Gardening Science

Florapedia is an eclectic A-Z compendium of botanical lore. With more than 100 enticing entries - on topics ranging from achlorophyllous plants that use a fungus as an intermediary to obtain nutrients from other plants to zygomorphic flowers that admit only the most select pollinators - this collection is a captivating journey into the realm of botany. Writing in her incomparably engaging style, Carol Gracie discusses remarkable plants from around the globe, botanical art and artists, early botanical explorers, ethnobotanical uses of plants, botanical classification, and more.

Whether your garden is big or small or you are a complete beginner, building raised beds can help you achieve the perfect garden. It offers many benefits over traditional gardening, including—improving the drainage, being able to manage the quality of the soil, extending your growing season, along with many more. And you don’t need to be an expert to build and manage raised beds.

Finding herself in a new home in Brighton, Kate Bradbury sets about transforming her barren backyard into a beautiful wildlife garden. But while she's doing this Kate's neighbours continue to pave their gardens, the wildlife she tries to save is further threatened and she feels she's fighting an uphill battle. Is there any point in gardening for wildlife when everyone else is drowning the land in poison and cement? If the dead could return, what would they say about the land we have taken, the ancient routes we have carved up, the wildlife we have lost?

The Garden Jungle is about the wildlife that lives right under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the pavement and in the soil beneath our feet. Wherever you are right now, the chances are that there are worms, woodlice, centipedes, flies, silverfish, wasps, beetles, mice, shrews and much, much more, quietly living within just a few paces of you.

Growing vegetables in a raised bed grid garden (a.k.a. square foot garden) is a great way to maximize your vegetable growing efforts, and at the same time dramatically reduce your workload. A grid garden is simple to assemble and operate. Growing in one-foot squares means that you can truly maximize your vegetable production in an environment that is great fun to operate and will assure a regular harvest of healthy vegetables. If you are growing vegetables in raised beds, then your production and crop rotation can be maximized by using the simple techniques employed in grid gardening.

Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life is the first work to explore the origins of Beatrix Potter's love of gardening and plants and show how this passion came to be reflected in her work.

The Plant Hunter's Atlas is a volume telling some of the most extraordinary tales of horticultural discovery and exploring the characters behind the stories. Taking in the world's inhabited continents and spanning the centuries, the stories range from tales of derring-do in the age of discovery to modern-day botanists working at the cutting-edge of science. The text explores how plant hunters have been inspired by everything from scientific curiosity to economic greed, and their own ingrained sense of adventure.

Keeping Chickens for Beginners is for anyone wanting to keep his or her own chickens, whether for eggs, meat, or exhibiting. Keeping chickens can seem very overwhelming at first, and this audiobook provides a clear step-by-step guide walking you through everything from selecting the right breed for your needs to looking after your chickens to breeding them. Everything you need to know to successfully keep chickens and enjoy fresh eggs or meat is in this detailed audiobook.

Discover the secrets to cultivating a thriving garden through the science of soil! Struggling with poor soil quality? Vegetables barely thriving? Forget chemical solutions! Explore natural, ecologically friendly approaches proven to be just as effective. Manage a healthy, nurturing soil–the cornerstone of a naturally thriving garden!

Permaculture is the gardening and farming roadmap of the future. It teaches you to work with nature so that the Earth will be your ally, not your foe. It’s a must-have for every person concerned about the environment and sustainable living. It contains valuable lessons and strategies critical for the future of life on Earth.

What if you could build a garden that not only cuts back on these costs and eliminates harmful pesticides from your family’s diet, but also helps restore the planet in the process? The time is now to stop the waste of resources and consumption of contaminated foods and turn back to permaculture–this book is here to help you every step of the way.

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.

Drawing upon years of experience in the garden, Nydia will teach you all you need to know about soil to create abundancy in your garden. You may think that learning about soil is too sciency and technical for you, but the information in this audiobook is broken down into easy-to-understand language, so that you can learn the science without all the jargon.

Saving Seeds, Preserving Taste will introduce listeners to the cultural traditions associated with seed saving, as well as the remarkable people who have used grafting practices and hand-by-hand trading to keep alive varieties that would otherwise have been lost. As local efforts to preserve heirloom seeds have become part of a growing national food movement.

Chris Smith’s first encounter with okra was of the worst kind: slimy fried okra at a greasy-spoon diner. Despite that dismal introduction, Smith developed a fascination with okra, and as he researched the plant and began to experiment with it in his own kitchen, he discovered an amazing range of delicious ways to cook and eat it, along with ingenious and surprising ways to process the plant from tip-to-tail: pods, leaves, flowers, seeds, and stalks. Smith talked okra with chefs, food historians, university researchers, farmers, homesteaders, and gardeners.

Companion Planting Gardening Guide for Beginners is the ultimate science-based guide to successful gardening through companion planting for a healthier, mighty, and bountiful tiny farm. Companion planting consists of strategically planting certain plants, herbs, and vegetables in an order that maximizes your space, while also setting your garden up to yield the best results.

In Push the Zone: The Good Guide to Growing Tropical Plants Beyond the Tropics, David the Good shares his successes and failures in expanding plant ranges, and equips you with the knowledge you need to add a growing zone or two to your own backyard. Based on original research done in North Florida, Push the Zone is useful for northern gardeners as well. Discover microclimates in your yard, use the thermal mass of walls to grow impossible plants, and uncover growing secrets that will change your entire view of what can grow where!

The term "guerrilla" may bring to mind a small band of armed soldiers, moving in the dead of night on a stealth mission. In the case of guerilla gardening, the soldiers are planters, the weapons are shovels, and the mission is to transform an abandoned lot into a thing of beauty. Once an environmentalist's nonviolent direct action for inner-city renewal, this approach to urban beautification is spreading to all types of people in cities around the world.

Always wanted to have your own garden full of life and energy? Whether you want to learn which plants work better with others, how to grow healthy blossoming flowers, or which techniques you need to master to help give you that fantastic looking garden all year round, this audiobook will help! No matter what your gardening experience and skill level is at, this audiobook provides the advice and inspiration you need to grow the garden of your dreams!

You don’t need to be a professional landscaper to be able to grow your own thriving garden, and you definitely don’t need four acres of land to add a touch of nature to your home. Whether you’re a lifelong gardener looking for inspiration, or you’re just someone who loves being surrounded by nature, this comprehensive guide will give you everything you need to know about growing plants in small spaces with raised beds, containers, and vertical structures, so you can finally start on a gardening journey that will last a lifetime.