Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom


Book Description

"When your garden contains lots of earthworms, your soil is good." This maxim may not sound familiar, but before the days of landscapers and lawn-maintenance companies, this type of knowledge was common. Gardening skills were passed down from generation to generation, and yards were personal places that flourished under the care of time-tested wisdom. Today the pace of life is faster, and modern advances make gardening tasks easier, but we can all benefit from the techniques and common-sense advice of the past to have beautiful, fruitful gardens now. With Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom, anyone can: Develop a dream, green garden without spending a fortune Grow an organic and eco-friendly garden with minimum fuss and maximum taste Discover how to collect and save seeds Make your own compost and learn "no-dig" gardening Make a cold frame and protect plants from frost Repel moles with castor oil, prevent mice with the right plants, and make herbal insect repellents Find out the best way to prune a hedge, tree, or climbing flower Know which gardening tasks to do for each season Raise a panel fence and use recycled materials for landscaping Plant raised beds and container gardens, and build a natural grape arbor Discover how companion planting can discourage harmful pests and encourage growth Back to Basics: Traditional Garden Wisdom has full-color step-by-step illustrated instructions that will bring new knowledge to gardeners of all levels. Soon you'll be adding fireplace ashes to the garden to give it a potassium boost and using your elbow to see if the soil is warm enough for planting. With this insightful book, you'll discover why sage advice never goes out of style.




Back to Basics


Book Description

Anyone who wants to learn basic living skills--and enjoy a healthier, greener, and more self-sufficient lifestyle--need look no further than this eminently useful guide that features hundreds of projects and old-fashioned fun. Full-color and b&w photographs throughout.




Traditional Garden Wisdom


Book Description




A Way to Garden


Book Description

“A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.




Deep-Rooted Wisdom


Book Description

Presents traditional and time-honored methods for gardening, including holistic solutions to insects and weeds, building fertile soils, saving heirloom seeds, and using garden materials for trellises and sculptures.




The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book


Book Description

Can you really have a productive garden without plowing, hoeing, weeding, cultivating, and all the other bothersome rituals that most gardeners suffer through every growing season? "Sure," says Ruth Stout, a prolific author and writer at 80 years young. The reason that Ruth can throw away her spade and hoe and do her gardening from a couch is a year-round mulch covering, 6 to 8 inches thick, that covers her garden like a blanket. Thousands of curious gardeners have visited her Redding, Connecticut garden, including university scientists and horticulture experts. The experts have been dazzled by the technique used by the queen of mulch! But the results of 41 years of gardening experience can't be denied. The Ruth Stout No-Work Gardening Book gives Ruth's unique advice on growing techniques and tells how she has escaped the bugaboos that haunt most gardeners. Her poison-free method of combating slugs and other insects, her scheme for growing tasty vegetables all year, her method of foiling both drought and frost -- these and many other growing secrets are revealed -- secrets that have brought this perky organic gardener season after season of growing pleasure. If you're tired of being a slave to your garden, yet still want to enjoy it without the bother of sprays, weeding, hoeing or other toilsome garden chores, The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Books has the information you need. It's completely tested gardening method, perfected during more than 40 years experience and reported in the pages of Organic Gardening magazine, eliminates gardening strain and toil, and does it organically with no dangerous chemical fertilizers or toxic sprays. Take it easy. Put nature to work in your garden.




Country Wisdom & Know-How


Book Description

Country Wisdom & Know-How is the most complete volume on every aspect of country and self-sustained living, from home and garden to barn and beyond. From Storey Publishing's landmark series Country Wisdom Bulletins, this comprehensive collection offers step-by-step instructions on nearly 200 individual topics, providing everything you need to know about sustainability, self-sufficiency, homesteading, and DIY living. Topics include: Animals: attracting backyard birds; building bathhouses and birdfeeders; training and caring for cats and dogs; raising rabbits, ducks, and game birds; buying and selling horses; building chicken coops; beginning beekeeping; Cooking: the basics of bread baking; making cheese, butter, and yogurt; cooking game; preserving and pickling; homebrewing and making homemade wine Crafts: stenciling, quilting, and basket-weaving; making wreaths, potpourri, and natural soaps; homemade gifts and decorations Gardening: starting your garden; caring for flowers and shrubs; controlling weeds; landscaping; growing vegetables, root crops, fruits, berries, kitchen herbs, and more Health and Wellbeing: natural home remedies; herbs for lifelong health; essential oils and aromatherapy; teas and recipes for a healthy diet Home: simple home repairs; building furniture; restoring hardwood floors; making curtains; building fences, root cellars, and smokehouses And so much more! With nearly 2,000 black-and-white illustrations, diagrams, and photographs, and trusted advice on every page, this is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. This book is also a part of the Know-How series which includes other titles such as: Woodworking Wisdom & Know-How Natural Healing Wisdom & Know-How Craft Wisdom & Know-How Garden Wisdom & Know-How




Back to Basics


Book Description

With so many urban and suburban dwellers moving toward simplifying their lives, Reader's Digest has updated its popular Back to Basics series to provide the ultimate how-to book. It's packed with hundreds of projects and illustrated step-by-step sequences to help you learn to live more self-sufficiently, with sections on shelter, alternative energy sources, growing and preserving food, home crafts, and even recreation. Includes over 2,000 photos, diagrams and drawings.




Crockett's Victory Garden


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Practical Wisdom


Book Description

A reasoned and urgent call to embrace and protect the essential human quality that has been drummed out of our lives: wisdom. In their provocative new book, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe explore the insights essential to leading satisfying lives. Encouraging individuals to focus on their own personal intelligence and integrity rather than simply navigating the rules and incentives established by others, Practical Wisdom outlines how to identify and cultivate our own innate wisdom in our daily lives.