Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The View from Great Dixter: Christopher Lloyd's Garden Legacy

In this intimate collection of written and photographic contributions, Christopher Lloyd's wide circle of family and friends describe what Great Dixter means to them. This valuable record encapsulates what makes time spent at Great Dixter in particular, and to some extent time spent in all gardens, so irreplaceable. It adds an important layer to our understanding of Christopher Lloyd's achievements and spurs us on to new heights in our own gardening adventures. (Timber Press)
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The Revolutionary Yardscape: Ideas for Repurposing Local Materials to Create Containers, Pathways, Lighting, and More

Artist and activist Levesque's worthy goal is to teach readers to repurpose and reclaim materials for landscaping and outdoor living. He makes recycling stylish. The examples show the possibilities for giving old and exhausted material a new life in the yard. Projects also include information on designing outdoors spaces. This fantastic book, full of innovative ideas, will overturn readers' preconceived notions about salvaged materials and their potential. Highly recommended. (LJ Reviews)
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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Of Gardens: Selected Essays

"Paula Deitz Has delighted readers for more than thirty years with her vivid descriptions of both famous and hidden landscapes. Her writings allow readers to share in the experience of her extensive travels, from the waterways of Britain's Castle Howard to the Japanese gardens of Kyoto and home again to New York City's Central Park. Collected for the first time, the essays in Of Gardens record her great adventure of continual discovery, not only of the artful beauty of individual gardens but also of the intellectual and historical threads that weave them into patterns of civilization. Deitz's essays describe how people, over many centuries and in many lands, have expressed their originality by devoting themselves to cultivation and conservation." Blackwell Pub.
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The Book of Leaves: A Leaf-by-Leaf Guide to Six Hundred of the World's Great Trees

"Of all our childhood memories, few are quite as thrilling as those of climbing trees. Scampering up the trunk and spying on the world from the green shelter of the canopy made it seem as if we were made for trees, and trees for us. In adulthood, trees retain their power, their waves of green breaking the monotony of a cityscape, their autumn transformations taking our breath away. In this volume, the trees that have enriched our lives finally get their due, through a focus on the humble leaves that serve, in a sense, as their public face. The Book of Leaves offers a visually stunning and scientifically engaging guide to six hundred of the most impressive and beautiful leaves from around the world. Each leaf is reproduced here at its actual size in full-color photographs taken on a lightbox and is accompanied by details of the range, distribution, abundance, and habitat of the tree on which it's found, as well as brief scientific and historical accounts." Blackwell Pub.
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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

My Passion for Design: A Private Tour

"Now, in her first book, Barbra Streisand reveals another aspect of her talent: the taste and style that have inspired her beautiful homes and collections. My Passion for Design focuses on the architecture and construction of her newest homes, the dream refuge that she has longed for since the days when she shared a small Brooklyn apartment with her mother, brother, and grandparents. A culmination and reflection of Streisand's love of American architecture and design between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the book contains many of her own photographs of the rooms she has decorated, the furniture and art she has collected, and the ravishing gardens she has planted on her land on the California coast. In addition to glimpses of her homes, Barbra shares memories of her childhood, the development of her sense of style, and what collecting has come to mean to her. My Passion for Design is a rare and intimate private tour into the world of one of our most beloved stars." Penguin-Putnam.
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Monday, November 1, 2010

Thoughtful Gardening

"In this collection of 80 essays, the Financial Times gardening columnist and Oxford historian presents a convincing case that gardening is about far more than horticultural skill. For Fox, flower gardens are human creations informed by art, history, science, politics, and personality. He takes readers on a year-long tour that combines practical guidance, serious reflection, and humorous provocations. There are essays on individual species, rich with detailed information on exceptional cultivars and best cultivation methods, throughout the year. Other essays reveal Fox's candid, personal impressions of well-known gardeners, including some surprising insights about Christopher Lloyd and Rosemary Verey. He shares his sensitive impressions of distinguished gardens around the globe and the Sisyphean struggles in his own garden. Fox's iconoclastic beliefs and nonorganic methods might alienate some purists, but most gardeners will delight in this rich collection. Opinionated, witty, and erudite, this collection is an example of the best garden writing."
(Publisher's Weekly)
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Growing a Garden City offers compelling photographs and personal narratives of community garden members, graduate students and first graders, a low-income senior, a troubled teen, a foodie, a food bank officer, and many more. They describe their setbacks and successes involved with community gardening and show how to build on and emulate their achievements anywhere across the country and around the world.

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Black & Decker complete guide to wood storage projects : built-in & freestanding projects for all around the home

 Organized, efficient storage is a goal sought by most homeowners, and this book is an indispensable tool for achieving it. With more than 50 step-by-step projects and dozens of ideas for inspiration, homeowners will be able to bring order to the jumble, to tame and civilize the hoards of small and large household items begging for permanent, logical storage. Each project is designed for adaptability and versatility, allowing it to be used for a variety of purposes. Readers will find a broad range of projects, from installing convenient drawer and cabinet accessories, to constructing their own custom cabinets and entertainment centers. Also included is a chapter on framed-in projects, featuring instructions on how to frame and finish a new closet, how to create a closet organizer, and building recessed kneewall shelves. Finally, the new edition includes updated and expanded inspiration pages featuring new materials and additional ideas for efficient storage. --Summary (Check Catalog)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The complete photo guide to sheds, barns & outbuildings.

 A single blueprint for a garage, gazebo or shed can cost a consumer far more than the cost of this book. With more than 50 detailed plans with complete instructions, this book offers an amazing value for homeowners. More than 1,000 color photos and detailed, step-by-step instructions leave nothing to chance, allowing homeowners to easily save thousands of dollars, even if they only build one or two projects. --Summary (Check catalog)

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tile designs: more than 100 ready-to-use tiling patterns

 by Leila Adam. Much like the art of patchwork, geometric designs, when applied to tiles and decorative surfaces, turn a prosaic floor, wall, and countertop into eye poetry. Math teacher Adams has combined her fascination with Islamic art and the precision inherent in her profession to produce more than 100 patterns. The introductory chapters focus on how-to's of laying. After that look at the basics, the author concentrates on the square grid: first detailing how to design with those restrictions, then offering different patterns. Most are based on her visual experiences in the Middle East: a mosque in Dubai, mall skylights in Brunei, and a coffeepot from Kuwait. Even better, she shows us the origins for many of her designs, contrasting her graphs with photographs of the original inspiration. Her actual tessellations (the art of fitting many repetitions of the same shape together to completely fill a flat plane, with no gaps), which are labeled with romantic monikers (such as Fatima square, Dubai deco, and Medina motif), are grouped by increasing complexity, from plain old tessellations for tiles to whole-square designs. -- Booklist. (Check Catalog)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel

Renowned garden artist and photographer Meadows has run a full-service landscaping company in the San Francisco Bay Area for 30-plus years; her own garden has been featured on a variety of television programs and in numerous magazines, including Sunset, Metropolitan Home, and Horticulture. Gardeners of all experience levels will find inspiration in her delightful book, illustrated throughout with vivid, sometimes whimsical, photographs and drawings. The text is filled with practical suggestions for exploring "color" in general and personal color preferences in particular, for use in creating gardens. Through numerous and varied examples, Meadows demonstrates ways to fully incorporate color knowledge and tastes into dazzling gardens using a full palette of plants, paving, walls, benches, containers, and art objects. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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Friday, August 13, 2010

The New York Botanical Garden

A comprehensive history of the landmark New York Botanical Garden in the heart of New York City explores the institution's extraordinary collections of plants in three hundred illustrations, including specially commisioned photographs and reproductions of rare botanical art, as well as the origins, purpose, and seminal research of the Garden since its founding in 1891.
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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Easy concrete : 43 DIY projects for home & garden

 by Malena Skote. Creating with concrete is easier than most do-it-yourselfers imagine, and the results can be spectacular and practical. With beautiful photography,Easy Concretemakes the material truly inviting, and the simple instructions cover everything from creating molds out of cardboard, wood, and metal to using hypertufa-a versatile type of concrete made with peat moss. There is also helpful guidance on adding the perfect finish and decorative details. With 43 projects that include outdoor pots, candleholders, garden benches, and a compost bin, this is the perfect introduction to a highly useful craft. --Summary. (Check Catalog)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The complete guide to outdoor carpentry : more than 40 projects including furnishing, accessories, pergolas, fences, planters

 This is a mixed bag of a wide selection of outdoor projects, most with sufficient instructions. Some of the more polished projects include stylish benches and some seating. Although not all projects are thoroughly described, more skilled handypeople will not be stymied by the less-than-exact instructions. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

Starter vegetable gardens : 24 no-fail plans for small organic gardens

 by Barbara Pleasant. Pleasant (The Complete Compost Gardening Guide) has turned her gift for language and her green thumb into an excellent recourse for the home vegetable gardener. Her No-Fail garden plans, including buying lists, suggested garden layouts, and recommendations for seasonal crop rotations, gently guide the reader. The plans progress through a three-year expansion that easily builds each year's garden off the previous one. Beyond the garden plans, Pleasant introduces necessary topics, such as mulch, watering, insects, and diseases, without intimidating the reluctant gardener. The result for gardeners, who will grow in knowledge and experience as their crops flourish, will be productive, low-maintenance, attractive vegetable gardens. The captivating pictures, detailed diagrams, and excellent appendix and glossary are all bonuses. Verdict Highly recommended. The gentle guidance here will inspire all new gardeners to get dirty and cultivate their own green thumbs. It will be well used all growing season long. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Cozy Wood Interiors

These works feature a wide range of different uses of wood in home interiors. Each of the projects is clearly explained by the designers themselves. All of the examples selected share the highest degree of architectural quality due to innovative uses of wood as well as the architects' outspoken bid for environmentally sustainable construction. Included in this volume are sophisticated and contemporary interiors. Outstanding photographs accompany the working plans and a clear text, to achieve an optimal communication of these interiors' main features, the materials used and their defining characteristics.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guie to Smart Plant Choices for Four-Season Designs

Cohen, an award-winning horticulturist and author, and Benner, a horticulture consultant, photographer, and writer, offer a straightforward and inspiring approach to creating a nonstop garden. A garden with something to offer year-round, utilizing trees and shrubs as the backbone for plantings composed of perennials and bulbs, annuals and tropicals, edibles and vines. Those new to gardening will benefit from the book's recipe for success, which is detailed in useful charts, descriptions and abundant photographs of woody and herbaceous selections, and 10 design plans. Each planting scheme, ranging from color-based to scented, befits a certain type of site condition, from woodland to wetland to a parking strip. Novices will find useful advice on invasives to avoid, plant care, and culture. A final section should stir ideas for enlivening the garden with ornaments and containers, structures that serve as design elements, and seasonal displays. A glossary, resource listing, and information about plant hardiness, bloom time, or special characteristics such as fall color and seedheads add to this volume's practical value and aesthetic pleasure. Copyright 2010 Booklist Reviews.
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Friday, June 4, 2010

Eat Your Yard!: Edible Trees, Shrubs, Vines, Herbs, and Flowers for Your Landscape

Edible plants provide spring blossoms, colorful fruit and flowers, lush greenery, fall foliage, and beautiful structure, but they also offer fruits, nuts, and seeds that you can eat, cook with, and preserve. Eat Your Yard! includes ideas for creating the landscape as well as an overview and tips on canning, pickling, dehydrating, freezing, juicing, and fermenting.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

A Little Piece of Earth: How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces

A hip, eco-friendly guide with fun and easy projects for all levels. Eating locally has so many benefits—for the planet, for your health, and for your tastebuds—and you can’t get much more local than your very own backyard. But is planting a garden too big a commitment? Then this book is for you. A Little Piece of Earth is all about starting small, with more than fifty self-contained, doable projects. Whether you have a yard, a terrace, a rooftop, or just a windowsill, there are plenty of ideas and inspirations to choose from. Harvest your own precious vanilla pods from a pot indoors. Grow savory shiitakes on a small log in your kitchen. Build a miniature vineyard trellis on your deck or build a raised bed on your patio. Recipes for using your homegrown bounty are sprinkled throughout. Charming illustrations guide you through step-by-step, and there’s a complete resources section. This is about making dirt work for you, taking some control over your food supply, and, most important, enriching your life with the quiet, simple pleasures of produce raised organically with your own hands.
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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes

A guide to home remedies--including solutions for digestive disorders, aches and pains, and face and body care and beatification, as well as kids' remedies--features 150 full-color photos, a list of suppliers for easy shopping and a 60-page reference covering the top 100 plants one should consider growing for use in home remedies.

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Monday, May 24, 2010

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide

Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors' bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even less planting. And here's one of the best parts — no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even identify the plants that benefit most from compost and how the elements of a composted garden work together.

 Request The Complete Compost Gardening Guide from the catalog.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Wind power for dummies

 by Ian Woofenden. The consumer guide to small-scale wind electricity production!Maybe you're not T. Boone Pickens, but you can build your own home-sized wind-power empire right in your back yard. Wind Power for Your Home For Dummies supplies all the guidance you need to install and maintain a sustainable, cost-effective wind generator to power your home for decades to come.This authoritative, plain-English guide walks you through every step of the process, from assessing your site and available wind sources to deciding whether wind power is the solution for you, from understanding the mechanics of wind power and locating a contractor to install your system to producing your own affordable and sustainable electricity. Guides you step by step through process of selecting, installing, and operating a small-scale wind generator to power your home Demystifies system configurations, terminology, and wind energy principles to help you speak the language of the pros Helps assess and reduce your energy needs and decide whether wind power is right for you Explains the mechanics of home-based wind power Shows you how to tie into the grid and sell energy back to the power company Offers advice on evaluating all of the costs of and financing for your project Provides tips on working with contractors and complying with local zoning laws. --Summary (Check Catalog)

Monday, May 10, 2010

10,001 Ways to Declutter Your Home on a Small Budget

A book that illustrates ways of efficiently organizing necessary possessions and examines dozens of ways to dispose of clutter.  This title also includes ideas for turning storage into art, shifting with the seasons, cleaning the garage, choosing cleaning tools, tidying the home office and much more.
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Country Living: Simple Country Wisdom : 501 Old-Fashioned Ideas to Simplify Your Life

Is modern life becoming too complicated and messy? Top-selling author Susan Waggoner is here to simplify it all. She shows how anyone can enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle filled with traditional country values—and save time, money, work, and frustration in the process—with household hints our foremothers knew well.
This ingenious and fun-to-read illustrated handbook presents tried-and-true household hints and practical solutions to everyday problems. And the superb organization—covering such topics as “Clutter Control,” “Better Living Through Baking,” and “In the Garden”—makes it easy to find the information you need. Whether it’s a no-scrub trick to make bathroom faucets gleam or advice on growing a garden guaranteed to attract birds and butterflies, Country Living Simple Country Wisdom is the key to creating a home that’s cheerful, welcoming, and warm. (Sterling)
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Thursday, May 6, 2010

Sissinghurst: an Unfinished History: The Quest to Restore a Working Farm at Vita Sackville-West's Legendary Garden

Sissinghurst Castle is a jewel in the English countryside. Its chief attraction is its celebrated garden, designed in the 1930s by the poet Vita Sackville-West, lover of Virginia Woolf. As a boy, Adam Nicolson, Sackville-West's grandson, spent his days romping through Sissinghurst's woods, streams, and fields. In this book, he returns to the place of his bucolic youth and finds that the estate, now operated by Britain's National Trust, has lost something precious. It is still unquestionably a place of calm and beauty but, he asks, where is the working farm, the orchards, the cattle and sheep? Nicolson convinces the Trust to embrace a simple idea: Grow lunch for the two hundred thousand annual visitors.

Sissinghurst is a personal biography of a place and an inspiring story of one man's quest to return a remarkable landscape to its best, most useful purpose. Nicolson is an entertaining and charming writer and this book will capture fans of Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. (Penguin USA)

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Living With What You Love: Creating Intimate Spaces With Family Photos, Cherished Heirlooms, and Collectibles

Counsels decorators in homes of any size on how to personalize living spaces with family photographs and heirlooms, sharing complementary information on such topics as restoring vintage frames and preserving photographs.

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The Colourful Home: Confident and Creative Colour Schemes for Every Room

A creative use of color can completely transform a home and bring warmth, light, and welcome focus to even the smallest of spaces. Perfect for do-it-yourself decorators, this informative guide explains the principles of color theory and details classic color combinations for homes. A range of inspirational color schemes are also addressed in detail—among them all-white neutrals to jewel-bright shades of turquoise—and hints on ways to introduce color via wall, floors, fabrics, and furnishings are provided. Practical and chock-full of innovative ideas, this is the ultimate resource for adding life and style to any room.

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Style and Substance: The Best of Elle Decor

Style and Substance: The Best of ELLE DECOR offers a unique, closer look at hundreds of dazzling rooms the magazine has published during its first two decades. The book provides an intimate view inside breathtaking homes from around the world with 240 pages of striking images culled from the archives of ELLE DECOR - America's most elegant interiors magazine. 

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Ultimate Guide to Architectural Ceiling Treatments: Plan-Design-Build

Ultimate Guide to Architectural Ceiling Treatments shows homeowners how to turn what is wasted space in most homes--the ceiling-- into a distinctive design element. Through inspirational photographs and easy-to-follow text, author Neal Barrett will help readers select the right type of treatment for their home. Detailed step-by-step photographs provide the information a do-it-yourselfer needs to complete the projects themselves.

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Black & Decker The Complete Outdoor Builder: From Arbors to Walkways, 150 DIY Projects

Adding beautiful, functional patios and walkways to the yard has never been easier thanks to this book. Over 150 projects and hundreds of instructional photographs combine with informative tips, tricks, and inspiration for the most comprehensive patio and walkway book on the market. From low-cost, curb-appeal walkways to expansive, estate-quality decorative concrete patios complete with outdoor kitchens, this book presents each project with step-by-step instructions and full-color photographs as well as informative tips, tricks, and inspiration. Each project uses the most current materials, tools, common practices, codes, and construction techniques to help readers add value to their homes and allow them to enjoy their outdoor spaces to full potential. Whether an existing patio needs to be freshened up or an unused space in the yard is just waiting to be put to use, this book is a crucial resource for do-it-yourself homeowners.
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