Grow and maintain a lush lawn without sacrificing your weekends No matter where you live or what you do, you, too, can grow great turf. Discover timesaving and water-saving secrets for better planning, fertilizing, watering, and mowing. With easy-to-follow instructions, this friendly guide will help you grow a lawn that's the envy of the block. Open the book and find: Tips for mowing your lawn to the perfect height How and how much to water your lawn Which nutrients your lawn needs Easy and safe ways to fertilize your lawn
Put down roots with the basics of gardening! Don't know your Hosta undulata from your Bellis perennis? Leaf through this fun and easy reference to learn all about gardening! First, find your gardening style and plan the garden you want while staying within a budget, then check out explanations of all those mysterious zones. Still curious? Grab all the right gear and pick out the right plants for you. You'll be growing your own annuals, perennials, and vegetables before you can say Lychnis coronaria! Open the book and find: Guidance on planning your garden Explanations of hardiness and frost zones Descriptions of proper gear The differences between annuals and perennials Tips for growing vegetables Information on what you need to keep your plants happy
Create the yard you've always yearned for A beautiful landscape reflects well on your house, making it a welcome part of a neighborhood or native terrain. And it dramatically increases your home's value. Landscaping Basics For Dummies gets you started on turning the little patch of earth you call your own into a personal paradise. Open the book and find: Landscape designs for front, back, and side yards How to choose and plant the right trees for your landscape Choose and plant the right shrubs for your yard Tips for landscaping a shady area
Plant the garden of your dreams! Even if you’ve never sowed a seed nor pulled a weed, Gardening Basics For Dummies contains everything you need to know about flowers, beds, borders, trees, shrubs, and lawns to create your own private paradise. This friendly and informative guide also covers all of the tools and additives available to make gardening easier. You’ll discover: Clear definitions and descriptions of the different types of plants Tips on choosing the type of garden you want How to create a garden plan Easy-to-follow instructions for soil preparation Advice on planting, growing and caring for annuals and perennials Step-by-step plans for organic and edible gardens Plans for butterfly and children's gardens Packed with helpful tips on controlling pests safely, managing weeds, and correcting common gardening problems, Gardening for Dummies turns your brown thumb green in a hurry.
Only one thing is standing between you and a fabulous lawn: It's called Lawn Care For Dummies. If you want a spiffy and well-coifed lawn (and not the overgrown, unruly one that people comment on when they pass by your house), you'll find everything you need to know to help you make your lawn the most dazzling spectacle on the block. Let authors Lance Walheim and the gardening experts at the National Gardening Association treat you and your yard to a megadose of lawn care information. In Lawn Care For Dummies, Walheim and the NGA give you the dirt on all the essentials, including how to * Design a low-maintenance or a high-maintenance lawn * Evaluate the pros and cons of planting a lawn from seed or starting one from sod * Discover how often you need to water your lawn without under-watering it or waterlogging it * Choose a mower that's right for your grass type * Deal effectively with wicked weeds and pesky insects * Create alternative lawns, such as ground cover plants, decks, and patios Lawn Care For Dummies also features a beautiful color insert with photos illustrating the various types of lawns found in yards across the world.
A guide to lawn care provides tips, techniques, and advice for an attractive yard, covering such topics as mowing, weeding, fertilizing, and getting rid of pests.
Your hands-on, practical guide to the materials and construction methods of green building Want to build responsibly and help preserve the environment? This friendly, step-by-step guide introduces you to key facets of green building and remodeling, from looking at long-term costs to working with green professionals to reducing energy and water use. Open the book and find: The benefits of going green Green material substitutions Where to locate green professionals Ten green things you can do in your home today
In this series, homeowners will find inspiring ideas for making the home landscape more attractive and functional. Created by landscape professionals in each region, each book contains between 48 and 54 designs with more than 200 plants that are proven performers. Provides detailed instructions for projects such as paths, patios, ponds, and arbors. 170 color photos and 260 full-color illustrations. US: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT SE Canada: NB, NS, ONT, PEI, QUE
The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is the only book on foraging and edible weeds to focus on the thirteen weeds found all over the world, each of which represents a complete food source and extensive medical pharmacy and first-aid kit. More than just a field guide to wild edibles, it is a global plan for human survival. When Katrina Blair was eleven she had a life-changing experience where wild plants spoke to her, beckoning her to become a champion of their cause. Since then she has spent months on end taking walkabouts in the wild, eating nothing but what she forages, and has become a wild-foods advocate, community activist, gardener, and chef, teaching and presenting internationally about foraging and the healthful lifestyle it promotes. Katrina Blair’s philosophy in The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is sobering, realistic, and ultimately optimistic. If we can open our eyes to see the wisdom found in these weeds right under our noses, instead of trying to eradicate an “invasive,” we will achieve true food security. The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is about healing ourselves both in body and in spirit, in an age where technology, commodity agriculture, and processed foods dictate the terms of our intelligence. But if we can become familiar with these thirteen edible survival weeds found all over the world, we will never go hungry, and we will become closer to our own wild human instincts—all the while enjoying the freshest, wildest, and most nutritious food there is. For free! The thirteen plants found growing in every region across the world are: dandelion, mallow, purslane, plantain, thistle, amaranth, dock, mustard, grass, chickweed, clover, lambsquarter, and knotweed. These special plants contribute to the regeneration of the earth while supporting the survival of our human species; they grow everywhere where human civilization exists, from the hottest deserts to the Arctic Circle, following the path of human disturbance. Indeed, the more humans disturb the earth and put our food supply at risk, the more these thirteen plants proliferate. It’s a survival plan for the ages. Including over one hundred unique recipes, Katrina Blair’s book teaches us how to prepare these wild plants from root to seed in soups, salads, slaws, crackers, pestos, seed breads, and seed butters; cereals, green powders, sauerkrauts, smoothies, and milks; first-aid concoctions such as tinctures, teas, salves, and soothers; self-care/beauty products including shampoo, mouthwash, toothpaste (and brush), face masks; and a lot more. Whether readers are based at home or traveling, this book aims to empower individuals to maintain a state of optimal health with minimal cost and effort.