Best of
Horticulture

2014

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees


Ann Ralph - 2014
    These great little trees take up less space, require less care, offer easy harvest, and make a fruitful addition to any home landscape.

The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden


Rick Darke - 2014
    Sure, it’s a tall order, but The Living Landscape shows you how to do it. You’ll learn the strategies for making and maintaining a diverse, layered landscape—one that offers beauty on many levels, provides outdoor rooms and turf areas for children and pets, incorporates fragrance and edible plants, and provides cover, shelter, and sustenance for wildlife. Richly illustrated and informed by both a keen eye for design and an understanding of how healthy ecologies work, The Living Landscape will enable you to create a garden that fulfills both human needs and the needs of wildlife communities.

The Gift of Healing Herbs: Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life


Robin Rose Bennett - 2014
    Written by well-respected urban herbalist Robin Rose Bennett with over 180 easy-to-follow recipes, this book offers readers who want to take charge of their health an immersion into a myriad ways to use plant-based remedies to care for themselves and others on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. Informed by the wisdom that physical and spiritual healing are inextricably intertwined, The Gift of Healing Herbs explores herbology as the "people's medicine", freely available to all, and as a powerful yet gentle way to heal body, mind, heart, and soul. The book is divided into three parts: the first part examines health and the causes of illness; the second part comprises a reference of all the physical systems of the body and the common and not-so-common herbs for tonifying them; and the third part contains recipes for teas, brews, and instructions for incorporating herbs into our daily lives. The hundreds of recipes for herbal preparations in this book—accompanied by prayers, meditations, and rituals—offer spiritual and physical insights into the relationship between our body systems and the elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, thus helping the reader explore and experience the interconnection of all things in the web of life.With personal stories, case histories, and elements of personal memoir, The Gift of Healing Herbs is equal parts inspiration and instruction drawn from the author's life and decades spent teaching and practicing herbal medicine in a spiritual, earth-based, nondogmatic style. focused as keenly on the spiritual aspects of healing as revealed through personal story. The author explores how one's personal story turns into one's embodied physicality, specific health challenges, and ultimately reveals one's unique path of healing.

Air Plants: The Curious World of Tillandsias


Zenaida Sengo - 2014
    Stunning photographs showcase creative ideas for using tillandsias mounted on walls and suspended from the ceiling. You’ll learn how to use the plants in living hair accessories and jewelry and in unique containers, like dishware, leather bowls, and baskets. Six step-by-step projects include a wood mount, a wall hook, lasso-and-hook wiring, a ceramic-frame garden, and three unique terrariums.

Rodale's 21st-Century Herbal: A Practical Guide for Healthy Living Using Nature's Most Powerful Plants


Michael J. Balick - 2014
    Our ancestors have used indigenous herbs in daily life for thousands of years due to these plants’ ability to heal and promote good health. Now modern science has identified the compounds that give herbs their medicinal qualities, scent, and flavor. The extraordinary diversity of herbal plants has the potential to improve our health and well-being, and we are wholeheartedly incorporating herbs, both fresh and dried, into our lifestyles—for well-being, healing, gardening, beauty, ceremony, and a richer, fuller life.Presented in three parts, Rodale’s 21st-Century Herbal first explores the historical relationship between people and herbal plants and how it has evolved over time. In the second part, readers will delve into an A-to-Z encyclopedia of 180 of the most useful herbs from around the globe, not only familiar herbs like bilberry and nasturtium, but also cutting-edge herbs from other cultures, like red bush tea and maca, that are now available in the West. The final section highlights how herbs create a “fuller” life and features herbal cooking techniques, ways to use herbs for beauty and the bath, ideas for daily herbal use (such as green cleaning, fragrances, decor, smudging, and dyeing), gardening and growing how-tos (with illustrated garden designs), and advice for holistic herbal pet care.

The Flower Farmer's Year: How to Grow Cut Flowers for Pleasure and Profit


Georgie Newbery - 2014
    Whether you want to grow for your own pleasure or start your own business, The Flower Farmer’s Year is the perfect guide.

Flora Illustrata: Great Works from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden


Susan M. Fraser - 2014
    Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden counts among its holdings many of the most beautiful and pioneering botanical and horticultural works ever created. More than eight centuries of knowledge, from the twelfth century to the present, are represented in the library’s collection of over one million items. In this sumptuously illustrated volume, international experts introduce us to some of the library’s most fascinating works—exceedingly rare books, stunning botanical artworks, handwritten manuscripts, Renaissance herbals, nursery catalogs, explorers’ notebooks, and more. The contributors hold these treasures up for close inspection and offer surprising insights into their histories and importance.   The diverse materials showcased in the volume reflect the creative efforts of eminent explorers, scientists, artists, publishers, and print makers. From the rare, illuminated pages of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia (1483), to the earliest book ever published on American insects (1797), to lovely etchings of the water gardens at Villa Pratolino in Florence (1600s), the Mertz Library holdings will inspire in readers a new appreciation for the extraordinary history of botany and its far-reaching connections to the worlds of science, books, art, and culture.

Encyclopedia of Garden Plants for Every Location


D.K. Publishing - 2014
    Including more than 2,000 recommendations from gardening experts, Encyclopedia of Garden Plants for Every Location includes planting suggestions for over 30 types of sites, from notoriously dry ground by a hedge or fence to cracks in walls or paving, explains how to assess site and soil, and presents a stunning range of plant partners and planting schemes.Produced in association with the Smithsonian Institution, whose Smithsonian's Gardens creates and manages the Smithsonian's outdoor gardens, interiorscapes, and horticulture-related collections and exhibits, Encyclopedia of Garden Plants for Every Location is the perfect book for gardeners looking to make the most out of their plot.Reviews:"Next time you are wandering around looking for a spot to slip in one more plant, this book might send your trowel in an entirely new direction." - The American Gardener

Wild Food: A Complete Guide for Foragers


Roger Phillips - 2014
    In this definitive book, hundreds of these plants are clearly identified, with color photography and a detailed description. Roger Phillips also gives us fascinating information on how our ancestors would have used the plant as well as including more than 100 more modern recipes for delicious food and drinks. From berries, herbs, and mushrooms to wild vegetables, salad leaves, seaweed, and even bark, this book will inspire you to start cooking with nature's free bounty. lncludes dual measures.

Aquaponics Bacteria: Importance of Bacterias in Aquaponics System


Timothy Tripp - 2014
    We all may be much familiar with aquaponics systems but generally, we lack technical knowledge and factors affecting the performance of these systems. We should know that productivity and performance of these systems directly affect the revenues and the quality of food production from the aquaponics systems. Unlike hydroponics and aquaculture, bacteria play a key role in the aquaponics systems. They are the link between fish and plants, and for the completion of food chain. Hence, taking care of bacteria, especially all those factors that affect bacterial growth is vital.

The Herb and Flower Cookbook: Plant, Grow and Eat


Pip McCormac - 2014
    

The Plant Lover's Guide to Salvias


John Whittlesey - 2014
    Salvia’s popularity stems from how easy they are to grow, their multiple medicinal and culinary uses, and the vibrancy of their blooms that cover every color in the spectrum from white to nearly black. The Plant Lover’s Guide to Salvias features everything you need to know to grow this vibrant and fragrant plant. Plant profiles of 150 varieties highlight each plant’s type, habitat, size, hardiness, origin, cultivation, and use in the landscape. Additional information includes tips on design, how to grow and propagate salvia, where to view them in public gardens, and where to buy them.

The Manual of Plant Grafting: Practical Techniques for Ornamentals, Vegetables, and Fruit


Peter T MacDonald - 2014
    Fruit trees are grafted to control their size, willows to produce attractive weeping forms, and tomatoes and melons to enhance their disease resistance. Peter MacDonald describes the latest grafting techniques for students, professionals and enthusiastic amateurs, including information on the reasons for grafting, clear instructions on the formation of the graft union, bench grafting techniques, field grafting, vegetable grafting, and cactus grafting. An A-to-Z appendix of plants features detailed information on what type of graft should be used, when it should be done, what type of root stock needs to be used, and what environment it needs to be kept in.