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Homeowners spend hundreds of dollars watering their yard, but there is an easy way to save money and resources — rain gardening. But what is it? As simple as collecting rain to reuse in front and backyards.

Creating Rain Gardens is a comprehensive book for the DIY-er, covering everything from rain barrels to simple living roofs, permeable patios, and other low-tech affordable ways to save water in the garden.

Water conservation experts Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher walk homeowners through the process, with step-by-step instructions for designing and building swales, French drains, rain gardens, and ephemeral ponds—the building blocks of rain-catching gardens. From soil preparation, planting, troubleshooting, and maintenance, to selecting palettes of water-loving plants that provide four-season interest and a habitat for wildlife, Creating Rain Gardens covers everything a gardener needs to create a beautiful rain garden at home.

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The essential guide to composting for all gardeners and enviromentally conscious people.

Composting is fast becoming a household word. Gardeners know it is the best way to feed the soil, while others look to composting as a way to dispose of grass clippings, autumn leaves, and tree trimmings. The Rodale Book of Composting offers:

• Easy-to-follow instructions for making and using compost
• Helpful tips for apartment dwellers, suburbanites, farmers and community leaders
• Ecologically sound solutions to growing waste disposal problems

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A greenhouse can be a garden's greatest asset: its nucleus and powerhouse. There are many ways of using it and a gardener can adopt one or all of them. In spring, you can start young plants from seed; raise tender perennials to fill gaps in the garden; give young vegetable plants a head start; sow early lettuce while the soil is too sticky to work outdoors. During spring and summer, you can raise greenhouse crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and chillis. You'll be able to overwinter tender plants such as bananas and cannas. And the greenhouse can be a showcase full of beautiful, unusual and exotic plants.

Trained at Kew and for many years Glasshouse Supervisor at the RHS Garden at Wisley, Anne Swithinbank is the expert on greenhouse gardening, and in this book she comprehensively describes the techniques that will allow you to greatly expand the growing capabilities of your garden.

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From sinking a seed into the soil through to sitting down to enjoy a meal made with vegetables and fruits harvested right outside your back door, this gorgeous kitchen gardening book is filled with practical, useful information for both novices and seasoned gardeners alike. Grow Cook Eat will inspire people who already buy fresh, seasonal, local, organic food to grow the food they love to eat. For those who already have experience getting their hands dirty in the garden, this handbook will help them refine their gardening skills and cultivate gourmet quality food. The book also fills in the blanks that exist between growing food in the garden and using it in the kitchen with guides to 50 of the best-loved, tastiest vegetables, herbs and small fruits. The guides give readers easy-to-follow planting and growing information, specific instructions for harvesting all the edible parts of the plant, advice on storing food in a way that maximizes flavor, basic preparation techniques, and recipes. The recipes at the end of each guide help readers explore the foods they grow and demonstrate how to use unusual foods, like radish greens, garlic scapes, and green coriander seeds.

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Enjoy a bountiful garden harvest this fall with the informative articles in this third edition of the MOTHER EARTH NEWS How to Grow and Preserve Your Own Food. From cover to cover, this glossy-paged guide contains tips and techniques for growing your own fruits and vegetables, and preserving them using simple, easy-to-learn techniques.

Learn how to grow winter tomatoes indoors all through the season; harvest the freshest mushrooms with the help of a do-it-yourself kit; discover how to make sauerkraut; and more. This guide includes detailed articles on extending your growing season with greenhouses and cold frames, including how to build an easy hoop house for less than $1,000. You'll also learn how to build better soil with free organic fertilizers (including two you won't even need to pay for.)

The editors of MOTHER EARTH NEWS have filled this 100-page guide with some of their best gardening and preserving articles. Articles include:

• Savor Summer's Harvest All Year Long
• Instant No-Dig Garden Beds
• Use Wood Mulch to Build Great Garden Soil
• Build a Solar Food Dehydrator
• Grow Sage: Simple, Beautiful, Delicious

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In today's downturned economy, one sector is trending sharply up: backyard vegetable gardening. Americans are staying closer to home, literally tending to their gardens by the millions. And they're reaching out for help and advice. Doug Oster, popular radio talk show gardening expert (and newspaper garden and food columnist), gets more questions about tomatoes than any other vegetable. No. 2 is garlic, with basil close behind. It's time for a book about these favorites of the American kitchen, created for beginners and old-timers alike. With color photos throughout, this book is a balance of easy-to-use organic gardening tips, a little horticultural history, serious and funny cautionary gardening tales … and 30 simply delicious recipes (the gastronomic payoff). No matter if a garden is a loft balcony or a backyard in the 'burbs, Oster leads his readers step by step with his trademark "how I do it" humor and Julia Child honesty … with a bonus prize of all those recipes as a reward for readers' labors.

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With more than 100 garden designs to suit every plot, taste and pocket, The Ultimate Garden Designer has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies worldwide … and is sure to contain your ideal garden.

In this fully revised edition of Tim Newbury's classic, expert advice shows you exactly where to put your patio and plant your perennials. With a comprehensive plant directory, a vast selection of garden features, and more than 600 beautiful color photographs, plans and drawings, this book is the complete guide to the world of garden design. It's the next best thing to hiring a professional.

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Looking for a way to make delicious, homemade bread? How about advice on how to grow your best fall garden this year? Need tips for picking out chickens that produce the best eggs ever? Look no farther than this 100-page guide from MOTHER EARTH NEWS. Full of articles that instruct, help and point readers in the right direction for eating fresh food all year long, Guide to Real Food All Year has nearly 20 articles that cover everything from drying tomatoes to making your own cider, from growing great salads to saving time and energy with pressure cookers.

With beautiful pictures, this guide explains how to eat better and save money. Readers will learn how to choose inexpensive cuts of grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and pastured pork for better nutrition and great flavor. Gardeners will read how to grow colorful heirloom corns for improved nutrition and great taste. Farmers market goers will learn how to dry the harvest they buy to stock up on homegrown snacks and convenience foods for year-round eating.

Articles include:

• Homemade Butter: The Best You'll Ever Have
• Why Whole Wheat Is Way Better
• Simple Tips for Better Garden Soil
• Use Cold Frames to Grow More Food
• Learn to Can for Homegrown Flavor

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This practical book of step-by-step gardening techniques from the American Horticultural Society (AHS) teaches up-to-date skills to a new generation of gardeners.

The AHS New Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques is the definitive guide to all the essential techniques you are ever likely to need. It reflects modern best-practice gardening at the American Horticultural Society, a leading gardening authority.

All techniques are shown clearly and simply, with step-by-step instructions for every gardener to follow. This encyclopedia contains more than 2,000 clear and concise color illustrations, supported by more than 1,000 beautiful color photos. The book also includes steps for planning, pruning, propagating, feeding and watering. All plants are covered, including trees, flowers, shrubs, climbers, lawns, vegetables, fruit and herbs. You'll learn how to create water features and patios, and add lighting. The wealth of practical information includes organic techniques, recycling and how to treat pests and diseases. There are also chapters on container gardening, gardening under glass, garden tools and equipment, everyday garden maintenance, and landscaping and construction work. This book is an essential purchase for both professional and amateur gardeners.

Want to read more? Preview this book: Pole Beans: A Journey to the Top, Plant Disease: A Silent Killer or Plant Problems: Pests in the Garden.