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Market Farming Success is a comprehensive overview of the direct-marketing business, written expressly for those just getting started. It identifies the key problem areas of this multifaceted business and shows how to avoid the obstacles. It will help the aspiring or beginning farmer advance quickly and confidently through the inevitable learning curve of starting a new business.

The author is the editor and publisher of the Growing for Market newsletter, and she condenses decades of growing experience from every part of the country.

Market Farming Success focuses on the factors that are common to growers everywhere and offers professional advice, including:

• How much it costs to start up a market gardening business
• How much you can expect to earn
• Which crops bring in the most money
• Essential tools and equipment
• Best places to sell your products
• How to keep records and minimize taxes
• Tricks of the trade that will make you more efficient in the greenhouse, field and market.

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A truly lush, radiant enthusiast's guide, The Backyard Beekeeper's Honey Handbook goes beyond the scope of a cookbook to introduce to readers the literal cornucopia of honey varieties available. An intuitive follow-up to The Backyard Beekeeper, this book will presume beekeeping experience but reintroduce the basics. It is an insight into the practical, back-to-the-earth beekeeping lifestyle and well as the artisan cultivation of honey varieties.

Supplementary support for this book lay in the fact that interest in tapping honey's holistic and whole-health potential dovetails nicely into the natural health and green movements. Also, honey as natural, lower-calorie sweetener has garnered positive PR by those working against the obesity epidemic.

Want to read more? Preview this book: Producing and Selling Honey for the Backyard Beekeeper or Calculating Growing Degree Days.

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Jo Ann Gardner and her husband, Jigs, have been farming for nearly four decades, specializing in fruit, dairy, and herb products. Jo Ann herself makes and sells seventy-five cases of jams, jellies, and preserves a year. She knows her subject well—and this breezy, delightful reissue of her classic text is a testament to the continued relevance of her years of gardening knowledge. Whether an old hand or a novice, you’ll find The Old-Fashioned Fruit Garden enlightening and informative, not to mention enjoyable. In this updated and full-color edition of The Old-Fashioned Fruit Garden, Jo Ann takes you back to the basics.

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A Gardener's Notebook is designed to become a family heirloom, its pages filled with the story of your life in the garden. It is a story you will write, about dreams and hard work, setbacks and victories. Whether it's a tiny patch or grand acreage, it's yours and you love it (most of the time!). No doubt, friends, dogs and family will make appearances in your journal too, and that's as it should be.

When organic gardeners Doug Oster and Jessica Walliser wrote their book, Grow Organic, they hoped to also create a companion book, a garden journal that conveyed the same helpful, neighborly spirit. And so, here it is, A Gardener's Notebook, with occasional appearances by Doug and Jess, dropping off some tips and stories of their own … like making your own ''compost tea,'' planting veggie seeds that thrive, keeping the bad bugs away and inviting the good bugs in.

But most of all, it's about simply enjoying life in your garden

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Across the country, a renaissance of local food, farming and place-based culinary traditions is taking hold. And yet something small, critically important and profoundly at risk is being overlooked in this local food resurgence: seeds. We are losing our seeds. Of the thousands of seed varieties available at the turn of the 20th century, 94 percent have been lost forever.

With a signature lyricism that once prompted a New York Times writer to proclaim her the Rachel Carson of the South, author Janisse Ray (Ecology of a Cracker Childhood) brings us the inspiring stories of ordinary gardeners whose aim is to save time-honored open-pollinated varieties like Old Time Tennessee muskmelon and Long County Longhorn okra-varieties that will be lost if people don't grow, save, and swap the seeds.

From rural Maine to Oregon's Palouse, Ray introduces readers to dozens of seed savers like the eccentric sociology professor she dubs "Tomato Man" and Maine farmer Will Bonsall, the "Noah" of seed saving who juggles hundreds of seeds, many grown by him, and him alone. And Ray tells her own story: of watching her grandmamma save squash seed; of her own first tiny garden at the edge of a junkyard; of falling in love with heirloom and local varieties as a young woman; and the one seed (Conch cowpea) that got away from her.

With a quiet urgency, The Seed Underground reminds us that while our underlying health, food security and sovereignty may be at stake as seeds disappear, so, too, are the stories, heritage and history that passes between people as seeds are passed from hand to hand.

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All of us want to maximize our outdoor space whether for work, rest or play. Big Plans, Small Garden will show you how to do just that, using inspirational photographs supported by practical how-to information, garden plans and case studies.

The book is divided into three main sections:

• 
  Assessing Your Needs - encourages the reader to focus on their requirements and determine their priorities in terms of making the most of their space.
• Solutions by Area - looks at a range of different spaces from balconies to basements, rooftops to courtyards, and highlights the particular considerations of each. This chapter also illustrates inspiring design ideas, always focusing on the practical. For example, it asks the reader questions such as, "Do you want to make the most of your view or do you need to screen off an eyesore?"
• Design Details - focuses on elements such as walls, flooring, lighting and furniture. Feature boxes and text offer design advice and planting suggestions, and clarify what is achievable through do-it-yourself projects and what requires a professional. They also include low-maintenance and drought-friendly ideas.

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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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Mini Encyclopedia of Garden Ponds has all the know-how needed to create an ideal water feature in any garden. It examines a variety of ponds according to their size and type, from formal to wildlife. This authoritative book also considers a variety of factors involved in their installation, from siting and budget to construction and equipment (such as filters and pumps).

Useful directories feature photographs and detailed descriptions of native and exotic plants and wildlife with which to stock a pond, with a particular emphasis on achieving and maintaining a balanced and healthy pond environment. A further chapter describes and illustrates the process of planting oxygenating marginal plants that enhance the pond's health and appearance. Water features, such as waterfalls and streams, are covered and a final section explains routine care and maintenance to ensure the pond looks its best all year round.

Mini Encyclopedia of Garden Ponds is written in an accessible and easy-to-understand style, and illustrated with a wealth of color photographs and illustrations to support the comprehensive text and bring to life the joys of pond ownership for the reader.

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The demand for locally sourced organic foods continues to rise. This resource is a prime reference for the many folks who are growing or wanting to grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruits.

The book features superb full-color photographs and illustrations and an easy-to-use A-Z directory. Its comprehensive growing, harvesting and preserving tips and wealth of recipes will be a boon to gardeners and cooks alike.

Practical aspects of gardening are explained in detail, with in-depth sections on pollination, soil fertility, greenhouse growing and creating a garden. Some of the topics covered include:

• Nutritional values
• The most useful and recommended varieties
• Plant hardiness, propagation and growing guidelines
• Cropping, harvesting and storing
• Weed, pest and disease control
• Ornamental and wildlife value
• Pruning and training
• Companion planting
• Container growing

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In his influential A Sand County Almanac, published at the beginning of the environmental movement in 1949, Aldo Leopold proposed a new ecological ethic to guide our stewardship of the planet. In this inspiring book, Sarah Hayden Reichard tells how we can bring Leopold’s far-reaching vision to our gardens to make them more sustainable, lively and healthy places. Today, gardening practices too often damage the environment: We deplete resources in our own soil while mining for soil amendments in faraway places, or use water and pesticides in ways that can pollute lakes and rivers. Drawing from cutting edge research on urban horticulture, Reichard explores the many benefits of sustainable gardening and gives straightforward, practical advice on topics such as pest control, water conservation, living with native animals, mulching and invasive species.

The book includes a scorecard that allows readers to quickly evaluate the sustainability of their current practices, as well as an extensive list of garden plants that are invasive, what they do and where they should be avoided.