Book picks similar to
Composting Inside & Out: 14 Methods to Fit Your Lifestyle by Stephanie Davies
gardening
non-fiction
nonfiction
self-help
The Backyard Homestead: Produce All the Food You Need on Just a Quarter Acre!
Carleen Madigan - 2009
With easy-to-follow instructions on canning, drying, and pickling, you’ll enjoy your backyard bounty all winter long. Also available in this series: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, The Backyard Homestead Book of Building Projects, The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals, and The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How.
Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
Brett L. Markham - 2006
Even if you have never been a farmer or a gardener, this book covers everything you need to know to get started: buying and saving seeds, starting seedlings, establishing raised beds, soil fertility practices, composting, dealing with pest and disease problems, crop rotation, farm planning, and much more. Because self-suf?ciency is the objective, subjects such as raising backyard chickens and home canning are also covered along with numerous methods for keeping costs down and production high. Materials, tools, and techniques are detailed with photographs, tables, diagrams, and illustrations.
Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World
Kelly Coyne - 2010
We are in the midst of a massive cultural shift away from consumerism and toward a vibrant and very active counter-movement that has been thriving on the outskirts for quite some time — do-it-yourself-ers who make frugal, homemade living hip are challenging the notion that true wealth has anything to do with money. In Making It, Coyne and Knutzen, who are at the forefront of this movement, provide readers with all the tools they need for this radical shift in home economics.The projects range from simple to ambitious and include activities done in the home, in the garden, and out in the streets. With step-by-step instructions for a wide range of projects—from growing food in an apartment and building a ninety-nine-cent solar oven to creating safe, effective laundry soap for pennies a gallon and fishing in urban waterways Making It will be the go-to source for post-consumer living activities that are fun, inexpensive, and eminently doable. Within hours of buying this book, readers will be able to start transitioning into a creative, sustainable mode of living that is not just a temporary fad but a cultural revolution.
All New Square Foot Gardening
Mel Bartholomew - 1981
Sure, it's even simpler than it was before. Of course, you don't have to worry about fertilizer or poor soil ever again because you'll be growing above the ground. However, the best feature is that anyone, anywhere can enjoy a square foot garden - children, adults with limited mobility, and even complete novices can achieve spectacular results. But, let's get back to the ten improvements. You're going to love them: 1. New Location - Move your garden closer to your house by eliminating single-row gardening. Square foot gardens need just 20% of the space of a traditional garden.2. New Direction - Locate your garden on top of existing soil. Forget about pH soil tests, double-digging (who enjoys that?), or those never-ending soil improvements.3. New Soil - The new "Mel's Mix" is the perfect growing mix. We give you the recipe, and best of all, you can even buy the different types of compost needed.4. New Depth - You only need to prepare a SFG box to a depth of 6 inches! It's true - the majority of plants develop just fine when grown at this depth.5. No Fertilizer - The all new SFG does not need any fertilizer - ever! If you start with the perfect soil mix, then you don't need to add fertilizer.6. New Boxes - The new method uses bottomless boxes placed above ground. We show you how to build your own (with step-by-step photos).7. New Aisles - The ideal gardening aisle width is about three to four feet. That makes it even easier to kneel, work, and harvest.8. New Grids - Prominent and permanent grids added to your SFG box help you visualize your planting squares and properly space them for maximum harvest.9. New Seed-Saving Idea - The old-fashioned way advocates planting many seeds and then thinning the extras (that means pulling them up). The new method means planting a pinch - literally two or three seeds - per planting hole.10. Tabletop Gardens - The new boxes are so much smaller and lighter (only 6 inches of soil, remember?), you can add a plywood bottom to make them portable. Of course, that's not all. We've also included simple, easy-to-follow instructions using lots of photos and illustrations. You're going to love it!
Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living
Rachel Kaplan - 2011
"Urban Homesteading" is the perfect back-to-the-land guide for urbanites who want to reduce their impact on the environment. Full of practical information, as well as inspiring stories from people already living the urban homesteading life, this colorful guide is an approachable guide to learning to live more ecologically in the city. The book embraces the core concepts of localization (providing our basic needs close to where we live), self-reliance (re-learning that food comes from the ground, not the grocery store; learning to do things ourselves), and sustainability (giving back at least as much as we take). Readers will find concise how-to information that they can immediately set into practice, from making solar cookers to growing tomatoes in a barrel to raising chickens in small spaces to maintaining mental serenity in the fast-paced city environment. Full of beautiful full-color photographs and illustrations, and plenty of step-by-step instructions, this is a must-have handbook for city folk with a passion for the simple life.a"
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
Louise Riotte - 1975
If you want to know whether it is kosher to plant onions between cabbage plants, this is the place to look.-- Oklahoma TodayFirst published in 1975, this classic companion planting guide has taught a generation of gardeners how to use plants' natural partnerships to produce bigger and better harvests.Over 500,000 in Print!
Couponing for the Beginner: A Guide to Couponing for the Uninitiated
Jenny Dean - 2012
Such background knowledge will help you understand why couponing works for not only couponers but also the stores that accept them. You'll feel confident going into the store for your first real deal because of the well-rounded knowledge, couponing advice as well as the online coupon tips you will receive from Couponing for the Beginner: A Guide to Couponing for the Uninitiated. The sensible approach in Couponing for the Beginner: A Guide to Couponing for the Uninitiated will help you shop for free for some of your favorite items at some of your favorite stores like CVS, Rite Aid, Target, and Walgreens. You'll also learn how to find the best savings on items you use every day in your home - learn how to combine them with store sales and promotions, store rewards/loyalty programs, rebates and more.All you have to do is follow Dean's step-by-step guide that teaches you how to get stuff for free and you'll be shopping for free in no time. In fact, you'll be wondering why you didn't shop like this sooner!
Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills
Abigail R. Gehring - 2007
Created to both inspire and instruct, it returns readers to an era before power saws and fast food restaurants so they can rediscover the pleasures and challenges of a more self-sufficient, economical, and healthy lifestyle. Packed with hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, charts, tables, diagrams, and illustrations, it explains how to dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees for propagation, raise chickens, create a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will learn how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead.
Urban Gardening: How To Grow Food In Any City Apartment Or Yard No Matter How Small
Will Cook - 2012
You've probably already considered container gardening - but what about vertical gardening with vining plants that can grow up the wall or using a vertical aeroponics gardening system that can grow 20+ plants in a 4 square foot area?And rooftops are the perfect spot for an urban garden! Not only will you love all the fresh food but the building owner will love the reduction in their heating and cooling bills and the fact that the rooftop will need less repairs and maintenance due to the protection from the plants.Grow Vegetables And Fresh Food With An Indoor GardenEven if you only have a window sill to work with or just a small area by a window, you can build or buy a window garden to grow at least 20 food plants like tomatoes, lettuce and kale.You don't need fancy equipment or expensive gear to start an indoor urban garden - just a little bit of creativity and the plans and step by step instructions included in this book.Also included is a list of the 15 best indoor plants for cleaning, purifying and removing toxins from polluted city air. Even in the heart of Manhattan you can breath fresh, pure air thanks to these incredible plants that have been studied by NASA and proven to remove pollutants like benzene, formaldehyde and Volatice Orcanic Compounds (VOCs).Plant An Incredible Garden In Your Small Yard Or Abandoned City PlotYou might only have a very tiny yard to work with - that's okay! You can still grow a lot of incredible, fresh food and enjoy your beautiful garden. Even if you don't have a yard to work with, there's probably an abandoned plot of land somewhere in your neighborhood. You can start a community garden there often without any cost using the land as long as it's a community project. Not only will you be helping beautify the city but you'll be helping your community as well. Did you know communities that garden have lower crime rates and the residents live longer, happier lives with less stress? What if you could leave a legacy in your community by starting an urban garden?How To Start A Garden For BeginnersWhether you're a complete beginner or just want to learn more, this gardening guidebook will teach you everything you need to know to enjoy the fruits of your own special garden. Every section includes action steps, pictures and step by step tutorials so you will know what to do and how to do it to create your perfect garden.Special Section On Aeroponic Vertical GardeningYou'll learn how to start your own aeroponics vertical garden for less than a few hundred dollars. In the past, aeroponics and hydroponics systems were only available to the wealthy and those with extensive knowledge of agriculture and hydroponics.If you're looking for gardening books on kindle and you're ready to start an urban garden, this is the book for you!Ready to start gardening? Let's go!Learn how to grow an urban garden
Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard Farming and Home Skills for Self-Sufficient Living
Deanna Caswell - 2012
Readers will learn the fundamentals of gardening--from what, when and how to plant--presented with options for container gardening, raised-bed gardening, traditional gardening and even covert gardening where they blend edible plants into their flowerbeds. The authors will draw from their real-life experiences as they teach readers how to keep bees, chickens and even goats in their backyards while still keeping the peace with their neighbors and their municipalities. Seventy-five recipes will show readers how to turn the eggs, honey, beeswax, goat milk and plants they harvest in to natural skin care products and non-toxic cleaning products. Readers will also find plenty of ideas for cute handmade gifts for family and friends. Finally, in true homesteading fashion, readers will find advice on how to build community in their neighborhood with babysitting co-ops, meal co-ops and barter systems.
The Encyclopedia of Country Living
Carla Emery - 1977
It is the most complete source of step-by-step information about growing, processing, cooking, and preserving homegrown foods from garden, orchard, field, or barnyard. This book is so basic, so thorough, so reliable, that it deserves a place in every home whether country, city, or in between. Carla Emery started writing The Encyclopedia of Country Living in 1969 during the back-to-the-land movement of that time. She continued to add content and refine the information over the years ad the book went from a self-published mimeographed document to a book published by Bantam and then Sasquatch. The 10th Edition reflects the most up-to-date and the most personal version of the book that became Carla Emery’s life work. It is the original manual of basic country skills that have proved essential and necessary for people living in the country and the city, and everywhere in between. The practical advice in this exhaustive reference tool includes how to cultivate a garden, buy land, bake bread, raise farm animals, make sausage, can peaches, milk a goat, grow herbs, churn butter, build a chicken coop, catch a pig, cook on a wood stove, and much, much more.
The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner Batches, Grow Heaps, Comforter Compost, and Other Amazing Techniques for Saving Time and Money, and Producing the Most Flavorful, Nutritious Vegetables Ever
Barbara Pleasant - 2008
Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin explain their six-way compost gardening system in this informative guide that will have you rethinking how you create and use your compost. With your plants and compost living together from the beginning, your garden will become a nourishing and organic environment that encourages growth and sustainability. You’ll also find that the enriched soil requires less tending, weeding, and mulching, so you can do less back-breaking work for the same lush, beautiful results.
Prevention Healthy Favorites: Chicken Recipes: 48 Easy and Delicious Meals!
Prevention Magazine - 2011
That's the whole idea behind the Prevention Healthy Favorites series of essential cookbooks, each one gathering 48 of the best Prevention-tested recipes that make it easy to whip up a great meal or tasty treat every time.Chicken is one of the most versatile, tasty ingredients out there; it's the backbone of family menu-making. The challenge is making it flavorful and satisfying, not boring or packed with unhealthy ingredients.At Prevention magazine, we do love rising to meet a challenge! So we focused this Prevention-tested recipe collection on fabulous flavor. Within these pages you'll find a great variety of tastes and textures, from Chicken and Portobello Mushroom Pasta Bake to Lime-Marinated Chicken with Salsa. You'll even discover some lovely twists on old favorites, including versions of Oven-Fried Buttermilk Chicken and Chicken-Spinach Parmesan, that are incredibly satisfying and unbelievably healthy for you and your whole family. Whatever your favorite taste combinations, all of our recipes were created to nourish both body and spirit and to be as simple as possible to prepare.
Easy Container Gardening: 5 Steps to Grow Fresh Organic Vegetables in Small Urban Spaces: Beginners guide to patio gardening (Easy gardening essentials Book 1)
Lynda Goldman - 2015
An expert gardener and “accidental farmer” reveals her easy tips for vegetables that practically grow themselves. Discover: 10 Beautiful benefits of container gardeningShould you buy organic seeds? Find out here (the answer will surprise you)Which kind of seeds you MUST avoid if you want to be healthyWhy clay pots are not all they are cracked up to beThe #1 thing to consider when you choose a containerThe dirt on dirt, and how to create the best environment for your plants#1 Mistake most novice gardeners make (and how to avoid killing your plants)Why ugly veggies are better for you than perfect specimensWhy you have to be cruel to be kind in the garden5 Easy vegetables that practically grow themselves3 Natural solutions to keeping bugs out of your plantsHow to make “Manure Tea” (don’t ask, just check this out!)A resource to get organic, heirloom, Non-GMO seeds for freeA quick checklist to jumpstart your plantingA complete resource guide for getting seeds and seedlings at low cost or no costBeautiful images to delight your senses Scroll up and grab your copy now!
Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste
Bea Johnson - 2013
But where to begin? How? Many of us have taken small steps, but Bea Johnson has taken the big leap. Bea, her husband Scott, and their two young sons produce just one quart of garbage a year.In Zero Waste Home, Bea Johnson shares her story and lays out the system by which she and her family have reached and maintained their own Zero Waste goals—a lifestyle that has yielded bigger surprises than they ever dreamed possible. They now have more time together as a family, they have cut their annual spending by a remarkable 40%, and they are healthier than they've ever been, both emotionally and physically.This book shares how-to advice and essential secrets and insights based on the author’s own experience. She demystifies the process of going Zero Waste with hundreds of easy tips for sustainable living that even the busiest people can integrate: from making your own mustard, to packing kids' lunches without plastic, to cancelling your junk mail, to enjoying the holidays without the guilt associated with overconsumption.Stylish and completely relatable, Zero Waste Home is a practical, step-by-step guide that gives readers the tools and tips to improve their overall health, save money and time, and achieve a brighter future for their families—and the planet.