Best reads for your home, garden and beyond Book guide by Heidi Lewis, collection development specialist, San Juan Island Library • A Field Guide to American Houses: The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture by Virginia Savage McAlester. This is the updated edition of a 1984 classic and it's more complete than ever with every conceivable style and design as well as neighborhood styles. It's a treat to pour through the exhaustive photographs. • American Home Landscapes: A Design Guide to Creating Period Garden Styles by Denise Wiles Adams & Laura L. S. Burchfield. Once you've researched the style of your house or the style of the home you would like to evoke, this book will help you plan a garden to complement its architectural styles. The book includes historic photographs, contemporary photos, garden design layouts, and lists of plants for those layouts. • The Armchair Book of Gardens: A Miscellany by Jane Billinghurst. Filled with beautiful illustrations of flowers and gardens and prose about gardens from a variety of authors, this lovely book can be read at a leisurely pace and enjoyed on rainy spring days when you'd rather be reading about gardening than gardening in the rain. Book guide by Kathy Lunde, Orcas Island public services librarian • The Small Budget Gardener: All the Dirt on Saving Money in your Garden by Maureen Gilmer. With consumers seeking ways to do more with less money, this book is a must have for gardening on a budget. With helpful tips and advice, gardeners can create beautiful, healthy sustainable landscapes with recycled materials and limited resources. Author Maureen Gilmer includes a chapter on food gardening and preserving precious resources. There are also tips on building fences, drought tolerant landscaping, propagation and more. • The Vegetable Gardener's Book of Building Projects by the editors of Storey Publishing. This book offers 39 simple projects from cold frames to compost bins, planters to picnic tables, trellises to tool storage. Each project was selected by Storey's editors to be functional, attractive, and easy to complete. For each one, you'll find step-by-step
instructions, detailed illustrations, complete materials and lumber lists, and a fourcolor photo of the finished product. Many of the projects can be done by beginners, and most can be completed in a few hours. Whether you need support for your beans and peas or a comfortable chair to relax in when the work is done, these projects are just what you're looking for.
• Garden Your Way to Health and Fitness by Bunny Guinness and Jacqueline Knox. Garden designer Bunny Guinness joins forces with physiotherapist Jacqueline Knox in this one-stop guide to all-around garden health. Step-by-step sequences based on the Pilates method illustrate the safe way to push wheelbarrows, lift heavy pots, pick low-lying fruit, and much more in a way that boosts fitness while avoiding stress and strains. The authors also detail a wealth of tactics for achieving beautiful gardens that require a range of exertion levels. They describe planting designs that are best for timepressed gardeners, how to use daily garden maintenance regimens to stay active, and how to design an outdoor gym. Illustrated sequences guide gardeners through physical exercises to suit their fitness levels. Looking after oneself is also key to good garden health. To this end, a comprehensive guide to growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs, a rundown of the best gardening clothes and ergonomic tools, tips for preventing and treating common ailments, and guidelines for winding down the healthy way complete this indispensable resource.
every gardener by Rodale Press. It has been around for more than 50 years, offering organic know-how for fruits, veggies, trees, shrubs, lawns and more. The latest version highlights new organic pest controls, new fertilizer products, improved gardening techniques, the latest organic soil practices, and new trends in garden design, and has a completely new section on earth-friendly techniques for gardening in a changing climate, covering wise water management, creating backyard habitats, managing invasive plants and insects, reducing energy use and recycling, and understanding biotechnology. I have to admit it, I love shade. Maybe growing up in the blistering sun of the southwest makes me more appreciative of the shadowy, sylvan glades and fosters my love of the myriad of greens therein. Of course, most gardeners abhor shade. Bring on the sun, they cry, for many plants need the rays' full power, like we need oxygen. One look around our friendly isle, though, and you’ll see: shady areas abound! One book I heartily endorse is Larry Hodgson’s “Making the Most of Shade” that shows how to plan, plant, and grow a fabulous garden that lightens up the shadows. Even the dimmest corner of your own particular patch has a plant that would shine in it, given the chance. Hostas, ferns, and a variety of flowery shrubs and flowers and some herbs can thrive in dappled or even full shade. All I am saying is give shade a chance… My third pick is not from Rodale, however, as it is fairly revolutionary, although it has been around for almost a century and involves creating an aerobic water
solution that has extracted the microbe population from compost along with the nutrients. It is called “compost tea” and is basically just a concentrated liquid created by a special brewing process to increase the number of beneficial organisms for an organic way improve soil and plants in a spray form. The book is, “Compost Tea Making: For Organic Healthier Vegetables, Flowers, Orchards, Vineyards, Lawns” by Marc Remillard. Want a great guide through the often conflicting world of “compost tea?” Remillard makes this challenging but rewarding tool more straight forward. I didn’t say simple. Lots of info is available online on this topic but this book distills the steps and the science behind it. So brew up a batch soon. No need for a special invite, the earthworms will come crawling to this tea party! Happy garden, happy gardening!
Book Guide by Lou Pray, Lopez Island Public Library All of us in the book business have a publisher we are partial to for one reason or other - one that always delivers. Craving Science Fiction and Fantasy? I know TOR will help cure the itch. If I’m in need of a Zen moment or Asian tastes and styles? Hello, Tuttle, watcha' got for me? And gardening? Well, Rodale is the literary well for my pastures. Two of my favorites come from just this source. Let’s start with the gold standard: Want proof of a well-used cook book? Look for food stains on the most loved recipes. Same thing with gardening books, look for the books that have a lovely, soiled patina. Like Rodale's ultimate encyclopedia of organic gardening: the indispensable green resource for
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