This fully revised and updated second edition features new U.S. case studies and new photographs. Valuable tips on green gardening are new to this edition, and include how to harvest rainwater, how to design a green roof, tips on sustainable planting, and a guide to composting. Tailor-made for hands-on gardeners, the workbook approach is accessible, practical, and can be used to create a garden from scratch and to redesign an existing garden. Gardeners will find easy ways to measure large spaces, estimate the height of a tree, and find the right proportions for a deck. They'll also find tips on space, light, and color. Includes hundreds of easy-to-follow line drawings and diagrams.

    DIY Succulents shows you how to use beautiful and resilient plants like echeveria, sedum, and graptopetalum to craft nature-inspired home decor like rustic tabletop centerpieces and breathtaking wall art. Each page offers details on selecting the right plants and containers for the project, assembling a gorgeous arrangement, and maintaining the garden as it grows. With step-by-step instructions, gardening tips, and dozens of ideas to choose from, anyone can create imaginative succulent crafts like:Living WreathBirch Log PlanterTerrarium NecklaceTopiary BallComplete with photos and plenty of inspiration, DIY Succulents will help you add creativity, color, and personality to every room in your home.

    There is a diet and exercise plan that covers all the bases—food we should eat and food that tastes good; what is best for our bodies and what is easily doable in the real world—all while offering hunger-free weight loss. Developed by Andrew Larson, M.D. and certified Heath Fitness Specialist Ivy Larson, Clean Cuisine is scientifically proven to reverse diabetes, improve cholesterol and blood pressure, and ease the symptoms of other inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, asthma, allergies, and arthritis. Broken down into eight easy steps and spread over the course of eight weeks, Clean Cuisine will enable readers to transform their bodies one delicious meal at a time by adopting an anti-inflammatory diet and choosing unrefined foods in their most natural, whole state. With guilt-free, delicious recipes and a workout program that has been proven to deliver substantial results with just three 30-minute sessions a week, Clean Cuisine is the long-term answer to eating for optimal health, disease prevention, weight loss, vitality, longevity, and good taste.

    Today, such dishes as General Tso’s Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Egg Rolls are as common as hamburgers and spaghetti. Probably at this moment, a drawer in your kitchen is stuffed with Chinese takeout menus, soy sauce packets, and wooden chopsticks, right?   But what if you didn’t have to eat your favorites out of a container?    In The Chinese Takeout Cookbook, Chinese food blogger and cooking instructor Diana Kuan brings Chinatown to your home with this amazing collection of more than eighty popular Chinese takeout recipes—appetizers, main courses, noodle and rice dishes, and desserts—all easy-to-prepare and MSG-free. Plus you’ll discover how to   • stock your pantry with ingredients you can find at your local supermarket • season and master a wok for all your Chinese cooking needs • prepare the flavor trifecta of Chinese cuisine—ginger, garlic, and scallions • wrap egg rolls, dumplings, and wontons like a pro • steam fish to perfection every time • create vegetarian variations that will please everyone’s palate • whip up delectable sweet treats in time for the Chinese New Year  The Chinese Takeout Cookbook also features mouthwatering color photos throughout as well as sidebars that highlight helpful notes, including how to freeze and recook dumplings; cooking tidbits, such as how to kick up your dish with a bit of heat; and the history behind some of your favorite comfort foods, including the curious New York invention of the pastrami egg roll and the influence of Tiki culture on Chinese cuisine. So, put down that takeout menu, grab the wok, and let’s get cooking!Here for the first time—in one fun, easy, and tasty collection—are more than 80 favorite Chinese restaurant dishes to make right in your own kitchen:   • Cold Sesame Noodles • Kung Pao Chicken • Classic Barbecue Spareribs • Beef Chow Fun • Homemade Chili Oil • Hot and Sour Soup • Chinatown Roast Duck • Moo Shu Pork • Dry-Fried String Beans • Black Sesame Ice Cream • And of course, perfectly fried Pork and Shrimp Egg Rolls!“Diana Kuan chronicles America’s love affair with Chinese food. The Chinese Takeout Cookbook is the perfect reason to throw out those menus cluttering your kitchen drawers!”—Patricia Tanumihardja, author of The Asian Grandmothers CookbookFrom the Hardcover edition.

    Choosing perennials that look great and grow well together is a skill that can take years to develop, but with this book, you're guaranteed to make perfect plant choices right from the start. In Perennial Combinations, expert plantsman, C. Colston Burrell hand-selects 120 of the best perennial combinations for homeowners, then offers his expert advice on how to grow and use the combinations to create great gardens.Each combination is featured in a stunning color photograph accompanied by a numbered photo key and plant list, so it's easy to find and buy exactly the right plants to re-create the combination in your own garden. Each combination features just two to six plants, so they're perfect for even the smallest garden space. You can plant each combination just as it appears in the book, or for a bigger color splash, just repeat the combination or mix it with others that are suited to the same conditions. You'll find combinations for stunning bloom from spring through fall; combinations especially suited to challenging sites like heavy clay soil or seaside gardens; and combinations just for fun, like fragrant combinations and combinations that attract butterflies.C. Colston Burrell has lived and gardened in different climates across America, so he's made sure this book is useful to gardeners from California to Maine. He's also a professional garden designer, and he's applied his talents to create 22 original garden designs that feature the book's individual combinations. Plus every page includes his personal gardening wisdom, so you'll not only know which perennials to plant together, you'll know how to maintain those perennials so your garden will look beautiful year after year.

    And few things taste more delicious than fruit picked straight from the tree or bush and eaten when perfectly ripe, perhaps still warm from the sun. This is fruit the way nature intended, not fruit that has been flown in from hundreds or thousands of miles away or stored in climate-controlled warehouses before being sealed in plastic for supermarket shelves. What could be fresher, tastier, more local, and more seasonal than fruit you've grown yourself, in your own garden or allotment, picked at just the moment when it's at its most perfect?This book shows just how easy it is to grow your own fruit. You don't need a huge garden or a dedicated orchard. It's possible to get a perfectly good harvest from plants grown in containers on balconies or patios and from even the smallest of town gardens. Pick the right varieties for the conditions you've got, invest in a bit of planning and preparation, follow the instructions contained in these pages, and you can be harvesting and eating your own strawberries, plums, pears, apricots, blackberries, redcurrants, melons, and figs.

    After a brilliant career in professional kitchens (including a 6-year tour as chef de cuisine at Café Boulud), he was faced with the harsh reality of life as a civilian cook: no prep cooks, no saucier, no daily deliveries - just him and his wife in their tiny Manhattan-apartment kitchen.Urban Italian is made up of the recipes that result when a great chef has to use the same resources available to the rest of us. In these hundred recipes - covering five distinct courses, cocktails, and base recipes - Carmellini shows how to make stunning, soulful food with nothing more than the ingredients, techniques, and time available to the ordinary home cook. Recipes include crisped artichokes with yogurt, mint, and sauce picante; duck meatballs with cherry moustarda sauce; roast pork with Italian plums and grappa; spicy cod with rock shrimp; and marinated grapes with red-wine granita.Along with the recipes (beautifully photographed by Quentin Bacon), Carmellini and his wife, Gwen Hyman, have written a number of sections to help readers bring home more of a great chef's experience. These begin with a narrative that traces Andrew's culinary education, and continue with short pieces on places and ingredients, placed alongside recipes to shed light on the history and practice of simple, beautiful cooking.

    He has tried and failed, persevered and triumphed, and he has many sound recommendations for us fumblers and failures." --Celestine Sibley, in the Atlanta Constitution."Henry Mitchell is one of America's most entertaining and enlightening garden writers.... 'Garden writer' fails, in truth, to describe this man. He gardens and he writes--the former, if we take him at his word, with lust and loathing, foolhardiness and finesse; the latter with gentle irony and consummate skill." --Pacific Horticulture"Mitchell mixes practical advice, encouragement, philosophic consolation and wit. He is the neighbor you wish you could talk to over the back fence." --House and GardenHenry Mitchell was to gardening what Izaak Walton was to fishing. The Essential Earthman is a collection of the best of his long-running column for the Washington Post. Although he offered invaluable tips for novice as well as seasoned gardeners, at the heart of his essays were piquant observations: on keeping records; the role of trees in gardens (they don't belong there); how a gardener should weather the winter; on shrubs, bulbs, and fragrant flowers--and about observation itself. Here's one example: Marigolds gain enormously in impact when used as sparingly as ultimatums. Henry Mitchell came to his subject with reverence, passion, humor, and a contagious enthusiasm tempered only by his sober knowledge of human frailty. The Essential Earthman is for all who love gardening--even those who only dream of doing it.

    Gorgeous color photographs of hellstrip gardens across the country offer inspiration and visual guidance to anyone ready to tackle this final frontier.

    A guide for beginning-level cooks shares a wealth of vegetarian recipes that can be prepared in a minimum of time and without extensive exotic ingredients, sharing simple instructions for such options as Creamy Mushroom Pot Pie, Apricot Summer Tart with Macadamia Shortbread Crust, and Ice-Cold Blueb

    Offering unprecedented insight into the inner workings of the world's best restaurant, this is sure to be one of the most popular gift books this holiday season.

    They show that gardening is a passion and obsession that cannot be conquered or abandoned, only indulged. Each gardener tells a compelling story. Whether their muse is the quest to achieve a personal vision of ultimate beauty, a mission to heal the earth, or the attempt to grow a perfect heirloom tomato, the writing is direct, engaging, and from the heart.For Doug Tallamy, a love of plants is rooted first in a love of animals: "animals with two legs (birds), four legs (box turtles, salamanders, and foxes), six legs (butterflies and beetles), eight legs (spiders), dozens of legs (centipedes), hundreds of legs (millipedes), and even animals with no legs (snakes and pollywogs)." For Rosalind Creasy, it's "not the plant itself; it's how you use it in the garden." And for Sydney Eddison, the reason has changed throughout the years. Now, she "gardens for the moment."As you read, you may find yourself nodding your head in agreement, or gasping in disbelief. What you're sure to encounter is some of the best writing about the gardener's soul ever to appear. For anyone who cherishes the miracle of bringing forth life from the soil, "The Roots of My Obsession" is essential inspiration.

    Chapters cover every age from newborn to teen with aromatherapy remedies for typical problems--from diaper rash to bedwetting to asthma. The book features information for pregnant mothers and physically challenged children and appendices with reference charts, safety data, and supplier information. This is a valuable book for every concerned parent.

    Unfortunately, most information on growing cover crops is written for people who plow their soil every year and are willing to spray herbicides. You can get all of the same benefits in a no-till garden, though, if you're clever.Homegrown Humus details three no-till winners in depth --- buckwheat, oilseed radishes, and oats. Profiles of other species suggest gardening conditions when you might want to try out sunflowers, annual ryegrass, barley, rye, Austrian winter peas, crimson clover, or cowpeas as well.Meanwhile, the book delves into finding cover crop seeds, planting cover crops in a no-till garden, and easily killing cover crops without tilling or herbicide use. Understanding the C:N ratio of cover crops helps determine how long to wait between killing cover crops and planting vegetables, as well as how to maximize the amount of humus you're adding to your soil.Cover crops are an advanced gardening technique bound to increase your vegetable yields, but are simple enough for beginners. Give your garden a treat --- grow some buckwheat!

    A desirefor sustainable, clean, wholesome food and superior soil quality has ledmore and more suburban and city dwellers to keep laying hens in theirbackyards and gardens.Learn how you can: Be close to your food source with a continuous supply of fresh, heart-healthy eggs to feed yourself and others. Take the best care of your chickens and find out where to buy them. Learn how to be a chicken whisperer. Improve your garden soil for super yields, superior flavor, andoptimal nutrition. Recycle food, grass clippings and yard waste, make compostand help reduce trash going to landfills, saving millions ofmunicipal taxpayer dollars. Help save millions of municipal tax payer dollars by divertingfood and yard waste from landfills; instead create compost -with the help of your flock. Raise baby chicks with items you already have. Avoid getting roosters and why you don't want them. Learn how to be a Poultry Primary Health Care Practitioner. Make and use effective and inexpensive treatments for your flockas described in the Poultry's Pharmacy.Learn how others: Have built urban chicken tractors, hen huts, condos and chickenchateaus to blend in with neighborhood landscape and architecture. Join in urban eco-agro-tourism with annual coop & gardenhome tours for fund raising. Start or join local poultry clubs. Keep small flocks to help preserve endangered breeds of chickens. Draft and pass local laws allowing laying hens withintheir town's limits.By the co-author of Chicken Tractor, Backyard Market Gardening and DayRange Poultry. City Chicks is a remarkable trend-setting book for poultrylovers and urban agriculturists.The imaginative and entertaining style of writing is combined withhands-on, real-life experience to bring you one of the most complete andauthorative books on micro-flock management.