With Planting, designers and home gardeners can recreate these plant-rich, beautiful gardens that support biodiversity and nourish the human spirit.An intimate knowledge of plants is essential to the success of modern landscape design, and Planting shares Oudolf’s considerable understanding of plant ecology, explaining how plants behave in different situations, what goes on underground, and which species make good neighbors. Extensive plant charts and planting plans will help you choose plants for their structure, color, and texture. A detailed directory shares details like each plant’s life expectancy, the persistence of its seedheads, and its propensity to self-seed.

    For easy navigation, the book is divided into thematic changes - covering everything from Plant Parts to Plant Pests - and further subdivided into useful headings, such as 'Seed Sowing' and 'Pruning'. In addition, feature spreads profile the remarkable individuals who have collected, studied and illustrated the plants that we grow today, and 'Botany in Action' boxes provide instantly accessible practical tips and advice.Aided by this book, every gardener - and every garden - will benefit from unlocking the wealth of information that lies within the intriguing world of botanical science.

    Fickle plants make seemingly spontaneous decisions to bloom or bust, seeds sprout magically in the blink of an eye, and deep-rooted mysteries unfold underground and out of sight. Understanding basic botany is like unlocking a horticultural code; fortunately learning a little science can reveal the secrets of the botanical universe and shed some light on what’s really going on in your garden.Practical Botany for Gardeners provides an elegant and accessible introduction to the world of botany. It presents the essentials that every gardener needs to know, connecting explanations of scientific facts with useful gardening tips. Flip to the roots section and you’ll not only learn how different types of roots support a plant but also find that adding fungi to soil aids growth. The pruning section both defines “lateral buds” and explains how far back on a shoot to cut in order to propagate them.The book breaks down key areas and terminology with easy-to-navigate chapters arranged by theme, such as plant types, plant parts, inner workings, and external factors. “Great Botanists” and “Botany in Action” boxes delve deeper into the fascinating byways of plant science. This multifaceted book also includes two hundred botanical illustrations and basic diagrams that hearken to the classic roots of botany.Part handbook, part reference, Practical Botany for Gardeners is a beautifully captivating read. It’s a must for garden lovers and backyard botanists who want to grow and nurture their own plant knowledge.

    A growing number of market gardeners are emerging to feed our appetite for organic, regional produce. But most of the available resources on food production are aimed at the backyard or hobby gardener who wants to supplement their family's diet with a few homegrown fruits and vegetables. Targeted at serious growers in every climate zone, Sustainable Market Farming is a comprehensive manual for small-scale farmers raising organic crops sustainably on a few acres.Informed by the author's extensive experience growing a wide variety of fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to feed the approximately one hundred members of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, this practical guide provides:Detailed profiles of a full range of crops, addressing sowing, cultivation, rotation, succession, common pests and diseases, and harvest and storageInformation about new, efficient techniques, season extension, and disease resistant varietiesFarm-specific business skills to help ensure a successful, profitable enterpriseWhether you are a beginning market grower or an established enterprise seeking to improve your skills, Sustainable Market Farming is an invaluable resource and a timely book for the maturing local agriculture movement.Pam Dawling is a contributing editor with Growing for Market magazine. An avid vegetable grower, she has been farming as a member of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia for over twenty years, where she helps grow food for around one hundred people on three and a half acres, and provides training in sustainable vegetable production.

    But many botanical identification books just aren’t user-friendly. Pick up wildflower expert Walter Kingsley Taylor’s latest offering and you’ll find out just how much fun it is to track down the flower on the side of the road.”— Tampa Tribune “Goes a step beyond the norm of being just a field guide. It is an absolute inspiration and incentive to get out into the woods.”— Palatka Daily News “If you would like to attend a fascinating and informative lecture by one of Florida’s foremost experts on the state’s wildflowers and where they may be found—all in the comfort of your own home—by all means, read this book.”— Orlando Sentinel “Taylor’s guide will help readers recognize and identify wildflowers in a different way, not principally by their color or family group, but by where they’re most likely to be found growing—their natural habitat.”— Gainesville Sun “This new field guide is the best yet for Florida wildflowers. . . . Each entry includes a description, time of flowering, habitat, Florida distribution, and often a comment field that discusses related species, etymology, and even culinary and landscape uses.”— Floridata “Taylor’s unorthodox approach has garnered positive comments from casual, weekend hikers as well as those with a professional interest in wildflowers. . . . It has remarkably broad appeal, because it’s so clear and well done and because the photos are excellent.”— Lakeland Ledger “In this unique and refreshing approach to a wildflower guide, photographs visually illustrate the natural plant community described at the beginning of each community section. . . . An excellent and most useful guide.”— Choice Walter Kingsley Taylor’s Florida Wildflowers in their Natural Communities was wildly praised for its beauty, ease of use, and unique organizational structure: plants were described in the context of where they grow, making identification much simpler—and more rewarding—for the casual hiker or wildflower enthusiast. Vastly expanded and updated with new taxonomy, this volume provides detailed information on more than 450 species included in the earlier edition and nearly doubles the number of species included by expanding coverage into wetlands.

    With Principles of Ecological Landscape Design, Travis Beck gives professionals and students the first book to translate the science of ecology into design practice. This groundbreaking work explains key ecological concepts and their application to the design and management of sustainable landscapes. It covers topics from biogeography and plant selection to global change. Beck draws on real world cases where professionals have put ecological principles to use in the built landscape.For constructed landscapes to perform as we need them to, we must get their underlying ecology right. Principles of Ecological Landscape Design provides the tools to do just that.

    In this book, rose expert Paul Zimmerman debunks common rose myths and outdated care instructions, and instead imparts practical rose care advice in a fun and accessible voice. Readers will find helpful suggestions for choosing roses based on landscape need, tips on what to look for when buying roses, new techniques for the best way to plant roses, and sensible time-saving methods to maintain their roses throughout the year. Aimed at gardeners who want the beauty of roses without the fuss, this book offers an approach that is more accessible and environmentally friendly than competing volumes—and no other book in the current market focuses exclusively on modern roses and getting the most out of them.

    The verses remind us of nature's gifts and come from classic poets of all eras, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Tennyson, Hardy, Whitman, and Dickinson right up to Seamus Heaney.

    This toxic legacy impacts the environment, our health, our watersheds, and land that could otherwise be used to grow healthy local food and medicines. Conventional clean-up techniques employed by government and industry are tremendously expensive and resource-intensive and can cause further damage. More and more communities find themselves increasingly unable to rely on those companies and governments who created the problems to step in and provide solutions.Earth Repair describes a host of powerful grassroots bioremediation techniques, including:Microbial remediation—using microorganisms to break down and bind contaminantsPhytoremediation—using plants to extract, bind, and transform toxinsMycoremediation—using fungi to clean up contaminated soil and waterPacked with valuable, firsthand information from visionaries in the field, Earth Repair empowers communities and individuals to take action and heal contaminated and damaged land. Encompassing everything from remediating and regenerating abandoned city lots for urban farmers and gardeners to recovering from environmental disasters and industrial catastrophes such as oil spills and nuclear fallout, this fertile toolbox is essential reading for anyone who wishes to transform environmental despair into constructive action.Leila Darwish is a community organizer, urban gardener, and permaculture designer with a focus on using grassroots bioremediation to address environmental justice issues in communities struggling with toxic contamination of their land and drinking water.

    The 53 elegant arrangements featured in Japanese Ikebana for Every Season are perfect for special occasions--Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, birthday, anniversary--or any event that calls for a flower bouquet.The key to good Ikebana arrangements is to understand a few very simple principles--like the idea of mitate, seeing old things with new eyes--and to learn a few easy techniques to stabilize and support plants inside a vase or container. Using common flowers and plants from the garden, a nearby field or forest, or the local florist, anyone can easily create these lovely Ikebana in just a few minutes.Authors Rie Imai and Yuji Ueno explain how to select flowers and containers from things that are already around--and then turn them into something special. The basic instructions in the book cover a wide range of styles that encourage readers to use their own creativity rather than copying traditional and highly technical Ikebana design concepts.No matter what time of year it is and regardless of your taste or budget--the arrangements in this book will lend a touch of Japanese elegance to your home.

    If you are going to truly try and attain a little more self-sufficiency (and save some money at the same time), think about what you can store to get you through the leaner months. Alys takes you through all the different ways of preserving - bottling, drying, fermenting, freezing, pickling, using sugar - with delicious recipes that make the most of your produce. This book is a must for anyone that wants to store and preserve their garden bounty.

    It provides general guidelines for designers and other stakeholders in a variety of projects, as well as patient-specific guidelines covering twelve categories ranging from burn patients, psychiatric patients, to hospice and Alzheimer's patients, among others. Sections on participatory design and funding offer valuable guidance to the entire team, not just designers, while a planting and maintenance chapter gives critical information to ensure that safety, longevity, and budgetary concerns are addressed.

    For more than half a century, Robert Sanford Martin's How to Prune Fruit Trees has been the go-to guide for pruners of all levels of expertise. As one reviewer noted, "This book simplifies what other books complicate. It has a small amount of text paired with line drawings that help break pruning tasks down into something you can easily understand." Martin has judiciously pruned his words to make his advice as clear and simple as possible. His guidance in the art of cutting back and thinning out has been responsible for the preservation of countless healthy trees and orchards. Maximize your fruit production-whether you are growing apples, almonds, plums, pomegranates, or any of over 40 varieties of fruit trees discussed in this book-by making the right cut every time.In this enhanced edition, additional information from H. H. Thomas's Pruning Made Easy explores the treatment of roots, side shoots, sub-laterals, standards, cordon trees, and other aspects of plant care. Well illustrated and clear, this book will become your indispensable guide for year-round pruning success and should have a place in the library of both seasoned and amateur gardeners.

    See how you can start growing edible, gourmet and medicinal mushrooms by understanding how mushrooms grow - and how to do it in your own home. It's never been easier, especially with mushroom Grow Buddy, the premier mushroom growing guide.What sets mushroom Grow Buddy apart? This grow guide will walk you through edible, gourmet and medicinal fungus cultivation in plain English, making it easy to understand. See how mushrooms reproduce, how they're grown and how you can even turn one store bought spore syringe into a literally unlimited source of spores for life. This book pays for itself over and over and is the perfect handy guide book for any home cultivator or hobbyist. Why be stuck paying the high prices at the grocery store when you can grow fresh, organic, highly nutritious mushrooms at home?

    The reader is introduced to stories of the wild foraging traditions of indigenous people in all continents. It is of interest to both traditional vegetable and even ornamental gardeners, as well as anyone interested in permaculture, forest gardening, foraging, slow-food, gourmet cooking and ethnobotany. “Stephen Barstow presents fascinating and useful information about his top 80 perennial leafy vegetables including lots of historical references, his and others’ recipe ideas, along with photos and more. Many of these are easily grown and can be ornamental as well as great edibles. This will be a really useful book helping extend the range of food plants for gardeners.” Martin Crawford

    Readers can discover midtown atriums, mingle with the crowds in Union Square, travel offshore to nearby Governors Island, and enjoy the vistas of historic Green-Wood Cemetery. Pete Hamill writes in his foreword, “I’ve . . . made a list of new places I must visit while there is time. With any luck at all, I’ll see all of them. I hope you, the reader, can find the time too.” Concise descriptions, helpful maps, and vivid photographs capture the New York urban scene.

    It might seem to be a humorous gift-book: a light-hearted distraction with a grounding of good sense; but this book contains a much richer story than you might initially expect. A realistic and humourous look at the farming life.

    Explaining how sustainable processes can be achieved without damaging the bottom line, it also introduces eco-friendly working practices that will benefit your business.Demystifies the current industry standards, including ISO 16759.Full of case studies and practical checklists.Offers achievable green strategies that will boost your bottom line.

    Most of us reach for a cup of coffee or tea in the morning, many of us occasionally eat some chocolate, some smoke a cigarette or take an herbal supplement, and some peopleuse illicit drugs. We know a great deal about the mechanisms by which the psychoactive components of these various products have their effects on human brain function, but the question of why they have these effects has been almost totally ignored.This book sets out to describe not only how, in terms of pharmacology or psychopharmacology, but more importantly why plant- and fungus-derived chemicals have their effects on the human brain. The answer to this last question resides, in part, with the terrestrial world's two dominant life forms, the plants and the insects, and the many ecological roles the 'secondary metabolite' plant chemicals are trying to play; for instance, defending the plant against insect herbivores whilst attracting insect pollinators. The answer also resides in the intersecting genetic heritage of mammals, plants, and insects and the surprising biological similarities between the three taxa. In particular it revolves around the close correspondence between the brains of insects and humans, and the intercellular signaling pathways shared by plants and humans.Plants and the Human Brain describes and discusses both how and why phytochemicals affect brain function with respect to the three main groups of secondary metabolites: the alkaloids, which provide us with caffeine, a host of poisons, a handful of hallucinogens, and most drugs of abuse (e.g.morphine, cocaine, DMT, LSD, and nicotine); the phenolics, including polyphenols, which constitute a significant and beneficial part of our natural diet; and the terpenes, a group of multifunctional compounds which provide us with the active components of cannabis and a multitude of herbal extractssuch as ginseng, ginkgo and valerian.

    Give yourself flowers every day of the year! For those of you whose datebooks have been replaced by smartphones, TASCHEN has created the new "365 Day-By-Day" series so that you can still enjoy the warm analog feeling of marking every day with the turn of a page. Each day you'll discover a new reproduction of a hand-painted engraving from Basilius Besler's magnificent 17th century record of the "Garden at Eichstatt" - presented seasonally - ensuring a constant source of inspiration right on your desktop. At the end of the year, just turn back to the beginning and start again!(Multilingual Edition: English, French, German)