Best Water Gardens & Ponds

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.

These pools offer enjoyment not only in the warm months, but during winter, when they can be used for ice skating.Often the focal point of a garden, a natural swimming pool blends into the environment, flowing into the surroundings with plants and rocks. Over 300 beautiful color photographs of natural pools will inspire your own water garden, where you can swim in harmony with nature. Michael Littlewood is a natural landscape architect and environmental planner with an outstanding international reputation and extensive experience in successfully designing and implementing sustainable land use projects.

In Mosaic Garden Projects , artist Mark Brody walks step-by-step through the creation of 25 decorative yet functional projects.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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."