Showing titles in Gardening & Horticulture

The restoration agriculture system described in this award-winning book works! It is possible for humans to produce staple foods using perennial agricultural ecosystems that actually improve the quality of the environment. This can be done on a backyard, farm, or ranch scale and is needed right now - on a global scale. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel, and many other needs.

Discover Monty's thoughts and garden ideas around nature, seasons, colour, design, pests, flowering shrubs, containers and much more. Hear about the month-by-month jobs he does in his own garden that he hopes are relevant to you. Monty's warm voice brings this most intimate book to life - an enriching listen for any gardener. 

Throughout this audio book, Caroline shows how much joy she gets from spending time in her garden, whether it be grappling with the best way to grow plants and vegetables, or raising seeds in her potting shed. Though she now has a large following on her Instagram account, @CQGardens, her attitude to gardening is the same as it has always been–expertise helps, but is not essential. Gardening should be fun and enjoyable, filled with the simple pleasures of planning, planting, harvesting, and cooking. It is also a meditative and restorative pastime, and a great way to lift your spirits.

Compared to Charles' other books, this is more about no dig, eliminating weeds, garden layout, compost making, and using compost. There is also a history of no-dig vegetable gardening in the last 100 years. I want listeners to understand the context and the reasons why no dig has not been much valued until recently, and why it is now. This audiobook has 18 sections, covering the key methods and wonderful results of no dig, from starting with weeds to sowing and planting straightaway, and cropping soon after.

When Charles and Perrine Hervé-Gruyer set out to create their farm in an historic Normandy village, they had no idea just how much their lives would change. Neither one had ever farmed before. Charles had been circumnavigating the globe by sail, operating a floating school that taught students about ecology and indigenous cultures. Perrine had been an international lawyer in Japan. Each had returned to France to start a new life.

Growing on just one and a half acres, owners Jean-Martin and Maude-Helène feed more than 200 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 garden has always been a place of peace and perseverance, of nurture and reward. Using contemporary neuroscience, psychoanalysis and compelling real-life stories, The Well Gardened Mind investigates the remarkable effects of nature on our health and well-being. From the science of the brain’s own ‘gardener cells’ to the beauty of flowers and the grounding effects of working with nature’s rhythms of growth, decay and regeneration, Stuart-Smith provides a new perspective on the power of gardening. Prisoners given the chance to grow plants are less likely to reoffend. 

Plants play a critical role in how we experience our environment. They create calming green spaces, provide oxygen for us to breathe, and nourish our senses. In The Nature of Plants, ecologist and nursery owner Craig Huegel demystifies the complex lives of plants and provides listeners with an extensive tour into their workings.

The new edition of Gardening Basics for Dummies grounds you thoroughly in the fundamentals of soil, flowers, trees, and lawns - and helps you get to know the names of what you're planting along the way. In a friendly, straightforward style, professional horticulturist Steven A. Frowine shows you how to start growing your expertise - from planning out your own mini-Eden and planting your first annuals, bulbs, and perennials through to laying the perfect lawn, raising tasty crops, and even introducing fish to your landscape!

In both history and fiction, some of the most dramatic, notorious deaths have been through poisonings. Concealed and deliberate, it's a crime that requires advance planning and that for many centuries could go virtually undetected. And yet there is a fine line between healing and killing: The difference lies only in the dosage! 

A much-loved classic of nature writing from environmentalist and the author of Waterlog, Roger Deakin, Wildwood is an exploration of the element wood in nature, our culture and our lives. From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, he embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and trees.

Ever wonder if plants sleep or why their leaves are shaped a certain way? The inner workings of the plants you love are revealed and celebrated in this guide by botany expert Dr. Scott Zona. A Gardener’s Guide to Botany is not just another book on how to grow plants. Instead, it’s a botanical journey into what makes plants tick, delivered in layman’s terms that are easily understood and appreciated by both advanced gardeners and first-timers. It’s the chlorophyll-infused science behind the plants you know and love, whether you grow them indoors or out.

My Garden World by Monty Don is a celebration of every living creature that we all share. This year has given us the enforced opportunity to learn more about the fascinating natural world around us. Whether you live in the countryside or the town, Monty's observations and insights are relevant to each and every one of us. My Garden World is Monty Don's personal journey through the natural year, month by month, season by season, observed from the immediate world around him. 

What could be fresher than farm-to-table terms than vegetables you've grown at home? The new edition of Vegetable Gardening for Dummies puts you in touch with your roots in a thousands of years old farming tradition by demonstrating how easy it is to grow your own. In a friendly, come-relax-in-my-garden style Charlie Nardozzi-leading horticultural writer and guest expert on shows such as Martha Stewart Living Radio - shares the nutritious results of a lifetime of vegetable-growing experience to delve into the nitty-gritty of micro-farming. 

Most gardeners realize that plants need to be fed but know little to nothing about the nature of the nutrients involved or how they get into plants. Teaming with Nutrients explains how nutrients move into plants and what both macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients do once inside. It shows organic gardeners how to provide these essentials.

Call it "Zen and the Art of Farming" or a "Little Green Book", Masanobu Fukuoka's manifesto about farming, eating, and the limits of human knowledge presents a radical challenge to the global systems we rely on for our food. At the same time, it is a spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world. As Wendell Berry writes in his preface, the book "is valuable to us because it is at once practical and philosophical."

Transform a weedy plot into a thriving vegetable garden by following simple steps achieved in a few hours and with plants in the ground from day one. The crucial factor is understanding that not only is there no need to dig over the soil, but by minimising intervention you are actively boosting soil productivity. This is the essence of the No Dig system that Charles Dowding has perfected over a lifetime growing vegetables.

When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life - not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms.

Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life is the first work to explore the origins of Beatrix Potter's love of gardening and plants and show how this passion came to be reflected in her work.

Compact Farms is a guide for anyone dreaming of starting, expanding, or perfecting a profitable farming enterprise on five acres or less. The farm plans explain how to harness an area's water supply, orientation, and geography in order to maximize efficiency and productivity while minimizing effort. Profiles of well-known farmers such as Eliot Coleman and Jean-Martin Fortier show that farming on a small scale in any region, in both urban and rural settings, can provide enough income to turn the endeavor from hobby to career.