Southern California Vegetable Gardening
Learn to grow tasty, organic vegetables year-round in Southern California.
Written specifically for the SoCal gardener, this comprehensive guide features growing tips for more than 40 vegetables, as well as chapters on soil health, composting, seed raising, pests and diseases, fertilizing, and tips for gardening with kids.
SoCal has one of the best climates in the world for growing produce throughout every season. Featuring beautiful, full-color illustrations and photographs, this comprehensive guide answers all your questions about growing a bountiful vegetable harvest every month of the year.
Each 2-page vegetable spread explains exactly what to do in terms of planting location, soil, fertilizing, watering, and more. Also learn about the nutrition packed into each veggie, and enjoy tasty recipes using your harvest.
Southern California Fruit Gardening
Learn to grow tasty, organic fruits year-round in Southern California.
Written specifically for the SoCal gardener, this comprehensive book features growing instructions for more than 40 semi-tropical, tropical, and deciduous fruits and nuts. SoCal is a mecca for growing and harvesting tasty organic fruits like bananas, papayas, peaches, macadamia nuts, mangos, kiwis, mulberries, and more.
Featuring beautiful, full-color illustrations and photographs, this definitive book answers all your questions about growing and enjoying a bountiful fruit harvest every month of the year.
Each 2-page fruit spread explains exactly what to do in terms of soil preparation, planting, pruning, thinning, fertilizing, watering, and controlling pests and diseases. Discover how to graft fruit trees, and find out what fruiting plants can be grown in containers and raised beds. Also learn about the nutrition packed into each fruit, and enjoy tasty recipes using your bountiful harvest.
This addition to the Black & Decker Outdoor Home series helps readers bring all the benefits of outdoor gardening to the interior of their homes. In addition to bringing natural garden beauty to the indoor decor, houseplants are now known to be an important component of indoor air quality, especially in homes that are tightly sealed against outside air. Many plants filter out toxins and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen.
Indoor gardening has its own particular challenges, and this book addresses them all, including: controlling pests and diseases in a confined environment; providing supplemental lighting where natural sunlight is limited; and propagating difficult species.
Like other volumes in this series, Houseplants features the most up-to-date information available, including latest developments in potting soil compositions, water retaining polymers, pest and disease control. The plant encyclopedia is the most comprehensive listing of popular indoor species and includes not only flowers and foliage plants, but also ornamental grasses and dwarf trees.
Gardening organically outdoors is prevalent in most horticultural circles these days, but what about gardening indoors? Many gardeners still use harsh synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides when growing plants in their homes. How can we choose to eat organic foods, buy natural personal-care products, clean our indoor air, and yet still blast our poor houseplants with toxic chemicals? It is time to put down that spray bottle. Going organic with houseplants is not only possible-the results are amazing!
Author Julie Bawden Davis brings us Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, a definitive guide to growing houseplants organically. From the dirt on mulch to eco-friendly ways to handle plant pests, Davis has provided this essential resource for novice and experienced gardeners alike. When you learn the specialized rules of gardening organically indoors, you’ll soon reap the benefits of robust houseplants that will impress visitors and make your indoor environment a healthier place to be.
This practical, complete guide with detailed plans contains new flower species and eight hot new trends in flower gardening. Includes an A to Z section with descriptions of 477 easy-to-grow plants, suggestions for plants and combinations that will thrive based on where you live and your soil type, plus money-saving tips and seasonal advice. An added bonus: 35 step-by-step gardening projects.
Fairy gardens are enjoying an astonishing surge in popularity and now you can begin making your own enchanting miniature landscapes, complete with pint-sized accessories, diminutive plants, and quaint fairy figures. Gardeners Julie Bawden-Davis and Beverly Turner provide you with step-by-step instructions for creating a magical garden that will attract Thumbelina herself!
Learn how to design, plant, accessorize, and care for your very own small corner of the world by following seven simple steps, including choosing the perfect container, planting luxurious pint-sized plants, decorating with properly scaled accessories, and telling a story through the delicate fairies you choose to inhabit your magical wonderland. Included are full-color photographs showcasing various types of fairy gardens and accessories, which are sure to inspire the designer in you! And best of all, these perennial gardens are perfect for the busy gardener, as they require less than ten minutes per week to maintain—this could be your new favorite hobby! For the inner child in us all, Fairy Gardening is sure to enchant both the novice and the experienced gardener who wishes to stir up Lilliputian flights of fancy. 75 color photographs
With more than 5,000 copies sold, this second edition of, The Strawberry Story: How to Grow Great Berries Year-Round in Southern California, shows novice and pro gardeners alike how to grow sweet, juicy strawberries throughout the year in Southern California. Learn the best types for growing in the Southland, how to create the perfect environment and how to plant, care for and propagate these tasty fruits. A chapter is dedicated to battling pests and diseases. You’ll also learn the best ways to harvest and store strawberries, and recipes give you a delicious way to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Says Curtis Gaines, UC Davis Innovation Access – Strawberry Field Representative about the book: From my perspective working with California commercial strawberry growers and nurseries, this book is a great resource for the home gardener. The Strawberry Story is a beautiful and simple book that will show Southern California sun-loving gardeners how to grow, harvest and preserve healthy and tasty berries.
“The Strawberry Story is not only a solid, practical guide on growing these fruit in the Northeast, it is also a highly enjoyable read for anyone who has ever wondered where these marvelous berries come from and how they became such a popular treat. I highly recommend it for any gardener’s e-reader.” David Handley, vegetable and small fruit specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Written specifically for the Northeast climate, this definitive guide to growing sweet, juicy strawberries reveals the secrets to a prolific berry harvest every year. Learn about the best strawberry varieties for the Northeast climate and even how to extend the strawberry season into fall. Chock full of up-to-date information, including organic growing principles, this book reveals how to get your strawberry patch to thrive season after season. Soil preparation, planting and maintenance are included, as well as an entire chapter on eco-friendly, non-toxic treatments for pests and diseases. The 94-page book includes photos, illustrations, resources and recipes to enjoy the fruits of your labor.