Approach Environmental Flower Gardening Landscaping Wild

This book will change the way you garden. Try this safe, natural, and highly effective program and discover for yourself how easy it is to grow healthy, beautiful plants without risk to your family, pets, and the environment. Written especially for Texans, Howard Garrett's Texas Organic Gardening Book shows you how to use our native plants, soil, and growing conditions to produce organically healthy gardens, lawns, and landscapes without harmful chemicals. Learn to improve the soil by adding organic matter instead of synthetic fertilizers. Grow healthy fruits and vegetables that are safe to eat. Recycle kitchen and yard wastes into compost. Keep harmful insects and other pests under control without toxic pesticides. Control unsightly weeds and garden diseases with environmentally safe products. Organic gardening is more than just changing the kind of garden products you use - you must change your entire approach to gardening. You must learn to work with nature to bring about a balance of rich, healthy soil, organic matter, plants, and insects. This book shows you how. Howard Garrett uses his years of experience as an organic gardener to give you clear-cut, step-by-step instructions for growing trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and grasses the natural way. He recommends ecologically safe products and even includes some homemade remedies for controlling pests and diseases in your yard and garden. Everything you need to know to start your own successful organic program is here at your fingertips. Superb color photographs and helpful illustrations throughout make this a must-have book for every home gardener, farmer, nurseryman, and landscaper.

California boasts one of the richest assemblages of native plant species in the world, and among the state's most beautiful flowering plants are its monocotyledons--a large and varied group including lilies, irises, grasses, orchids, agaves, and even palms. "Wild Lilies, Irises, and Grasses, "created under the auspices of the California Native Plant Society, tells how to grow California monocots in the garden. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs and line drawings, the book contains valuable information on exactly which species are best adapted to garden conditions, how to grow them, and where to obtain them from nurseries and mail-order suppliers. Gardeners can be highly successful with many of California's most exquisite native monocots, and propagating these native plants helps ensure their long-term preservation. Each chapter includes introductory information for gardeners and tips on garden cultivation and propagation, while individual plant descriptions provide greater detail on each species, including its distribution and habitat in the wild, cultural preferences and tolerances in the garden, and features that distinguish the plant from similar species. With its valuable combination of horticultural and botanical information, this book is the perfect introduction to California's monocots. It will inspire gardeners as well as landscape designers, city planners, and others to consider these lovely native species when designing, planting, and approving plans for landscapes in California.