Recommended Reads

Connecting to nature with native plants

Landscaping with native plants has encouraged gardeners from the Midwest and beyond to embark on a profound scientific, ecological, and emotional partnership with nature. Benjamin Vogt shares his expertise with prairie plants in a richly photographed guide aimed at gardeners and homeowners, making big ideas about design approachable and actionable. Step-by-step blueprints point readers to plant communities that not only support wildlife and please the eye but that rethink traditional planting and maintenance. Additionally, Vogt provides insider information on plant sourcing, garden tools, and working with city ordinances. This book will be an invaluable reference in sustainable garden design for those wanting both beautiful and functional landscapes.

Easy to use and illustrated with over 150 color photos, Prairie Up is a practical guide to artfully reviving diversity and wildness in our communities.

Received Honorable Mention from the AHS Book Awards (American Horticultural Society)

In No-Waste Composting, you’ll discover the hows and whys of composting and find over a dozen practical step-by-step plans for building both indoor and outdoor composting systems that require a minimal amount of space. 

“I don’t have enough space to compost.” 
“I don’t know what’s safe to compost and what isn’t.” 
“I live in the city, so I don’t think I can compost.” 
“Indoor composting systems are smelly.” 
“I don’t have a garden, so I don’t need to compost.”
 
If any of these is your excuse for not composting, then this is the book for you! Small-space composting has never been easier, more efficient, and more eco-friendly. Composting keeps millions of tons of waste out of landfills and creates carbon-sequestering, nutrient-dense compost that can be used to help fuel plant growth (including houseplants!) and build soil health. 

• Build a DIY worm-composting system for a cupboard or garage
• Craft a layered, under-the-sink composting system from terra cotta pots
• Construct a simple outdoor compost bin from repurposed wooden pallets 
• Use upcycled wire fencing to build a mobile composting system on the driveway
• Learn how to compost larger sticks and branches to build new food and flower gardens
• Upcycle a plastic bucket to make an indoor compost fermenting system

Plus, you’ll find plans to keep cat and dog waste out of the landfill by using a groundbreaking (and safe) DIY composting system. And if you don’t garden, author and composting professional Michelle Balz offers plenty of other ways you can utilize the wonderful, crumbly compost you create. 
 
Whether you’re just starting your no-waste journey or you’re a seasoned recycling and repurposing pro, No-Waste Composting is an invaluable tool to have at your side. This book is part of the Cool Springs Press No-Waste Gardening series, which also includes No-Waste Kitchen Gardening and No-Waste Organic Gardening. 

Keep your lawn and garden lush without wasting resources by capturing and recycling the greywater that drains from your sink, shower, and washing machine. This accessible and detailed guide walks you through each step of planning for and installing a variety of greywater systems, including laundry-to-landscape and branched drain gravity-fed systems. After identifying greywater sources in your home and estimating flow rate, you’ll learn to pinpoint where to redirect the wastewater for the greatest benefit. No matter which system you decide to build, you'll have the information to construct it yourself or move forward with confidence to hire a professional. 

An essential guide to composting for all gardeners and environmentally conscious people

This revised edition of The Rodale Book of Composting includes all the latest in new techniques, technology, and equipment. Gardeners know composting is the best way to feed the soil and turn food scraps into fresh produce, but even urbanites can get on board thanks to programs like compost pickup and citywide food waste initiatives—there’s no better way to reduce landfill waste (and subsequent emissions) and dependence on fossil fuels while nourishing the earth.

The Rodale Book of Composting offers easy-to-follow instructions for making and using compost; helpful tips for apartment dwellers, suburbanites, farmers, and community leaders; and ecologically sound solutions to growing waste-disposal problems.

Bring your garden to life—and life to your garden!

Do you want a garden that makes a real difference? Choose plants native to our Midwest region. The rewards will benefit you, your yard, and the environment—from reducing maintenance tasks to attracting earth-friendly pollinators such as native birds, butterflies, and bees. Native plant expert Alan Branhagen makes adding these superstar plants easier than ever before, with proven advice that every home gardener can follow. This incomparable sourcebook includes 225 recommended native ferns, grasses, wildflowers, perennials, vines, shrubs, and trees. It’s everything you need to know to create a beautiful and beneficial garden.

This must-have handbook is for gardeners in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Did you know you can have a garden that’s equal parts food source and wildlife haven? In Grow Now, Emily Murphy shares easy-to-follow principles for regenerative gardening that foster biodiversity and improve soil health. She also shows how every single yard mirrors and connects to the greater ecosystem around us.
 
No-dig growing, composting and mulching smartly, and planting a variety of edible perennials that attract bees and butterflies are all commonsense techniques everyone can use to grow positive change. You'll also find detailed advice on increasing your nature quotient, choosing plants that cycle more carbon back into the soil, selecting a broader variety of vegetables and fruits to improve overall soil fertility, rethinking space devoted to lawns, and adding companion plants for pollinators to rewild any plot of land.

Exquisitely photographed and filled with helpful lists and sidebars, Grow Now is an actionable, hopeful, and joyful roadmap for growing our way to individual climate contributions. Gardening is climate activism!
 

You’re excited to plant your first vegetable garden—but where to start? In The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables, you'll find the answers you're looking for.

Homesteader Jessica Sowards, the warm and energetic host of YouTube’s Roots and Refuge Farm, is the perfect teacher for new gardeners, offering not just know-how but inspiration and time-management tips for success.

Before you sink your hands into the soil, she’ll answer all those questions rolling around inside your head:

• Where do I put my new garden?
• How do I prepare the soil?
• What vegetables should I plant?
• Is it better to start new plants from seed or should I buy transplants?
• What about watering, feeding, and taking care of my garden?
• What do I do if bugs show up?

There are no stupid questions here. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all. Not only will you learn how to prepare, plant, and tend your first vegetable garden, you’ll also learn:

• How to design an eco-friendly layout
• How to grow with the seasons
• How to maximize your harvest, even if you only grow in a small space

Jessica wants your first food-growing experience to be a positive one, and she’s prepared to go the distance to make sure tending the earth becomes your new favorite hobby.

A single growing season is all it takes to fall in love with growing your own healthy, organic, nutrient-dense food. With Jessica as your guide, you’ll soon discover all the satisfactions, challenges, and great joys of growing your own food garden.

This book is part of The First-Time Gardener's Guides series from Cool Springs Press, which also includes The First-Time Gardener: Growing Plants and Flowers. Each book in The First-Time Gardener's Guides series is aimed at beginner gardeners and offers clear, fact-based information that's presented in a friendly and accessible way, including step-by-step instructions and full-color illustrations throughout.

Discover how to get more out of your growing space with succession planting—carefully planned, continuous seed sowing—and provide a steady stream of fresh food from early spring through late fall.
 
Drawing inspiration from succession in natural landscapes, Meg McAndrews Cowden teaches you how to implement lessons from these dynamic systems in your home garden. You’ll learn how to layer succession across your perennial and annual crops; maximize the early growing season; determine the sequence to plant and replant in summer; and incorporate annual and perennial flowers to benefit wildlife and ensure efficient pollination. You’ll also find detailed, seasonal sowing charts to inform your garden planning, so you can grow more anywhere, regardless of your climate.
 
Plant Grow Harvest Repeat will inspire you to create an even more productive, beautiful, and enjoyable garden across the seasons—every vegetable gardener’s dream.

From the creator of the wildly popular website “Vertical Veg” and with over 200k people in his online community of growers, comes the complete guide to growing delicious fruit, vegetables, herbs, and salad in containers, pots, and more—in any space, from window boxes to garden yards, no matter how small!

"[A] thorough and enthusiastic guide to vegetable gardening . . . both handy and hefty...Aspiring urban gardeners will want to give this a look."—Publishers Weekly

If you long to grow your own tomatoes, zucchini, or strawberries, but thought you didn’t have enough space, Mark Ridsdill Smith, aka the “Vertical Veg Man,” will show you how to make the most of walls, balconies, patios, arches, and windowsills.

Ridsdill Smith has spent over ten years teaching people to grow bountiful, edible crops in all kinds of containers in small spaces.

Inside The Vertical Veg Guide to Container Gardening, you’ll find:

• Mark’s “Eight Steps to Success”
• How to make the most of your space
• How to draw up a planning calendar so you can grow throughout the year
• Planting projects for beginners
• Compost recipes and wormery guide for the more experienced gardener
• Troubleshoots for specific challenges of growing in small spaces
• How growing food at home can contribute to wellbeing and the local community

With quick, proven results from his own tests, failures, and successes, Mark will show you how gardening in containers is not just a hobby, but a way of creating a significant amount of delicious, low-cost, high nutrition food.

Don’t be confined by the space you have—grow all the food you want with Mark’s Vertical Veg Guide to Container Gardening.

Just how productive can one small vegetable garden be? More productive than one might think! Colin McCrate and Brad Halm, former CSA growers and current owners of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, help readers boost their garden productivity by teaching them how to plan carefully, maximize production in every bed, get the most out of every plant, scale up systems to maximize efficiency, and expand the harvest season with succession planting, intercropping, and season extension.
 
Along with chapters devoted to the Five Tenets of a Productive Gardener (Plan Well to Get the Most from Your Garden; Maximize Production in Each Bed; Get the Most out of Every Plant; Scale up Tools and Systems for Efficiency; and Expand and Extend the Harvest), the book contains interactive tools that home gardeners can use to assist them in determining how, when, and what to plant; evaluating crop health; and planning and storing the harvest. For today’s vegetable gardeners who want to grow as much of their own food as possible, this guide offers expert advice and strategies for cultivating a garden that supplies what they need.

Gardening for Everyone is a sustainable guide to growing vegetables in five simple steps: planning, building, planting, tending and harvesting.

With the same wisdom and stunning aesthetic as Simply Living Well, Julia's beautiful new book is a guide to creating and growing a garden simply and sustainably with profiles of essential vegetables and herbs, ecological tips, and fun and creative projects.

Growing food in your backyard (or even on a porch or windowsill!) is one of the simplest and most rewarding ways to nourish yourself, be self-sufficient and connect with nature in a hands-on way. Here sustainability expert Julia Watkins shares everything you need to know to grow your own vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as wildflowers and other beneficial companion plants.

The book covers all the nuts and bolts of creating and caring for your garden - planning, building, planting, tending and harvesting - followed by a deeper dive into the plants themselves: demystifying annuals vs. perennials, cold-weather vs. warm-weather veggies, and profiles of favorite crops. Throughout, Julia offers tips for creating an eco-friendly and sustainable garden (such as vermicomposting, no-till 'lasagna' gardening, and attracting pollinators), plus some fun and unexpected hands-on projects like how to build a bean teepee, make wildflower seed paper, and enjoy refreshing herbal lemonade ice pops.

A vegetable garden is not an option for everyone, and so container growing has become desirable for people with little outside space

Many have discovered the love of growing houseplants and want to take their skills to another level; others are inspired by the idea of growing their own food organically and sustainably. The book covers all the essentials of growing a range of edible plants in pots, and meeting each crop's specific needs.

Author Claire Ratinon brings her urban food growing expertise to this popular subject, in a book designed to appeal to new gardeners and anyone who would like to take on the rewarding challenge of growing their own dinner, even if they've only got a window box or balcony to work with.

Growing awareness of the importance of soil health means that microbes are on the minds of even the most casual gardeners. After all, anyone who has ever attempted to plant a thriving patch of flowers or vegetables knows that what you grow is only as good as the soil you grow it in. It is possible to create and maintain rich, dark, crumbly soil that’s teeming with life, using very few inputs and a no-till, no-fertilizer approach. Certified permaculture designer and lifelong gardener Diane Miessler presents the science of soil health in an engaging, entertaining voice geared for the backyard grower. She shares the techniques she has used — including cover crops, constant mulching, and a simple-but-supercharged recipe for compost tea — to transform her own landscape from a roadside dump for broken asphalt to a garden that stops traffic, starting from the ground up.

Grow a Year’s Worth of Food for Your Family

Do something good for your loved ones by learning how to plant a garden that will yield wholesome, organic fruits and vegetables in surprisingly less space than you would think. Melissa K. Norris, fifth-generation homesteader and host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, walks you through each step of the process, including how to

• decide which food crops are best for your area and family
• plan your garden to maximize the space you have
• protect your garden from common pests and diseases naturally
• determine when your fruits and vegetables are ready to be harvested
• improve soil health with simple techniques like crop rotation and backyard composting  

Sharing the same practices and techniques from her homestead, Melissa shows you how easy it can be to raise a year’s worth of produce at home. Simple-to-follow charts, worksheets, and photographs are provided throughout to help you through every phase of the gardening process.     

You can enjoy good eating and greater well-being for you and your family.

Garden Alchemy is a hands-on guide for do-it-yourself gardeners who want to turn their garden into gold using natural recipes and herbal concoctions (while saving both time and money!).

This gardening recipe and project book is packed with over 80 ideas to naturally beautify your garden, using organic methods that regenerate your soil and revitalize your plants. By following the processes that are closest to nature, it brings the gardener in sync with the garden, allowing plants to thrive with less effort and less cost.

Recipes for mixing your own potting soils and homemadeorganic fertilizers give you the freedom to choose what ingredients make their way into your garden. Step-by-step instructions for building a compost pile, concocting soil tests, and constructing inexpensive DIY seed-starting equipment are accompanied by gorgeous, full-color, step-by-step photography. You'll also find recipes for natural pest deterrents and traps, garden teas, and growth-boosting foliar sprays to help your garden grow strong all season long.

Garden Alchemy starts with home experiments to help you get to know your soil and customize recipes for your individual needs. The rest of the chapters share how to decipher and combine natural ingredients to make the best quality amendments and elixirs. Detailed descriptions of earth-based materials demystify common ingredients, such as mycorrhizae, biochar, and greensand, and help you learn how to fix common garden problems with minimal effort. The simple method of making use of what you have available supports plants better than brand-name products.

Dozens of recipes and projects include:

• Homemade seed bombs, disks, and tapes
• Granular and liquid natural fertilizer recipes 
• DIY rooting hormone
• Herbal anti-fungal spray
• Plant propagation instructions
• Soil care recipes to adjust the pH and manage fertility
• 13 specialty potting mixes
• 7 clever traps for common garden pests

Written by Stephanie Rose, the creative gardener, permaculturist, and herbalist behind the popular website Garden Therapy, this fun and beautifully illustrated book is packed with great ideas and inspiration for DIY gardeners who want to embrace their creativity and have more control of the garden's care.

“Gardeners just starting out will earn a sense of accomplishment and a good dose of knowledge.” —Booklist 

Every new gardener has to start somewhere—and the process can be intimidating. Knowing when and what to plant, how to care for the plants once they’re in the ground, and how to keep pests and diseases away is a lot to take on. Luckily, Daryl Beyers—an expert from the New York Botanical Garden—has written what will be a  go-to resource for decades to come. The New Gardener’s Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of gardening, based on the introductory gardening class that Beyers teaches at NYBG. Readers will learn about soil, plant selection, propagation, planting and mulching, watering and feeding, pruning, and weeds, pests, and diseases. The information applies to both ornamental and edible plants. Featuring inspiring photography and helpful illustrations, The New Gardener’s Handbook gives home gardeners a foundation upon which they can grow, and encourages them to apply the lessons they’ve learned in an intuitive, natural way.
 

Everything you need to know to grow good food without a yard

Grow food for freshness. Grow food organically. Grow food to connect with nature. Whatever the goal, you don’t need a lot of space to enjoy the benefits of homegrown veggies, herbs, and fruits.

In Grow Food at Home, gardening expert John Tullock shows readers just how easy it is to enjoy “farm”-fresh produce grown right on the windowsill, the porch, or in a tiny backyard. Covering artificial lighting, hydroponics, vertical gardening, straw-bale planters, and more, the book offers even the most confined apartment dwellers plenty of options to get growing. Tullock shares all the tips and tricks readers need to make small-space gardening a success, with information on starting seeds, transplanting, succession planting, “crop” rotation, and other procedures—all tailored to the small-space garden—plus recipes to make the most of the harvest.

Readers will be energized to grow a mouth-watering selection of micro-crops, from lettuces and herbs to tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, and even small fruits—no matter how little room they have available.

The ultimate organic gardening resource, Gardening for Geeks provides readers with everything they need to know about designing, building, and sustaining their own garden. Filled with step-by-step processes, helpful diagrams, and expert tips on the best practices, this book covers it all for anyone who dreams of gardening, even the city dweller. Starting off with the basics and progressing into more advanced concepts for a wide scope of gardening strategies and techniques, this is a comprehensive and geeky look at your favorite hobby. Founder of Gardenerd and author, Christy Wilhelmi shares her expertise to break down the biology and ecology of gardening in an easy, breezy writing style that will make you appreciate and understand gardening even more than you did before!

No need to keep buying the same vegetables you eat all the time over and over again. Regrow Your Veggies is an insightful guide that provides effective propagation techniques to recycle and regrow more than 20 popular vegetables right at home! Learn how to have a source of fresh and healthy vegetables close by, from onions and sweet potatoes to pineapples and mangoes, reduce waste, and know how to prevent and solve issues with pesky pests and pathogens. Get the most out of your favorite foods and produce your own produce!

Design a beautiful and self-sufficient garden; learn the secrets of heirloom vegetables, herbs, and flowers; and enjoy 55 seasonal recipes featuring the fruits of your labor--all with one book!

Heirlooms are more than just delicious ingredients or beautiful flowers--their seeds offer us a connection with the earth, and each one tells a story. Author and garden lecturer Ellen Ecker Ogden was inspired to preserve the diversity of plants that are slipping away after learning that we have lost over 85% of the plant world in the last century to extinction.

In The New Heirloom Garden, Ogden inspires us with a history of seed saving in this country, then guides gardeners of all levels to create their own heirloom gardens with tangible gardening tips, twelve themed garden designs, and detailed resources. The first half of the book shares specific garden plans, plant keys with descriptions, plant and seed wish lists, interviews with gardening experts, and even tips and tricks to handle your own local weather. The second half of the book contains 55 recipes for delicious entrees, sides, drinks, and desserts that can be made from each vegetable, fruit, and flower grown in your garden. Readers will delight in making Fennel and Watermelon Salad, Cucumber Summer Soup, Fire Cider, and Winter Squash Pie. It's a book designed for readers to bring to their local supply store, take outside into the garden, and then enjoy in the kitchen.

When the inspiration hits to start an organic garden, many novices could benefit from a guidebook that speaks directly to their enthusiasm, their goals, and, of course, their need for solid information that speaks a newbie’s language—from the most trusted source for organic gardening methods. 

In Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening, general garden-building skills (from "Do I need to dig?" to "Where do I dig?") and specific techniques (from "How do I plant a seed?" to "How much should I water?") are presented in growing-season order—from garden planning and planting to growing and harvesting. Many other need-to-know topics like soil, compost, seeds, pest control, and weeds are explained in simple language to ensure success, even on a small scale, on the first try. More than 100 common garden terms are defined, and Smart Starts sidebars offer doable projects to build confidence and enthusiasm for expanding a garden when a gardener is ready. A flower, vegetable, and herb finder highlights easycare plants with good track records. Plus, there are no-dig garden methods, simple garden layouts, and tips and hints inspired by the most popular page views on OrganicGardening.com. 

With a "no question is unwelcome" approach, a troubleshooting section lessens frustrations and encourages experimentation. Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening is everything a beginning gardener (or one who’s new to gardening organically) needs to get growing and keep a garden going strong all season.

Gaia's Garden will be recorded in history as a milestone for gardeners and landscapers. . . An amazing achievement.--Paul Stamets

The classic book about ecological gardening--whatever size your garden--with over 250,000 copies sold!

A great book!--Men's Journal

Gaia's Garden has sparked the imagination of home gardeners the world over by introducing a simple message: working with nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens.

Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening--which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants--can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it's fun and easy--even for the beginner--to create a "backyard ecosystem" by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:

• Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
• Catching and conserving water in the landscape
• Providing a rewilded and biodiverse habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
• Growing an edible "forest" that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods

This revised and updated edition also features a chapter on urban permaculture, designed especially for people in cities and suburbs who have very limited growing space. Whatever size yard or garden you have to work with, you can apply basic permaculture principles to make it more diverse, more natural, more productive, and more beautiful. Best of all, once it's established, an ecological garden will reduce or eliminate most of the backbreaking work that's needed to maintain the typical lawn and garden.

This book is the perfect companion for every vegetable gardener--even those who have never touched a trowel and wouldn't know mulch from mud! The practical advice presented in the Vegetable Gardener's Handbook demystifies gardening by providing the best, most proven methods for sowing, growing, and harvesting.

Highlights include ...

• Step-by-step advice for success with more than 30 vegetables in any zone
• The dirt on soil: why testing is so important--and how to do it
• Easy techniques for growing in-ground, plus alternatives to traditional raised beds
• Seed-starting and -saving methods simplified
• Gardeners' friends and foes: which plants help (or hinder) vegetables
• Enlightening (and humorous!) anecdotes from fellow gardeners
• Space for noting observations and experiences
• More than 150 full-color photos
• Essential reference tables and charts
• Much, much more!

Created for new gardeners, green thumbs, and old hands alike, The Old Farmer's Almanac Vegetable Gardener's Handbook is loaded with advice and inspiration to help plants--and growers--thrive.

Only The Old Farmer's Almanac has the experience and longevity to offer the very best tried-and-true information, tips, and advice about all things gardening and growing. With the Vegetable Gardener's Handbook, we are a patient master gardener passing down the secrets of growing great food to every gardener.

The international bee crisis is threatening our global food supply, but this user-friendly field guide shows what you can do to help protect our pollinators. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation offers browsable profiles of 100 common flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees that support bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. The recommendations are simple: pick the right plants for pollinators, protect them from pesticides, and provide abundant blooms throughout the growing season by mixing perennials with herbs and annuals! 100 Plants to Feed the Bees will empower homeowners, landscapers, apartment dwellers — anyone with a scrap of yard or a window box — to protect our pollinators.

A guide to growing beautiful gardens in drought-prone areas utilizing minimal water for maximum results. With climate change, water rationing, and drought on the rise, water conservation is more important than ever—but that doesn’t mean your gardening options are limited to cacti and rocks. The Water-Saving Garden provides gardeners and homeowners with a diverse array of techniques and plentiful inspiration for creating sustainable gardens that are so beautiful and inviting, it’s hard to believe they are water-thrifty. Including a directory of 100 plants appropriate for a variety of drought-prone regions of the country, this accessible and contemporary xeriscaping guide is full of must-know information on popular gardening topics like native and drought-tolerant plants (including succulents), rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, permeable paving, and more.

“This practical guide is lush with clear, step-by-step advice.” —Real Simple

Since its original publication twenty years ago, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden has helped home gardeners successfully plan, plant, and tend their gardens. Now Tracy Di-Sabato-Aust’s trusty advice and reassuring tone are back and better than ever in this completely revised new edition. Novice and experienced gardeners alike will benefit from Tracy’s thorough details on the essential practices of perennial care—included deadheading, pinching, and thinning—along with growing information for new species and cultivars, on-trend garden design advice, a monthly planting and maintenance schedule, and details on native plants and gardening for wildlife. The Well-Tended Perennial Garden is a must-have ally in the quest for a beautiful, well-maintained garden. 

Full of essential gardening tips, RHS Complete Gardener's Manual covers everything from how to plant a garden from scratch and creating your own vegetable garden, to how to plant in containers and how to prune. It combines practical advice with design inspiration and features step-by-step techniques with beautiful photography, as well as a planting guide to help you get the best out of your garden. Take a step towards self-sufficiency with a major section on growing your own fruit and vegetables or use the eye-catching catalogue of plants to see what you should be growing for every season and site. Plus, dedicated chapters focus on key gardening topics such as improving the soil, propogation, and problem-solving. RHS Complete Gardener's Manual is a great reference guide and a one-stop manual for both new and experienced gardeners alike.

From Rosalind Creasy--a name synonymous with California's garden-to-table movement--comes an accessible guide to cultivating and preparing herbs.

If you buy only one herb gardening book, this should be it. Creasy takes you from seeds to stove top, from preparing the soil to elegant dining suggestions, with easy-to-follow instructions and inspirational ideas every step of the way.

Each section of this book presents vivid photos and practical information, including:

• How to design and grow an herb garden in just about any space--from a spacious plot to a tiny balcony--and in just about any climate
• A tour through many beautiful private herb gardens, including some of Creasy's own, as well as the garden of herb luminary Carole Saville and others
• A fully illustrated encyclopedia of edible herbs--from old favorites like basil, rosemary and sage to more exotic herbs such as lemon verbena and Mexican tarragon
• A savory selection of healthy herb recipes for side dishes, such as blends, butters and vinegars, main dishes from around the world and even cocktails and desserts
• Maintenance and organic pest control methods
• A list of resources for seeds and supplies
• A guide to growing, cultivating and preparing hops

This herb guide is full of practical tips and tricks presented in a beautiful format--perfect for the gardener, aspiring gardener or home chef.

Shawna Coronado, one of America's most creative gardeners, gives you her library of clever gardening tricks in 101 Organic Gardening Hacks.

If you ask garden author Shawna Coronado what a hack is, she might just wave her hand toward her own back yard. She could be pointing at the garden bench she created from leftover wood posts and a few cinder blocks, or the rows of wine bottles buried soldier-style along a winding pathway, or even the garden soil itself, which is blended by hand from an organic soil recipe she devised.

In 101 Organic Garden Hacks you'll find the top tips, tricks, and solutions Shawna has dreamed up in her career as one of America's most creative gardeners. Some are practical timesavers; others offer clever ways to upcycle everyday items in your garden.

One characteristic every hack shares is that they are completely organic and unfailingly environmentally friendly. Divided into a dozen different categories for easy reference, each hack is accompanied by a clear photo that shows you exactly how to complete it. If you are looking for resourceful ways to improve your garden and promote green living values right at home, you'll love paging through this fascinating, eye-catching book.

Discover how to make the most of your gardening plot, however confined, with Isabelle's creative and inspiring projects, including creating a cocktail window box from which you can make your own delicious fruity drinks, recycling containers such as wine and fruit crates, and creating a country garden in the smallest urban space. You can also turn your balcony, roof terrace or patio into an attractive space to dine and entertain with stylish lighting and furnishing ideas. With The Balcony Gardener's uniquely different gardening ideas and practical advice, a lack of space won't hold you back; you will soon transform your mini-patch into a fabulous green oasis.Isabelle Palmer is the founder of The Balcony Gardener (www.thebalconygardener.com) an online company specialising in product ranges for small urban outdoor spaces. Isabelle studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design and then embarked on a degree in Economics before working in PR. She's always been a keen gardener before she started her successful business.

Grow beautiful fruits, vegetables, and flowers with rich soil you produce yourself! Whether you have experience with compost or have always wanted to learn more and see how you can incorporate it into your lifestyle, this book provides everything you need to know. From understanding what compost is and how to make it to using and storing it, this guide carefully explains this sustainable, low-cost way to produce rich soil in your backyard. With detailed chapters on composting techniques, worm composting, and even a section on frequently asked questions, Organic Book of Compost is the only one you'll ever need!

This book is the perfect companion for every vegetable gardener--even those who have never touched a trowel and wouldn't know mulch from mud! The practical advice presented in the Vegetable Gardener's Handbook demystifies gardening by providing the best, most proven methods for sowing, growing, and harvesting.

Highlights include ...

• Step-by-step advice for success with more than 30 vegetables in any zone
• The dirt on soil: why testing is so important--and how to do it
• Easy techniques for growing in-ground, plus alternatives to traditional raised beds
• Seed-starting and -saving methods simplified
• Gardeners' friends and foes: which plants help (or hinder) vegetables
• Enlightening (and humorous!) anecdotes from fellow gardeners
• Space for noting observations and experiences
• More than 150 full-color photos
• Essential reference tables and charts
• Much, much more!

Created for new gardeners, green thumbs, and old hands alike, The Old Farmer's Almanac Vegetable Gardener's Handbook is loaded with advice and inspiration to help plants--and growers--thrive.

Only The Old Farmer's Almanac has the experience and longevity to offer the very best tried-and-true information, tips, and advice about all things gardening and growing. With the Vegetable Gardener's Handbook, we are a patient master gardener passing down the secrets of growing great food to every gardener.

Edible Gardens LA founder Lauri Kranz shares her secrets for planning, planting, growing, and maintaining luscious edible gardens, no matter the setting or size of the plot. Through gorgeous gardens created for her well-known clientele, including James Beard award–winning chefs, celebrities, rock stars, and more, Lauri shares her essential methods for growing abundant organic food. This practical guide is built around Lauri’s philosophy that nourishment and beauty are not separate goals. It’s also at the forefront of a gardening revolution, where more and more people are craving a patch of land for growing and the trend is toward edible gardens over ornamental gardens. A Garden Can Be Anywhere reveals Lauri’s knack for providing both beauty and bounty in her clients’ outdoor spaces.

No need to keep buying the same vegetables you eat all the time over and over again. Regrow Your Veggies is an insightful guide that provides effective propagation techniques to recycle and regrow more than 20 popular vegetables right at home! Learn how to have a source of fresh and healthy vegetables close by, from onions and sweet potatoes to pineapples and mangoes, reduce waste, and know how to prevent and solve issues with pesky pests and pathogens. Get the most out of your favorite foods and produce your own produce!

Grow a Year’s Worth of Food for Your Family

Do something good for your loved ones by learning how to plant a garden that will yield wholesome, organic fruits and vegetables in surprisingly less space than you would think. Melissa K. Norris, fifth-generation homesteader and host of the popular Pioneering Today podcast, walks you through each step of the process, including how to

• decide which food crops are best for your area and family
• plan your garden to maximize the space you have
• protect your garden from common pests and diseases naturally
• determine when your fruits and vegetables are ready to be harvested
• improve soil health with simple techniques like crop rotation and backyard composting  

Sharing the same practices and techniques from her homestead, Melissa shows you how easy it can be to raise a year’s worth of produce at home. Simple-to-follow charts, worksheets, and photographs are provided throughout to help you through every phase of the gardening process.     

You can enjoy good eating and greater well-being for you and your family.

The ultimate organic gardening resource, Gardening for Geeks provides readers with everything they need to know about designing, building, and sustaining their own garden. Filled with step-by-step processes, helpful diagrams, and expert tips on the best practices, this book covers it all for anyone who dreams of gardening, even the city dweller. Starting off with the basics and progressing into more advanced concepts for a wide scope of gardening strategies and techniques, this is a comprehensive and geeky look at your favorite hobby. Founder of Gardenerd and author, Christy Wilhelmi shares her expertise to break down the biology and ecology of gardening in an easy, breezy writing style that will make you appreciate and understand gardening even more than you did before!

It's nearly impossible for gardeners to resist the allure of heirloom plants. Their names alone sound inviting--Flanders Purple kale, Golden Marconi sweet peppers, Moon & Stars watermelons, Turk's Turban squash, Scarlet Emperor running beans, and Jefferson plums--and many growers claim that their taste is unsurpassed. Beyond the classic appeal, however, lies the far more important issue of biodiversity. Unless these unique seeds are grown and saved, they will not only be forgotten, but lost forever. Based on the extensive seed catalogs of Thomas Etty, the popular heirloom seedsman, Heirloom Plants includes information on almost 500 exciting cultivars to be grown and harvested, along with detailed profiles and cultivation tips for each plant. In addition to edibles, the book also has chapters on antique herbs and flowers, from Cup and Saucer vines to Sweet William carnations to Empress of India nasturtiums. Trowel and book in hand, let your motto be, "Growing the past, saving the future."

At a time where commercial forces have increased control over the food supply by patenting seeds with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), seed saving has become an important skill to encourage and share. Longtime organic gardener Jill Henderson explains how preserving open-pollinated and heirloom garden seeds from one season to the next will not only save gardeners money but will also increase their self-sufficiency and help them maintain a naturally diverse gene pool of food plants. Here are some of the many "insider tips" you'll discover: which seeds are easiest to save, why saving seeds preserves genetic diversity, easy hand-pollination techniques for beginners, the right way to harvest, clean, and store seeds at home, how to save hundreds of seed varieties from only seven crop types, how to ensure seed viability and test germination rates, and ways to keep seeds from cross-pollinating. Armed with these simple tips and instructions, anyone with a green thumb will find seed saving easy and rewarding.