At a time where commercial forces have increased control over the food supply by patenting seeds with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), seed saving has become an important skill to encourage and share. Longtime organic gardener Jill Henderson explains how preserving open-pollinated and heirloom garden seeds from one season to the next will not only save gardeners money but will also increase their self-sufficiency and help them maintain a naturally diverse gene pool of food plants. Here are some of the many insider tips you'll discover: which seeds are easiest to save, why saving seeds preserves genetic diversity, easy hand-pollination techniques for beginners, the right way to harvest, clean, and store seeds at home, how to save hundreds of seed varieties from only seven crop types, how to ensure seed viability and test germination rates, and ways to keep seeds from cross-pollinating. Armed with these simple tips and instructions, anyone with a green thumb will find seed saving easy and rewarding.

The Garden Seed Saving Guide: Easy Heirloom Seeds for the Home

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Jill Henderson

Gardening & Landscape Design

Groundswell Books

Learn how to care for fruit trees in the city and beyond. Fruit trees are delicate and need specialized care, especially when they're planted in an urban environment, which comes with its own unique challenges. Whether you want to plant a single fruit tree or an entire orchard, this book will show you how to save time and money and be successful right from the start. Susan Poizner guides novices and experts alike through every step of the process. She describes which key elements are necessary in site preparation, offers a basic overview of the anatomy of fruit trees, and explains how to select trees. Also covered are critical concerns, such as cross-pollinating versus self-pollinating trees, bare-root versus potted trees, and whether the fruit will be for eating, cooking, or canning. Thorough instructions are provided for planting and staking, as well as pointers on how to care for both young and mature trees. From assessing soil,selecting the right fertilizer and pruning trees to choosing the proper tools, boosting biodiversity and preventing pests and diseases, no leaf is left unturned. This vast wealth of knowledge is accompanied by illustrations and color photos, along with inspiring stories of orchards and tree farms.

Growing Urban Orchards

Susan Poizner

Hydroponic gardening is the wave of the future. It's an alternative to conventional food production, which contributes to pollution and deforestation and the excessive consumption of freshwater supplies. Discover how to create the ideal hydroponic garden, regardless of your locale, level of expertise, or budget. Hydroponic systems can be used year-round, indoors or outdoors, and are perfect for small-scale rooftop gardens or urban greenhouses. Compared to soil-based gardening, hydroponic farming enables you to grow top-quality food at a faster rate, using less space and for a fraction of the cost; garner crop yields that are five to ten times greater; utilize vertical space for food production; and use 90% less water and reduce the amount of nutrients plants need. You'll learn about an array of available systems, seed selection, plant requirements, and the care and maintenance of your growing environment. And for the more technically minded, instructions are provided for how to automate virtually every aspect of hydroponic gardening to help minimize time and effort through the use of commercial and homemade equipment. Whether you're a home gardener or are planning a large-scale operation, this guide will help you set up a customized system that's precisely tailored to your needs.

Automating Hydroponics: For Kitchen Gardeners to Greenhouse Growers

Cerreto Rossouw

Nothing compares to the taste of home-grown tomatoes! Master gardener Jason Johns shares his love for and knowledge of growing this popular, savory fruit so that even novices can produce a bumper crop. This in-depth guide teaches you how to: 
<li>understand types of tomatoes and which ones are best for you</li>select the best seeds and seedlings<li>grow tomatoes in beds, containers, or greenhouses</li>
<li>nurture your plants so they produce an abundant crop</li>
<li>choose companion plants to naturally combat pests and diseases</li>
<li>get the best germination rate from your seeds</li>
<li>store and preserve your tomatoes to use later in the year</li>
<li>save your seeds for next year</li>
<li>spot and treat common tomato pests and diseases</li>
<li>and ripen and use unripe tomatoes at the end of the growing season</li>. Also included are recipes for making your own tomato ketchup, salsa, gazpacho, and other favorite tomato dishes. Tomatoes are the most popular home-grown vegetable and most people start their gardening experience by growing tomato plants at home. With Growing Tomatoes, you'll learn everything you need to know to grow healthy plants that produce high yields, avoid the common mistakes often made when growing tomatoes, and take a shortcut to success in growing your own tomatoes at home, whether you have a large garden or a balcony. Growing your own tomatoes is also an incredibly rewarding experience and fun to do by yourself or with your children. You will be amazed at how much better home-grown tomatoes taste compared to store bought tomatoes, and you'll understand why home-grown tomatoes have so much more flavor as you read this book. If you follow Jason's guidance, you'll be guaranteed a healthy tomato harvest you can enjoy all season long.

Growing Tomatoes: Your Guide to Growing Delicious Tomatoes at Home

Jason Johns

As a culture, we are addicted to plastic, and in today's plastic-laden world, it is impossible to completely avoid it. Permaculturist Albert Bates addresses the magnitude and consequences of this global problem, and his evaluation is chilling to read. Trying to limit our plastic legacy can help us overcome our apathy toward this overwhelming issue, but Bates states that placing the burden entirely on consumers, as most current solutions do, is unfair. He emphasizes that the only way to stem the present onslaught is to enforce mandatory economic and industrial changes so that recycled, bio-sourced, and biodegradable plastic become more cost-effective than plastic made from fossil fuels. Bates also explores current worldwide efforts for stronger regulations and better waste management, along with exciting new biological and man-made technologies for improved plastics disposal and viable alternatives. Join with Bates as an EPT (emergency planetary technician) who helps to stabilize the "planet," understanding what is at stake and knowing that there is a promise of hope if we take action now.

Transforming Plastic: From Pollution to Evolution (Planet in Crisis)

Science & Math

Albert Bates

Earth Sciences

A vertical garden can run the gamut from a simple arrangement of flowers in a large container on a deck to an elaborate display of strawberries and geraniums amid climbing peas and vines of small squash growing up a backyard fence. Any upright structure that can support vegetables, fruits, herbs, or flowers, whether these plants are in containers or in the ground, can be used. Of particular interest to urban dwellers and to city residents with limited yard space or sunlight, growing plants vertically can also be used by suburban and rural gardeners so valuable ground space can be freed up for root crops. Gardening expert Jason Johns offers examples of many types of vertical gardens and offers suggestions on which plants to select that thrive when grown vertically. He also gives tips for how to plan a vertical garden to take advantage of sunlight, allow for easy watering and care, and provide protection from wind and insect damage. Included are numerous photographs illustrating innovative and creative vertical gardening structures and arrangements that provide the support plants need to flourish. You'll be able to maximize your yield in minimal space.

Vertical Gardening: A Complete Guide to Growing Food, Herbs, and Flowers in Small Spaces

Our oceans face levels of devastation previously unknown in human history--from pollution, from overfishing, and through damage to delicate aquatic ecosystems affected by global warming. Ocean biodiversity is being decimated on par with the fastest rates of rain forest destruction. More than 80 per cent of pollutants in the oceans come from sewage and other land-based runoff (some of it radioactive). The rest is created by waste dumped by commercial and recreational vessels. In many areas and for many fish stocks, there are no conservation or management measures existing or even planned. Climate author Albert Bates explains how ocean life maintains adequate oxygen levels, prevents erosion from storms, and sustains a vital food source that factory fishing operations cannot match--and why that should matter to all of us, whether we live near the ocean or not. He presents solutions for changing the human impact on marine reserves, improving ocean permaculture, and putting the brakes on the ocean heat waves that destroy sea life and imperil human habitation at the ocean's edge.

Dark Side of the Ocean: The Destruction of Our Seas, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do About It (Planet in Crisis)

Biological Sciences

Orcapedia presents a sobering look at the current imprisonment of a highly intelligent, socially complex, non-threatening species?orcas?by an industry strictly for profit. Many remember the movement to release Keiko, the orca who appeared in the family drama Free Willy, into the wild. Today, there are still dozens of orcas still in captivity. Readers are introduced to more than 60 individual orcas by name along with colored photos, personal history, and notable incidents that have occurred during their captivity. The text makes it clear that they are imprisoned ?inmates? and instills a full understanding of the injustices being perpetrated. Five pages of named headstones graphically illustrates the problems they face. Resources and recommendations on alternative interactions with orcas are provided. One of the authors, Captain Paul Watson, is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and has worked on the front line for decades trying to protect the ocean?s wildlife.

Orcapedia: A Guide to the Victims of the International Orca Slave Trade

Tiffany Humphrey

Paul, Watson

Nature & Ecology

Pandemics are infectious diseases that cross over international boundaries and spread out of control. These diseases put immense pressures on the societies they strike and can widen cracks in social structures that had been previously ignored. Plagued recounts the history of deadly pandemics?smallpox, plague, cholera, Spanish flu, and AIDS?as well as the current crises faced by populations across the world: malaria, meningitis, measles, SARS, and now COVID-19. Renown environmentalist and science writer Albert Bates explains how infectious disease is measured (how quickly it can infect and how deadly it is), how viruses invade the body, how they evolve, how they are different from bacteria, and how they travel from host to host. Pandemics cannot be eliminated but they can be stopped; the trick is discovering what will curtail any one particular outbreak. The book covers what methods have been used for infectious outbreaks in the past, what social solutions are the most effective in general, and how to bolster our resources before the next pandemic strikes. Bates offers a fresh perspective on how to co-exist individually and collectively during a pandemic, and encourages us to re-examine ?normalcy? and ways we can change going forward.

Plagued (Planet in Crisis)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Diseases & Physical Ailments

A compelling, in-depth account of how Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fights to defend and protect our oceans from human predators who hunt and murder whales and other aquatic marine mammals under the false pretense of Indigenous rights. In the process of discharging its duties, the organization has created global enemies and allies and, by necessity, has put its staff and vessels in harm's way. Reading like an electrifying adventure tale, this true-life logbook reveals how members of one community, the Makah (located on Washington's Olympic peninsula), have attempted to circumvent international whaling laws by invoking outmoded cultural entitlements for the sole purpose of killing, rather than for sustenance or survival. Captain Paul Watson discloses his deeply personal motivations and details why the organization's mission is both urgent and essential.

Death of a Whale: The Challenge of Anti-Whaling Activists and Indigenous Rights

Captain Paul Watson

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