Growing on just 1.5 acres, owners Jean-Martin and Maude-Helène feed more than two hundred families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands and supply their signature mesclun salad mix to dozens of local establishments. The secret of their success is the low-tech, high-yield production methods they’ve developed by focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process.The Market Gardener is a compendium of la Grelinette’s proven horticultural techniques and innovative growing methods. This complete guide is packed with practical information on:Setting-up a micro-farm by designing biologically intensive cropping systems, all with negligible capital outlay Farming without a tractor and minimizing fossil fuel inputs through the use of the best hand tools, appropriate machinery, and minimum tillage practices Growing mixed vegetables systematically with attention to weed and pest management, crop yields, harvest periods, and pricing approachesInspired by the French intensive tradition of maraichage and by iconic American vegetable grower Eliot Coleman, author and farmer Jean-Martin shows by example how to start a market garden and make it both very productive and profitable. Making a living wage farming without big capital outlay or acreages may be closer than you think.Jean-Martin Fortier is a passionate advocate of strong local food systems and founder of Les Jardins de la Grelinette, an internationally recognized model for successful biointensive micro-farming.

    Accounts of 646 species include shape and arrangement of leaves, height, color, bark texture, flowering season, and fruit. Clear, accurate drawings illustrate leaves, flowers, buds, tree silhouettes, and other characteristics.

    In Tiny World Terrariums, authors Katy and Michelle of Brooklyn’s celebrated Twig Terrariums offer step-by-step instructions for building your own, from selecting glass containers to layering soil and filtration to adding moss, succulents, and other plants. To give each terrarium a whimsical, personal touch, Katy and Michelle demonstrate how to use tiny figurines and toys to create to-scale scenes, such as a couple at their wedding, a CSI crime scene, and Central Park in springtime. Photos of gorgeous finished terrariums and detailed instructions will empower anyone—whether green-thumbed or not—to create their own Lilliputian worlds. Praise for Tiny World Terrariums: "Terrariums have been popular with adults since Victorian times. But Katy Maslow and Michelle Inciarrano, authors of Tiny World Terrariums, make a case for younger enthusiasts too . . . Their enclosed gardens range from sophisticated to silly, with dinosaurs, unicorns and an array of other figurines telling enchanting stories in mossy tableaux. Their wonderful book provides detailed instructions to guide you through the process." —Chicago Tribune “[The authors] provide all the information needed to create the five layers of a terrarium . . . inspiration for readers who want to make their own mini world.” —Better Homes & Gardens Country Gardens (Spring 2013 issue) "I've been reading my fair share of how-to books on [terrariums] but I have a brand new favorite. Hands down . . . The tips on plant selection, preparation, and planting are the best I’ve seen (I learned a lot!)." —Babble.com "The book provides all the necessary instructions to create successfully healthy terrariums . . . But illustrations are the real delight. They show all sorts of tiny world photos labeled with container types, plant names, and more so you can more easily create contained life exactly as you envision it.” —Wired.com "If you love terrariums as much as we do, this is going to rock your world: Brooklyn-based Twig Terrariums will be selling a photographic collection of their finest miniature green gardens . . . with a step-by-step guide to creating tiny themed worlds that even the least green-thumbed person will be able to make and maintain.” —Inhabitat.com

    Throughout the book, "cheat sheets" sum up George's key facts and techniques, providing a handy quick reference for anyone starting their first vegetable garden, including how to find the best location, which vegetables are easiest to grow, how to pick out the healthiest plants at the store, when (and when not) to water, how to protect your plants from pests, and what to do with extra produce if you grow too much.If you are a visual learner, beginning gardener, looking for something new, or have struggled to grow vegetables in the past, you'll find this unique illustrated format ideal because many gardening concepts--from proper planting techniques to building raised beds--are easier to grasp when presented visually, step by step. Easy and entertaining, A Comic Book Guide to Growing Food makes homegrown vegetables fun and achievable.

    This book will make gardening easier by providing helpful guidelines and realistic advice, so you can plan out your time efficiently and effectively.Packed with beautiful photo galleries that showcase each month's "Star Plant", you'll be inspired to have your own garden blooming throughout the year! Explore more than 350 different varieties in the A-Z illustrated plant directory. Discover top tips to guide you with clear, easy-to-follow gardening advice and illustrated step-by-step projects and gardening ideas. This fully updated edition includes brand-new visual galleries that showcase a garden throughout the year, with inspirational ideas for achieving colour schemes, your favourite scent, or striking foliage in your garden.Discover How to Keep Your Garden Beautiful from January to DecemberWhatever your level of skills in the garden, expert advice from the well-known gardener, Ian Spence, will help you keep your garden thriving all year round. RHS Gardening Through The Years is a must-have for anyone who has a green thumb! Inside the pages of this easy-to-follow gardening guide, you'll find:- Essential gardening advice.- Month-by-month chapters and handy to-do lists so you can keep on top of your garden tasks.- Photo galleries that showcase each month's best plants and flowers.- Illustrated plant directory with over 350 different varieties for you to explore.Happy gardening!

    This excellent guide is the work of a team of highly qualified botanical and medical experts, including two of my colleagues from the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. It offers reliable, up-to-date, practical information about 72 of the most important medicinal herbs." --Andrew Weil, M.D., from the ForewordThere is a world of health and healing all around you--in your spice rack, your backyard, and on the shelves of health food and grocery stores. This informative guide is a reference you will keep at the ready, connecting 72 of the world's most common and useful medicinal herbs with the body systems they help and heal.Eight chapters focus on body systems: 1. Mental Health & the Nervous System2. Respiratory System3. Heart & Circulation4. Digestive System5. Joints, Muscles & Skin6. Urinary & Male Health7. Female Health8. Wellness & PerceptionEach chapter begins with an overview of how plants can bring health to that part of the body, with stories about traditional herbal remedies from around the world and current scientific findings on herbal remedies for specific illnesses. Then each chapter highlights nine plants, combining botanical and medical information--therapeutic uses, effectiveness, preparations, cautions, and advice, including a round-up of current science about the active ingredients in the plant. Every chapter includes a photo gallery showing how one of its herbs is cultivated and processed commercially--the story behind the contents of that bottle you buy in the store. Special features include "Over the Kitchen Counter"--quick and easy ways to use herbs in your everyday life, and time lines for every herb, showing how today's use of herbal remedies collects wisdom from the centuries and around the world. A functional appendix includes an illustrated index to all the plants in the book, an ailment-by-ailment therapeutic index, a glossary, and an index.

    Buy a plant, dig a hole in the ground, drop the plant in it, and cover it up waiting for blooms to suddenly appear. If only it were that simple. The overall idea of gardening is basic, but gardening is very intricate. It

    A picture book that shows us that with just the right amount of care and support, even the smallest of seeds can grow to stand one hundred feet tall.Thanks for the love that you’ve shown meRight now I’m so very small But with water and lightI will keep gaining heightAnd then one day I’ll stand at a hundred feet tall

    Eliot Coleman introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. He shows how North American gardeners can successfully use that sun to raise a wide variety of traditional winter vegetables in backyard cold frames and plastic covered tunnel greenhouses without supplementary heat. Coleman expands upon his own experiences with new ideas learned on a winter-vegetable pilgrimage across the ocean to the acknowledged kingdom of vegetable cuisine, the southern part of France, which lies on the 44th parallel, the same latitude as his farm in Maine.This story of sunshine, weather patterns, old limitations and expectations, and new realities is delightfully innovative in the best gardening tradition. Four-Season Harvest will have you feasting on fresh produce from your garden all through the winter.To learn more about the possibility of a four-season farm, please visit Coleman's website www.fourseasonfarm.com.

    He keeps her cool from the sun, stays where she tells him, and even gives her air to breathe. That's because Fido is a tree!But not everyone thinks having a tree as a pet is a good idea, though, especially when Fido starts to grow. Will Abigail be able to keep her perfect pet?Trees Make Perfect Pets is a heartwarming story, perfect for you if you're looking for: An Earth Day book to celebrate nature with A delightful pet book about unusual pets A sweet introduction to kids gardening and environmentalism

    The two friends got to work designing what would become not just another urban farm, but a "permaculture paradise" replete with perennial broccoli, paw paws, bananas, and moringa--all told, more than two hundred low-maintenance edible plants in an innovative food forest on a small city lot. The garden--intended to function like a natural ecosystem with the plants themselves providing most of the garden's needs for fertility, pest control, and weed suppression--also features an edible water garden, a year-round unheated greenhouse, tropical crops, urban poultry, and even silkworms.In telling the story of Paradise Lot, Toensmeier explains the principles and practices of permaculture, the choice of exotic and unusual food plants, the techniques of design and cultivation, and, of course, the adventures, mistakes, and do-overs in the process. Packed full of detailed, useful information about designing a highly productive permaculture garden, Paradise Lot is also a funny and charming story of two single guys, both plant nerds, with a wild plan: to realize the garden of their dreams and meet women to share it with. Amazingly, on both counts, they succeed.

    The Suburban Micro-Farm will show you how to grow healthy food for your table in only 15 minutes a day, proving that you can have a garden even on a limited schedule. With tips for creating an edible and ecologically friendly landscape, learn how to garden while maintaining aesthetics. You'll find simple tricks for growing food even in the worst yards. Worried about follow-through? This book is a gold mine of life hacks, guides, and tools to help you reap a harvest as well as a sense of accomplishment for your efforts.

    teach beginning readers how to identify different species from the shape of their crowns, leaves, lobes, seeds, bark, and fruit. Kids will learn about many trees common to North America.

    Author Kate Allen Fox engages readers' senses to help convey the vastness of Pando, the challenges it faces, and how we all can be part of the solution. With lyrical poetry, Fox summarizes the science, action, and compassion needed to save this wonder of nature.

    This latest addition to the ...For Dummies "RM" gardening series is ripe with down-to-earth advice and tons of illustrations for growing a wide variety of tasty veggies -- from green beans to yellow squash.-- Detailed guidelines for planting by climate, soil, and water needs-- Tooling up -- great tips for selecting the best gardening equipment-- Basic training on combating garden pests and other nuisances-- How to design a vegetable garden for any size space-- A complete reference of online resources and mail-order suppliers-- Illustrations and full-color photos to inspire gardeners of all skill levels