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Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning
by Wenche E. Dramstad James D. Olson David M. Gillilan Richard T. Forman Thomas C. Brown Harvard University Graduate School of Design Staff Wenche Dramstad Richard T. T. FormanLandscape ecology has emerged in the past decade as an important and useful tool for land-use planners and landscape architects. While professionals and scholars have begun to incorporate aspects of this new field into their work, there remains a need for a summary of key principles and how they might be applied in design and planning. This volume fills that need. It is a concise handbook that lists and illustrates key principles in the field, presenting specific examples of how the principles can be applied in a range of scales and diverse types of landscapes around the world. Chapters cover: patches -- size, number, and location edges and boundaries corridors and connectivity mosaics summaries of case studies from around the world
Zen Rock Gardening
by Abd al-Hayy MooreThrough Zen philosophy, we can experience the large in the small. And in a grain of sand, we may glimpse the meaning of the world. Follow the path of the Zen rock garden. Learn to open your eyes and mind, and experience a new way of seeing.
How To Build A House (Habitat for Humanity)
by Larry Haun Vincent Laurence Tim Snyder Angela C. JohnsonSince its founding in 1976, the non-profit Habitat for Humanity International has built more than 255,000 houses for more than one million people and families in need world wide. First published in 2002, Habitat for Humanity How to Build a House has helped thousands more build simple, energy-efficient homes of their own by helping guide them from foundation to roof, through all interior finishes and fixtures. Written by long-time carpenter and Habitat volunteer, Larry Haun, this extensive revision features up-to-date information on residential codes, construction methods, and materials -- as well as an updated design inside and out. Haun also provides new sections on tools, siding, ventilation, and landscaping. With clear information on everything from obtaining a site and permit to finishing touches like installing door locks and cabinets, this is the best single-volume resource for the beginning homebuilder.
Green From the Ground Up: Sustainable, Healthy, And Energy-Efficient Home Construction (Builder's Guide Ser.)
by David Johnston Scott GibsonMy passion for green building is based on experience. I know that building green results in better houses and that it improves the lives of the people who live in them, not to mention the health of our planet.
History of Interior Design
by Jeannie IrelandHistory of Interior Design is a comprehensive survey covering the design history of architecture, interiors, furniture, and accessories in civilizations all over the world, from ancient times to the present. Although the primary focus is on Western civilizations, it also explores Eastern design history. Each chapter begins with background information about the social and cultural context and technical innovations of the period and place, and shows their impact on interior design motifs. <p><p>Throughout the text, influences of the styles and design solutions of one culture on others are highlighted, demonstrating how interior design has evolved as a continuing exchange of ideas.
Drafting and Design: Basics for Interior Design
by Travis Kelly WilsonUsing a residential design scenario that increases in scope from chapter to chapter and results in a complete set of working drawings, Drafting and Design: Basics for Interior Design teaches the art of drafting through hands-on application. Introducing essential drafting tools, equipment, and methods, the book is designed to help interior designers develop an understanding of space planning and leverage manual drafting skills to design usable and livable space.
Absolutely Amazing Ways to Save Money on Everything
by James ParisTips on saving money on dining out, health care, home repair and much more.
Other People's Dirt: A Housecleaner's Curious Adventures
by Louise RafkinEntertaining stories of house cleaning
Flower Confidential
by Amy StewartWe buy more flowers a year than we do Big Macs, spending $6. 2 billion annually. We use them to mark our most important events, to express sentiments that might otherwise go unsaid. And we demand perfection. So it's no surprise that there is a $40 billion global industry devoted to making flowers flawless. Amy Stewart takes us inside the flower trade-from the hybridizers, who create new varieties in the laboratory, to the growers, who produce flowers by the millions (often in a factory-like setting), to the Dutch auctioneers, who set the bar (and the price), and ultimately to the neighborhood florists orchestrating the mind-boggling demands of Valentine's and Mother's Day. There's the breeder intent on developing the first blue rose; an eccentric horticultural legend who created the world's most popular lily; a grower of gerberas of every color imaginable; and the equivalent of a Tiffany diamond: the " Forever Young" rose. Stewart explores the relevance of flowers in our lives and in our history, and in the process she reveals all that has been gained-and lost-by tinkering with nature.
100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names
by Diana Wells Ippy PattersonIllustrations by Ippy Patterson. From Baby Blue Eyes to Silver Bells, from Abelia to Zinnia, every flower tells a story. Gardening writer Diana Wells knows them all. Here she presents one hundred well-known garden favorites and the not-so-well-known stories behind their names. Not for gardeners only, this is a book for anyone interested not just in the blossoms, but in the roots, too.
100 Vegetables and Where They Came From
by William Woys Weaver Signe Sundberg-HallA perfect leek from France. Flavorful zucchini from Italy. An infamous potato from Ireland, and a humble lentil from Ethiopia. 100 Vegetables offers a veritable cornucopia of vegetables and stories from around the world--from Argentina to Zimbabwe, from Australia to the United States. William Woys Weaver--veggie connoisseur, gardener, and historian--guides us through a range of peppers, potatoes, peas, gourds, onions, tomatoes, greens, and a whole lot more. Not every carrot is the same. All beans aren't equal. Take the Petaluma Gold Rush bean, a rugged legume, grown for over 150 years and brought to California by an American whaler from Peru. Or the violet carrot, which the Greeks brought back from India following the conquests of Alexander the Great. Mixing history, culinary suggestions, practical information, and personal anecdotes, Weaver introduces us to unusual heirloom vegetables as well as to common favorites. He provides answers to general questions, such as the difference between a yam and a sweet potato, and presents lively portraits of one hundred vegetable varieties, which he's grown and harvested in his own kitchen garden. Organized alphabetically by common name, 100 Vegetables includes beautifully detailed drawings throughout and a helpful appendix of seed resources.
French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France
by Richard GoodmanA story about dirt--and about sun, water, work, elation, and defeat. And about the sublime pleasure of having a little piece of French land all to oneself to till. Richard Goodman saw the ad in the paper: "SOUTHERN FRANCE: Stone house in Village near Nimes/Avignon/Uzes. 4 BR, 2 baths, fireplace, books, desk, bikes. Perfect for writing, painting, exploring & experiencing la France profonde. $450 mo. plus utilities." And, with his girlfriend, he left New York City to spend a year in Southern France. The village was small--no shops, no gas station, no post office, only a café and a school. St. Sebastien de Caisson was home to farmers and vintners. Every evening Goodman watched the villagers congregate and longed to be a part of their camaraderie. But they weren't interested in him: he was just another American, come to visit and soon to leave. So Goodman laced up his work boots and ventured out into the vineyards to work among them. He met them first as a hired worker, and then as a farmer of his own small plot of land. French Dirt is a love story between a man and his garden. It's about plowing, planting, watering, and tending. It's about cabbage, tomatoes, parsley, and eggplant. Most of all, it's about the growing friendship between an American outsider and a close-knit community of French farmers. "There's a genuine sweetness about the way the cucumbers and tomatoes bridge the divide of nationality."--The New York Times Book Review "One of the most charming, perceptive and subtle books ever written about the French by an American."--San Francisco Chronicle
From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden
by Amy StewartAmy Stewart had a simple dream. She yearned for a garden filled with colorful jumbles of vegetables and flowers. After she and her husband finished graduate school, they pulled up their Texas roots and headed west to Santa Cruz, California. With little money in their pockets, they rented a modest seaside bungalow with a small backyard. It wasn't much--a twelve-hundred-square-foot patch of land with a couple of fruit trees, and a lot of dirt. A good place to start.From the Ground Up is Stewart's quirky, humorous chronicle of the blossoms and weeds in her first garden and the lessons she's learned the hard way. From planting seeds her great-grandmother sends to battling snails, gophers, and aphids, Stewart takes us on a tour of four seasons in her coastal garden. Confessing her sins and delighting in small triumphs, she dishes the dirt for both the novice and the experienced gardener. Along the way, she brings her quintessential California beach town to life--complete with harbor seals, monarch butterfly migrations, and an old-fashioned seaside amusement park just down the street. Each chapter includes helpful tips alongside the engaging story of a young woman's determination to create a garden in which the plants struggle to live up to the gardener's vision.
Gardener's Latin: A Lexicon
by Bill Neal Barbara DamroschFor more than a decade, gardeners have been turning to a beautiful little hardcover book called Gardener's Latin, by Bill Neal. Neal understood that as Latin terms began appearing with increasing frequency on nursery tags and gardening catalogs, gardeners would need help. So he weeded through the Latin words that describe and distinguish among plants and flowers and compiled a volume of select, brief, clear definitions.Gardener's Latin leads us down the path from abbreviatus to zonatus, turning aside here and there along the way for little-known horticultural facts and fables and the wisdom ofgardeners from Virgil to Vita Sackville-West.
Good Bugs for Your Garden
by Allison Mia StarcherAnyone who gardens knows how snails, aphids, scale insects, and caterpillars can damage vegetables, flowers, shrubs, and trees. But not many of us know that ground beetles eat caterpillars, not plants; that dragonflies feed on mosquitoes; that parasitic wasps prey on tomato hornworms. In this delightful guide to the world of beneficial insects, Starcher, an artist and avid gardener, shows us how to identify the "good guys" and encourage them to reside in our gardens. "Altogether delightful."--Newark Star-Ledger; "A fact-filled, charmingly illustrated guide."--American Bookseller. A GARDEN BOOK CLUB selection.
House-Dreams
by Hugh HowardImagine a house built and tailored to your every need and personal taste. Hugh Howard dreamed of such a house, and when he and his wife, Betsy, learn that they're expecting their second child, he seizes the opportunity to build a home for their growing family. Fifteen months later and just in time for the winter holidays, Howard, exhausted and wildly over his budget, completes their home-a fine 2,500-square-foot Federal-style house. And each piece has a story, from the cut nails that come from Howard's old elementary school janitor to the staircase that comes from a parsonage built just after the Civil War. Howard discovers that all his planning and hard work earn him a house, yes, but he also gains a community of new friends-the people who help him along the way. There's Charlie, whose ancestors helped establish the upstate New York hamlet where they build the house; Ralph, a third-generation mason, who constructs a remarkable Russian heater; and Robbie, an eccentric Irish landscaper who has his own peculiar way of designing a garden. HOUSE-DREAMS is for readers who spend weekends improving their houses, hardware store die-hards, and the millions who regularly tune in to the Home Garden Network and PBS's This Old House.
Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden
by Emily WhaleyIn conversation with William Baldwin. Emily Whaley's garden on Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina, may be the most visited private garden in the country. And no wonder. It is the life's work of a vibrant, sociable, opinionated, determined, forceful woman who has spent the last eighty-five years cultivating whatever life offered her. MRS. WHALEY AND HER CHARLESTON GARDEN captures and preserves Emily Whaley's distinctive voice and braces us with a clear understanding of how one might cultivate a practical personal philosophy alongside one's garden. "An ageless and captivating visit." --Publishers Weekly; "South Carolina gardener grows into phenom." --USA Today, cover story; "Emily Whaley is wonderful, both in and out of her garden."--Rosemary Verey, author of THE AMERICAN WOMAN'S GARDEN. As seen on CBS Sunday Morning. Now in its 6th printing.
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
by Amy Stewart Briony Morrow-Cribbs Jonathon RosenA tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln's mother). Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
Waking Up in Eden: In Pursuit of an Impassioned Life on an Imperiled Island
by Lucinda FleesonA woman journeys to Kauai to save Hawaii’s native plants: “Part history, part personal confession, part cautionary tale about environmental preservation” (Gioia Diliberto, author of Paris Without End). One day, Lucinda Fleeson quit her big-city newspaper job, sold her suburban house, and moved halfway across the world to the island of Kauai to work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Imagine a hundred-acre garden estate nestled amid ocean cliffs, rain forests, and secluded coves. Exotic and beautiful, yes, but as Fleeson awakens to this sensual world, exploring the island’s food, beaches, and history, she encounters an endangered paradise—the Hawaii we don’t see in the tourist brochures. Native plants are dying at an astonishing rate—Hawaii is called the Extinction Capital of the World—and invasive species (plants, animals, and humans) have imperiled this Garden of Eden. Fleeson accompanies a plant hunter into the rain forest to find the last of a dying species, descends into limestone caves with a paleontologist who deconstructs island history through fossil life, and shadows a botanical pioneer who propagates rare seeds, hoping to reclaim the landscape. Her grown-up adventure is a reminder of the value of choosing passion over security, individuality over convention, and the pressing need to protect the earth. And as she witnesses the island’s plant renewal efforts, she sees her own life blossom again. “[An] impeccably researched, beautifully told tale of how America’s most exotic locale transformed the life of an urban journalist.” —Gioia Diliberto “As she delves deep into the island’s history and ventures far into its delicate ecosystem, Fleeson undertakes her own personal and professional salvation, a spirited and daring pilgrimage that is both revelatory and enlightening.” —Booklist
Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History
by Diana WellsDiana Wells, author of 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names now turns her attention to something bigger—our deep-rooted relationship with trees. As she investigates the names and meanings of trees, telling their legends and lore, she reminds us of just how innately bound we are to these protectors of our planet. <P><P>Since the human race began, we have depended on them for food, shade, shelter and fuel, not to mention furniture, musical instruments, medicine utensils and more. Wells has a remarkable ability to dig up the curious and the captivating: At one time, a worm found in a hazelnut prognosticated ill fortune. Rowan trees were planted in churchyards to prevent the dead from rising from their graves. Greek arrows were soaked in deadly yew, and Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth used “Gall of goat and slips of Yew” to make their lethal brew. One bristlecone pine, at about 4,700 years old, is thought to be the oldest living plant on earth. <P>All this and more can be found in the beautifully illustrated pages (themselves born of birch bark!) of 100 Trees.
Home Repair And Maintenance
by Jack M. LandersHome Repair and Maintenance provides students with the basic information needed to safely use hand tools, power tools, and assorted building materials. <P><P>This highly illustrated text teaches students the skills and techniques used in carpentry, masonry, plumbing, electrical wiring, and other building trades, as related to home repair.
Communicating Family and Consumer Sciences: A Guidebook for Professionals
by Elizabeth J. Hitch June Pierce YouattCollege textbook designed for professionals who will be communicating with students or clients in both formal classroom and less formal settings . For use by students and professionals in community and human services.
Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore, & Herb Craft
by Ann MouraLearn the basics of Witchcraft from a third-generation Witch raised in a family tradition. Positive, practical, and easy to use, Green Witchcraft brings together the best of both modern Wicca and the author's family heritage of herb craft and folk magic. Green Witchcraft explores the fundamentals of the Wiccan religion, providing magical training for the independent thinker. Step-by-step instructions on a wide variety of magical techniques as well as basic rules of conduct make this the ideal book to get you started. Green rituals for self-initiation, rites of passage, seasonal celebrations and activities provide an excellent foundation for your own magical tradition. Discover the fine art of spell-casting, the magical uses of herbs, divination with the tarot and more. Explore the Sabbats, Esbats, and other rituals attuned to the cycles of nature and the universal powers. Find out for yourself what this organic approach to Witchcraft is all about.
A Cottage Garden Alphabet
by Andrea WisnewskiIn this vivid garden, where A is for Arbour and Z is for Zucchini, artist Andrea Wisnewski brings her talents to bear not only on flowers, shrubs, herbs, and fruit, but also on the resident fauna: bees and cats, children, dogs, and rabbits. The result is no static florilegium, but a witty and whimsical beehive of various and charming activity. In fact, there is hardly a letter without something happening.
Writing the Garden: A Literary Conversation Across Two Centuries
by Elizabeth Barlow RogersGardening, more than most outdoor activities, has always attracted a cult of devotedly literate practitioners; people who like to dig, it would appear, also like to write. And many of them write exceedingly well. In this thoughtful, personal, and embracing consideration of garden writing, garden historian Elizabeth Barlow Rogers selects and discusses the best of these writers. She makes her case by picking delightful examples that span two centuries, arranging the writers by what they did and how they saw themselves: nurserymen, foragers, conversationalists, philosophers, humorists, etc. Her discussions and appreciations of these diverse personalities are enhanced and supported by informed appraisals of their talents, obsessions, and idiosyncrasies, and by extensive extracts from their writings. Rogers provides historical background, anecdotal material, and insight into how these garden writers worked. And wherever appropriate, she illustrates her story with images from their books, so you can not only read what they wrote but also see what they were describing. Since gardens are by their very nature ephemeral, these visual clues from the pages of their books, many reproduced in color, are as close as we will come to the originals. What makes Writing the Garden such a joy to read is that it is not simply a collection of extracts, but real discussions and examinations of the personalities who made their mark on how we design, how we plant, and how we think about what is for many one of life's lasting pleasures. Starting with "Women in the Garden" (Jane Loudon, Frances Garnet Wolseley, and Gertrude Jekyll) and concluding with "Philosophers in the Garden" (Henry David Thoreau, Michael Pollan, and Allen Lacy), this is a book that encompasses the full sweep of the best garden writing in the English language. Writing the Garden is co-published by the New York Society Library and the Foundation for Landscape Studies in association with David R. Godine, Publisher.