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Organic Gardening Books
Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom: Time-Tested Techniques for Creating a Natural, Sustainable Outdoor Space
"When your garden contains lots of earthworms, your soil is good." This maxim may not sound familiar, but before the days of landscapers and lawn-maintenance companies, this type of knowledge was common. Gardening skills were passed down from generation to generation, and yards were personal places that flourished under the care of time-tested wisdom. Today the pace of life is faster, and modern advances make gardening tasks easier, but we can all benefit from the techniques and common-sense advice of the past to have beautiful, fruitful gardens now. With "Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom," anyone can: Develop a dream, green garden without spending a fortune Grow an organic and eco-friendly garden with minimum fuss and maximum taste Discover how to collect and save seeds Make your own compost and learn "no-dig" gardening Make a cold frame and protect plants from frost Repel moles with castor oil, prevent mice with the right plants, and make herbal insect repellents Find out the best way to prune a hedge, tree, or climbing flower Know which gardening tasks to do for each season Raise a panel fence and use recycled materials for landscaping Plant raised beds and container gardens, and build a natural grape arbor Discover how companion planting can discourage harmful pests and encourage growth "Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom" has full-color step-by-step illustrated instructions that will bring new knowledge to gardeners of all levels. Soon you'll be adding fireplace ashes to the garden to give it a potassium boost and using your elbow to see if the soil is warm enough for planting. With this insightful book, you'll discover why sage advice never goes out of style.
Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
Start a mini farm on a quarter acre or less, provide 85 percent of the food for a family of four and earn an income. Mini Farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require. 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-sufficiency 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.
From Container to Kitchen: Growing Fruits and Vegetables in Pots
More and more people are recognizing the need for nutritious, local, sustainable food, but organic options can be costly, and the produce sections of most supermarkets are packed with fruits and vegetables that have racked up more frequent flier miles than a rock band on world tour. How can urban dwellers without ready access to fertile land enjoy the benefits of traditional gardening? And for those with a yard, how do you maximize the harvest of fresh, healthy edibles? In "From Container to Kitchen," D.J. Herda shows that there is a way. Written for the novice home gardener as well as the seasoned pro, this fully illustrated, comprehensive guide will show you how to save up to 70 percent on your produce bill by growing fruits and vegetables in pots. Topics include: Selecting the right container size and location Optimizing soil composition and nutrients Managing light, water, and humidity Choosing the best fruits and vegetables for container gardening Eliminating pests and plant diseases naturally Extending the harvest Dig in to this bumper crop of container gardening tips and techniques and learn how to create your own moveable feast D.J. Herda is an award-winning freelance author, editor, and photojournalist who has written several thousand articles and more than eighty books, including "Zen and the Art of Pond Building." He is an avid organic gardener and test grower and has been writing extensively about growing fruits and vegetables for over forty years.
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible
The invaluable resource for home food gardeners Ed Smith's W-O-R-D system has helped countless gardeners grow an abundance of vegetables and herbs. And those tomatoes and zucchini and basil and cucumbers have nourished countless families, neighbors, and friends with delicious, fresh produce. "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" is essential reading for locavores in every corner of North America EVERYTHING YOU LOVED about the first edition of "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible" is still here: friendly, accessible language; full-color photography; comprehensive vegetable specific information in the A-to-Z section; ahead-of-its-time commitment to organic methods; and much more. Now, Ed Smith is back with a 10th Anniversary Edition for the next generation of vegetable gardeners. New to this edition is coverage of 15 additional vegetables, including an expanded section on salad greens and more European and Asian vegetables. Readers will also find growing information on more fruits and herbs, new cultivar photographs in many vegetable entries, and a much-requested section on extending the season into the winter months. No matter how cold the climate, growers can bring herbs indoors and keep hardy greens alive in cold frames or hoop houses. The impulse to grow vegetables is even stronger in 2009 than it was in 2000, when Storey published "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible." The financial and environmental costs of fossil fuels raise urgent questions: How far should we be shipping food? What are the health costs of petroleum-based pesticides and herbicides? Do we have to rely on megafarms that use gasoline-powered machinery to grow and harvest crops? With every difficult question, more people think, "Maybe I should grow a few vegetables of my own." This book will continue to answer all their vegetable gardening questions. Praise for the First Edition: "In every small town, there is a vegetable garden that people go out of the way to walk past. Smith is the guy who grew that garden." - Verlyn Klinkenborg, "The New York Times Book Review " "An abundance of photographs . . . visually bolster the techniques described, while frequent subheads, sidebars, and information-packed photo captions make the layout user-friendly . . . Smith's] book is thorough and infused with practical wisdom and a dry Vermont humor that should endear him to readers." - "Publisher's Weekly " "Smith . . . clearly explains everything novice and experienced gardeners need to know to grow vegetables and herbs. . . . " - "Library Journal " "this book will answer all your questions as well as put you on the path to an abundant harvest. As a bonus, anecdotes and stories make this informative book fun to read." - "New York Newsday"
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
The bestselling author of "The Botany of Desire" explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century "What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America. Pollan has divided "The Omnivore's Dilemma" into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal--at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance. We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner?
The Little Book of Garden Heroes
This delightful little book shows how to attract beneficial wildlife and choose useful plants that will help rule out the need for chemicals in the garden. It takes the four basic ingredients that make a successful garden and selects the "heroes" (and some of their sidekicks) that best represent them: The earthworm soil improver The honeybee pollinator Comfrey, the beneficial plant The predatory ladybug "The Little Book of Garden Heroes" explains the work these heroes do and gives tips on how to cater to their needs and habits when designing a garden. It encourages readers to kick the chemicals and go organic. Allan Shepherd is a writer with the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.
Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener
Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening has been the go-to resource for gardeners for more than 50 years―and the best tool novices can buy to start applying organic methods to their fruit and vegetable crops, herbs, trees and shrubs, perennials, annuals, and lawns. This thoroughly revised and updated version highlights new organic pest controls, new fertilizer products, improved gardening techniques, the latest organic soil practices, and new trends in garden design. In this indispensable work readers will find: - comprehensive coverage for the entire garden and landscape along with related entries such as Community Gardening, Edible Landscaping, Horticultural Therapy, Stonescaping, and more - the most in-depth information from the trusted Rodale Organic Gardening brand - a completely new section on earth-friendly techniques for gardening in a changing climate, covering wise water management, creating backyard habitats, managing invasive plants and insects, reducing energy use and recycling, and understanding biotechnology - entries all written by American gardeners for American gardeners, with answers for all the challenges presented by various conditions, from the humid Deep South and the mild maritime coasts to the cold far North and the dry Southwest Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Fern Bradley has everything anyone needs to create gorgeous, non-toxic gardens in any part of the country.
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, 2nd Edition
The invaluable resource for home food gardeners! Ed Smith's W-O-R-D system has helped countless gardeners grow an abundance of vegetables and herbs. And those tomatoes and zucchini and basil and cucumbers have nourished countless families, neighbors, and friends with delicious, fresh produce. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is essential reading for locavores in every corner of North America!Everything you loved about the first edition of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is still here: friendly, accessible language; full-color photography; comprehensive vegetable specific information in the A-to-Z section; ahead-of-its-time commitment to organic methods; and much more.Now, Ed Smith is back with a 10th Anniversary Edition for the next generation of vegetable gardeners. New to this edition is coverage of 15 additional vegetables, including an expanded section on salad greens and more European and Asian vegetables. Readers will also find growing information on more fruits and herbs, new cultivar photographs in many vegetable entries, and a much-requested section on extending the season into the winter months. No matter how cold the climate, growers can bring herbs indoors and keep hardy greens alive in cold frames or hoop houses. The impulse to grow vegetables is even stronger in 2009 than it was in 2000, when Storey published The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. The financial and environmental costs of fossil fuels raise urgent questions: How far should we be shipping food? What are the health costs of petroleum-based pesticides and herbicides? Do we have to rely on megafarms that use gasoline-powered machinery to grow and harvest crops? With every difficult question, more people think, "Maybe I should grow a few vegetables of my own." This book will continue to answer all their vegetable gardening questions. Praise for the First Edition:"In every small town, there is a vegetable garden that people go out of the way to walk past. Smith is the guy who grew that garden." — Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Times Book Review"An abundance of photographs . . . visually bolster the techniques described, while frequent subheads, sidebars, and information-packed photo captions make the layout user-friendly . . . [Smith's] book is thorough and infused with practical wisdom and a dry Vermont humor that should endear him to readers." — Publisher’s Weekly"Smith . . . clearly explains everything novice and experienced gardeners need to know to grow vegetables and herbs. . . . " — Library Journal"this book will answer all your questions as well as put you on the path to an abundant harvest. As a bonus, anecdotes and stories make this informative book fun to read." - New York Newsday
The Organic Home Garden
In The Organic Home Garden, Patrick and John, take readers step-by-step through the engaging process of growing the best possible food - from spring's fi rst spinach, asparagus and salad greens, through the summer abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and all, right into fall's harvest of squash, leeks, carrots and potatoes. Often, a small timely tip makes all the difference, and this dynamic team leaves nothing out. Whether you tend a small city yard, a full-size country garden or something in between, their instructive, easy to follow and often humorous advice will ensure you make the very best use of the space you have -- and you can't get any more local, seasonal and organic than food from your own yard. Combine this with John's unique and vibrant artistic paintings, and you have a book that stands out from the wall of glossy, manufactured gardening publications, making The Organic Home Garden a stand-alone, stand-out book sure to intrigue and capture gardeners, artists and customers who conduct their lives to a different rhythm.
The Essence of Organic Gardening
This book gives a glimpse of the many relationships and natural processes within Nature and the interconnectedness of life. Gardening is much easier and much more enjoyable when we work to support the health of the whole garden and that is what organic gardening is all about.
Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space
The biggest mistake gardeners make each season is starting out too big and then quickly realizingtheir large plot requires too much weeding, watering, and backbreaking labor. Vertical gardening guarantees a better outcome from the day the trowel hits the soil―by shrinking the amount of "floor" space needed and focusing on climbing plants that are less prone to insects, diseases, and animal pests.Notable author and gardener Derek Fell has tried and tested thousands of varieties of vegetables,flowers, and fruits and recommends the best plants for space-saving vertical gardening. His grow-up,grow-down system also shows which ground-level plants make good companions underneath and alongside climbing plants. Best of all, many of Fell's greatest climbers and mutually beneficial plants are available in seed packets in every local garden center.With a mix of DIY and commercially available string supports, trellises, pergolas, raised beds, skyscraper gardens, and topsy-turvy planters, the vertical garden system reduces work, increases yields, makes harvesting easier, and can be practiced in spaces as small as a container or a one-by-four-foot strip. Vertical Gardening features 100 color photos of the author's own vertical methods and showcases beautiful, troublefree perennials, shrubs, vegetables, annuals, and fruit perfect for this new, rewarding way to garden.
A Year on the Garden Path: A 52-Week Organic Gardening Guide
Full of seasonally-relevant, practical information, this easy-to-follow, weekly gardening guide can be picked up any day of the year to explain what's happening in the garden and your role in creating a beautiful, healthy ornamental landscape and food garden. An indispensable guide, full of helpful tips and recipes, this highly illustrated book covers everything from soil building to pruning to four-season food growing and seed saving. Carolyn Herriot has operated The Garden Path Organic Nursery since 1989. She is a passionate and inspiring organic gardener, who writes for magazines and co-hosts two gardening shows on Global and CHTV.
Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Resource for Every Gardener
Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
The Organic Kitchen Garden 2012 Wall Calendar
The Organic Kitchen Garden 2012 Wall Calendar is a perfect companion to every cook's kitchen. Featuring beautiful photographs of kitchen gardens and the lush produce they offer, this calendar pairs images with twelve months of recipes and tips inspired by the bounty of kitchen gardens and the local farmers market. Each month offers a simple, seasonal and healthful recipe along with tips on growing, harvesting, canning and cooking - all with an emphasis on the importance of an organic approach. Ann Lovejoy is the author of more than twenty gardening books and two cooking books, and is a regular cooking and gardening columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She is also the author of The Essential Rose and A Year of Healthy Living wall calendars. The interior pages of this calendar are printed on 100% recycled, 50% post-consumer paper, processed chlorine free and printed with soy based inks. In addition to printing our products on recycled paper, Amber Lotus Publishing continues to plant trees and offset our carbon footprint with NativeEnergy.
The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener, 2nd Edition (A Gardener's Supply Book)
With more than 45,000 sold since 1988, The New Organic Grower has become a modern classic. In this newly revised and expanded edition, master grower Eliot Coleman continues to present the simplest and most sustainable ways of growing top-quality organic vegetables. Coleman updates practical information on marketing the harvest, on small-scale equipment, and on farming and gardening for the long-term health of the soil. The new book is thoroughly updated, and includes all-new chapters such as: Farm-Generated Fertility—how to meet your soil-fertility needs from the resources of your own land, even if manure is not available. The Moveable Feast—how to construct home-garden and commercial-scale greenhouses that can be easily moved to benefit plants and avoid insect and disease build-up. The Winter Garden—how to plant, harvest, and sell hardy salad crops all winter long from unheated or minimally heated greenhouses. Pests—how to find "plant-positive" rather than "pest-negative" solutions by growing healthy, naturally resistant plants. The Information Resource—how and where to learn what you need to know to grow delicious organic vegetables, no matter where you live. Written for the serious gardener or small market farmer, The New Organic Grower proves that, in terms of both efficiency and profitability, smaller can be better.
Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening: The Total Guide to Growing Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Other Edible Plants the Natural Way
This book shows you how to have healthy soil and recommends environmentally safe products and even some homemade remedies to control pests and diseases in your garden. It describes more than 100 food plants and gives specific information on the growth habits, culture, harvest, and storage of each.
The Good Life: How to Create a Sustainable and Fulfilling Lifestyle
For many people, consumer culture has lost its appeal. So have debt accumulation, time poverty, exteriority, and social alienation. The Good Life traces one woman's journey toward a deeply fulfilling lifestyle-and points toward a way of life that values freedom, interdependence, caring, community, and our connectedness with nature. The Good Life offers a guide to finding personal freedom through a sustainable lifestyle. It invites readers to view the recent global market downturn as an opportunity to transform our dead consumer culture into a living post-consumer society. The book is packed with information on emerging alternatives, such as co-housing, slow money, vegetarian and raw foods, permaculture and organic gardening, voluntary simplicity, green building, and more.
Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces
Your patio, balcony, rooftop, front stoop, boulevard, windowsill, planter box, or fire escape is a potential fresh food garden waiting to happen. In "Grow Great Grub," Gayla Trail, the founder of the leading online gardening community (YouGrowGirl.com), shows you how to grow your own delicious, affordable, organic edibles virtually anywhere. "Grow Great Grub" packs in tips and essential information about: - Choosing a location and making the most of your soil (even if it's less than perfect) - Building a raised bed, compost bin, and self-watering container using recycled materials - Keeping pests and diseases away from your plants--the toxin-free way - Growing bountiful crops in pots and selecting the best heirloom varieties - Cultivating hundreds of plants, from blueberries to Thai basil, to the best tomatoes you'll ever taste - Canning, and preserving to make the most of your garden's generosity - Green-friendly, cost-saving, growing, and building projects that are smart and stylish "- And much more " Whether you're looking to eat on a budget or simply experience the pleasure of picking tonight's meal from right outside your door, this is the must-have book for small-space gardeners--no backyard required. GAYLA TRAIL is the creator of the acclaimed top gardening website yougrowgirl.com. Her work as a writer and photographer has appeared in publications including "The New York Times," "Newsweek," "Budget Living," and "ReadyMade." A resident of Toronto who has grown a garden on her rooftop for more than 10 years, she is the author of "You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening. "