Water gardens are a harmonious blending of water and earth, both relaxing and inspiring. In Easy-Care Water Garden Plants, horticulturist Charles W.G. Smith tells you everything you need to know to select and care for water plants with minimal fuss and work. Whether you want delicate floating plants, exotic water lilies, or carnivorous bog dwellers, you'll discover great choices and learn how to care for your plants easily and successfully.

It's Never Been Easier to Grow Orchids at Home Have you heard that orchids are impossible to cultivate? Do you love orchids' exotic flowers but despair of ever having one survive in your home? Thing again! With simple instructions and straightforward advice from professional orchid grower Mary Carol Frier, you'll find that orchids can thrive on your home windowsill, rewarding you year after year with gorgeous blooms. What makes an orchid "easy care"? The six orchids featured in Easy-Care Orchids are surprisingly hardy flowers with minimal maintenance requirements, and they do well in the environmental conditions found in most North American homes. Armed with the basic growing information in this bulletin, you'll enjoy the unique pleasure of adorning your home with the strange and magical beauty of orchids.

Country Wisdom & Know-How is the most complete volume on every aspect of country and self-sustained living, from home and garden to barn and beyond. From Storey Publishing's landmark series Country Wisdom Bulletins, this comprehensive collection offers step-by-step instructions on nearly 200 individual topics, providing everything you need to know about sustainability, self-sufficiency, homesteading, and DIY living. Topics include: Animals: attracting backyard birds; building bathhouses and birdfeeders; training and caring for cats and dogs; raising rabbits, ducks, and game birds; buying and selling horses; building chicken coops; beginning beekeeping; Cooking: the basics of bread baking; making cheese, butter, and yogurt; cooking game; preserving and pickling; homebrewing and making homemade wine Crafts: stenciling, quilting, and basket-weaving; making wreaths, potpourri, and natural soaps; homemade gifts and decorations Gardening: starting your garden; caring for flowers and shrubs; controlling weeds; landscaping; growing vegetables, root crops, fruits, berries, kitchen herbs, and more Health and Wellbeing: natural home remedies; herbs for lifelong health; essential oils and aromatherapy; teas and recipes for a healthy diet Home: simple home repairs; building furniture; restoring hardwood floors; making curtains; building fences, root cellars, and smokehouses And so much more! With nearly 2,000 black-and-white illustrations, diagrams, and photographs, and trusted advice on every page, this is the most thorough and reliable volume of its kind. This book is also a part of the Know-How series which includes other titles such as: Woodworking Wisdom & Know-How Natural Healing Wisdom & Know-How Craft Wisdom & Know-How Garden Wisdom & Know-How

In this incredibly comprehensive and gorgeously photographed guide, master gardener Stacy Ling helps aspiring green thumbs achieve success with her easy-to-grow, easy-care, and low maintenance approach to growing beautiful flowers. Have you never met a plant you couldn’t kill? Does maintaining a flourishing flower garden seem intimidating or time-consuming? Have you dug around in the dirt with nothing to show for it except a sunburn and a sore back? This book is for you! Inside you’ll find everything you need to know to grow beautiful flowers, including: gardening basics to set you up for success great garden design ideas with ready-made plans for you to follow easy-care instructions for a wide variety of flowers and flowering shrubs helpful how-tos for container and cut flower gardening graphs, charts, and lists to help you stay organized This guide will give you the knowledge and confidence you need to grow beautiful flowers.

Projects and tips for every room For more than 75 years Better Homes and Gardens has been one of America's most trusted sources for information on home decorating. Do It Yourself, a popular BHG special interest publication, puts a youthful, crafty spin on DIY decor. With refreshing ideas, clear directions, and beautiful photographs, this book will inspire DIY enthusiasts of all skill levels to spruce up their spaces—in a weekend or less. The 200+ fun, approachable home improvement projects in this book give readers achievable, stylish, and affordable ways to transform their living spaces. Projects run the gamut from quick and easy ideas that can be completed in an hour or two to more involved and time-consuming improvements, but all can be accomplished in a weekend or less. Projects cover every room of the home: kitchens, bathrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, bedrooms, home offices, hobby rooms, and storage spaces, as well as outdoor living areas Includes both "hard" projects, such as tiling a backsplash, and "soft" projects, like embellishing a pillow or making over a piece of furniture Chapters focus on walls and floors, lighting, window treatments, decorative accents, storage, furniture, and more Concise step-by-step instructions are accompanied by full-color photos and/or illustrations For DIYers who aren't afraid to roll up their sleeves and try something new, DIY Ideas provides all the inspiration and instruction needed to create the home of their dreams.

This book brings together information on the natural history, ecology and systematics of North American aquatic monocotyledons. The book is an overview of the biology of major aquatic species by compiling information from numerous sources that lie scattered among the primary literature, herbarium databases, and other reference sources. Information on more than 300 species in 87 genera of monocotyledons will be included. Recent phylogenetic analyses will be incorporated. Although focusing specifically on North America, the cosmopolitan distribution of many aquatic plants should make this an attractive text to people working virtually anywhere outside of the region as well. Key Selling Features: The primary source of natural history information on aquatic plants Comprehensive lists of ecological associates Synthetic overview of systematic relationships of aquatic species and genera Practical information for rare and invasive plant managers Essential guide to facilitate wetland delineation

Cultivate your passion to grow In a 1625 essay, Francis Bacon called gardens "the purest of human pleasures," and what was true then is even more so today—gardening can give you a serene refuge from the short-lived (and noisy!) distractions of modern life and a fertile basis for satisfaction that will bear fruit long into the future. To help you get started on your own leafy paradise, the new edition of Gardening Basics For Dummies grounds you thoroughly in the fundamentals of soil, flowers, trees, and lawns—and helps you get to know the names of what you're planting along the way! In a friendly, straightforward style, professional horticulturist Steven A. Frowine distills 50 years of gardening experience to show you how to start growing your expertise—from planning out your own mini-Eden and planting your first annuals, bulbs, and perennials through to laying the perfect lawn, raising tasty crops, and even introducing fish to your landscape! He also digs into the grubbier side of horticultural life, making sure you're as prepared as any seasoned farmer to deal with pests, weeds, and other challenges the earth will throw up at you. Create your ideal garden plan Become an expert on common flora with definitions and descriptions Know how to look after your soil Get creative with butterfly and children's gardens Whether you're beginning with a tiny garden in a box, or beautifying your property with tree-lined groves and flowery bowers, this is the ideal introduction to the intense pleasure of gardening and will make you happy to reap what you’ve sown!

48 designs created by landscape professionals from the Pacific Northwest and featuring 200 region specific plants. Over 400 color photos and drawings.

Sets out what you need to know in order to look after your garden. This title shows you how to care for wildlife, the environment and your own well-being. It shows you how to choose the right plants for the right place, and how to plant and care for flowers, trees, shrubs, fruit, vegetables and wild flowers.