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BOOKS OF INTEREST
All New Square foot Gardening: Grow More in Less
Space! by Mel Bartholomew
Editorial Reviews
In this method, the garden space is divided into beds that
are easily accessed from every side. A 4' x 4' garden is recommended for the
first garden, and a path wide enough to comfortably work from should be made on
each side of the bed. Each of the beds is divided into approximately
one square foot units and marked out with sticks, twine, or sturdy slats to
ensure that the square foot units remain visible as the garden matures.
The logic behind using smaller beds is that they are easily adapted, and the
gardener can easily reach the entire area without stepping on and compacting the
soil. Part of the magic of how well things grow in these bed is "Mel's
Mix". It is a combination of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3
vermiculite.
Description
One of the best features of this book is that
anyone, anywhere can enjoy this type of gardening. Children, adults,
novices, and adults with limited mobility can achieve spectacular results as
this book combines of all the components of gardening with ease. Location
closer to your house, site planting on top of the existing soil, Mel's Mix, no
extra fertilizer if Mel's Mix is used, only a growth depth of 6 inches to
care for, easy access aisles or on a tabletop, permanent grids in the boxes, and
seed saving ideas make this one of the best gardening idea books available.
The book comes complete with layout pages, very concise planting guides, even
planting time tables for your area and the amount of time you can store your
seeds. If you have never gardened before or started a garden in the spring
and left it completely frustrated a few weeks after, then this is the book for
you.
Details
Hardcover: 271 pages
Publisher: Cold Springs Press (February 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591862027
ISBN-13: 978-1591863024
Customer Reviews: 4.1 out of 5 Stars
Wicked Plants: the Weed That Killed
Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Steward and Briony
Morrow
Editorial Reviews
They may look sweet and innocent, but anyone who
has ever broken out in a rash after picking a hyacinth blossom or burst into
violent sneezing after sniffing a chrysanthemum knows that often the most
beautiful flowers can pack the nastiest punch. This comes as no secret to
mystery writers, who have long taken advantage of the nefarious properties of
common garden plants to create the devices by which a deadly dose of poison is
administered to an unsuspecting victim. But, as Stewart so entertainingly points
out, such fiction is based on pure fact. There are plants that can kill with a
drop of nectar, paralyze with the brush of a petal. From bucolic woodland
streams choked by invasive purple loosestrife to languid southern fields overrun
by kudzu, some plants are just more trouble than they’re worth. Culling legend
and citing science, Stewart’s fact-filled, A–Z compendium of nature’s worst
offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating,
prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants. --Carol Haggas
Description
A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening
red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that
strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart
takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A
to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn
which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves
exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have
been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln's mother).
Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a
fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard.
Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of
bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid
gardeners and nature lovers.
Details
Hardcover: 223 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (May 21, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565126831
ISBN-13: 978-1565126831
Customer Reviews: 4.3 out of 5 Stars
The Earth
Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
by Amy Stewart
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Even Charles Darwin found the lowly earthworm fascinating: all their tiny
individual labors in tilling the soil and nourishing it with their droppings add
up over time to a massive collective impact on the landscape. In this absorbing,
if occasionally gross, treatise, gardening journalist Stewart (From the Ground
Up) delves into their dank subterranean world, detailing their problem-solving
skills, sex lives (Darwin noted their "sexual passion") and shocking ability to
re-grow a whole body from a severed segment (scientists have even sutured
together parts of three different earthworms into a single Frankenworm).
Intriguing in their own right, earthworms stand at the fulcrum of the balance of
nature. In the wrong place, they can devastate forests, but in the right place,
they boost farm yields, suppress pests and plant diseases, detoxify polluted
soils and process raw sewage into inoffensive fertilizer; indeed, humanity's
first great civilizations may have risen on the backs of earthworms, say some of
the creature's most fervent champions. Stewart writes in a charming, meditative
but scientifically grounded style that is informed by her personal relationship
with the worms in her compost bin. In her telling, worms become metaphors-for
the English working class, for the process of scientific rumination, for the
redemption of death and decay by life and fertility-and serve as a touchstone
for exploring the ecological view of things.
Description
In this fascinating book, readers are taken on a journey underground to see the
impact worms have on humans and on our planet. Referring often to Charles
Darwin's The Formation ofVegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with
Observations ofTheir Habits, Stewart educates on the vital role these
creatures play in growing crops, how they can neutralize the effects of nuclear
waste on soil, and their ability to regenerate new body parts. An avid gardener,
the author begins with the worms crawling through her own backyard before
visiting them in such destinations as an endangered redwood forest in
California, a sewage-treatment plant in San Francisco, a nature preserve in
Minnesota, and The Giant Worm Museum in Australia (which is shaped like a
325-foot-long worm
Details
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books (March 11, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565124685
ISBN-13: 978-1565124684
Customer Reviews:
4.7 out of 5 Stars
Lasagna
Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardent: No Diging, No Tilling,
No Weeding, No Kidding! By Pat Lanza
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This intriguingly titled book, which has nothing to do with pasta and everything
to do with layering, serves up a time-saving approach to gardening that will come
as welcome news to the overworked and the horticulturally challenged. Lanza
exhorts readers to build soil up, "instead of digging down," by simply layering
organic materials onto a prospective garden site and close-planting directly
into it. Together with generous mulching, she contends, this process eliminates
some of gardening's more labor-intensive chores, tilling, double-digging, weeding
and frequent watering. After outlining her basic premise, Lanza zeroes in on the
specific areas of interest, including vegetables, herbs, berries and flowers,
providing an abundance of detail on a wide selection of planting materials.
Although this method of creating instant raised beds is not new, Lanza has
refined it into a step-by-step procedure that she conveys with simplicity and
clarity, and her chatty, first-person narrative makes the text a pleasure to
read. Of particular interest to fledgling gardeners, this title will also appeal
to those looking for new ways to streamline the demands of their favorite
pastime.
Review
"Pat Lanza is a genius! It's a pleasure to find a garden writer
like Pat who speaks from experience and who shares practical information in
clear, understandable language. Her no-till, no-dig method will save many aching
backs, and the tips and time-savers she sprinkles throughout Lasagna
Gardening are sure to please gardeners of all skill levels."--Walter
Chandoha, garden photographer and author of The Literary Gardener
"I absolutely recommend Lasagna Gardening for every gardener."--Ralph
Snodsmith, host of Garden Hotline, WOR radio network
Details
Paperback: 244 pages
Publisher: Rodale Books (November 15, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0875969623
ISBN-13: 978-0875969626
Customer Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 Stars
Every Garden
Is A Story: Stories, Crafts, and Comforts
by Susannah Seton
Editorial Reviews
Inspiring stories paired with beautiful photos
and solid tips - the perfect gift.
Susannah Seton reminds us in Every Garden Is a Story that reader and
gardener alike have much to learn from their gardens. The poignant and touching
stories-- from her father's quest for a seven-headed sweet pea to cancer
survival and magical portraits of moon gardens--take readers on a journey
through garden beds, along the way reinforcing how to care for themselves and
their loved ones by caring for the Earth.
Some of the
most touching stories remind us that we don't have to have a big yard or a lot
of money to have a garden. --from the foreword by Carolyn Rapp
Description
Every Garden Is a Story
is a thoughtful and inspiring gift for any gardener. Did
you know you can grow your own luffa sponges?
·
Contains dozens of recipes, tips, crafts and an extensive
resource section of garden centers, online seed catalogs, and recommended
reading.
* Appeals to burgeoning eco-conscious readers with a desire to get back to
basics.
Details
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: Conari Press; illustrated edition edition
(November 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1573243183
ISBN-13: 978-1573243186
Customer Reviews:
4.7 out of 5 Stars
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