Paths of Desire is the enchanting, amusing, and moving account of making a garden -- and confronting the essence of suburban gardening, with its idiosyncratic ecosystem. This meant struggling with depraved skunks and raccoons, marauding teenagers, plastic jungle gyms, toppling garbage cans, uncontrollable eyesores, potholed drives, and all the grinding, honking, and buzzing of the neighborhood. Browning's delightfully frank prose conveys the very sense of being deep in a garden, with all its organic smells and textures, and the myriad joys of deciding what to plant and watching as the vision is realized. It contains a rich store of advice and illustrative anecdotes for enthusiasts and novices alike, as Browning amusingly documents the missteps she took in the planning of her garden and the satisfactions of finally getting it right. In Paths of Desire she teaches us how to embrace our plots of land -- no matter their size, beauty, or proximity to the city -- and make them our own. But she also reminds us that the life of a garden can never be separated from the people who wander in and out of it: characters like the charming but useless children; the philosophical tree doctor and the band of Helpful Men; the neighbors -- legalistic on one side, aesthetically challenged on the other -- and, best and worst of all, the True Love. By the end of the book, Browning has transformed her garden -- and her life -- and has created a place of enchantment, which is most of all what a garden should be.

    Eaten alone, as a salad, or added to soups, entrees, sandwiches, burgers, or anything else, these tiny greens of nutrition will enhance everyday food and life!Only a small amount of space is needed to grow microgreens—a porch, patio, deck, or balcony, indoors or outdoors, will do. This allows anyone to easily incorporate microgreens into their daily meals, and the greens' nutritional potency make them a must-eat in a healthy diet, any time of the year!

    Now, however, with prices rising and more chemicals than foods in the grocery store, families are starting to take notice. The return to sustainable living is long overdue, but many are so intimidated by the amount of work involved that they never even start.The Five-Year Guide to Self-Sufficiency follows a logical progression to move your homestead forward every year in an organized and affordable manner. Over the course of five years, you will learn how to get the most from your land, whether it be half an acre or 100. You'll grow everything from a basic garden bed to a fruitful orchard, pick from a wide variety of livestock ranging from chickens to alpacas, and lead a simpler life with less reliance on fossil fuels.The road may be long and arduous, but there's no need to overwhelm yourself. By taking everything at a rational pace, you too can remove yourself from a meaningless culture and improve your quality of life one day at a time.

    But conventional beekeeping requires a significant investment and has a steep learning curve. The alternative? Consider beekeeping outside the box.The Thinking Beekeeper is the definitive do-it-yourself guide to natural beekeeping in top bar hives. Based on the concept of understanding and working with bees' natural systems as opposed to trying to subvert them, the advantages of this approach include:Simplicity, sustainability, and cost-effectivenessIncreased safety due to less heavy lifting and hive manipulationChemical-free colonies and healthy hivesTop bar hives can be located anywhere bees have access to forage, and they make ideal urban hives due to their small footprint.Emphasizing the intimate connection between our food systems, bees, and the well-being of the planet, The Thinking Beekeeper will appeal to the new breed of beekeeper who is less focused on maximizing honey yield, and more on ensuring the viability of the bee population now and in the coming years.Christy Hemenway is the owner and founder of Gold Star Honeybees, a complete resource for all things related to beekeeping in top-bar hives. A passionate bee-vangelist and advocate for natural, chemical-free beekeeping, Christy is a highly sought-after speaker, helping audiences to understand the integral connection between bees, food, human health, and the future of the planet.

    Time-tested advice on how to cure the meat by smoking or salting helps you preserve your harvest. A final section explains how to make sausages. Numerous mouth-watering recipes are included.

    A unique guide to sheep, for would-be farmers and people who simply love animals and the outdoors.

    The Complete Book of Cacti & Succulents is a feast of in-depth information and over 600 eye-catching photographs. This book has everything you need to make your plant arrangements healthy and spectacular no matter what kinds of succulents you use. Using this guide, you will quickly discover just how bold and creative you can be with these arrangements, and understand why so many decorators can recommend succulents for almost every occasion.Whether you're just thinking about decorating with these beautiful, easy-to-care-for plants, or you've been a sucker for succulents for a good long while, this book contains ideas and inspiration for beginners and masters alike. Through step-by-step full-color sequences and expert guidance, this book gives in-depth information on the history, cultivation, and creative use of hundreds of strikingly handsome specimens of cacti and provides practical information for use in both house and garden.

    Readers will learn about non-toxic methos of controlling mites, breeding strategies, and many other tips and techniques for maintaining healthy hives.

    The information is easily understood and readily applicable. More than 150 of Storey's expert authors in gardening, building, animal raising, and homesteading share their specialized knowledge and experience in this ultimate guide to living a more independent, satisfying life.Readers will find step-by-step, illustrated instructions for every aspect of country living including:Finding country landBuying, building, and renovating a homeDeveloping water sources and systemsUnderstanding wiring, plumbing, and heatingUsing alternative heating and energy sourcesVegetable, flower, and herb gardeningTraditional cooking skills such as baking bread and making maple syrupPreparing and preserving meat, fruits, and vegetablesBuilding and maintaining barns, sheds, and outbuildingsCaring for common farm and ranch animals, and pets

    Livestock expert Carol Ekarius helps you create a viable farm plan, choose suitable livestock, care for your animals’ health, and confidently manage housing, fencing, and feeding. Case studies of successful farmers provide inspiration as you learn everything you need to know to run a prosperous livestock farm and make the lifestyle of your dreams a reality.

    Twenty-five years later, she and a small group of teachers and volunteers turned over long-abandoned soil at an urban middle school in Berkeley and planted the Edible Schoolyard. The schoolyard has since grown into a universal idea of Edible Education that integrates academics with growing, cooking, and sharing wholesome, delicious food. With inspiring images of the garden and kitchenand their young caretakersEdible Schoolyard is at once a visionary model for sustainable farming and childhood nutrition, and a call to action for schools across the country.

    Kristen Green highlights plants that help a garden quickly grow by self-sowing and spreading and teaches you how to expand the garden and extend the life of a plant by overwintering. The book features plant profiles for 50 self-sowers (including columbine, milkweed, and foxglove), 50 spreaders (such as clematis, snow poppy, and spearmint), and 50 plants that overwinter (including lemon verbena, begonia, and Chinese hibiscus). Additional gardening tips, design ideas, and inspirational photos will motivate and inspire gardeners of all levels.

    The Renewable Energy Handbook focuses completely on off-grid, sustainable living and rural energy independence. Author/engineer William H. Kemp, who is a leading expert in small- and mid-scale renewable energy technologies, designed and built his own off-grid home. The result is a house that has all the standard middle-class creature comforts while using less than five times the total fossil-fuel energy of the average North American house. The Renewable Energy Handbook focuses on the unique requirements of off-grid living and contains chapters on energy conservation; heating and cooling; backup power; domestic water heating; wireless communications; photovoltaic, wind, and microhydro energy generation; battery selection; and inverters. Since its release in 2003, The Renewable Energy Handbook has been a top-selling technology book and is recognized as the best book in its field. The book is augmented with hundreds of illustrations, line drawings, photographs, and appendices.

    Humans have been farming for thousands of years, and yet agriculture has undergone more fundamental changes in the past 80 years than in the previous several centuries. In 1900, 30 million American farmers tilled the soil or tended livestock; today there are fewer than 4.5 million farmers who feed a population four times larger than it was at the beginning of the century. Fifty years ago, the planet could not have sustained a population of 6.5 billion; now, commercial and industrial agriculture ensure that millions will not die from starvation. Farmers are able to feed an exponentially growing planet because the greatest industrial revolution in history has occurred in agriculture since 1929, with U.S. farmers leading the way. Productivity on American farms has increased tenfold, even as most small farmers and tenants have been forced to find other work. Today, only 300,000 farms produce approximately ninety percent of the total output, and overproduction, largely subsidized by government programs and policies, has become the hallmark of modern agriculture. A Revolution Down on the Farm: The Transformation of American Agriculture since 1929 charts the profound changes in farming that have occurred during author Paul K. Conkin's lifetime. His personal experiences growing up on a small Tennessee farm complement compelling statistical data as he explores America's vast agricultural transformation and considers its social, political, and economic consequences. He examines the history of American agriculture, showing how New Deal innovations evolved into convoluted commodity programs following World War II. Conkin assesses the skills, new technologies, and government policies that helped transform farming in America and suggests how new legislation might affect farming in decades to come. Although the increased production and mechanization of farming has been an economic success story for Americans, the costs are becoming increasingly apparent. Small farmers are put out of business when they cannot compete with giant, non-diversified corporate farms. Caged chickens and hogs in factory-like facilities or confined dairy cattle require massive amounts of chemicals and hormones ultimately ingested by consumers. Fertilizers, new organic chemicals, manure disposal, and genetically modified seeds have introduced environmental problems that are still being discovered. A Revolution Down on the Farm concludes with an evaluation of farming in the twenty-first century and a distinctive meditation on alternatives to our present large scale, mechanized, subsidized, and fossil fuel and chemically dependent system.

    But how do you get plants to grow in a spot where trees and shrubs hide the sun? In this stunning volume, garden expert Larry Hodgson shows how to create a lush and lovely garden filled with plants that will flourish in the shade.The first part covers the basics of shade gardening, including planning, planting, and problem-solving. Here readers will find out how to use shade-tolerant grasses and groundcovers for the root-filled areas under trees; discover solutions for dry shade and heavy needle and leaf drop; and learn what to do if a tree should fall and a shade garden is suddenly thrust back in the sun. The second part is devoted to an encyclopedia of shade-loving plants.Complete with expert designs for five different kinds of shaded gardens, Making the Most of Shade is a splendid new gardening title by the popular author of Perennials for Every Purpose, which Susan McClure, author of Easy-Care Perennial Gardens, called "a treasure . . . the next best thing to having a friendly expert whispering in your ear as you plan, plant, and perfect your perennial garden."