A stylish, inspirational and practical guidebook to maintaining a more environmentally friendly outdoor space. Sustainable gardener Marian Boswell walks us through the process of creating and maintaining a sustainable outdoor space, offering tips, guidances and step-by-step projects designed to help you lead a more low-impact lifestyle. Whether it's by making your own fertilisers, converting to peat-free compost, reducing your consumption of plastic, saving your own seeds or creating raised beds with reused timber, there are numerous ways - both big and small - to make a difference. This book will guide anyone hoping to take informed and intelligent decisions to make a difference, but who perhaps don't know where to begin.
'This is a clearly presented work, with accessible topic headings and plenty of good advice sprinkled with engaging personal anecdotes. The message at the book's heart is to adopt a greener way of being and to see oneself as part of nature, not removed from it. On this point it is exceptional, distinguishing itself from many of the green gardening books written in recent years.' The English Garden magazine 'Conversational, interesting, and personal ... it reaffirms the link between what we love to do and why we should be doing it with nature, the planet and our health in mind.' RHS The Garden magazine If you want a sustainable garden and a better relationship with nature, A Greener Life is the guide you need. Packed with inspirational images and practical tips, the book covers garden planning, organic composting and vegetable growing, as well as sustainable planting, rewilding and wildlife-attracting environments. Learn traditional gardening techniques like propagating and growing from cuttings to make your garden self-sustaining, and discover plants that attract hover flies, bees and butterflies. With Jack Wallington's warmth and expertise on every page, this is an ideal book for new gardeners seeking greener practices.
"A timely, accessible guide to responsible landscaping that convincingly explains how and why our home landscapes must participate in local ecosystems."--Douglas Tallamy, coauthor of The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden "By explaining the importance of individual decisions, presenting relevant facts, sharing personal experience, and providing specific strategies, Varlamoff inspires readers to transform their yards into planet-friendly landscapes."--Lucy Bradley, coauthor of Earth-Friendly Desert Gardening "Captures in clear, easy-to-understand language how our gardening choices impact the environment--from water to soil to the creatures that inhabit them."--Linda Nelson, president, National Garden Clubs, Inc. While issues such as climate change, pollution, and water shortages become increasingly difficult to ignore, the movement toward sustainability continues to grow. Even though most gardeners are attuned to nature, some common processes of garden maintenance can take a toll on the environment. Sustainable Gardening for the Southeast is a vividly illustrated guide that offers simple techniques to help conserve water, reduce pollutants, and mitigate climate change while increasing biodiversity and attracting pollinators and wildlife. Gardeners will be inspired and empowered to protect and enhance the local ecology as they cultivate a resilient landscape featuring native plants, colorful flowers and trees, and even organically grown fruits and vegetables. And for those who cherish their emerald lawns, Susan Varlamoff provides tips for keeping it green and environmentally sound. Gardeners in the Southeast--whether amateurs or professional landscapers--who want to implement sustainable strategies will find this book the ultimate resource for cultivating a garden that gives back to the earth.
“I can't imagine a designer or avid gardener who wouldn't want this on their bookshelf.” —Garden Design Online Waterwise Plants for Sustainable Gardens is a practical guide to the best 200 plants guaranteed to thrive in low-water gardens. Plant entries provide the common and botanical name, the regions where the plant is best adapted, growth and care information, and notes on pests and disease. This practical and inspiring guide includes a variety of plants, from trees to succulents, perennials to bulbs, all selected for their wide adaptability and ornamental value. Companion plants, creative design ideas, and full color photography make this guide a must-have resource for any sustainable gardener.
The third title in the CSIRO Gardening Guide series, Sustainable Gardens by Roger Spencer and Rob Cross shows how horticulture can contribute towards a more sustainable future. Written for home gardeners, professional horticulturists, landscapers, and all those passionate about cultivated landscapes, this book examines the steps we can take towards harmonising gardening activity with the cycles of nature. Two outstanding botanists from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, Roger and Rob have produced a genuine gardening bible for our times. They show how every gardener – both professional and amateur – can contribute positively to environmental stewardship. Gardens may be consumers of resources, but the negative effects of this consumption can be minimised and can be offset by some of the positive contributions gardens make. Roger and Rob explain the connections between human activity, resource depletion, and environmental degradation. They show how to conduct an audit of gardening practices, materials, and results so that every gardener can measure the impact he or she is having on nature. They show: how to minimise the impacts on nature of our consumption of water, materials and energy in the garden; how to make gardens more environmentally friendly through design, construction and maintenance phases; the importance of biodiversity and how horticulture can help protect natural systems; and the role that gardening can play in alleviating the environmental impacts of food production. Checklists are provided so that gardeners can ensure they are taking the most sustainable path through each phase of gardening – design, construction, maintenance. The book ends with a guide round an existing garden that combines physical beauty with sustainability, and discusses future trends for sustainable horticulture. In an increasingly urbanised world, parks and gardens are our main point of contact with nature. If we can maximise the environmental benefits of our gardens, public spaces and landscapes, we will make a huge contribution to sustainable living. This book if the first to show us how.
Gardeners are the front line of defense in our struggle to tackle the problems of global warming, loss of habitat, water shortages, and shrinking biodiversity. In The New American Landscape, author and editor Thomas Christopher brings together the best thinkers on the topic of gardening sustainably, and asks them to describe the future of the sustainable landscape. The discussion unfolds from there, and what results is a collective vision as eloquent as it is diverse. The New American Landscape offers designers a roadmap to a beautiful garden that improves, not degrades the environment. It’s a provocative manifesto about the important role gardens play in creating a more sustainable future that no professional garden designer can afford to miss. John Greenlee and Neil Diboll on the new American meadow garden Rick Darke on balancing natives and exotics in the garden Doug Tallamy on landscapes that welcome wildlife Eric Toensmeier on the sustainable edible garden David Wolfe on gardening sustainable with a changing climate Elaine Ingham on managing soil health David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth on sustainable pest solutions Ed Snodgrass and Linda McIntyre on green roofs in the sustainable residential landscape Thomas Christopher on waterwise gardens Toby Hemenway on whole system garden design The Sustainable Site Initiative on the managing the home landscape as a sustainable site
'No dig' gardening saves time and work. In this book, no dig experts Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty explain how to set up a no dig garden. They describe how to make compost, enrich soil, harvest and prepare food and make natural beauty and cleaning products. These approaches work as well in small spaces as in large gardens
This practical handbook reveals new organic gardening techniques. It’s a compendium of secrets rediscovered and innovative tips. Beneficial micro-organisms, bokashi or biodynamic compost, permaculture, vortex, seeds and cuttings... The Organic Grow Book opens the doors to a full-scale (r)evolution where productivity goes hand in hand with quality. Summer and winter, in soil or bioponic, learn to grow healthier and tastier plants — fruit, vegetables, flowers — while enhancing your own well-being and the planet’s. With its broad array of unprecedented strategies and proven tips, this eco-responsible and highly humorous guide is a must for all mindful gardeners, whether beginners or experts. Photos, 3D diagrams, microscopies, step-by-step graphs... over 500 original illustrations. BioScope® Addresses and websites Trade shows and fairs Over 550 professional entries « An indoor & outdoor organic gardening reference. » Ushuaïa TV « A very precious book. » Le Monde « Explains everything about organic gardening. A heck of a book! » France Inter
