Green Garden

Escape the grid and build a thriving, self-sufficient homestead with this complete step-by-step guide to mastering both off-grid systems and essential homesteading skills—no experience required.

Written with beginners and experienced gardeners alike in mind, this book covers everything from picking the right plants for your space to making them fit right in with decorative pots and hanging baskets. Experience the emotional and psychological benefits of keeping houseplants, which have been shown to reduce feelings of depression and provide an outlet to those with anxiety. Your small corner of the world will grow a bit greener when you learn about the best indoor plants for all types of caretakers, why succulents are so popular, and more.

From the citrus groves of Sicily to a taco in Mexico City, In Search of the Perfect Peach takes you on a journey in the pursuit of flavor, with Franco revealing at every step how this incredibly simple desire can lead to radical change. Throughout, he offers us a deeply optimistic vision of how we as consumers can follow flavor to fix the food system and bring joy to our every meal.

Do you long for the country life? Hobby Farming For Dummies is a practical guide that will show you how to handle all the basics of small-scale farming, from growing healthy crops to raising livestock and managing your property. You'll see how to decide what to farm, provide shelter and utilities, select plants, and protect your investment. It's all you need to dig in and start growing!

The green-building movement has produced hundreds of "how-to" books and websites that are filled with tips about green building and what homeowners should do to go green. While helpful and informative, when it comes to making actual purchasing and installation decisions, these books do not make it any easier for a homeowner to prioritize against a budget. Here, Melisssa Rappaport Schifman shares her knowledge and experience for others to use in their journey toward a greener way of living.

Long before the advent of conventional farming methods - which have focused on constant growth, human intervention, and genetic homogeneity - the apple had already grown to become the ubiquitous all-American symbol it is today. Known for their hardiness, ability to adapt to new environments, natural diversity, and plentiful bounty, wildly grown apples were once known as “America’s fruit” throughout the trading world.

At the close of the twentieth century, corporate capitalism extended its reach over the globe. While its defenders argue that globalization is the only way forward for modern, democratic societies, the spread of this system is failing to meet even the most basic needs of billions of individuals around the world. Moreover, the entrenchment of this free market system is undermining the foundations of healthy societies, caring communities, and personal wellbeing.

If you want to save the planet, but your to-do list is already pretty long, and remembering your reusable coffee cup feels like a Herculean task, then this is the book for you. Covering every aspect of our lives from the stuff we buy and the food we eat, to how we travel, work, and celebrate. This audiobook provides stacks of practical ideas to slot into your daily life, alongside a gentle kick up the butt to put your newfound knowledge into action.

Using the latest evidence and research in wellbeing and Biophilic Design, learn how to transform every space in your home to create a restorative and nurturing environment. Discover the many benefits of connecting to nature, maximising natural light, improving air quality, and the right way to add colour, texture, and pattern to create spaces that improve relaxation, recuperation, social connections, and sleep.

Filled with catchall research, American Hemp examines what this new domestic crop can be used for, what makes it a superior product, and what made it illegal in the first place; the book also delves into the many health and medical benefits of the plant. Hobbs weighs in on how hemp can improve existing industries, from farming to energy to 3D printing, plus how it can make a serious impact on climate change by removing toxins from the soil and by decreasing our dependence on plastics and fossil fuels.

A work of immersive journalism steeped in a distinctively American social history and sparked by a personal quest, The Unsettlers traces the search for the simple life through the stories of new pioneers and what inspired each of them to look for - or create - a better existence. Captivating and clear-eyed, it dares us to imagine what a sustainable, ethical, authentic future might actually look like.

Marine algae are the supreme eco-engineers of life: they oxygenate the waters, create habitat for countless other organisms, and form the base of a food chain that keeps our planet unique in the universe as we know it. In this audiobook Josie Iselin explores both the artistic and the biological presence of 16 seaweeds and kelps that live in the thin region where the Pacific Ocean converges with the North American continent - a place of incomparable richness.

Why would a successful American physician choose to live in a twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot cabin without running water or electricity? To find out, writer and activist William Powers visited Dr. Jackie Benton in rural North Carolina. No Name Creek gurgled through Benton’s permaculture farm, and she stroked honeybees’ wings as she shared her wildcrafter philosophy of living on a planet in crisis. Powers, just back from a decade of international aid work, then accepted Benton’s offer to stay at the cabin for a season while she traveled.

Imagine cultivating enough food to slash your grocery shopping in half—all in less than an hour a day in your own backyard. Sounds impossible, right? Marjory Wildcraft says it's not: She's been homesteading for almost twenty years and founded The Grow Network to teach hundreds of thousands of others—some with very little space or time, some city dwellers with rooftop gardens—how to do the same, from gardening, to raising chickens, to composting, to medicine-making.

In this book, Eve O. Schaub, humorist and stunt memoirist extraordinaire, tackles her most difficult challenge to date: garbage. Convincing her husband and two daughters to go along with her, Schaub attempts the seemingly impossible: living in the modern world without creating any trash at all—for an entire year and, as it turns out, during a pandemic.

In Clean Mama's Guide to a Healthy Home, Becky Rapinchuk, author of Simply Clean and creator of the popular cleaning website Clean Mama, provides a step-by-step guide to take charge of your home's wellness with a comprehensive, all-natural cleaning system.

I have found foraging to be very fulfilling and a way of life I wish I had started earlier. Besides the fact that this way of life helps you enjoy the natural world and connect with it, it is also a way of cutting costs. This guide is just meant to help you know where to step and what to avoid in your journey of becoming a forager. This book is specifically designed for those who have an interest in foraging for wild plants in North America. The beginners will find it more rewarding. However, even if you are an ardent forager, you should also give it a shot.

In Material, Kary takes listeners along with him to visit some of the places where modern artisans are preserving, and in some cases passing on, the old craft skills. His vivid descriptions and eye for detail make this book a rich and delightful listen, and the natural and cultural history he imparts along the way provides an important context for understanding our own past and the roots of our industrial society. Personal, engaging, and filled with memorable people, landscapes, and scenes, Material is a rich celebration of what it means to imagine and create.

The good news is, even without outdoor space, you can still create a successful indoor garden. Beginner’s Guide to Hydroponics and Aeroponics is the perfect starting point for anyone who wants to grow their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs at home.

Did you know you can eat dandelions? Have you thought about what plants, flowers, nuts, and berries around you are edible? You could save money by foraging for food—in the wild! Hunting and gathering were the way humans fed themselves before the age of farming and homesteads. The Earth can provide all you need, even in the wild and uncultivated areas of nature. I will teach you what to find and how to make a yummy meal from wild plants. Foraging is something that can connect you with the world around you—it is not hunting, and I believe it is more sustainable than farming.