Tired of Yard Work? Want to spend time in Paradise in the comfort of your own backyard? This book is for you. I explore composting, replacing your lawn, play, pruning, companion planting, edible forest gardens, tree guilds, perrenial plants, and creating your own microclimate. I also explore how to listen to the ways in which your backyard is already becoming Paradise.
Now Create a Landscape that's Naturally Beautiful, Naturally Inviting, Naturally Easy to Care for! Natural Landscaping shows you how to create your own woodland gardens, shade gardens, wildflower meadows, prairie gardens, water gardens, songbird gardens, hummingbird gardens, and butterfly gardens! It includes: - 9 detailed, full-color plans to provide plenty of inspiration. - 234 easy-care plant ideas to take the guesswork out of plant-work! - Plenty of projects and techniques that let you build in structure at your own pace! - Plus scores of finishing touches to help you achieve just the look you want! It's packed with real-life examples, garden plans, colorful combinations, at-a-glance plant charts, expert tips, related projects, and custom options, with lavish color photos and illustrations.
'Lavish ... a celebration of the history and enduring romance of Islamic gardens' Washington Post As seen on the highly acclaimed BBC2 series Monty Don's Paradise Gardens, a glorious celebration of the richness of Islamic culture through some of the most beautiful gardens on earth. In the Islamic tradition, a garden with its central elements of water, the scent of fruit trees, and places for rest and reflection, celebrate heaven on earth. Paradise gardens play a central role in everyday life in the Islamic world, yet little is known about them. Monty Don and acclaimed photographer, Derry Moore, set off on a journey to find out more about the principles and immersive delights of paradise gardens and how a very different culture and climate has influenced garden design round the world. Their journey covers twenty-nine gardens from the Real Alcazar and the Alhambra in Spain, and Le Jardin Majorelle in Morocco, to Highgrove and a Mughal garden in Bradford in England. There are some spectacular and rarely seen examples such as Pasargadae and the Maidan in Isfahan, Iran, the birthplace of paradise gardens, as well as the more renowned examples such as Turkey's Topkapi Palace and the Amber Palace and Taj Mahal in India. 'A garden, green and filled with water is heaven on earth - it is paradise.' Monty Don ALSO BY MONTY DON & DERRY MOORE JAPANESE GARDENS: A JOURNEY An exploration of the exquisite beauty and fascinating history of the most beautiful and famous gardens across Japan, from Kenrok-en to the Zen gardens of Tokyo. 'A fabulous, bonsai-filled book' Daily Mail
"Vera's 15 years of experience as an organic no-dig gardener demonstrates that gardens can be beautiful and productive. She provides a vast amount of accessible information with gorgeous photographs to show you how to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers all year. Make your fragrant and abundant veggie patch centre stage by incorporating cut flowers with herbs, brassicas, and peas. Or plant a potager garden! The many examples of polycultures will help you create edible paradises everywhere, large or small, on patios, balconies, windowsills, allotments, community and school gardens, front and back gardens, and anywhere else you can grow." -- page 4 of cover.
When Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates moved into a duplex in a run-down part of Holyoke, Massachusetts, the tenth-of-an-acre lot was barren ground and bad soil, peppered with broken pieces of concrete, asphalt, and brick. The two friends got to work designing what would become not just another urban farm, but a "permaculture paradise" replete with perennial broccoli, paw paws, bananas, and moringa—all told, more than two hundred low-maintenance edible plants in an innovative food forest on a small city lot. The garden—intended to function like a natural ecosystem with the plants themselves providing most of the garden's needs for fertility, pest control, and weed suppression—also features an edible water garden, a year-round unheated greenhouse, tropical crops, urban poultry, and even silkworms. In telling the story of Paradise Lot, Toensmeier explains the principles and practices of permaculture, the choice of exotic and unusual food plants, the techniques of design and cultivation, and, of course, the adventures, mistakes, and do-overs in the process. Packed full of detailed, useful information about designing a highly productive permaculture garden, Paradise Lot is also a funny and charming story of two single guys, both plant nerds, with a wild plan: to realize the garden of their dreams and meet women to share it with. Amazingly, on both counts, they succeed.
This book details the design for a smaller living space. You can adjust the plans to meet your desires and needs. If this book says to do something one way and you want to do it another way, investigate how to do it another way and then do it that way. Hopefully this idea will encourage your own ideas. And, hopefully, it will more than halve the carbon footprint of a typical home in the US.5,000 square feet may sound like a lot of space, until you realize we’re talking about land area and that 10,000 sq ft is the typical size of a city residential lot. 10,000 sq ft is a little less than 1/4 acre. So, 5,000 sq ft would be half that much or about 1/10 acre. Since we’re reducing the land area by 1/2, we should also reduce the house and the car by 1/2. The Not So Big House reduced houses to about 2000 sq ft. In this project we will go even further, reducing the house to 500 sq ft. Many starter homes, modulars, trailer homes, and two-bedroom apts are 1000 sq ft. Large RV’s and Houseboats are about 1000 sq ft or less. 500 sq ft is the size of a small 1 bedroom apt or a large studio apt. We could make the house 1000 sq ft by giving it a basement or a second floor, but we want to reduce the amount of house we have to heat, cool, clean, and maintain. Some of things I’ve designed to maximize the space in your home and garage have yet to be invented. If they are never invented, there is still plenty of room in both the house and the garage. The inventions just give you that much more space. One of these inventions is the car. The car is a modular car, meaning it comes in pieces or modules which can be easily taken apart and put back together. The main module or cab of the car holds 2 people and a few groceries. Most of the time, the only module you need is the main module. The other two modules are a back seat, and an enclosed truck bed or van module. You can even attach all three modules together and still have a car that is small enough to fit easily in a 1 car garage.
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.
“Fear deer no more! The best source I’ve seen on the topic!” —Tracy DiSabato-Aust, award-winning garden designer and best-selling author Deer are one of the most common problems a gardener can face. These cute but pesky animals can quickly devour hundreds of dollars’ worth of plants. And common solutions include the use of unattractive fencing and chemicals. In Deer-Resistant Design, Karen Chapman offers another option—intentional design choices that result in beautiful gardens that coexist with wildlife. Deer-Resistant Design showcases real home gardens across North America—from a country garden in New Jersey to a hilltop hacienda in Texas—that have successfully managed the presence of deer. Each homeowner also shares their top ten deer-resistant plants, all welcome additions to a deer-challenged gardeners shopping list. A chapter on deer-resistant container gardens provides suggestions for making colorful, captivating, and imaginative containers. Lushly illustrated and filled with practical advice and inspiring design ideas, Deer-Resistant Design is packed with everything you need to confidently tackle this challenging problem.
Abundantly illustrated in full color, this guide provides detailed descriptions and methods of cultivation for 350 of Florida's most attractive and easily grown native plants, including ferns, wildflowers, shrubs, trees, vines, aquatics, and epiphytes (air plants). 359 color photos.
“Empowers readers with a toolkit of traditional and sustainable practices for an emerging artisanal crafts movement, and a brighter future.” —Alice Waters, chef and owner, Chez Panisse; founder, The Edible Schoolyard Project Modern life is a cornucopia of technological wonders. But is something precious being lost? A tangible bond with our natural world—the deep satisfaction of connecting to the earth that was enjoyed by previous generations? In The Heirloom Gardener, John Forti celebrates gardening as a craft and shares the lore and traditional practices that link us with our environment and with each other. Charmingly illustrated and brimming with wisdom, this guide will inspire you to slow down, recharge, and reconnect.
