Enhanced with gorgeous photography, this book covers subjects such as growing-medium options, rooftop gardening, cost-effective gardening solutions, planting tips, watering strategies (automatic water drip systems and hand watering), and more. The process of creating and building raised beds is a cinch, too, thanks to the extensive gallery of design ideas and step-by-step projects. This gardening strategy is taking serious root. Why? Several reasons:Raised beds allow gardeners to practice space efficiency as well as accessibility (the beds can be customized to be any height).Raised beds permit gardeners to use their own soil, and they can be designed with wheels for easy portability if partial sunlight is a problem.Water conservation is easier for gardeners who use raised beds.Pest control is assisted because most garden pests can’t make the leap up into the raised bed. For yards that struggle with drainage, raised bed gardening offers a no-brainer solution. Raised beds simply create a more interesting yard!Find out more about why everyone is joining the raised bed revolution, roll up your sleeves and join in!

    Seeking to address the various challenges of off-camera lighting, professional photographers and advanced amateurs alike will find a range of confidence-building instruction, beginning with basic how’s and why’s of lighting for creative effect, the types of equipment available and instruction about their proper use, clear definitions of various technical concepts such as managing shutter speed and controlling flash exposure, using ambient light as well as natural sunlight during a shoot, and incorporating off-camera flash into a portrait session. Concluding this lesson plan is a look at five different real-life photo sessions, each employing a different flash technique. Here, photographers get a deeper understanding of each concept put into practice, marrying the elements of lighting with the natural elements presented by the shoot.

    Give your landscape a vibrant new palette that is both sustainable and low-maintenance through plantings of herbs, shrubs, mosses, and more. Barbara W. Ellis provides a variety of full-color lawn designs and professional planting advice to get you started. You’ll be amazed as your ordinary lawn transforms into a striking display of color and texture.

    Start by planning your garden and learning strategies and tips for keeping your plants safe while they grow. Plant with purpose, choosing from a dozen plans for theme gardens such as Orange Egg Yolks or Nesting Box Herbs. Or choose a design that's filled with edibles - sharing the bounty with your family and your feathered friends. Then comes the fun part: enjoy the harvest, even let the chickens graze!Lisa's friendly writing, together with inspirational photos and illustrations, will have you rolling up your sleeves and reaching for your gardening tools. Lisa also covers a range of topics just for chicken-keepers, including:- Chickens and composting- Using chickens to aerate and till- Coop window boxes- Plants to avoid when you have chickens- Lists of the most valuable crops and herbs- Advice on how to harvest and use many of the plants- And much more!Whether you're an experienced chicken keeper, master gardener, or just getting into these two wonderful hobbies, Gardening with Chickens is an indispensable guide for a harmonious homestead.

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

    Like the previous editions, this one tells you how you can make maple syrup right in your own backyard without having to build a sap house or buy buckets, holding tanks, evaporators and other expensive paraphernalia. Provides detailed "how-to" information, and makes some new and noteworthy revelations-including tips sugarers across the country have shared with the author.

    This book shows you how to claim your share. Over 200 pages of valuable metal detecting information designed to get you out there finding treasure on your very first outing.Finding treasure with a metal detector is real and doing it is simple and easy once you read this book. There are people finding incredible old coins made from gold and silver, valuable historical relics and old jewelry made from gold, silver and platinum. But you won't find these great treasures unless you know where and how to look. Metal Detecting: A Beginner's Guide shows you this and much more.Veteran detectorist and treasure enthusiast Mark Smith continues to provide great information to anyone interested in the great hobby of metal detecting. In his second book on the subject, he manages to answer the common questions that every novice has when they are thinking about getting started. From choosing the right machine to identifying your valuable treasure, Mark Smith covers these subjects and everything in between in an easy to understand way.While this metal detecting book may be geared towards the novice treasure hunter, there are plenty of choice tips that even experienced treasure hunters can pick up. Mark Smith reveals some of his best guarded metal detecting secrets in this metal detecting guide that puts more treasure in your find's pouch.Fully illustrated diagrams and real life pictures describe in detail the easiest ways to not only locate treasure, but safely recover it as well.Learn how to find more treasure by: understanding common metal detecting terminology, understanding which metal detectors work the best and where, understanding how and why a metal detector works, other equipment you will need, proper etiquette, what you can expect to find, why you should never throw anything away, how to identify your finds, how to identify jewelry, how to tell if it is real gold, how to metal detect with children, which recovery tools work the best, how to recover treasure, how to metal detect private property, how to identify unknown metal detecting finds, metal detecting creeks, rivers and lakes, pinpointing, making weak targets stronger, cleaning your finds, the best places to use your metal detector, selling your finds and more!What are you waiting for? Find out how you can maximize your treasure with this informative metal detecting book today.

    If the size of your space is bringing you back to reality, here's the best part: you don't need a big backyard to grow your own food. In fact, you don't need a yard at all. Andrea Bellamy, founder of the acclaimed blog Heavy Petal, gives you the dirt on growing gorgeous organic food with very little square footage. Simple, straightforward, design and growing advice can help you transform just a snippet of space into a stylish and edible oasis. Bellamy goes beyond the surface and shows you how to create and maintain healthy soil, decide what and when to plant, sow seeds and harvest, and most importantly, enjoy the process. So go ahead, picture that tiny nook, corner, strip, porch, alley, balcony, or postage-stamp-sized yard overflowing with fingerling potatoes, fragrant herbs, sugar snap peas, French breakfast radishes, and scarlet runner beans. Armed with luscious photography, encouraging tips, and sophisticated designs, you're sure to be inspired to join the grow-your-own revolution.

    Written by a gardener with 30 years of experience, this easy-to-use reference explains everything you need to know to start seeds and raise healthy seedlings successfully. You'll find:* The latest research in seed starting* The best growing media* The newest gardening materials* Solutions to seed-starting problems* Source lists for seeds and hard-to-find gardening suppliesAnd! An encyclopedia section lists more than 200 plants--including vegetables and fruits, garden flowers, wildflowers, herbs, trees, and shrubs--with details on how to start each from seed.

    Yet it is possible to grow apples responsibly, by applying the intuitive knowledge of our great-grandparents with the fruits of modern scientific research and innovation.Since The Apple Grower first appeared in 1998, orchardist Michael Phillips has continued his research with apples, which have been called "organic's final frontier." In this new edition of his widely acclaimed work, Phillips delves even deeper into the mysteries of growing good fruit with minimal inputs. Some of the cuttingedge topics he explores include:The use of kaolin clay as an effective strategy against curculio and borers, as well as its limitationsCreating a diverse, healthy orchard ecosystem through understory management of plants, nutrients, and beneficial microorganismsHow to make a small apple business viable by focusing on heritage and regional varieties, value-added products, and the "community orchard" modelThe author's personal voice and clear-eyed advice have already made The Apple Grower a classic among small-scale growers and home orchardists. In fact, anyone serious about succeeding with apples needs to have this updated edition on their bookshelf.

    Known world-wide for his connection with God’s world of nature, this authorized work explores the man and his wildly successful garden and orchard…while applying revealed principles to guide our daily lives as well. Home gardeners in 208 countries agree that you can grow better produce with much less cost and less work if you do it God’s way. CAUTION: this book may rock your worldview!

    From annuals to vegetables, lawns, trees, and perennials, simply look up any given month and you'll find a complete gardening guide for every plant category, with advice for planning, planting, care, watering, fertilizing, and overcoming problems typically encountered by Florida gardeners during that time of year. Fully illustrated with gorgeously colored step-by-step method and plant photography, this is the ideal how-to guide for Florida gardeners. Whether you're growing milkweed in Tallahassee, planting a Simpson's stopper in Orlando, or simply wondering where (or when) to start, Florida Month-by-Month Gardening helps you take your first steps toward mastering the Florida gardening landscape. Companion books Florida Getting Started Garden Guide and Florida Fruit & Vegetable Gardening are two more excellent additions to your Floridian garden library. Discover: The best lawn care tips for southern landscapesHow to maintain plantings through the dry seasonTips for growing vegetables in Florida's unique climateAdvice on managing common Florida garden pestsCare and planting techniques for shrub and flower gardensOther titles in our popular Month-By-Month Gardening series include: Mid-Atlantic, Pacific Northwest, Carolinas, Rocky Mountains, Deep South, New England, and many more.

    Whereas traditional vegetable plots are largely made up of short-lived, annual vegetable plants, perennials are edible plants that live longer than three years. Grown as permaculture plants, they take up less of your time and effort than annual vegetables do.Martin Crawford’s book outlines the benefits of growing perennial vegetables:Perennials provide crops throughout the year, so there’s always something that can be used in the kitchen. You avoid the hungry gap between the end of the winter harvest and the start of the summer harvest of annual vegetables.Perennial vegetables are less work. Once planted, they stay in the ground for many years. They are the classic plants for no-dig gardeners.Unlike annual vegetables, perennial vegetables cover and protect the soil all year round. This maintains the structure of the soil and helps everything growing in it.Humous levels build up and nutrients don’t wash out of soil. (Cultivating the soil for annuals exposes this humous to air on the surface, causing the carbon to be released as carbon dioxide.)Mycorrhizal fungi, critical for storing carbon within the soil, are preserved. (They are killed when soil is constantly dug for annual vegetables.)Perennial plants contain higher levels of mineral nutrients than annuals because perennial vegetables have larger, permanent root systems, capable of using space more efficiently, and they take up more nutrients.How to grow perennial vegetables gives comprehensive advice on all types of perennial vegetable, from ground-cover plants and coppiced trees to plants for bog gardens and edible woodland plants:In Part One Martin Crawford outlines why we should grow perennials. He then explains where and how to grow them in perennial polycultures, in forest garden or aquatic garden settings. He outlines how to propagate them, how to look after them for maximum health and how to harvest them.Part Two is a plant-by-plant reference of over 100 perennial edibles in detail, from familiar ones like rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), horseradish and asparagus to less common ones such as skirret, nodding onions, red chicory, Babbington’s leek, scorzonera, sea kale and wild rocket. With beautiful colour photographs and illustrations and plenty of cooking tips throughout, this book offers inspiration and information for all gardeners, whether experienced or beginner.

    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.