Home & Garden

How did people eat before giant corporations stocked grocery stores?

It's a complex question that many people are facing now more than ever.

In recent years we've seen trends in panic buying, chemicals infiltrating our produce, and our foods being processed with artificial products.

What's happened to the food we eat?

What purpose is the land in our backyard serving?

Homesteading is having a new surge in popularity as people look for more ways to become self-sustaining.

You can learn all the basics to start a backyard homestead.

That means you need not go buy a plot of land; instead, you can homestead with the very foundation of it in mind, use what you have on hand, and cultivate for the future.

In this book, you'll discover:

When you have finished this guidebook, you'll understand how to create and plan a homestead, and how to maintain it in the months and years to come.

There's no doubt that you can build the skill set necessary to cultivate the ground and develop your property into something that can sustain you and your family.

Take your first steps to learn to live a self-sufficient life by getting this book now.

You'll be the envy of your friends and neighbors!

So if you want to learn more about creating your own backyard homestead, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!

As development and habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. In Bringing Nature Home, Douglas W. Tallamy reveals the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife--native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals.

But there is an important and simple step we can all take to help reverse this alarming trend: everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity by simply choosing native plants. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical and achievable recommendations, we can all make a difference.

More than a collection of inspiring container gardening photographs, Container Gardening for All Seasons provides a shopping list of materials and a helpful planting diagram for each of the more than 100 container options. Designed like a recipe book, the book offers even the most novice gardeners a no-fail, easy-to-follow instruction format for each container. Gardeners can choose the recipes by season that fit the sun and shade conditions of their landscape. Author Barbara Wise includes all you need to know to plan, plant, grow and maintain a container garden. Fabulous colorful fall and winter container choices are also included.

Houseplants are more popular than ever before--especially with millennials, who are setting up their homes for the first time and discovering that nothing can add energy, style, and that essential "lived-in-ness" to their spaces better than a little bit of green. Whether it's a statement-making fiddle-leaf fig or a tiny tabletop succulent, a houseplant instantly elevates the look of your home. But where to begin?

In Decorating with Plants, Baylor Chapman walks readers through everything they need to know to bring houseplants into their home. First, there's Plant Care 101: from how to assess light conditions to tricks for keeping your plants alive while on vacation, Chapman gives readers the simple, foundational info they need to ensure their plants will thrive. Then she introduces us to 28 of her favorites--specimens that are tough as nails but oh-so-stylish, from the eye-catching Rubber Tree to the delicate Cape Primrose. Finally, she guides readers through the home room by room: Place an aromatic plant like jasmine or gardenia to your entry to establish your home's "signature scent." Add a proper sense of scale to your living room with a ceiling-grazing palm. Create a living centerpiece of jewel-toned succulents for a dining table arrangement that will last long after your dinner party. From air purification to pest control, there's no limit to what houseplants can do for your home--and Decorating with Plants is here to show you how to add them to spaces big and small with style.

"A visual treat as well as a literary one, Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life will be deeply satisfying for gardeners and garden lovers, connoisseurs of botanical illustration, and those who seek a deeper understanding of the life and work of Emily Dickinson." --The Wall Street Journal

Emily Dickinson was a keen observer of the natural world, but less well known is the fact that she was also an avid gardener--sending fresh bouquets to friends, including pressed flowers in her letters, and studying botany at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke. At her family home, she tended both a small glass conservatory and a flower garden.

In Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life, award-winning author Marta McDowell explores Dickinson's deep passion for plants and how it inspired and informed her writing. Tracing a year in the garden, the book reveals details few know about Dickinson and adds to our collective understanding of who she was as a person. By weaving together Dickinson's poems, excerpts from letters, contemporary and historical photography, and botanical art, McDowell offers an enchanting new perspective on one of America's most celebrated but enigmatic literary figures.

With sections on tools, flower care, and design techniques, Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers presents all the secrets to arranging garden-fresh bouquets.

Featuring expert advice from Erin Benzakein, world-renowned flower farmer, floral designer, and bestselling author of Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden, this book is a gorgeous and comprehensive guide to everything you need to make your own incredible arrangements all year long, whether harvesting flowers from the backyard or shopping for blooms at the market.

- Includes an A-Z flower guide with photos and care tips for more than 200 varieties
- Simple-to-follow advice on flower care, material selection, and essential design techniques
- More than 25 how-to projects, including magnificent centerpieces, infinitely giftable posies, festive wreaths, and breathtaking bridal bouquets

Floret Farm's A Year in Flowers offers advice on every phase of working with cut flowers--including gardening, buying, caring for, and arranging fresh flowers.

Brimming with indispensable tips and hundreds of vibrant photographs, this book is an invitation to live a flower-filled life and the perfect gift for anyone who loves flowers and home décor books.

- The definitive guide to flower arranging from the biggest star in the farm-to-centerpiece movement
- Perfect to gift for flower lovers, avid and novice gardeners, floral designers, wedding planners, florists, small farmers, stylists, designers, crafters, home decor aficionados, and those passionate about the local floral movement
- For those who loved Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein, The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampol, Seasonal Flower Arranging by Ariella Chezar, and The Flower Chef by Carly Cylinder.

WINNER OF THE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY BOOK AWARD

For more than forty years, Orin Martin has taught thousands of apprentices, students, and home gardeners the art and craft of growing fruit trees organically. In Fruit Trees for Every Garden, Orin shares--with hard-won wisdom and plenty of humor--his recommended fruit varieties and techniques for productive trees, including apple, pear, peach, plum, apricot, nectarine, sweet cherry, orange, lemon, fig, and more.

If you crave crisp apples, juicy peaches, or varieties of fruit that can never be found in the store, they are all within reach in your own backyard. Whether you have one tree or a hundred, Orin gives you all the tools you need, from tree selection and planting practices to seasonal feeding guidelines and in-depth pruning tutorials. Along the way, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the core principles of organic gardening and soil stewardship: compost, cultivation, cover crops, and increasing biodiversity for a healthier garden. This book is more than just a gardening manual; it's designed to help you understand the why behind the how, allowing you to apply these techniques to your own slice of paradise and make the best choices for your individual trees.

Filled with informative illustrations, full-color photography, and evocative intaglio etchings by artist Stephanie Martin, Fruit Trees for Every Garden is a striking and practical guide that will enable you to enjoy the great pleasure and beauty of raising homegrown, organic fruit for years to come.

Garden Alchemy is a hands-on guide for do-it-yourself gardeners who want to turn their garden into gold using natural recipes and herbal concoctions (while saving both time and money!).

This gardening recipe and project book is packed with over 80 ideas to naturally beautify your garden, using organic methods that regenerate your soil and revitalize your plants. By following the processes that are closest to nature, it brings the gardener in sync with the garden, allowing plants to thrive with less effort and less cost.

Recipes for mixing your own potting soils and homemadeorganic fertilizers give you the freedom to choose what ingredients make their way into your garden. Step-by-step instructions for building a compost pile, concocting soil tests, and constructing inexpensive DIY seed-starting equipment are accompanied by gorgeous, full-color, step-by-step photography. You'll also find recipes for natural pest deterrents and traps, garden teas, and growth-boosting foliar sprays to help your garden grow strong all season long.

Garden Alchemy starts with home experiments to help you get to know your soil and customize recipes for your individual needs. The rest of the chapters share how to decipher and combine natural ingredients to make the best quality amendments and elixirs. Detailed descriptions of earth-based materials demystify common ingredients, such as mycorrhizae, biochar, and greensand, and help you learn how to fix common garden problems with minimal effort. The simple method of making use of what you have available supports plants better than brand-name products.

Dozens of recipes and projects include:

Written by Stephanie Rose, the creative gardener, permaculturist, and herbalist behind the popular website Garden Therapy, this fun and beautifully illustrated book is packed with great ideas and inspiration for DIY gardeners who want to embrace their creativity and have more control of the garden's care.

Although seductive, flowers, by their fleeting nature, are a fickle base to provide long-lasting gardens with year-round interest. Tackle this problem with the advice in Gardening with Foliage First. Learn how to first build a framework of foliage and then layer in flowers and other artistic elements as the finishing touches. This simple, recipe-style approach to garden design features 127 combinations for both sunny and shady gardens that work for a variety of climates and garden challenges.

Plant selection and garden style are deeply influenced by where we are gardening. To successfully grow a range of beautiful ornamental plants, every gardener has to know the specifics of the region's climate, soil, and geography.

Gardeners in the northeast are lucky--the regular summer rain, gorgeous summer blooms, and stunning fall color make it an ideal place to garden. But there are drawbacks, like hot and humid summers, bitterly cold winters, and mosquitos. TThe practical and beautiful Growing the Northeast Garden starts with a comprehensive overview of the weather and geography of the area, along with regionally specific advice on zones, microclimates, soil, pests, and maintenance. Profiles of the best trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and bulbs offer hundreds of plant suggestions, along with complete information on growth and care.

For centuries, plants have transformed interiors, and today plant-filled homes are filling up our Instagram feeds. With Indoor Green, author and retailer Bree Claffey explores the interior worlds of fellow plant lovers and the enduring attraction of houseplants. From the ever-reliable peace lily and beguiling fiddle-leaf fig to the elusive Chinese money plant, Indoor Green makes it obvious that even the humblest greenery can transform a home.

Houseplants add romance to any room. Within the pages of Indoor Green, gorgeous photographs of interiors from across the globe--divided into chapters such as "Plant Music," "How to Grow Fresh Air," and "Plant Portraits," make the magic easy to replicate in one's own home. Interviews of indoor green enthusiasts appear in this paperback alongside the imagery, as well as tips on caring for plants and an index of plant varieties. More than good-looking props, plants are living, growing, joyful things rooted in creativity--and Indoor Green makes it obvious that even the humblest greenery can transform a home.

In Lawns Into Meadows, landscape designer Owen Wormser makes a case for the power and generosity of meadows. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution. They establish wildlife and pollinator habitats. They're low-maintenance and low-cost. They have a built-in resilience that helps them weather climate extremes, and they can draw down and store far more carbon dioxide than any manicured lawn. They're also beautiful, all year round.

Owen describes how to plant an organic meadow that's right for your site, whether it's a yard, community garden, or tired city lot. He shares advice on preparing your plot, coming up with the right design, and planting--all without using synthetic chemicals. He passes along tips on building support in neighborhoods where a tidy lawn is the standard. Owen also profiles twenty-one starter grasses and flowers for beginning meadow-makers, and offers guidance on how to grow each one.

To illuminate the many joys of meadow-building, Owen draws on his own stories, including how growing up off the grid in northern Maine, with no electricity or plumbing, prepared him for his work. The book, part how-to guide and part memoir, is for environmentalists and climate activists, gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

Lawns Into Meadows is part of Stone Pier Press's Citizen Gardening series, which teaches readers how to grow food and garden in ways that are good for the planet.

But much more than a plant guide, Leaf Supply also gives interior styling advice on choosing the right pots for your plants--both aesthetically and practically--as well as best utilizing your space, making the most of your indoor greenery, plus advice on pet-friendly (as well as harmful) plants for your home. This is a comprehensive guide for any budding green thumb interested in greening their apartment or inside their home.

Moss is an extraordinary plant--it grows without roots, flowers, or stems. Despite being overlooked, in many ways, moss is perfect: it provides year-round color, excels in difficult climates, prevents soil erosion, and resists pests and disease. In The Magical World of Moss Gardening, bryophyte expert Annie Martin reveals how moss can be used in stunning, eco-friendly spaces. The beautifully illustrated guide includes basics on designing and planting a moss garden, and an inspiring tour of the most magical public and private moss gardens throughout the country.

"If coffee tables could make . . . wish lists, [this book] would certainly be on them."
--Better Homes & Gardens

A singular, personal celebration of the beauty and possibilities of nature

Amy Merrick is a rare and special kind of artist who uses flowers to help us see the familiar in a completely new way. Her gift is to revel in the unexpected--like a sunny spring arrangement housed in a paper coffee cup--and to overturn preconceptions, whether she's transforming a bouquet of supermarket carnations into a breathtaking centerpiece or elevating wild and weedy blooms foraged from city sidewalks. She uses the beauty that is waiting to be discovered all around us--in leaves, branches, seedpods, a fallen blossom--to tell a story of time and place.

Merrick begins On Flowers with a primer containing all her hard-won secrets on the art of flower arranging, from selecting materials to mastering pleasing proportions. Then she brings readers along on her journey, with observations on flowers in New York City and at her family's summer home in rural New Hampshire, working on a flower farm off the coast of Washington State, and studying ikebana in a jewel-box flower shop in Kyoto. We learn how to send flowers like a florist, and how to arrange them like a farm girl. We discover the poignancy in humble wildflowers, and also celebrate the luxury of fragrant blousy blooms. Collected here is an anthology of floral inspiration, a love letter to nature by an exceptional, accidental florist.

Award-winning designer Matt Keightley presents gardens created either by him or by other leading contemporary designers that provide the inspiration to transform any outdoor space. Each case study discusses the goal or inspiration for the design and includes a detailed plan, a design checklist, and information on the materials and plants used complete with a wealth of gorgeous photographs.
The book is divided into four sections: Showstoppers (8 gardens featuring a high-design concept but created in an achievable way), Family-friendly (8 gardens that incorporate play areas and spaces for pets and family meals), Minimalist (10 gardens with larger areas of hardscaping and restrained planting), and Plants-Lovers (9 gardens where more than half of the outdoor space is devoted to plantings).
All types of outdoor spaces are covered from a minimalist urban terrace or a verdant courtyard to a suburban family garden or a larger estate.