Summer Garden Sure Fire Strategies To Make Your Garden Look Amazing

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.

In a time of climate change and mass extinction, how we garden matters more than ever: “An outstanding and deeply passionate book.” —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals Plenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much—not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal communities. Our landscapes push aside wildlife and in turn diminish our genetically programmed love for wildness. How can we get ourselves back into balance through gardens, to speak life's language and learn from other species? Benjamin Vogt addresses why we need a new garden ethic, and why we urgently need wildness in our daily lives—lives sequestered in buildings surrounded by monocultures of lawn and concrete that significantly harm our physical and mental health. He examines the psychological issues around climate change and mass extinction as a way to understand how we are short-circuiting our response to global crises, especially by not growing native plants in our gardens. Simply put, environmentalism is not political; it's social justice for all species marginalized today and for those facing extinction tomorrow. By thinking deeply and honestly about our built landscapes, we can create a compassionate activism that connects us more profoundly to nature and to one another.

Jill Winger, creator of the award-winning blog The Prairie Homestead, introduces her debut The Prairie Homestead Cookbook, including 100+ delicious, wholesome recipes made with fresh ingredients to bring the flavors and spirit of homestead cooking to any kitchen table. With a foreword by bestselling author Joel Salatin The Pioneer Woman Cooks meets 100 Days of Real Food, on the Wyoming prairie. While Jill produces much of her own food on her Wyoming ranch, you don’t have to grow all—or even any—of your own food to cook and eat like a homesteader. Jill teaches people how to make delicious traditional American comfort food recipes with whole ingredients and shows that you don’t have to use obscure items to enjoy this lifestyle. And as a busy mother of three, Jill knows how to make recipes easy and delicious for all ages. "Jill takes you on an insightful and delicious journey of becoming a homesteader. This book is packed with so much easy to follow, practical, hands-on information about steps you can take towards integrating homesteading into your life. It is packed full of exciting and mouth-watering recipes and heartwarming stories of her unique adventure into homesteading. These recipes are ones I know I will be using regularly in my kitchen." - Eve Kilcher These 109 recipes include her family’s favorites, with maple-glazed pork chops, butternut Alfredo pasta, and browned butter skillet corn. Jill also shares 17 bonus recipes for homemade sauces, salt rubs, sour cream, and the like—staples that many people are surprised to learn you can make yourself. Beyond these recipes, The Prairie Homestead Cookbook shares the tools and tips Jill has learned from life on the homestead, like how to churn your own butter, feed a family on a budget, and experience all the fulfilling satisfaction of a DIY lifestyle.

This New York Times bestselling book is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up your home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts and millions of hits per month on their blog YoungHouseLove.com, Sherry and John Petersik are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Packed with 243 tips and ideas—both classic and unexpected—and more than 400 photographs and illustrations, this is a book that readers will return to again and again for the creative projects and easy-to-follow instructions in the relatable voice the Petersiks are known for. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more.

Healthy soil teems with life—not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. Chemical fertilizers injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and the soil becomes increasingly dependent on artificial, often toxic, substances. But there is an alternative: by strengthening the soil food web—the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms—gardeners can create a nurturing environment for plants. Teaming with Microbes extols the benefits of cultivating the soil food web. It clearly explains the activities and organisms that make up the web, and explains how gardeners can cultivate the life of the soil through the use of compost, mulches, and compost tea. With Jeff Lowenfels’ help, everyone—from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants—can create rich, nurturing, living soil.

Learn how to buy, style, and present seasonal flower arrangements for every occasion. With sections on tools, flower care, and design techniques, Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers presents all the secrets to arranging garden-fresh bouquets. Featuring expert advice from Erin Benzakein, world-renowned flower farmer, floral designer, and bestselling author of Floret Farm: Cut Flower Garden, this book is a gorgeous and comprehensive guide to everything you need to make your own incredible arrangements all year long, whether harvesting flowers from the backyard or shopping for blooms at the market. • Includes an A–Z flower guide with photos and care tips for more than 200 varieties. • Simple-to-follow advice on flower care, material selection, and essential design techniques • More than 25 how-to projects, including magnificent centerpieces, infinitely giftable posies, festive wreaths, and breathtaking bridal bouquets Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers offers advice on every phase of working with cut flowers—including gardening, buying, caring for, and arranging fresh flowers. Brimming with indispensable tips and hundreds of vibrant photographs, this book is an invitation to live a flower-filled life and perfect for anyone who loves flowers. • The definitive guide to flower arranging from the biggest star in the farm-to-centerpiece movement • Perfect for flower lovers, avid and novice gardeners, floral designers, wedding planners, florists, small farmers, stylists, designers, crafters, and those passionate about the local floral movement • For those who loved Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein, The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis, Seasonal Flower Arranging by Ariella Chezar, and The Flower Chef by Carly Cylinder

Grow Your Own CUT FLOWERS distils everything Sarah Raven has learnt in five years of testing and cultivating the best possible cut flowers for growing at home. If you want to grow your own cut flowers, there could be no better guide in the world. The book ties-in with an eight-part five-minute mini-series on Gardeners World in spring 2002. Grow Your Own CUT FLOWERS is for the flower arranger who wants to grow their own flowers, but has never gardened before, and for the gardener who knows how to grow their own flowers, but wants ideas to fill a house with their harvest. It demystifies the world of floristry, giving away all the insiders' tips on sowing seed, conditioning flowers and making simple, but stylish arrangements a tied bunch, a large vase, a table centre and more elaborate party flowers. No alarming terms, complex procedures or slabs of wordy text here Grow Your Own Cut Flowers is written more like a cookery book with recipes than a traditional gardening book. Illustrated with over 250 striking colour photographs by Jonathan Buckley, Grow Your Own Cut Flowers is stylish and inspirational as well as practical and accessible. THE AUTHOR WILL UNDERTAKE TO AMERICANIZE THE TEXT FOR ANY CO-EDITIONS.

Presents a guide to creating a garden in such unused spaces as land beside a driveway, next to steps, or between the sidewalk and the street curb, discussing how to prepare the soil and listing the varieties of plants suitable for these conditions.