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Part of the NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) guides. Includes information on:

• Strengths and limitations of hybrid varieties
• Before you grow the seed (selecting varieties, saving seed and improving crops, intellectual property rights)
• Growing seed (pollination biology, harvesting, cleaning, storage, germination testing)
• Details on individual crops (amaranth, crucifers, beets and chard, lettuce, cucurbits, corn and small grains, nightshades, root veggies)

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Soil is a living organism that loves to cooperate with farmers and gardeners. A green thumb will appear on those who align themselves with its health and requirements. This book discusses:

• Soil habitat
• Sustaining soil fertility
• The soil food-web
• Nutrient availability and deficiency

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $39.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

A series of 4 guides originally published by NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association), on organic principles and practices for both the beginner farmer as well as established farmers looking to convert to organic, or deepen their practices. Each book is approximately 100 pages, but the information is weighty; the guides use a strong whole-systems farming theory behind their practical advice, as well as offer historical information, further resources, detailed appendices, and profiles of various organic farms across the Northeast. Titles include:

Growing Healthy Vegetable Crops written by Brian Caldwell.

Includes information on:

• Basic concepts of pest control (host susceptibility, soil health, genetic resistance, ecosystem factors)
• Practical approaches (crop cultural practices, rescue treatments, special section on mammals and birds, food safety))
• Farm design for pest reduction (diversity, crop rotation))
• Unorthodox approaches (farmers out of the box))
• Identifying pests)
• Crop-by-crop pests and practices)

• Soil habitat)
• Sustaining soil fertility)
• The soil food-web)
• Nutrient availability and deficiency)

• Strengths and limitations of hybrid varieties)
• Before you grow the seed (selecting varieties, saving seed and improving crops, intellectual property rights))
• Growing seed (pollination biology, harvesting, cleaning, storage, germination testing))
• Details on individual crops (amaranth, crucifers, beets and chard, lettuce, cucurbits, corn and small grains, nightshades, root veggies))

• Soils, the foundation of health (manure managament))
• Crop production and grazing management (forage species, pasture management, setting up a grazing system))
• Livestock (selection, nutrition, winter and summer feed considerations, seasonal milking, habitat, herd health, milk quality))
• Marketing (selling fluid milk, regulations, facility and equipment, selling raw milk))
• Recordkeeping)
• The transition to organic)

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Based on the James Beard Award–winning blog The One-Block Diet, this all-in-one home gardening, do-it-yourself guide and cookbook shows you how to transform a backyard or garden into a self-sufficient locavore’s paradise.

When Margo True and her fellow staffers at Northern California–based Sunset magazine walked around the grounds of their Menlo Park office, they saw more than just a lawn and some gardens. Instead, they saw a fresh, bountiful food source, the makings for intrepid edible projects, and a series of seasonal feasts — all just waiting to happen.

The One-Block Feast is the story of how True and her team took an inspired idea and transformed it into an ambitious commitment: to create four feasts over the course of a year, using only what could be grown or raised in their backyard-sized plot. She candidly shares the group’s many successes and often humorous setbacks as they try their hands at chicken farming, cheese making, olive pressing, home brewing, beekeeping, winemaking and more.

Grouped into gardening, project and recipe guides for each season, The One-Block Feast is a complete resource for planning an eco-friendly kitchen garden; making your own pantry staples for year-round cooking and gifts; raising bees, chickens and even a cow; and creating made-from-scratch meals from ingredients you’ve grown yourself. Chapters are organized by season, each featuring a planting plan and crop-by-crop instructions, an account of how that season’s projects played out for the Sunset team, and a multicourse dinner menu composed of imaginative, appealing and ultra-resourceful vegetarian recipes, such as:

Butternut Squash Gnocchi With Chard and Sage Brown Butter, Egg and Gouda Crepes, Whole Wheat Pizzas With Roasted Vegetables and Homemade Cheeses, Fresh Corn Soup With Zucchini Blossoms, Braised Winter Greens With Preserved Lemons and Red Chile, Summer Lemongrass Custards, Honey Ice Cream

Generously illustrated and easy to follow, this ultimate resource for today’s urban homesteader will inspire you to take “eating local” to a whole new level.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, MOTHER EARTH NEWS is recommending books to readers. For 40 years, MOTHER EARTH NEWS has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.

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Daughter of Iowa farmers, Missouri homesteader and mother of five, Diane Ott Whealy never anticipated that one day she would become a leader in a grass-roots movement to preserve our agricultural biodiversity. The love for the land and the respect for heirloom seeds that Ott Whealy shared with her husband, Kent, led to their starting Seed Savers Exchange in 1975.

Seed Savers Exchange, the nation’s premier nonprofit seed-saving organization, began humbly as a simple exchange of seeds among passionate gardeners who sought to preserve the rich gardening heritage their ancestors had brought to this country. Seeds that Ott Whealy herself inherited from her paternal grandparents were the impetus for the formation of Seed Savers Exchange, whose membership has grown from a small coterie to more than 13,000. Its influence has been felt in gardens across America.

Ott Whealy’s down-to-earth narrative traces her fascinating journey from Oregon to Kansas to Missouri then back home to Iowa where, in 1986, Heritage Farm became the permanent home of Seed Savers Exchange. Her heartwarming story captures what is best in the American spirit: the ability to dream and, through hard work and perseverance, inspire others to contribute their efforts to a cause. Thus was created one of the nation’s most admired nonprofits in the field of genetic preservation.

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A windowsill is among the best possible places to put a plant that provides ample sunlight, brightens the look of your home from the outside, and adds what amounts to a filter to the air coming in and out of your home. In winter, they can add a touch of color to an otherwise drab view, and in summer they thrive. But not every plant grows well in these conditions: According to Garden Guides, as many as 40 percent of most houseplants don't need nearly that much sunlight. The selection of the right houseplants for your windowsill is a necessary step to ensuring they survive and thrive.

This book will guide you through the steps needed to select the perfect plants for your windowsill and cultivate them to both fit in with your space and to survive the conditions, whether inside or outside. You will learn everything you need to know to effectively plant windowsill plants and improve how your home and your windows look to the world outside. You will learn, through a series of detailed charts, which plants are best suited to the cramped space of a windowsill and which ones will only give you problems. You will learn how much light each plant needs and how much water and food they need and whether you need to supplement natural provision of these resources. You will learn how to care for your plants while keeping away pests and animals that may eat the leaves or dig up the dirt.

Top experts in gardening have been interviewed and their insights will help you learn what works and what doesn't work for your windowsill plants. From first planting, whether by seed or potted plant, you will have every resource you need to keep your windowsill plants alive and thriving in their new environment with this book.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $24.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

"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

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $24.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Don’t like spending money in garden centers? Think you can make it yourself for a fraction of the price or find a cheaper option? Dave Hamilton shows you how, by recycling and reusing materials creatively and making the most of what you have, you can gather all you need to grow your food on a budget.

• Shows how to go through the gardening year on a shoestring, from making your own raised beds to fixing broken tools and taking cuttings.
• Gives money-saving tips for every season plus occasional tips on the actual gardening!
• Is crammed full of projects from seed-saving and making your own plant feed to building a fence or garden shed.
• Gives step-by-step instructions, with easy-to-follow diagrams.
• Includes beautiful photos and quirky illustrations.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $18.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

How to save money, time, and the environment-on the urban frontier.

With The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading anyone can learn how to live sustainably and responsibly-and save money and time-in any urban environment. Expert urban homesteader Sundari Elizabeth Kraft shares her hands-on knowledge of: growing organic foods and preserving them; composting; raising small livestock and chickens; generating electricity and biofuels; and other ways to cut costs and live green. This book has all the information required to become a successful urban homesteader in any city.

• Practical advice on everything from composting to clean energy.
• Sundari Elizabeth Kraft is an expert in urban homesteading.

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Winter and early spring require a different kind of gardening than the summer months: Not a lot grows at this time, but a well-planned plot may nonetheless be quite full.

This book explains how to have plenty of vegetables to eat during the winter months, both stored and fresh. Through winter, soil is cool and transforms the plot into a large outdoor larder where many vegetables keep healthy and alive, ready for harvesting when needed.

In the pages of this book, you'll discover:

• How to grow your own food for the "hungry gap" from April to June
• How to store food for eating in winter
• A monthly sowing, planting and growing calendar
• Harvesting advice from garlic in July to spring cabbage and pea shoots in May
• Stunning photographs from the author’s garden