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To ensure food security and restore the health of the planet, we need to move beyond industrial agriculture and return to the practice of small-scale, local farming. Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm describes the creation of a sustainable food system through a detailed case study of the successful year-round organic market garden and permaculture design at Pennsylvania’s Three Sisters Farm.

At the heart of Three Sisters is its bioshelter — a solar greenhouse which integrates growing facilities, poultry housing, a potting room, storage, kitchen facilities, compost bins, a reference library and classroom area. Bioshelter Market Garden examines how the bioshelter promotes greater biodiversity and is an energy-efficient method of extending crop production through Pennsylvania's cold winter months.

Both visionary and practical, this fully illustrated book contains a wealth of information on the application of permaculture principles. Some of the topics covered include:

• Design and management of an intensive market garden farm
• Energy systems and bio-thermal resources
• Ecological soil management and pest control
• Wetlands usage
• Solar greenhouse design and management.

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Discover the wonderful diversity of herbs in this complete guide for the organic grower. Easy to grow and hassle-free, herbs are often tough and resilient to pests and diseases. Be amazed at the range of plants to discover and learn about their unique flavors, perfumes and uses.

From sowing seeds to controlling pests, every subject an organic gardener needs to know about is covered in this A-Z directory of herbs. Along with tested advice on growing these attractive, rewarding, hardy and resilient plants without chemicals, there is detailed information on culinary, medicinal and cosmetic uses for each herb. Practical tips on planning the garden and propagating, planting, harvesting, drying and storing the herbs is included, along with a handy calendar.

About the author:
Graham Clarke has been a gardening writer and journalist for more than 25 years. He has written a dozen books and countless articles for many of the major United Kingdom gardening magazines. He lives in Dorset, on England's south coast, with his wife and two daughters.

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Here's a mammoth resource that belongs in the library of everyone who owns a garden. It's a colorful treasure trove of the best backyard projects ever, from decorative to functional, from walls to walkways. Providing solutions to every possible garden problem, this book furnishes comprehensive coverage of all planning stages: design, technical considerations, tools and materials.

Transform your yard into a beautiful oasis by making attractive and practical garden features using a wide range of materials. Whether you need more rustic seating or want to accent your perennial beds with a flagstone walkway, there's a perfect design here to fulfill your needs.

Need to enliven an ordinary setting? A garden floor can do the trick. Follow the instructions for making one of brick, ornamental gravel, stone or concrete. Want to define a space? Add a beautiful pathway. Find out how to put up a fence for extra flair, or choose one of 30 garden seating ideas, including a trestle swing. How-tos, photos, drawings, and patterns make construction easy.

Complete with hundreds of stunning color photographs, The Big Book of Backyard Projects will enable you to add function and style to your outdoor areas.

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Whatever your grandma did to fix and maintain things around the house and garden, it probably worked. That’s because the old ways are often the best ways when it comes to solutions for everyday problems, ideas for saving time, and handy advice for getting the job done. And that’s where 1,001 Old-Time Household Hints comes in. Find the best hints, tips and secrets for everything from cooking, cleaning and home maintenance to pet care, gardening and holiday celebrations. You’ll also find ways to adapt and improve some old-time methods. Discover an amazing variety of useful and clever ideas, including how to:

• Clean copper pans, using buttermilk and salt
• Make real sourdough bread the way the pioneers did
• Fight wrinkles and create kissable lips
• Use natural ingredients to repair your hair
• Create your own unique perfume
• Organize common space in your home
• Use ivory soap for polishing silver and insect control
• Safely separate drinking glasses that have been stuck together
• And more!

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The recent decline of the European honeybee, one of North America’s primary pollinators, poses a serious challenge to our food supply and ecological health. Close to 75 percent of all flowering plants rely on pollinators in order to set seed or fruit, and from these plants comes a third of the planet’s food. What can you do to help? Attracting Native Pollinators shows you how to encourage the activity of pollinators other than honeybees by creating flowering habitats and inviting nesting sites. Anyone can do it! You’ll find comprehensive information on every kind of pollinator, instructions for building nesting structures, ideas for involving children, and an extensive list of resources. This is an essential reference book and action guide for anyone who is growing food or is concerned about the future of our food supply.

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The most complete book on urban farming, covering everything from growing organic produce and raising chickens, to running a small farm on a city lot or in a suburban backyard.

Eating locally and growing one's own food is a rapidly evolving movement in urban settings: Hantz Farms in Detroit has transformed 70 acres of abandoned properties into energy-efficient gardens; Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a 6,000-foot vegetable farm in Brooklyn, New York, yields 30 different kinds of produce; and private square-foot farms are cropping up in cities all over the country.

Created by Lisa Taylor and the gardeners of Seattle Tilth, Your Farm in the City covers all of the essential information specific to gardening and farming in a city or town. Clear, easy-to-follow instructions guide and inspire even the most inexperienced urbanite in how to grow and harvest all types of produce, flowers, herbs, and trees, as well as how to raise livestock like chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats and honeybees. Important information particular to gardening in a city or town is included, such as planning and maximizing limited space, building healthy soil, managing irrigation, understanding zoning laws, outwitting urban pests, and being a considerate farming neighbor.

With 100 two-color instructional illustrations throughout and dozens of vital resources, Your Farm in the City is the most practical, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow guide to the burgeoning trend of urban farming.

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People everywhere are turning patches of soil into bountiful vegetable gardens, and each spring a new crop of beginners pick up trowels and plant seeds for the first time. They're planting tomatoes in raised beds, runner beans in small plots, and strawberries in containers. But there is one place that has, until now, been woefully neglected — the front yard.

The typical veggie garden, with its raised beds and plots, is not the most attractive type of garden, and favorite edible plants like tomatoes and cucumbers have a tendency to look scraggily, even in their prime. But The Edible Front Yard isn't about the typical veggie garden, and author Ivette Soler is passionate about putting edibles up front and creating edible gardens with curb appeal.

Soler offers step-by-step instructions for converting all or part of a lawn into an edible paradise; specific guidelines for selecting and planting the most attractive edible plants; and design advice and plans for the best placement and for combining edibles with ornamentals in pleasing ways. Inspiring and accessible, The Edible Front Yard is a one-stop resource for a front-and-center edible garden that is both beautiful and bountiful year-round.

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Are you a beginning gardener wondering when to plant or how often to weed? Or an experienced grower who wants to increase flavor and yields? Take the guesswork out of gardening with the Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook. Authors Ron and Jennifer Kujawski provide detailed weekly to-do lists — precisely customized to your own growing season — that break gardening down into simple and manageable tasks. Whether it’s planting strawberries, pinching off pumpkin blossoms, checking for tomato hornworm, or harvesting carrots, you’ll know exactly what to do — and exactly when and how to do it — for bountiful harvests and a stress-free gardening experience.

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Are you itching to start your own garden or grow more in the one you have, but feel that gardening is too challenging or time-consuming for your busy schedule? Would you like to enjoy fresh, home-grown produce every month of the year?

Backyard Bounty is like having your own Master Gardener to consult every step of the way. This encyclopedic reference demystifies gardening, bringing it back to the down-to-earth, environmentally practical activity that anyone can enjoy. Learn about:

• Planning your garden and preparing the soil
• Organic fertilizers and simplified composting
• Sowing, growing healthy seedlings, transplanting, watering, easy weeding, and mulching
• Planting for winter harvests, intensive planting schedules
• Growing fruit, simple pruning methods
• Greenhouses, tunnels and containers
• Organic pest management, and more

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You don't have to journey to a rural paradise to find the farm of the future. It's your neighbor's suburban lawn, the roof of your uptown condominium, or the co-op market garden in the vacant lot down the street. Urban Agriculture is a detailed look at how food is taking root in our cities. It offers inspirational advice and working examples to help you dig in and become more self-sufficient with your own food choices.

Taking the local food movement to its next logical step, this fully-illustrated, design-rich guide presents a cornucopia of proven ideas for:

• Windowsill and balcony growing
• Edible landscaping
• Farming the commons
• Community gardening, from allotments to orchards
• Taking urban agriculture to the next level with creative spaces, bigger lots and higher yields.