This new book provides comprehensive coverage of sustainable sweet cherry production including global trends, improved varieties and rootstocks, orchard establishment and management, the physiology of growth and cropping, and protecting the crop from adverse climates, pests, and diseases. Sweet cherries are a specialty crop, subject to significant production risks for growers, yet with high potential market returns due to strong consumer demand for the fruit's intensely enjoyable flavor and nutraceutical benefits.
Grow your own seasonal food in a low maintenance, nature-friendly garden that feels like a woodland glade. Scottish plant expert Alan Carter shows you how to plan and plant a temperate forest garden for any sized plot--from a small terrace garden to an allotment or smallholding. Learn how to successfully layer root crops, fruit, perennial vegetables and edible shrubs below tree crops, cultivating an edible garden that doesn't look like a traditional vegetable plot. A forest garden is wildlife friendly, provides nutrient-dense and often unusual food through every season, and requires minimal work to maintain. The first part of this in-depth, practical guide explains how a forest garden works, how to map your climate and design your own plot, and how to manage it with mulching, weeding and pruning. What's not to like about Alan's motto of "the more you pick, the more you get," and intriguing concepts such as the Panda Principle? The second half of the book is a detailed directory of more than 170 plants and fungi suitable for a wide range of temperate climates, complete with growing, harvesting and cooking tips based on over a decade of Alan's own experience. Learn how to incorporate traditional fruit and vegetable crops, such as strawberries and beans, into your forest garden, and how to weave in more unusual crops, such as shiitake mushrooms and ferns. Techniques from agro-ecology bring regenerative farming into the backyard, helping you to work towards greater self-sufficiency. Useful tips on seed saving and propagation help keep plant costs low, and there is practical advice on soil health, compost--essential for all no dig, organic gardeners--and pests and disease. A Food Forest in Your Garden will help you create your own productive forest gardens even in cooler climates.
Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio are renowned for their courses and workshops on color as well as for their outstanding polymer clay work. In this book, they offer instruction and inspiration that focuses on polymer clay as a learning tool that readers can use to explore their own color instincts and preferences and develop their own palettes. Each chapter investigates a specific color principle, with the discussion supported by a related exercise, a “studio tool” assignment or demonstration, a polymer clay jewelry project, and a profile of a prominent polymer clay artist. Sample topics include: •The Complexity of Color •Three Properties of Color •Choosing Your Palette •Mixing Colors That Flow •Matching Colors with Precision •Games Colors Play •Orchestrating Color Combinations •Color Composition: Placement and Proportion •Playful Patterns •Tantalizing Textures