Gardening

Humans have long turned to gardens—both real and imaginary—for sanctuary from the frenzy and tumult that surrounds them. Those gardens may be as far away from everyday reality as Gilgamesh’s garden of the gods or as near as our own backyard, but in their very conception and the marks they bear of human care and cultivation, gardens stand as restorative, nourishing, necessary havens. With Gardens, Robert Pogue Harrison graces readers with a thoughtful, wide-ranging examination of the many ways gardens evoke the human condition. Moving from from the gardens of ancient philosophers to the gardens of homeless people in contemporary New York, he shows how, again and again, the garden has served as a check against the destruction and losses of history. The ancients, explains Harrison, viewed gardens as both a model and a location for the laborious self-cultivation and self-improvement that are essential to serenity and enlightenment, an association that has continued throughout the ages. The Bible and Qur’an; Plato’s Academy and Epicurus’s Garden School; Zen rock and Islamic carpet gardens; Boccaccio, Rihaku, Capek, Cao Xueqin, Italo Calvino, Ariosto, Michel Tournier, and Hannah Arendt—all come into play as this work explores the ways in which the concept and reality of the garden has informed human thinking about mortality, order, and power. Alive with the echoes and arguments of Western thought, Gardens is a fitting continuation of the intellectual journeys of Harrison’s earlier classics, Forests and The Dominion of the Dead. Voltaire famously urged us to cultivate our gardens; with this compelling volume, Robert Pogue Harrison reminds us of the nature of that responsibility—and its enduring importance to humanity. "I find myself completely besotted by a new book titled Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition, by Robert Pogue Harrison. The author . . . is one of the very best cultural critics at work today. He is a man more...

Price: $15.00

This book is an updated and expanded version of "Grafting and Budding Fruit and Nut Trees" and now includes the grafting of ornamental plants. It is comprehensive and clearly written, practical guide on all of the grafting techniques the professional and home gardener is likely to need. more...

Price: $25.95

An environmentally friendly sourcebook that is actually two books in one, providing everything the gardener needs to know about setting up a healthy growing environment within a sunspace, plus a complete guide to growing flowers, vegetables and herbs in the greenhouse. Veteran greenhouse gardener Shane Smith is the author of The Bountiful Solar Greenhouse. Two color; line illustrations. more...

Price: $14.00

Producing your own food is not only rewarding but - in times of economic and environmental changes - increasingly a must! Nature provides everything the human body requires to thrive, and cultivating some of those natural products in your own back garden will not only produce the best food on the planet for you and your loved ones, it is also economical, environmentally friendly and more fun than shopping. Many crops, such as herbs for example, can be produced in a relatively small space with a little pre-planning and organising, and they are perfect for enhancing the flavour of cooking, treating minor ailments, and preventing colds and flu. This book provides all the information you need to keep your family and friends healthy, fit and enjoying life to the full. Gardening is more than a hobby; it's a way of life. Even without a garden, many plants can be grown in containers, on a balcony, and indoors. Linda Gray has many years' gardening and housekeeping experience. After reclaiming an acre of forgotten land, her priority was to feed her family from that. She and her children produced organic food and kept hens. Linda runs a gardening website and has written a number of books and articles focusing on health, good food and gardening. more...

Price: $19.95

Photography by John GregorThis beautiful book brings together interviews and photographs of more than thirty Minnesotans who have imported the style and tradition of their native or ancestral lands into their gardening. Susan Davis Price relates the fascinating stories of these people’s lives as she explores gardening techniques and plants brought from every part of the globe.Winner of The American Horticultural Society Horticultural Book Award (2001) more...

Price: $35.00