Earth, Nature and You

Autobiography of a Garden follows Patterson Webster's 25-year journey as she transforms a beautiful but conventional country property into a 750-acre landscape that challenges what a garden is, or can be. A unique, personal memoir, this book details how a neophyte gardener moved from copying the ideas of other people, to learning from them, to striking out on her own. Combining traditions from French and English eighteenth-century gardens with contemporary perspectives, Webster communicates concepts and ideas that underpin the garden's design, sharing a process that evolved over seasons and years. She explores the meaning of creating a garden and the meaning that a garden can create, linking ideas about aging and the passage of time to the reality of growth and death in the landscape, and thinking through how art in a garden can reframe questions of memory and our relationship to nature. Using the history of the property as a framework, Webster considers the impact made by those who lived on the land before her: the Abenaki, the early settlers, the cottagers, the farmers, the US southerners who came to Quebec to avoid the summer heat, and the northerners who defeated them in the Civil War. With engaging personal anecdotes, she describes the thinking behind each part of the garden and the examples that guided her, the mishaps and successes she encountered, and her plans for the future. Beautifully photographed and full of inspirational ways of thinking about gardens and gardening, Autobiography of a Garden blends history, horticulture, and art, encouraging readers to make their own surroundings more beautiful and more meaningful."-- Provided by publisher.

Design, build, and equip your very own greenhouse with the building plans and photo-illustrated step-by-step instructions in BLACK+DECKER The Complete Guide to DIY Greenhouses 3rd Edition. A start-to-finish book on building greenhouses for the home gardener, this is the most complete book on DIY greenhouses you'll find anywhere. Featuring full-color step-by-step photos and comprehensive how-to instructions, the book features full plans for structures that are designed to extend the gardening season. From ornate, Victorian-style greenhouses to basic cold frames and simpler kits, you're sure to find a project that meets your needs and fits your space. The projects include: DIY Gabled Greenhouse PVC Hoophouse Sun Porch Kit Shed-Style Greenhouse Old-Window Greenhouse Low-Maintenance Sunroom Companion projects, including a Cold Frame Box, Raised Planting Bed, Potting Bench, and Trellis Planter And more!

What happens inside a seed after it is planted? How are plants structured? How do plants reproduce? The answers to these and other questions about complex plant processes can be found in the bestselling Botany for Gardeners. This updated edition addresses scientific advances, changes in nomenclature and taxonomy, and more. Botany for Gardeners shares accessible information about how plants are organized, how they have adapted to nearly all environments on earth, their essential functions, and how they reproduce. -- adapted from Amazon.com.

Offers advice, techniques, and instructions on the process of designing a home garden, including layouts, illustrated listings of plants, and simple construction projects.-- Source other than Library of Congress.

James offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas, using garden-based activities to promote science and math, reading and writing, and arts and crafts.

The wonderfully evocative story of how Britain's World War Two gardeners -- with great ingenuity, invincible good humour and extraordinary fortitude -- dug for victory on home turf.

A Green and Pleasant Land tells the intriguing and inspiring story of how Britain's wartime government encouraged and cajoled its citizens to grow their own fruit and vegetables. As the Second World War began in earnest and a whole nation listened to wireless broadcasts, dug holes for Anderson shelters, counted their coupons and made do and mended, so too were they instructed to 'Dig for Victory'.

A seasonal guide to medicinal plants. The Herb Almanac is a beautiful and accessible seasonal guide to herbalism. Discover the best times of the year for growing specific healing herbs and also when and how to forage for wild medicine, such as water mint, St John's Wort, hawthorn berries and rosehips. Recipes are included for how to use these herbs, along with folklore stories from herb wives and hedge witches, the meanings behind their names and the history of how these natural medicines were discovered. There are plenty of tips for how to create your own medicinal herb garden, even with just a few pots, along with a biodynamic guide for sowing, planting and harvesting. Including detailed hand-drawn line illustrations to help deepen your understanding, The Herb Almanac is the perfect gift for any nature lover.

"As families spend more time at home, they're expanding their living space to their yards, decks, and patios. When you're ready to upgrade the look of your landscape, Landscaping For Dummies offers advice on installing fences and walkways, choosing hardy plants and trees, and enhancing natural habitats for the critters and creatures lurking in your neighborhood. You'll find out how to make your backyard a relaxing retreat space and discover the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from working in your yard."-- Provided by publisher.

"For over 30 years, The Silent Garden has offered parents of deaf children the support and unbiased information needed to fully realize their children's potential. This completely revised third edition is a must-have resource that will help parents navigate the complex and unique challenges they face. Accessible, practical, and, above all, open-minded, The Silent Garden educates parents quickly and thoroughly about the many conflicting points of view on what is best for their deaf children. Authors Paul W. Ogden and David H. Smith, who are both deaf, present examples and research that guide parents through often unfamiliar territory. From coping mechanisms for parents to advice on creating healthy home environments, the authors cover a range of topics that impact day-to-day actions and decision-making

"Sustainable Communities for a Healthy Planet presents an unconventional collection of ideas, practices, and ways of living together with the potential to enable long-term human and planetary health. Grounded in first-hand accounts from researchers, health practitioners, and social innovators across diverse fields, Katharine Zywert's book argues that the most promising approaches often depart substantially from the incentive structures, goals, and mindsets that define the status quo and do not necessarily align with mainstream sustainability discourses. The book instead presents promising approaches that disrupt dominant ideas about mental health, ageing, and chronic illness; circumvent exploitative markets for medications, medical technologies, and professionalized care; attend not only to the health of individual human bodies, but to the health of internal ecologies, human populations, nonhuman species, and the planet as a whole; and embody alternative, more inclusive ways of practicing medicine within communities and ecosystems. The stories assembled in this book illustrate how human beings might live healthy lives, supported by health systems that are not dependent on perpetual economic growth. Sustainable Communities for a Healthy Planet challenges conventional ways of thinking about the future of health systems and asks hard questions about what it takes to cultivate human and planetary health in a time of rapid ecological, economic, and social change."-- Provided by publisher.

"A seed slips beyond a garden wall. A tree is planted on a precarious border. A shrub is stolen from its culture and its land. What happens when these plants leave their original homes and put down roots elsewhere? In fourteen essays, Dispersals explores the entanglements of the plant and human worlds: from species considered invasive, like giant hogweed; to those vilified but intimate, like soy; and those like kelp, on which our futures depend. Each of the plants considered in this collection are somehow perceived as being 'out of place'--weeds, samples collected through imperial science, crops introduced and transformed by our hand. Combining memoir, history, and scientific research in poetic prose, Jessica J. Lee meditates on the question of how both plants and people come to belong, why both cross borders, and how our futures are more entwined than we might imagine"-- Provided by publisher.

An immigrant girl explains how she learned English by reading about Monarch butterflies, and how, troubled by their decline, she got her classmates and neighbors together to build a butterfly garden.

A young girl discovers a vacant park next door to her new house that is intended for butterflies, but when she has trouble getting butterflies to stay there, her new neighbors help her plant flowers to attract them.

"Nine-year-old Jayden loves the outdoors, but his mother is nervous about him playing in their neighborhood. With the help of his neighbor Mr. Curtis, can Jayden help Mama see that nature and beauty are all around?"-- Provided by publisher.

"It's Spring in North Ontario and Bear decides to plant a garden. Follow Bear on his adventure. Deer shows him a meadow to plant a garden, Crow gathers seeds and clever Mole plants the seeds. Even the weather helps out with some rain, sunshine and a beautiful rainbow ... A children's story about what a garden is, how to plant a garden, what makes plants grow and about teamwork and working together for a common good"--adapted from page 4 of cover.

A classroom guinea pig learns about gardening by growing his own pumpkin"-- Provided by publisher.

"Seeds harbor immense potential. They defy their size by sprouting and growing into plants. And these plants develop beautiful flowers and delicious fruits and vegetables. Even in the most unlikely environments, seeds manage to thrive. Like seeds, we can cultivate and nurture something wonderful. There is much we can learn from seeds." -- Back cover.

"Up in the garden, the world is full of green--leaves and sprouts, growing vegetables, ripening fruit. But down in the dirt there is a busy world of earthworms digging, snakes hunting, skunks burrowing, and all the other animals that make a garden their home. In this exuberant book, discover the wonder and activity that lie hidden between the stalks, under the shade of leaves ... and down in the dirt."-- Provided by publisher.

Joanna and the kids chronicle the adventures of starting their own family garden. From failed endeavors, obstacles (bunnies that eat everything!), and lessons learned, the Gaines family shares how they grew a happy, successful garden. As it turns out, trying something new isn't always easy, but the hardest work often yields the greatest reward.

Long before she became known as the Cactus Queen, Minerva Hamilton Hoyt found solace in the unexpected beauty of the Mojave Desert in California. She loved the jackrabbits and coyotes, the prickly cacti, and especially the weird, spiky Joshua trees. However, in the 1920s, hardly anyone else felt the same way. The desert was being thoughtlessly destroyed by anyone and everyone. Minerva knew she needed to bring attention to the problem. With the help of her gardening club, taxidermists, and friends, she took the desert east and put its plants and animals on display. The displays were a hit, but Minerva needed to do much more: she wanted to have the desert recognized as a national park. Although she met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and won him over, Minerva still had to persuade politicians, scientists, teachers, and others to support her cause. And, it worked! Minerva's efforts led to what came to be known as Joshua Tree National Park in California, and saved hundreds of thousands of plants and animals. Now, the millions of people who visit each year have learned to love the desert, just as Minerva did.

Making friends in a new city, and new country, is hard for twelve-year-old Isabel, but joining the gardening and cooking club at school helps her find her way.

"Peek through the leaves, beyond the clouded mountains, and you will find a garden with a strange attendant and an even stranger purpose. A young mage, asleep in a meadow, wakes to delights and fanciful spells that open a door to unknown wonder. Then, they eagerly step through to find only horror and death. There is no swashbuckling adventure in store; this world means them cold and deadly harm, and they'll need all their resilience, wit, and magic to push it back. Gaze through fascinating silent windows into a terrifying dimension and follow the wordless Mage and their companions as they travel a shadowy fantastical land of monsters. Will they survive this endlessly curious mystery, or will the unforgiving darkness swallow them whole?" -- Amazon.