fruit Naturally , from gardening expert Lee Reich shows the way to successfully grow fruits that are delicious and nutritious, with information on over 30 fruits and how to reap the most of their bounty. Covering all topics from planning and planting to pruning and harvesting, this essential reference also discusses natural pest-control and fertilization methods, pollination, irrigation, and special techniques such as espalier and growing fruit in containers.A handy, encyclopedic listing of fruits provides in-depth information on individual fruit needs, care, and varieties, with a focus on all-natural growing techniques. With 150 photos and over 50 illustrations, this highly visual guide is the book to pick up to keep your fruit crops thriving.

    Providing timely and practical advice for gardeners who want to keep their garden or allotment productive all year round, this book shows you how to apply age-old techniques to get the most from your plot.

    From chicken friendships to the first moving glimpse of freedom from the battery cage, each story is lovingly told by owners whose ex-battery hens truly rule the roost.

    This title helps readers to make the most of smallholdings of every size.

    Featuring more than 500 full-color photos in a stunning large-sized format, the book delves deep into the life histories, lore, and cultural uses of more than 35 plant species. The rich narrative covers topics such as the naming of wildflowers; the reasons for taxonomic changes; pollination of flowers and dispersal of seeds; uses by Native Americans; related species in other parts of the world; herbivores, plant pathogens, and pests; medicinal uses; and wildflower references in history, literature, and art. The photos capture the beauty of these plants and also illustrate the concepts discussed in the text.A book unlike any other, Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast combines the latest scientific research with an accessible, entertaining style, making it the ideal volume for readers of all levels of expertise.Showcases the Northeast's most spectacular spring-blooming wildflowersFeatures more than 500 full-color photosCovers the life histories, lore, and cultural uses of more than 35 speciesCombines the latest scientific research with an easy-to-read styleOffers something new for seasoned botanists as well as armchair naturalists

    Over 500 color photographs illustrate the undersides and uppersides of most species and highlight the variations found among them, both seasonally and between males and females. For beginners and experts, Butterflies of Indiana also offers an introduction to the natural history of butterflies. The simple and intuitive design of this guide and its wealth of features make it a faithful companion for butterfly watchers, collectors, gardeners, birders, and naturalists.

    From her studio nestled in the forest behind the house, Correll paints and writes of the day's journey, its temper and conversation. With a foreword by naturalist Janisse Ray, Middlewood Journal: Drawing Inspiration from Nature gathers Correll's illustrations and writings from her hikes and blog by the same name to create a treasury of discoveries, from giant red mushrooms peeking beneath a cover of leaves to hawks on a branch so close you can hear their preening. Season to season, you will discover the miniature beauties of the South, the life that you only find by slowing down, allowing the landscape to inspire: turkey tracks in creek water, persimmon trees that fool the eye, tidy little snow holes hiding the casualties of winter. Correll draws the language and color of life in the South to give breath to a poetry of names: blue darner dragonfly, horse nettle, red-bellied woodpecker, tufted titmouse, heal all, starlings, white wood aster, rue anemone, wild blue phlox. Witness the change of seasons through the blooms, bird songs, and balance of sunlight in Correll's delicate prose and drawings in Middlewood Journal.

    From traditional walled kitchen gardens and their—sometimes surprising—fruit and vegetables to keeping bees, chickens, or even livestock, traditional methods and crafts have been in use since medieval times and have much to teach anyone who wishes to make their own outdoor space a model of self-sufficiency. Covering fruit and vegetables, herbs, orchards, beekeeping, fish ponds and lakes, dovecotes and poultry, dairy and the farmyard, the deer park and game, and hops and vineyards, there is something in this book for everyone, whether one has acres of land, an allotment, or even simply a windowsill for growing herbs.

    Helpful icons highlight plant benefits and sun and shade requirements. Twelve months of when-to advice for each plant category help Florida gardeners keep their gardens growing. The authors address the challenges of Florida gardening with tropical and saltwater gardening information and garden how-tos for planting, pruning, watering, and much more. Full-color images for each plant and helpful illustrations and charts make this an easy-to-use resource for all Florida gardeners. This resource guide provides all the need-to-know information for Florida gardeners from leading Florida gardening experts.

    Grow Cook Eat will inspire people who already buy fresh, seasonal, local, organic food to grow the food they love to eat. For those who already have experience getting their hands dirty in the garden, this handbook will help them refine their gardening skills and cultivate gourmet quality food. The book also fills in the blanks that exist between growing food in the garden and using it in the kitchen with guides to 50 of the best-loved, tastiest vegetables, herbs, and small fruits. The guides give readers easy-to-follow planting and growing information, specific instructions for harvesting all the edible parts of the plant, advice on storing food in a way that maximizes flavor, basic preparation techniques, and recipes. The recipes at the end of each guide help readers explore the foods they grow and demonstrate how to use unusual foods, like radish greens, garlic scapes, and green coriander seeds.

    Each book answers fundamental questions, identifies the subject's basics, explains how to tailor a course, and provides step-by-step explanations, graded projects, and assessments, so readers can fulfill their own unique learning potential.Many people want to master new skills, stimulate their creativity, and explore additional fields of interest. With DK's Get Started series, readers can create their own learning opportunities—on a schedule and budget that works for them.

    Step-by-step instructions and bright photographs and artworks will get you growing the 50 vegetables and 15 fruit crops featured in no time.

    But the horticultural reasons for choosing lavender go far beyond its beauty. Lavender attracts beneficial insects, requires little water once established, and is deer resistant.In The Lavender Lover's Handbook, lavender grower Sarah Bader teaches gardeners how they can successfully grow this beloved plant. Featuring the 100 easiest, most stunning lavenders available today, this beginner's guide provides a complete checklist of the color, fragrance, size, and foliage of each plant, in addition to basic pruning, spacing, and planting requirements. The text is rounded out with tips on how to harvest, cook, and craft with this wonderful herb.Its abundant variety, hardiness, fragrance, and culinary uses make lavender one of the most popular and versatile plants. And now, with this practical and accessible guide in hand, it's easier than ever to grow at home.

    A plant by plant pruning guide for perfect resultsWith detailed advice on how to prune 180 trees, shrubs, and climbers plus 20 popular fruit crops, RHS Pruning Plant by Plant is the only pruning guide in this handy size to tell and show you exactly what you need to do plant by plant.The A-Z organisation helps you find the plant you're looking for fast, while step-by-step instructions and diagrams make pruning fruit trees, shrubs, and climbing plants a simple and achievable process.RHS Pruning Plant by Plant is essential pruning advice for novices and experienced gardeners alike and its handy, compact format make it ideal for putting in your pocket when you're heading to your garden or allotment.

    

    Alan Titchmarsh makes it easy with easy-to-follow, practical information and advice on what to grow, when to harvest, and how to store your produce. He instructs readers on how to assess a plot and work with what you've got, and provides advice on layout and crop rotation. He also provides expert guidance on care and maintenance; a directory of vegetables, fruit, and herbs; and a easonal calendar of what to do when.

    Texas Fruit & Vegetable Gardening addresses the climate, soil, sun, and water conditions that affect growing success. Each plant profile highlights planting, growing, watering, and care information. Helpful charts and graphs assist gardeners in knowing when to plant and harvest.

    The logical next step? Learning to grow and make your own.In The Organic Backyard Vineyard, expert Tom Powers walks the small grower through the entire process of growing grapes, with a month-by-month maintenance guide covering all regions of the U.S. and Canada. He explains everything a beginning grape grower needs to know: how to design and build a vineyard, how to select grapes for each region, how to maximize yield using organic maintenance techniques, how to build a trellis, how to harvest at peak flavor, and how to store grapes for wine making.

    Crossing between sculpture and the functional object, the designs by the Lalannes—such as a hammered brass rhino-cum-desk—are whimsical and elegant with references to ancient French craftsmanship and twentieth-century Surrealism.This is the first intimate visual biography of their work, as well as the studio and life of the Lalannes. Never-before-seen photographs of their studio and home life—where study models and unfinished sculptures reveal a true portrait of the artists at work—are combined with the finished works shown in galleries and gardens, including an installation on the grassy median of Park Avenue in New York and their largest outdoor exhibition at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden outside of Miami. Transforming visual imagery of flora and fauna into delightfully sensual, dreamlike objects, the designs by the Lalannes have been sought by the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Jacques Grange, and Peter Marino. This publication makes their work and process understandable, and ultimately accessible.

    An indispensable guide to propagation for the home gardener and the nursery professional, from first principles to the latest techniques.

    

    In its 256 pages the beginner can find the answers to all those questions and problems which crop up. For experienced gardeners it is an invaluable source book to those areas where they may lack information or experience.·Find out about garden styles and the secrets of good design·Learn about your plants·Check effects of the weather on your garden·Learn how to identify and improve your soil ·Choose the best flowers for borders, bedding and containers·Learn about all the essential tasks for the gardener·Plan the planting, growing and picking of vegetables·Find out how to choose the right tools·Learn how to pick the right trees and shrubs for your garden·Put a name to plant troubles and weeds plus the up-to-date way to control them·Find the best way to look after fruit trees·Care for and prune roses·Learn about all the features in your garden·Keep your lawn in the best condition·Pick the right greenhouse for your needs·And much, much moreThe Complete Garden Expert is the latest addition to the world’s best-selling garden book series. It is packed with full-colour photographs, practical diagrams and Expert-style copy to provide a unique guide to every part of the garden.

    When she left the country as a know-it-all teen to study journalism in Auckland, she was seduced by the city and vowed never to go back to the land. Fate had other ideas. Having met a man with land, she's now happily ensconced with her husband, Jason, and young son, Lucas, on a 20-hectare property at the foot of the Hunua Ranges, with a pantry full of preserves, a shed full of home brew, 26 cattle, 12 ewes, a geriatric ram called Rambo, 13 chooks, three ducks, four cats and two dogs. She's ditched her high heels for gumboots, high street shops for online seed catalogues and mail-order nurseries, and has let her gardening talents loose creating a country-sized vegetable garden and heritage fruit orchard. In Back to the Land, Lynda shares with characteristic wit and good humour a full year of her gardening exploits. Peppered with practical advice and recipes for making the most of her harvests, Lynda's monthly accounts of country life reveal her unstoppable energy and down-to-earth enthusiasm for living off the land

    Organized by theme within seasons, topics include color, fragrance, foliage, grasses, edible flowers and much more, all presented in photographs of gardens that show planted combinations from a wide variety of climates and conditions. Natural Companions also features more than one hundred special botanical images of amazing depth and color created in collaboration with artist Ellen Hoverkamp using modern digital technology.Filled with an incredible amount of horticultural guidance, useful plant recommendations, and gardening lore—all written in Druse’s charming, witty style—this book is a must-have for gardeners and lovers of plants and flowers.Praise for Natural Companions:“Druse and Hoverkamp have made a splendid book that will be useful to careful gardeners and armchair botanists alike.” —American Scientist "Provides seasonal tips on planting flowers that bloom (and look lovely) together. Whether or not you have a patch of dirt, you'll dig the book's stunning, hyper-detailed photography." —Wall Street Journal“An engaging blend of humor (the punning titles are rib-ticklers), garden history, botanical knowledge, and practical advice . . ." —Organic Gardening"Foodies have bread and chocolate. Romantics have Rogers and Astaire. Now, in Natural Companions, garden expert Ken Druse presents the perfect partners of the plant world…" —New York Spaces

    Beautifully illustrated with full-color photographs, this book provides easy-to-follow recommendations for providing food, cover, and water for birds, bees, butterflies, and other small animals. Emphasizing individual creativity over conventional design, Bauer asks us to consider the intricate relationships between plants and wildlife and our changing role as steward, rather than manipulator, of these relationships.In an engaging narrative that endorses simple and inexpensive methods of wildlife habitat gardening, Nancy Bauer discusses practices such as recycling plant waste on site, using permeable pathways, growing regionally appropriate plants, and avoiding chemical fertilizers and insecticides. She suggests ways of attracting pollinators through planting choices and offers ideas for building water sources and shelters for wildlife. A plant resource guide, tips for propagating plants, seasonal plants for hummingbirds, and host plants for butterflies round out The California Wildlife Habitat Garden, making it an indispensable primer for those about to embark on creating their own biologically diverse, environmentally friendly garden.

    She also happens to keep chickens and two goats, Snowflake and Eloise, and is regionally known as the passionate founder behind the Goat Justice League. Since Grant began keeping goats several years ago, she has learned firsthand the remarkable benefits and beauty of keeping goats, how much healthier and easier to maintain a yard with goats can be, the tolerance levels of neighbors, the health benefits of non-industrial foods, and how interacting with goats inspires a connection to nature. City Goats: The Goat Justice League's Guide to Urban Goat Keeping is her step-by-step guide on raising a pair of dairy goats in your urban or suburban backyard, from city zoning and selecting goats to setting up your yard, building a shed, feeding and caring, kidding, and milking.Practical and at times comical (just like a goat!), connected both to nature and city, and slightly rebellious- City Goats: The Goat Justice League's Guide to Urban Goat Keeping is a book for gardeners, people committed to eating locally, and anyone who has ever pondered joining the backyard goat revolution.

    It features a Pruning Directory of more than 160 common plants for quick reference and is fully illustrated throughout. Color step-by-step drawings and clear photography makes each technique easy to follow to help you save money, time and effort.

    This environmentally friendly landscaping captures rainwater runoff rather than redirecting it into storm drains. The result is less erosion, less water pollution, and a beautiful, low-maintenance, sustainable garden. This is the first rain garden handbook for the backyard home gardener. Co-authors Robert Domm and Lynn Steiner draw on hands-on experience to help homeowners build beautiful rain gardens in their own yards. Illustrated with color photography, this instructive book offers specific advice about planning, building, planting, and maintaining your garden. Learn about city grants, how to calculate runoff, rain barrels, attracting wildlife, gray water recycling, and much more.

    Entrants from around the world submit photographs in one of several categories—the Beauty of Plants; Beautiful Gardens; Trees, Woods, and Forests; Breathing Spaces; Greening the City; the Bountiful Earth; Wildlife Havens; Fragile Landscapes; and Young Garden Photographer of the Year—and winners for both single images and portfolios are selected in each.This series compiles the winners and best entries of each year in a beautifully bound volume. The result is a comprehensive and timely collection of some of the best nature photography in the world. It captures such diverse subjects as Canadian aspen groves, Mexican wall gardens in Texas, Japanese gardens tucked away amidst urban cityscapes, and fireflies lighting the summer sky. All of the images are accompanied by descriptions from the photographers, which lend insight into their perspectives and techniques. A striking survey of the year’s best photographs of the natural world and of those who depend on and delight in it, this volume will be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of any gardener, nature lover, or photography enthusiast.

    It has turned into much more: it is the story of a family, of a life, of a community, of continuity with the past and adaptation to the modern age.Hugh Cavendish writes about the history of Holker, which dates back to the sixteenth century and has never been bought or sold but has passed by inheritance through the family line, with each each generation leaving its impressions. He writes too about his family - his grandparents who, faced with 'serious financial embarrassment' sat down with a list to find savings and 'having identified essentials, they agreed to give up taking Country Life and having hot water and lemon after dinner' - but still thought it not unreasonable to plan to divert a river to run through the park; his mother ('relations with my mother were never good, and often spectacularly bad'); his aunts (collectively identified as the 'Aunt Heap'). He describes his own life, as a child at Holker ('when I look back I allow myself the indulgence of believing I was not quite as stupid as my schoolmasters held me to be; nor quite as lazy) and later as the owner of Holker, finding a way of managing huge resources and responsibilities and also immense debt. And, of course, he writes about the garden.

    New plant introductions from abroad brought a greater variety of plants, while improvements in technology made gardening more accessible. Gardening books and magazines spread the appeal and debate raged over the merits of colour and order versus wild and natural. The large and impressive gardens of country houses were emulated in suburban settings as the appeal of gardens and gardening spread to the masses, while the creation of public parks introduced green spaces to grey cities.As with architecture, Victorian gardens underwent a 'battle of the styles', and an exploration of the period reveals contrasting fashions for garish bedding, ornate Italian terracing, naturalistic planting, cool ferneries, colourful parterres, tranquil Japanese water features, and the occasional eccentric embellishment. The characters involved include such Victorian luminaries as John Loudon, Joseph Paxton and Charles Darwin, alongside the garden designers William Nesfield, Charles Barry and William Robinson, plant hunters Joseph Hooker, Robert Fortune and William Lobb, and the influential women Marianne North, Alicia Amherst and Jane Loudon. The pace of change makes the Victorian era of gardens an exciting time of exotic new plants, fiercely competitive head gardeners, impressive glasshouse engineering, strong personalities and contrasting ideals.

    Using a wide range of ingredients and flavors available fresh from summer gardens and farmers markets, Gayla Trail shows you how to concoct seasonal drinks that you can’t buy in a bottle.From frosty, low-sugar thirst quenchers that will keep the kids hydrated and happy, to fun and unusual twists on classic grown up libations, DRINKING THE SUMMER GARDEN is packed with more than 40 recipes to satisfy every taste. Featuring instruction on syrup-making, pickling, homegrown garnishes, fermenting, handcrafting liqueurs, as well as handy how-to techniques written and presented in Trail’s irreverent, friendly style, this volume will encourage and inspire further explorations in the kitchen and the garden.

    Lively text delves into each bird’s diet, behavior, range, nests, habitat, and calls; the watercolor illustrations are expressive and meticulously detailed. Additionally, readers will learn how to create a bird journal and whip up a batch of bird food.The feeder is generous, shaped like a house, fully open in the front for the birds, and with side windows and a porthole for the viewer. The roof protects the feed, and the bottom lip folds open for easy cleaning. Two suction cups hold the feeder to a window.

    

    It also shows that anyone can build a raised bed and how to effectively use its many benefits, such as earlier and richer harvests, more efficient watering, less problems with snails and weeds and intelligent recycling of your green rubbish.Compact information, instructions for twenty-five of the most popular vegetable varieties as well as simple but sophisticated recipes will give the reader a first taste for his own organic vegetables and encourage the bug to crawl out into the sunshine.

    The purpose of this book is to help you know, enjoy and care for these striking decorative plants. The section on care and cultivation provides step-by-step guidance on all aspects of buying, planting and maintaining cacti and succulents, ensuring gardening success whatever your level of experience.

    The book shows you ways to get more from your gardening efforts. Using proven techniques, appliances and approaches, this book will put more harvest on your table, with no additional garden beds. For more than 30 years Mel Bartholomew has been answering questions from Square Foot Gardeners, and this book presents the very best of that information. Real solutions to real problems, from the inventor of the Square Foot Gardening method.

    They will work with you!’ ‘This book is about igniting the skills and knowledge you already have but may not realise.’ - Millie Ross, THE THRIFTY GARDENER Whether you own a tiny courtyard or a massive suburban tract, Millie will show you how to use garden wisdom to: · assess your site, microclimate and soil conditions & make a plan · develop a design style, from industrial oasis to nanna chic, renters' ‘mobile’ garden to edible ornamentals · build paths, fences, walls, fireplaces, ponds and other structures · grow plants in raised and self-watering beds, hydroponically, and in containers and pots · make planting schemes for all kinds of plants -- indoor and outdoor, shade and sun, native and exotic -- and produce plants from seeds and cuttings or by propagation, pollination and grafting · maintain, irrigate, feed, prune, mulch, compost and weed your garden and eliminate pests · grow a successful fruit, vegetable & herb garden for next to nothing.

    Rather than fighting nature by trying to raise plants unsuited for a northern climate, master gardener Barbara Rayment, who has grown--and in some cases killed--nearly all of the plants in this book, helps readers get maximum results with minimum effort by selecting the right plants for their conditions. There are literally thousands of beautiful, interesting and garden-worthy perennials perfectly suited to northern conditions. Rayment moves beyond zone ratings, categorizing plants by habitat type and offering pragmatic advice on topics like watering, soil and beneficial insects, to address common frustrations associated with cold-climate gardening. From Acantholimon to Xanthorrhoeaceae, this book includes hundreds of hardy perennials, including many native plants, accompanied by hundreds of beautiful colour photographs. While glossy gardening books from warmer climates abound, the perennials described here really do thrive in zones 2 to 4, making this an indispensable reference for novice and expert northern gardeners alike.

    Gardeners of all levels will find many new and relatively unknown jewels to add to their landscapes. The wealth of experience and personal knowledge Huegel brings to his subject makes this a veritable step-by-step handbook for the wildflower gardener."--Gil Nelson, author of Best Native Plants for Southern Gardens"Huegel has compiled a large amount of information on Florida's native wildflowers and groundcovers. This is an extremely helpful and refreshing addition to the resources for people interested in these plants, whether they wish to grow them or not."--Daniel Austin, University of ArizonaFlorida gardens and lawns are full of flowering plants and turfgrass, most commonly exotic species. Recently, however, statewide water restrictions and a rekindling of environmental awareness have increased interest in native plants, which are better adapted to the local climate and require less maintenance.     In this engaging and authoritative guide, ecologist and avid gardener Craig Huegel offers valuable information to anyone interested in integrating native ground covers into an outdoor space. As many of the plants featured in this book are not frequently or adequately discussed elsewhere, Native Wildflowers and Other Ground Covers for Florida Landscapes is a singular resource for homeowners and commercial growers alike.     Brilliantly illustrated with nearly 300 color photos, this handy book provides clear instructions on how to garden with more than 17 native ferns, 17 native grasses, and 175 wildflowers--all commercially available plants that work well together in the landscape. If you’re interested in adding these beautiful, diverse plants to your garden or yard, pick up Craig Huegel’s latest book and start planning your native plant landscape today.

    It was written because other books about sprouting were either old or not based on UK temperatures or on seeds and beans currently available here. Sprouts are grouped together based on how they are grown. So it starts with beans (2 -3 days), right through to snow peas (a couple of weeks from start to finish). Meticulously researched in the UK over the last few years this booklet offers a wealth of insight into the tricks and techniques for growing your own greens, beans and superfoods. Packed with everything you need to know about sprouting that is presented in a practical and fun way. This book is interactive, the author has a website at www.sallyholloway.com and you can email her any further questions about bean sprouting. Book contents include... * Mung Bean * Lentil * Chickpea * Aduki Bean * Alfalfa * Red Clover * Fenugreek * Wheatgrass * Snowpea shoots * Broccoli Greens * Sunflower Greens * Hulled Sunflower sprouts * Sango Raddish * Harvesting and Trouble Shooting Forget buying powdered superfoods or exotic algaes flown thousands of miles. Why not grow them on your own window ledge? This book will show you how.· * What’s the best sprout for you to grow? · * How to keep sprouting fun· * Where to buy seed · * Different sprouting methods.· * The difference between a sprout and a micro green · * How to grow medicinal greens ·* How to grow sunflower greens hydroponically · *How to grow exotic greens ReviewsThe most inspiring book about sprouting I've ever read. Brilliant. Suz Evasdaughter. Health Food WriterA concise, practical guide that makes sprouting easy and fun. Steve Charter. Permaculture Consultant.

    Northeast Fruit & Vegetable Gardening addresses the climate, soil, sun, and water conditions that affect growing success and includes advice for extending the growing season. Each plant profile highlights planting, growing, watering, and care information. Helpful charts and graphs assist gardeners in knowing when to plant and harvest.

    Beginning in October, when much of California leaves the dry season behind and prepares for its own green “spring,” Helen Popper provides detailed, calendar-based information for both beginning and experienced native gardeners. Each month’s chapter lists gardening tasks, including repeated tasks and those specific to each season. Popper offers planting and design ideas, and explains core gardening techniques such as pruning, mulching, and propagating. She tells how to use native plants in traditional garden styles, including Japanese, herb, and formal gardens, and recommends places for viewing natives. An essential year-round companion, this beautifully written and illustrated book nurtures the twin delights of seeing wild plants in the garden and garden plants in the wild.

    Like a great romance, it contains elements of both inevitability and insurmountable odds. Like a great love, it is both comfortably familiar and always surprising. In this slim volume of tell-all confessions, the author reveals how she lost the heart of her favorite eggplant, how she took advantage of her radishes’ loyalty and affection, how her cucumbers avenged themselves, and more. Sprinkled with gardening insights and ideas, these humorous essays are a delight for anyone who has ever invested her heart into a garden.This book contains all the essays originally published in two separate volumes as Confessions of a Vegetable Lover and More Confessions of a Vegetable Lover.

    Shortlisted for 2013 Tir na-n-Og English award. There is also a Welsh version of this picture book.

    Also includes tips on saving and testing seeds, making seed pots from upcycled materials, and much more.

    But they're worried. They know they need bees to make their pumpkins grow. But will the bees find their garden? Are there even bees in the city?So one day, Grandpa and the children set out to look for bees. They arrive downtown just in time to see something amazing: a buzzing ball of bees hovers from the branch of a nearby tree. And high on the terrace of a towering hotel are four brightly coloured beehives!For Matthew and Sophie, this is the beginning of an exciting adventure. All summer they tend their plants, eagerly watching as their seeds sprout and turn into shoots, then vines and leaves. But they're still worried. Will the bees come when they're needed?Finally, the golden pumpkin flowers appear among the leaves. The female flowers will be open for just one day, and Matthew and Sophie arrive at the garden early in the morning to wait and watch. Will the bees arrive in time to pollinate the plants?

    Palms are often underutilized as a result of their unfamiliarity—even to tropical gardeners. To help introduce these valuable plants to a new audience, the authors have exhaustively documented every genus in the palm family.825 species are described in detail, including cold hardiness, water needs, height, and any special requirements. Generously illustrated with more than 900 photos, including photos of several palm species that have never before appeared in a general encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms is as valuable as an identification guide as it is a practical handbook. Interesting snippets of history, ethnobotany, and biology inform the text and make this a lively catalog of these remarkable plants.

    In addition to the hundreds of hardy plants in eleven different plant categories, there are monthly to-do calendars assisting gardeners with the proper care and timing for everything from planting to pruning. Full-color photos for each plant and helpful illustrations and charts make this an easy-to-use resource for all New England gardeners with expert advice for home gardeners in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

    Whether you have a traditional backyard space or several containers on a high-rise balcony, you can grow a season-long supply of tasty produce. Best-selling garden writers Marianne Binetti and Laura Peters provide all you need to know to dig in:* Basics such as light, soil, exposure and frost tolerance* Almost infinite garden styles, including raised beds and containers* Preparing the garden and selecting which vegetables to grow where* Recommended varieties, including new, traditional, heirloom and unusual selections* Seasonal care, including mulching, weeding and watering* Tips throughout, including how to extend the growing season and what to do with your harvest* Organic approaches to management of pests and diseases* An appendix featuring companion plants and relationships* Helpful hardiness maps, and delicious color photos throughout.From A to Z--yummy artichokes, arugula and asparagus, through to healthy kale and peculiar kohlrabi, leeks and okra, all the way to colorful peppers, potatoes and zucchini--it's all here in this informative gardening guide.

    Here's how to ensure your garden provides the freshest food all year round.Follow clear month-by-month advice on what to do in your garden and how to do it.Pick up time-saving tips and techniques on everything from pruning to dealing with pests.Find out when to sow, plant and harvest for excellent results.Get more from your garden with this indispensable guide.

    Pages reproduced on leaves, with four pages per leaf.

    and much much more!So, if you're serious about wanting a better garden using compost and you want to know how to make great compost, then you need to grab a copy of " Worm Composting & Composting Ideas: For Use in Organic Gardening of Growing Vegetables & Herbs " right now, because Worm Composting Expert, Jack Pollard, will reveal to you how every first time composter, regardless of experience level with worm composting you can succeed - Today!

    It is written for both serious home seed savers and diversified small-scale farmers who want to learn the necessary steps involved in successfully producing a commercial seed crop organically.Detailed profiles for each of the major vegetables provide users with practical, in-depth knowledge about growing, harvesting, and processing seed for a wide range of common and specialty vegetable crops, from Asian greens to zucchini.In addition, readers will find extensive and critical information on topics including:The reproductive biology of crop plantsAnnual vs. biennial seed cropsIsolation distances needed to ensure varietal purityMaintaining adequate population size for genetic integritySeed crop climatesSeed-borne diseasesSeed-cleaning basicsSeed storage for farmersand more . . .This book can serve as a bridge to lead skilled gardeners, who are already saving their own seed, into the idea of growing seed commercially. And for diversified vegetable farmers who are growing a seed crop for sale for the first time, it will provide details on many of the tricks of the trade that are used by professional seed growers. This manual will help the budding seed farmer to become more knowledgeable, efficient, and effective in producing a commercially viable seed crop.With the strong demand for certified organic produce, many regional seed companies are increasingly seeking out dedicated seed growers to ensure a reliable source of organically grown seeds for their farmer and gardener customers. This trend represents a great business opportunity for small-scale commercial growers who wish to raise and sell vegetable seeds as a profitable part of their diversified small-farm operation. Written by well-known plant breeder and organic seed expert John Navazio, The Organic Seed Grower is the most up-to-date and useful guide to best practices in this exciting and important field.