Best Container Gardening

That explains why author and gardening innovator Mel Bartholomew has sold more than two million books teaching how to become a successful DIY square foot gardener .

Succulents are hot. "In her new book, Succulents Simplified:Growing, Designing, and Crafting with 100 Easy-Care Varieties , Baldwin even tells of a Jade plant that has lasted for more than two decades in her garden with various stages of neglect! "Anyone who knows Debra Lee Baldwin is aware of her extraordinary prowess as an author, writer, photographer, and artist...her book, Succulents Simplified , is a work of art." From quick and easy succulent rosettes for bouquets, to teeny tiny mint-tin gardens, to succulent-topped pumpkins there's a project in this book for even the most craft-challenged."

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers good news: with nothing more than a cupboard and a windowsill, you can grow all the fresh salad greens you need for the winter months (or throughout the entire year) with no lights, no pumps, and no greenhouse. Longtime gardener Peter Burke was tired of the growing season ending with the first frost, but due to his busy work schedule and family life, didn’t have the time or interest in high-input grow lights or greenhouses. Growing “Soil Sprouts”―Burke’s own descriptive term for sprouted seeds grown in soil as opposed to in jars―employs a method that encourages a long stem without expansive roots, and provides delicious salad greens in just seven to ten days, way earlier than any other method, with much less work. The author promises that the process is fairly forgiving of errors, but he also spends a good deal of the book giving precise details about the tricks, tips, and troubleshooting that has occupied his attention for many years. This obsession has become the basis for workshops and even a small indoor ‘farming' business selling greens to the local school cafeteria food service. Yet something about his enthusiasm makes the average home gardener want to run out and buy a bunch of aluminum foil loaf pans and a bale of vermiculite, and go to town with some pea shoots. Students love to grow soil sprouts because the results are so fast―and delicious!” --Steven Colangeli, Science and Agriculture Teacher at Middlebury Union High School, Vermont. Peter Burke offers new information that will inspire would-be sprouters, who never got started due to lack of space or time, as well as veteran growers of sprouts. Peter Burke makes growing easy and puts eating local, healthy, delicious food within everyone’s reach. Peter Burke’s straightforward instructions are easy to understand and provide clear insight on how to produce an abundance of fresh soil-sprouted greens at any time of year. Every dollar you invest in Peter Burke’s book can be returned to your pocket by next week.” --Shannon Hayes, author of Radical Homemakers. “ Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers an empowering path to growing food in any season and any living space, no matter the size or location. This is an essential book for deepening our practices of self-reliance for greater quality of life.” --Katrina Blair, author of The Wild Wisdom of Weeds.

Provides all your DIY ideas for styling and tips on how to plant Inspiration for seasoned plant lovers as well as beginners, providing the total package on the topic of living with plants. She is a steady companion for the plant- community Urban Jungle Bloggers and hopes to inspire others with her love for all things green.

That explains why author and gardening innovator Mel Bartholomew has sold more than two million books teaching how to become a successful DIY square foot gardener . Do you know what the best feature is in All New Square Foot Gardening?

Over the years, Japanese gardeners have fine-tuned a distinctive set of pruning techniques that coax out the essential characters of their garden trees, or niwaki. “More than a pruning manual, Hobson's guide encompasses the cultural implications of niwaki , an artistic custom integral to the gardening legacy of Japan.” — Booklist. “Of as much interest as the practical cutting points are the bits of history and lore woven into the chapters that stress the spiritual underpinnings of this ancient art.” — Seattle Post-Intelligence. “Detailed drawings of the pruning methods, as well as numerous photos of Japanese examples, make this an eminently practical guide.” — SciTech Book News.

With 512 full color pages and 1120 full color photographs and illustrations, Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible is the most complete cultivation book available. --Phil Kilv, Editor in Chief, Weed World Magazine, January 2006.

A bio-integrated greenhouse, for example, doesn’t just extend the season for growing vegetables; it also serves as a rainwater collector, a pond site, an aquaponics system, and a heat generator. By carefully engaging the free forces of nature―water, wind, sunlight, convection, gravity, and decomposition―Jadrnicek creates sustenance without maintenance and transforms waste into valuable farm resources. The Bio-Integrated Farm offers in-depth information about designing and building a wide range of bio-integrated projects including reflecting ponds, water-storage ponds, multipurpose basins, greenhouses, compost heat extraction, pastured chicken systems, aquaculture, hydroponics, hydronic heating, water filtration and aeration, cover cropping, and innovative rainwater-harvesting systems that supply water for drip irrigation and flushing toilets. "Jadrnicek, a farmer, educator (he teaches at and oversees Clemson University’s organic student farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains), and perpetually tinkering designer and inventor, implements the permaculture principle of 'stacking functions’―'Every component of a design should function in many ways'―and pushes its limits. Shawn Jadrnicek’s designs for greenhouses, irrigation, composting systems, and more are based on the most enduring answer: let’s look to nature. Shawn Jadrnicek’s creative use of materials, animals, and space, which he clearly and thoroughly explains in this book, will inspire and teach you how to improve the efficiency and resiliency of your farm or garden. Shawn has integrated these simple and effective technologies into his modern-day working farm; his book will allow readers to access some of that ancient wisdom, too.” --Jerome Osentowski, author of The Forest Garden Greenhouse. “Harvesting, multiplying, capturing, conveying, sloping, fertilizing, irrigating, heating, cooling… ‘at least seven functions’ is the genius of Shawn Jadrnicek’s stacked systems in The Bio-Integrated Farm. As a connoisseur of college farms, I’ve visited several dozen such operations across the United States, and I have yet to see another academic farm demonstrate the level of careful design and innovation found on the Clemson University Student Organic Farm, one of several permaculture masterworks Shawn has helped create. Every farm's needs and layouts are unique, and this book allows the reader to customize and hybridize systems that harness the power of nature to transform ordinary farms into models worthy of world-class learning centers for permaculture.” --Tradd Cotter, author of Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation. In this practical, clearly written, and beautifully designed book, Shawn Jadrnicek shares his unique ability to conceptualize, design, and manage water for whole-system benefits at multiple scales.

AHS Plant Propagation instructs you on which seeds need special treatment before sowing, and how to provide the conditions to ensure a good rate of germination. This book is the quintessential, unrivaled, practical guide to the successful propagation of all garden plants—from trees and shrubs to culinary herbs, and everything in between. All the information you could ever possibly want in order to propagate virtually any plant or tree or cactus or succulent that might be growing on said desert island is to be found somewhere between the covers of this marvelous, informative book. The body of the book is divided into "Garden Trees," "Shrubs and Climbing Plants," "Perennials, Annuals and Biennials," "Cacti and Other Succulents," "Bulbous Plants," and "Vegetables."

Ed Smith's W-O-R-D system has helped countless gardeners grow an abundance of vegetables and herbs. Everything you loved about the first edition of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is still here: friendly, accessible language; full-color photography; comprehensive vegetable specific information in the A-to-Z section; ahead-of-its-time commitment to organic methods; and much more. New to this edition is coverage of 15 additional vegetables, including an expanded section on salad greens and more European and Asian vegetables. Readers will also find growing information on more fruits and herbs, new cultivar photographs in many vegetable entries, and a much-requested section on extending the season into the winter months. The impulse to grow vegetables is even stronger in 2009 than it was in 2000, when Storey published The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible . clearly explains everything novice and experienced gardeners need to know to grow vegetables and herbs. Edward C. Smith is the best-selling author of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible and The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible.