Wheatgrass, that simple green plant you see growing above the counter in your favorite smoothie shops, is one of the most versatile, intrinsically useful vegetable matters available to you. It can be blended into almost anything, grows in any temperate or warm climate, and is chock full of so many vitamins and fiber that it can take the place of up to two or three servings of vegetables every day if used properly. More and more people are taking advantage of this highly useful plant and growing it themselves, but for many, the lack of instruction and direction can lead to frustration and confusion over how the plant is supposed to be grown and what it needs to thrive.

This book guides you through the process of not only growing, but successfully cultivating wheatgrass for your own personal use in nearly any endeavor, from selling at local farmers’ markets to mixing in with your home made smoothies. You will learn what wheatgrass does for you and your body; providing the necessary energy you need to lose weight and helping to fight illness by boosting your immune system. You will learn how to grow your own wheatgrass and how chlorophyll functions within wheatgrass, reducing environmental hazards, cleaning your blood with unique enzymes, improving liver function, and deodorizing the body. The nutritional benefits of wheatgrass are outlined in detail for anyone who wants to benefit from them, including the vitamin contents, and comparisons to other super foods. The minerals, amino acids, cancer fighting aspects, and weight loss potential of wheat grass are outlined in detail for you alongside instructions on how to grow and juice your own wheatgrass regardless of where you live. Top wheatgrass growers and experts have been interviewed and have provided their take on how you can start using it to cleanse your body and increase your nutritional intake every day. For anyone who has ever considered wheat grass’s super food potential for their greenhouse or garden, this guide is everything you need. #9781601383396 $24.95

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Sprouts have been a happy addition to many sandwiches, noodle dishes, and side plates at restaurants for decades now and when they are properly grown at home, can add a much needed boost of both plant protein and fiber to your diet. However, knowing how to properly grow sprouts so that they both thrive and successfully produce year after year can seem like a complex process in many cases if you don’t have the necessary resources to successfully grow them at your disposal. Knowing where they grow, the proper temperatures for cultivation, and the many uses they serve are all necessary steps to being successful in growing sprouts.

This book was written with all of these details in mind and many more, guiding you through the complex process of adding a new plant to your garden. You will learn how to start benefiting from the core benefits of sprouts, starting with how to recognize the various different kinds of sprouts and what they do for your body. You will learn how they compare to other top super foods and vegetables and how to effectively use them to fight cancer, boost your mineral and vitamin intake, increase your raw food intake, cleanse the blood, improve liver function, and generally feel better. Learn how to start growing and juicing your own sprouts as well, using your home, greenhouse, or garden as a source of daily nutrition and a boost to your body. You will read interviews from top nutritional experts and sprout growers who share their experiences and insights into how sprouts can benefits nearly anyone. As an added bonus, you will benefit from dozens of top recipes that help you utilize your spouts in foods that best take advantage of their high nutritional content, while bolstering their taste and texture. For anyone who has ever considered growing and adding sprouts to their diet, this book will be a much needed resource.  #9781601383402 $24.95 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

According to the Virginia Cooperative Extension, operated by Virginia Tech and Virginia State University, there are more than 60 different kinds of shrubs in North America with varying pruning requirements, timelines, and necessities. This massive variety makes it so that anyone interested in pruning needs to be very well educated in how the process is completed, what it needed, what should be avoided, and most of all, when to plant, prune, and provide maintenance to your shrubs.

This book walks every shrub enthusiast through the surprisingly complex process of pruning from the first seed in the ground to the annual progression of pruning steps that must be done in the right order to maximize the health of your shrubs. You will learn what the top reasons for taking up pruning are followed by what equipment is needed for pruning from start to finish. You will learn everything you need to know about the 10 most common pruning methods and a number of more methods that are nearly as common but equally as useful. You will learn how to apply these techniques to ornamental trees and shrubs, shade trees, pruning evergreens, pruning hedges, artistic pruning, pruning fruit trees, pruning small trees, pruning nut trees, pruning vines and ground covers, and finally pruning houseplants and bonsai plants. You will benefit from the advice gathered from interviews with top experts in the field of pruning and gardening and their insights on how pruning should be completed for reach type of plant. For anyone who interested in pruning of their plants either inside or outside, this guide will provide everything you need. #9781601383440 $24.95 

The idea of companion planting has arisen in the gardening community in recent years as an extremely viable new take on how plants should situated, grown, and cultivated. Matching certain plants together and separating others, as outlined in studies such as the National Sustainable Agriculture Society’s report on the subject that shows each crop with at least three companionable crops and as many as four incompatible crops. Whether you are planting Tomatoes and Onions or Carrots and Corn, the proper pairing of your plants can have a major impact on your eventual harvest and the quality of your vegetables.

This book shows you, the avid gardener, everything you need to know to effectively pair your crops in a way that ensures there are no incompatibilities and that you get the most out of every seed. You will learn the basics of crop rotation and how it has been used since the dawn of cultivation almost 12,000 years ago to maintain the integrity of soil and harvests. You will learn how companion planting is an extension of this basic format and how it works in tandem with natural conditions and plant minerals to create the best produce. You will learn about how to prepare your garden and how to set the right system in place. You will learn, via a chart and a great deal of detail, about each possible combination, the best possible companion plants as well as which plants are largely incompatible.

You will learn about how perennials and shrubs coexist and the fundamentals of companion planting care and seasonal care of your plants. From the top tips and methods for this style of gardening to which plants bring good insects and which ones keep pests away, you will learn everything you need to know to plot out and plant your perfect garden. #9781601383457  $24.95

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

A windowsill is among the best possible places to put a plant – it provides ample sunlight, brightens the look of your home from the outside, and adds what amounts to a filter to the air coming in and out of your home. In winter, they can add a touch of color to an otherwise drab view, and in summer they thrive. But, not every plant grows well in these conditions – with as many as 40 percent of most houseplants according to Garden Guides not needing nearly that much sunlight. The selection of the right houseplants for your windowsill is a necessary step to ensuring they survive and thrive.

This book will guide you through the steps needed to select the perfect plants for your windowsill and cultivate them to both fit in with your space and to survive the conditions, whether inside or outside. You will learn everything you need to know to effectively plant windowsill plants and improve how your home and your windows look to the world outside. You will learn, through a series of detailed charts, which plants are best suited to the cramped space of a windowsill and which ones will only give you problems. You will learn how much light each plant needs and how much water and food they need and whether you need to supplement natural provision of these resources. You will learn how to care for your plants while keeping away pests and animals that may eat the leaves or dig up the dirt. Top experts in gardening have been interviewed and their insights will help you learn what works and what doesn’t work for your windowsill plants. From first planting, whether by seed or potted plant, you will have every resource you need to keep your windowsill plants alive and thriving in their new environment with this book.  #9781601383464 $24.95

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Not everyone has the benefit of a plot of land where they can create a garden. In fact, almost 25% of city homeowners lack the yard space needed to cultivate and grow a decent sized garden (according to Seattle Lawn and Garden) meaning more and more people interested in harvesting flowers, vegetables, and herbs are turning to containers. The options provided by containers are plentiful, from bringing your tomato plants inside during the winter to being able to rearrange them if you are doing construction or playing a game outside. But, getting crops to grow effectively in containers is another matter entirely.

This book will provide every potential container gardener with the necessary steps and resources needed to grow their very own crops to thrive in any conditions. From the very outset, you will learn about how vegetables, flowers, and herbs grow naturally – charts will provide you with a detailed breakdown of how plants grow and what they need to grow effectively, from root space to water consumption. Companion planting for small spaces will show you how the plants will survive with other plants in the same container and which plants can even be placed in confined spaced and survive. The basics of container planting, including the best single plant containers, two, three, and four plant combinations are provided to help you decide how to lay out your container garden.

The top gardeners were contacted and interviewed, providing highly insightful information that guides you through how container potted plants grow and thrive. You will learn the basics of side planted containers and how succulents perform in these closed spaces. The best container plants are listed in order along with the necessary tools they need to survive. The best container sizes, soil types, fertilizer, climate information, and pest prevention methods are all given as well to help round out your container planting. Regardless of your needs or methods, this guide will take you through every step necessary to get your container plants growing and thriving. #9781601383471 $24.95 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

There is nothing better than a freshly picked apple or raspberry from your own backyard and yet many homeowners lack the resources or the necessary gardening acumen to effectively plant and harvest their own fruit. While some fruits, like apples, grow in almost any climate (as many as 35 of 50 states providing perfect conditions), others like blackberries and blueberries are incredibly hard to grow without the right soil, weather, and care.

This book will guide every man and woman out there who has ever wanted to grow their own crop of fruits and berries or who has tried and failed. From the simplest fruit tree to the most fickle berry bush, this book will be your one and only guide. You will learn how to select your fruits and berries of choice, using a combination of climate information that matches the best possible bushes, trees, and vines to your home and how these plants will grow there. You will learn how to maintain your plants in your climate with the right sunlight, location, soil, and fertilizer and what each different kind of fruit or berry needs to be most effective. You will learn the planting conditions and the maintenance that each fruit or berry needs, from pruning and picking, to maintaining a pest free environment around your plants. Starting with the most basic aspects of your planting sequence, you will learn everything possibly needed to grow and have your very own fruits and berries every year. Additionally, the top gardeners around have contributed, through interviews, their own tips and tricks to effectively growing and maintaining the lives of your new fruit and berry trees and bushes. With this book, any prospective gardener can start enjoying the sweet fruits of their labor.  #9781601383488 $24.95 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Houseplants are one of the most enduring members of any household, providing a much needed addition of color, fresh oxygen, and character to any room. They can add a boost to your mood, the quality of air in your home, and the feeling you get when you return from a long day of work. For single people, they add a sense of responsibility to a home, especially for those without pets, and for families, they are a fun way to teach children responsibility. But every houseplant needs a different amount of care, including water, food, and sunlight. Some plants, with too much light or too little water, will simply die without warning. To combat this, you need a complete guide to understanding what keeps some plants alive.

This book was written to provide all plant owners and potential owners the needed steps to keeping their beloved green friends alive, no matter how finicky they can be. In this guide, you will learn all of the basics of houseplant care, starting with a thorough explanation and glossary of terms that are used to describe different plants and how they grow. You will learn what makes a houseplant different from other plants and how much water, sunlight, and food each plant needs to truly stay alive. Their specific needs are even more broken down by showing you all of the various houseplants known in existence and a guide for each type of houseplant with specific care instructions for how they best thrive in a myriad of conditions. Top houseplant experts and gardeners have contributed their insight through various interviews to further the knowledge you can gain from this book and to help you overcome particularly finicky houseplants, finding the right location in the home, avoiding meddling pests and pets, and making sure some unknown contagion is not interfering with the growth of your plants. This book, for anyone who has ever wanted to add a little green to their home, is the perfect path to understanding and keeping alive your favorite houseplants. #9781601383495 $24.95 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

The average tomato farmer has more than 100 varieties of tomatoes, ranging from the sweetest, juiciest strains available to the smallest, easiest to grow options out there. Tomatoes are found in thousands of dishes across the world and they are notoriously expensive, especially in years when bad weather can destroy anywhere between 10% and 60% of the crops harvested in the United States annually. For all these reasons and more, many people have taken to growing their own tomatoes, setting up containers in their kitchens and digging plots in the back yard. But, effectively growing tomatoes is more than just a hobby for most. It is a challenge and without the right knowledge of how tomatoes grow and what they need, it can be downright frustrating.

Growing tomatoes is a task anyone can accomplish and enjoy and this book strives to provide every possible resource and tip needed for you to become one of a growing legion of tomato growers. You will learn the fundamental basic aspects of all tomato plants that have helped growers around the world master their craft and create the largest tomatoes around. You will learn the basics of composting and fertilization and what each tomato plant benefits best from. You will also learn how to select your garden location and the seemingly complex but ideal task of starting from seed with your new tomato plants. You will learn what kinds of support systems are best for each kind of tomato plant, including the kinds of watering, cages, and nets that your plants might benefit most from.

Tomato experts who have created a livelihood for themselves in growing and mastering the tomato plant have been interviewed around the country and their responses added to the book, helping you to know how to set the plants, prune them effectively, read a tomato plant at various times during the season and even to combat the various trials and tribulations of tomato growing, from pests and disease to frost and storms. Everything you could possibly need to know about tomatoes, how to grow them and how to effectively start a new hobby and possibly create secondary income, is included in this guide for you. #9781601383501 $24.95

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Herbs have been the centerpiece of natural healthcare since before the dawn of medicine in ancient Greece. With more than 50,000 strains of herb from around the world currently catalogued by various botanical societies and a small percentage of those serving solid, universally recognized medical purposes, it is no wonder that many people have taken up the hobby of growing their own herbs at home to help with basic things like healing burns or relieving headaches.

This book will guide you through the step-by-step process of learning about and growing your own healing herbs, starting with the basics of what each herb can do and proceeding to show you everything you need to cultivate them yourself. The first things you will learn in this guide are the basics of all healing herbs, starting with a complete breakdown of the numerous healing herbs known to be easily cultivated in temperate climates. Matching the right herbs to your region, you will then be able to start learning about how herbs grow, what they need from the soil, water, the weather, and feeding. You will learn which pests are most likely to appear with each herb plant and which planting conditions are best for your herbs, from indoor potting to outdoor containers, or in ground fields. You will learn which plants grow best together and which style of herbs are going to be best for selling and which are best for personal growing. Experts in the field of healing herbs have provided their insights into issues such as how to harvest the healing herbs best and how to dry or preserve them for use as healing materials. Learn how you can make a number of common treatments for various ailments with your herbs and how you can benefit best from your new found gardens. This book is a complete guide for anyone who has ever wanted to try something different and grow it themselves. #9781601383518 $24.95 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Seeds are the essence of life on earth, providing the genetic information needed for every plant we currently use for growing food, harvesting for clothing, and creating homes and furniture with. For the everyday person they are vital for the creation of gardens and plant life, while for others they represent the future of the earth as in the case of the Doomsday Seed Vault in Norway which opened in March 2008 with the intention of housing more than 3 million seed samples from around the world. While you will never need to store three million seed samples, you may need to preserve a handful for next year’s growing season.

Which is why this book was developed – to help any individual who is seeking to start preserving their own seeds for future use and growing. You will learn everything you need to know to effectively grow and preserve seeds, starting with process of sowing the seeds at the very start. From there you will learn how to seed the plants until they bloom and how to select plants for harvesting and saving seeds. The process of collecting the seeds is outlined in detail with information about annual vegetables, biennial and perennial vegetables, annual flowers, and biennial and perennial flowers. You will learn the optimal germination temperatures for your plants as well as the best vegetables that are easiest to save for seed.

Dozens of gardening experts from all walks of life have been interviewed and have provided their insights on how you can specially treat your plants for germination and what varieties are out there, including open pollinating plants. You will be provided a zone map to show you which plants are best for your region and additional resources in appendices for where to order materials and more information. For anyone who has ever wanted to grow and save their own seeds, this book is ideal for your situation. #9781601383525 $24.95 

PRE-ORDER ONLY - YOUR CREDIT CARD WILL NOT BE CHARGED UNTIL THE PRODUCT SHIPS.  RELEASE DATE: FALL 2009 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Beer is one of the most complex alcoholic drinks with some beers having more than thirty ingredients and most of them requiring the proper mixture and amounts of the right hops, malts, and herbs to taste just right. For anyone considering creating their own beer, one of the most fun and effective ways of acquiring all of these ingredients is to grow your own hops, malts and herbs and experiment in mixing them together. But, with more than fifty kinds of hops alone and hundreds of brewing herbs at your disposal, knowing what you should grow and how to grow it can be quite hard.

This book will guide any prospective brew master through the process of growing their own brewing ingredients from inception to harvesting. You will learn all of the many advantages to growing your own beer materials, starting with the control you have over the maturity, strength, types, and volume of those materials. You will learn how to home grow your own hops, with detailed instructions and information about the taste and effect of more than a dozen different strains of hops. You will also learn which grains and malts are used in beer making and how you can start growing your own depending on your needs and your location. You will learn how to concoct your own brewing herbs and finally how to start combining everything into the ideal mixtures to form your own beer.

Beer experts from professional brew masters to backyard microbrewers have been interviewed and asked how to best utilize these methods and their insights have been provided to you to help get you through the complex process of beer growing and production. You will learn the proper measurements and conversions for everything you will make as well as being given a source list for every possible supply that might be needed. Finally, you will be provided with a list of the top homegrown recipes for beer available, allowing you to create and enjoy your very own brews in the comfort of your home. #781601383532 $24.95

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Some of the best fertilizer on the planet can be made with your very own garbage. Starting with something as simple as coffee grounds – a top composting product – and including all of your old banana peels, bread crusts, and leftover meals, you can start creating a garden with your food waste from scratch, using the age old secret of composting to build a healthy, happy garden. Knowing the necessary steps to building and cultivating a compost bin will help anyone with a garden no matter its size cut down on waste, save money on fertilizer, and have fun learning more about the cycle all biodegradable matter goes through.

This book provides a detailed outline of how anyone with a little extra space and a garden can start composting today to build their garden from scratch into a thriving jungle of roots, herbs, and vegetables. You will learn about all of the different ways that composting can be helpful to you, as well as the different reasons why people choose to compost and what you and your vegetables might best benefit from when you decide to make the leap and start composting yourself. You will learn how decomposition works and what the ideal conditions are for decomposition. You will learn which compostable materials are around you right now, from the coffee grounds in your coffee maker to the old fruit in your crisper. Learn about the different kinds of activators and how they get the process started as well as the different composting materials used by home gardeners and professional composters alike – dozens of which have been interviewed for this book.

You will be walked through the process of recognizing and using the end product as effectively as possible. You will be walked through how you can effectively take your end product and start using it for various different vegetable types in your garden. Finally, you will be walked through the process of recognizing and using the end product as effectively as possible. For anyone who has ever considered composting as a viable means by which to feed their gardens, this book is for you. #9781601383549 $24.95

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!

Your lawn is a representative of you and your home – it shows your neighbors and visitors how much time and effort you are willing to put into keeping your home looking good. But, in these fragile times, many people also want to ensure their lawn care does not endanger the environment or any of the pets or children that might play on that lawn. Organic lawn care is becoming much more prevalent for many home owners, but knowing how to effectively plant a grow a lawn, keep weeds away and kill bugs without using chemicals and unnatural law products can be complicated and downright confusing in many cases.

This book was written with these things in mind, guiding every lawn care enthusiast through the steps needed to continue caring for a lawn without letting the concerns that develop because of unnatural products overwhelm you or your lawn. The keys to organic lawn care, starting with how to create a low maintenance lawn are laid out in great detail in this book, providing the essential details you need to enjoy your yard while not endangering the environment, your pets, or your children. You will learn how to keep your lawn healthy with the right soil, seed, sod, and feeding without using any chemically enhanced products and how you can start caring for your lawn by mowing, watering, fertilizing, edging, and trimming with organic fertilizers and tools. Finally, learn how to change your existing lawn so that it is both environmentally sound and just as beautiful as it has always been. The final step in the process will show you how to deal with pests, disease and weeds in your lawn organically. Lawn experts in every field have been interviewed for this book and their advice has been included to provide specific, top tips for organic lawn care. Anyone looking to maintain their lawn and stay eco-conscious need look no further than this book. #9781601383679 $24.95 

Book Cover Image Coming Soon!