The Ecological Gardener

The Ecological Gardener
Author: Matt Rees-Warren
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2021-04-29
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1645020088

Design a garden for the future—because what we grow matters. "Matt Rees-Warren explains why every square inch of Earth, including our gardens, has ecological significance... Excellent, timely, essential!" —Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope Transform your garden into a self-sustaining haven for nature and wildlife. Ecological garden designer Matt Rees-Warren shares inspirational design ideas and practical projects to help you create a garden that is both beautiful today and sustainable tomorrow. The Ecological Gardener will give you the tools to create an abundant, healthy garden from the soil up—a garden that welcomes birds and bees and allows native planting and wild flowers to flourish, with minimal carbon impact or need for fresh water. This book can guide both novice and experienced gardeners alike in their journey to a more ecological approach, and is full of practical projects and information, including: Finding the right design for your space Creating a wildflower meadow Building rainwater catchments and other tips for water conservation Making compost from kitchen waste, leaf mold, compost tea and more Creating a space for wildlife such as hedgehogs, bees and other pollinators Finding beauty in your garden during the winter Matt will show you how to re-imagine how you garden, working with nature instead of controlling it, to create a space that promotes both wildlife and beauty.

The Humane Gardener

The Humane Gardener
Author: Nancy Lawson
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2017-04-18
Genre:
ISBN: 1616896175

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

Ecological Gardening

Ecological Gardening
Author: Marjorie Harris
Publisher: Random House Canada
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2011-02-18
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 0307366650

Marjorie Harris returns with a completely updated edition of her classic guide to gardening with the environment in mind. In her witty and accessible style, Marjorie Harris – who has been an organic gardener since the 1960s – encourages the Canadian gardener to get back to basics. With information updated for today’s society, Ecological Gardening shows how little use pesticides and chemicals are when making a lush and abundant garden. In 1992, when the book was first published, gardening ecologically was a choice – now, it’s absolutely a matter of proper stewardship. With a society intent on leaving as small a footprint on the earth as possible, there is no better time than now for this important and vital book.

The Living Soil Handbook

The Living Soil Handbook
Author: Jesse Frost
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-07-20
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1645020274

Principles and farm-tested practices for no-till market gardening--for healthier, more productive soil! From the host of the popular The No-Till Market Garden Podcast—heard around the world with nearly one million downloads! Discovering how to meet the soil’s needs is the key task for every market gardener. In this comprehensive guide, Farmer Jesse Frost shares all he has learned through experience and experimentation with no-till practices on his home farm in Kentucky and from interviews and visits with highly successful market gardeners in his role as host of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast. The Living Soil Handbook is centered around the three basic principles of no-till market gardening: Disturb the soil as little as possible Keep it covered as much as possible Keep it planted as much as possible. Farmer Jesse then guides readers in applying those principles to their own garden environment, with their own materials, to meet their own goals. Beginning with an exploration of the importance of photosynthesis to living soil, Jesse provides in-depth information on: Turning over beds Using compost and mulch Path management Incorporating biology, maintaining fertility Cover cropping Diversifying plantings through intercropping Production methods for seven major crops Throughout, the book emphasizes practical information on all the best tools and practices for growers who want to build their livelihood around maximizing the health of their soil. Farmer Jesse reminds growers that “as possible” is the mantra for protecting the living soil: disturb the soil as little as you possibly can in your context. He does not believe that growers should anguish over what does and does not qualify as “no-till.” If you are using a tool to promote soil life and biology, that’s the goal. Jesse’s goal with The Living Soil Handbook is to provide a comprehensive set of options, materials, and field-tested practices to inspire growers to design a soil-nurturing no-till system in their unique garden or farm ecosystem. "[A] practical, informative debut. . . .Gardeners interested in sustainable agriculture will find this a great place to start."—Publishers Weekly "Frost offers a comprehensive, science-based, sympathetic, wholly practical guide to soil building, that most critical factor in vegetable gardening for market growers and home gardeners alike. A gift to any vegetable plot that will keep on giving."—Booklist (starred review)

Gaia's Garden

Gaia's Garden
Author: Toby Hemenway
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2009
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1603580298

This extensively revised and expanded edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban gardeners. The text's message is that working with nature, not against it, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens.

Garden Revolution

Garden Revolution
Author: Larry Weaner
Publisher: Timber Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2016-05-18
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1604696168

AHS Book Award winner This lushly-photographed reference is an important moment in horticulture that will be embraced by anyone looking for a better, smarter way to garden. Larry Weaner is an icon in the world of ecological landscape design, and now his revolutionary approach is available to all gardeners. Garden Revolution shows how an ecological approach to planting can lead to beautiful gardens that buck much of conventional gardening’s counter-productive, time-consuming practices. Instead of picking the wrong plant and then constantly tilling, weeding, irrigating, and fertilizing, Weaner advocates for choosing plants that are adapted to the soil and climate of a specific site and letting them naturally evolve over time. Allowing the plants to find their own niches, to spread their seed around until they find the microclimate and spot that suits them best, creates a landscape that is vibrant, dynamic, and gorgeous year after year.

The Resilient Gardener

The Resilient Gardener
Author: Carol Deppe
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2010-10-05
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1603583157

Scientist/gardener Carol Deppe combines her passion for organic gardening with newly emerging scientific information from many fields — resilience science, climatology, climate change, ecology, anthropology, paleontology, sustainable agriculture, nutrition, health, and medicine. In the last half of The Resilient Gardener, Deppe extends and illustrates these principles with detailed information about growing and using five key crops: potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs. In this book you’ll learn how to: •Garden in an era of unpredictable weather and climate change •Grow, store, and use more of your own staple crops •Garden efficiently and comfortably (even if you have a bad back) •Grow, store, and cook different varieties of potatoes and save your own potato seed •Grow the right varieties of corn to make your own gourmet-quality fast-cooking polenta, cornbread, parched corn, corn cakes, pancakes and even savory corn gravy •Make whole-grain, corn-based breads and cakes using the author’s original gluten-free recipes involving no other grains, artificial binders, or dairy products •Grow and use popbeans and other grain legumes •Grow, store, and use summer, winter, and drying squash •Keep a home laying flock of ducks or chickens; integrate them with your gardening, and grow most of their feed. The Resilient Gardener is both a conceptual and a hands-on organic gardening book, and is suitable for vegetable gardeners at all levels of experience. Resilience here is broadly conceived and encompasses a full range of problems, from personal hard times such as injuries, family crises, financial problems, health problems, and special dietary needs (gluten intolerance, food allergies, carbohydrate sensitivity, and a need for weight control) to serious regional and global disasters and climate change. It is a supremely optimistic as well as realistic book about how resilient gardeners and their vegetable gardens can flourish even in challenging times and help their communities to survive and thrive through everything that comes their way — from tomorrow through the next thousand years. Organic gardening, vegetable gardening, self-sufficiency, subsistence gardening, gluten-free living.

The Gardener's Botanical

The Gardener's Botanical
Author: Ross Bayton
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 1094
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 0691209138

The definitive guide to botanical Latin Unlock the secrets of botanical Latin with this beautifully illustrated encyclopedia. The Gardener's Botanical contains definitions of more than 5,000 plant names—from abbreviatus ("shortened") to zonatus ("with bands")—along with more than 350 color illustrations. Scientific plant names are an invaluable tool for those who understand them. Formed from Greek and, more commonly, from Latin root words, not only do they make it possible for gardeners and botanists to communicate, they also contain a wealth of hidden information. The Gardener's Botanical is the key to unlocking these secrets. This guide contains a breathtaking array of botanical names in alphabetical order. Each word is listed with a pronunciation guide, definition, example plant, and, where appropriate, etymology. Also included in this illuminating guide are special features on important plant genera, fact boxes, essays focusing on the history and importance of Latin names and botanical illustrations, and an index of common names with more than 2,000 popular plants, cross-referenced with their binomial name in Latin.

A Way to Garden

A Way to Garden
Author: Margaret Roach
Publisher: Timber Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1604698772

“A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.

The Pollinator Victory Garden

The Pollinator Victory Garden
Author: Kim Eierman
Publisher: Quarry Books
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1631597507

The passion and urgency that inspired WWI and WWII Victory Gardens is needed today to meet another threat to our food supply and our environment—the steep decline of pollinators. The Pollinator Victory Garden offers practical solutions for winning the war against the demise of these essential animals. Pollinators are critical to our food supply and responsible for the pollination of the vast majority of all flowering plants on our planet. Pollinators include not just bees, but many different types of animals, including insects and mammals. Beetles, bats, birds, butterflies, moths, flies, and wasps can be pollinators. But, many pollinators are in trouble, and the reality is that most of our landscapes have little to offer them. Our residential and commercial landscapes are filled with vast green pollinator deserts, better known as lawns. These monotonous green expanses are ecological wastelands for bees and other pollinators. With The Pollinator Victory Garden, you can give pollinators a fighting chance. Learn how to transition your landscape into a pollinator haven by creating a habitat that includes pollinator nutrition, larval host plants for butterflies and moths, and areas for egg laying, nesting, sheltering, overwintering, resting, and warming. Find a wealth of information to support pollinators while improving the environment around you: • The importance of pollinators and the specific threats to their survival• How to provide food for pollinators using native perennials, trees, and shrubs that bloom in succession• Detailed profiles of the major pollinator types and how to attract and support each one• Tips for creating and growing a Pollinator Victory Garden, including site assessment, planning, and planting goals• Project ideas like pollinator islands, enriched landscape edges, revamped foundation plantings, meadowscapes, and other pollinator-friendly lawn alternatives The time is right for a new gardening movement. Every yard, community garden, rooftop, porch, patio, commercial, and municipal landscape can help to win the war against pollinator decline with The Pollinator Victory Garden.