A large-format, beautifully illustrated, complete guide to gardening in a California and Mediterraean-like climates, defined as ones in which winters are wet and summers are bone dry.

With a no-nonsense and witty attitude, this gardener's guide to everything useful, from classic bamboo rakes to high-carbon steel shovels, will steer you in the right direction-and save you time, money and space. Find out which tools are absolute must-haves, depending on your climate, size and strength, and gardening goals. Plus: Experts pick six can't-live-without tools!

Available in paperback for the first time, this book features the avid gardener and beloved writer Elizabeth Lawrence's thoughts on rock gardening.

The life of a garden begins and ends with a seed. Explanations of virtually everything that happens in between - including germination, indoor and outdoor cultivation, and seed collection for all types of plants - can be found in Seeds: The Definitive Guide to Growing, History, and Lore. Author Peter Loewer leads the reader on a seed odyssey that spans from the early genetic experiments of Mendel to the growth of large seed companies, as well as tales of intrepid seed collectors who go to extraordinary lengths to procure rare seed specimens. Practical advice is not overlooked as different methods are outlined for starting all types of seeds at home. Detailed instructions are provided for cold frames, sterilizing dirt, seed storage, indoor to outdoor transplanting, and germinating seeds in a range of mediums. Unlike any other book on the subject, Seeds artfully blends a wide scope of hands-on gardening techniques with scientific information and folklore. The result is a comprehensive tome on the subject of seeds replete with listings of seed nurseries, seed exchanges, and even poetry related to seeds.

While the issue of invasive alien species (IAS) has important biological components, the human dimensions deserve much greater attention. Humans, with all their diversity of quirks, strengths, and weaknesses, are at the heart of the problem of IAS and, paradoxically, also at the heart of the solution. This compilation of papers delivered during a workshop on the human dimensions of the IAS problem, held in Cape Town, South Africa on 15-17 September 2000, covers some of the many causes, consequences and responses to this problem.

Weeds hold an enigmatic and sometimes-controversial place in agriculture, where they are generally reviled, grudgingly tolerated, and occasionally admired. In most cases, growers make considerable effort to reduce the negative economic impact of weeds because they compete with crops for resources and hinder field operations, thereby affecting crop productivity and quality, and ultimately the sustainability of agriculture. Weed control in production agriculture is commonly achieved through the integration of chemical, biological, and mechanical management methods. Chemicals (herbicides) usually inhibit the growth and establishment of weed plants by interfering with various physiological and biochemical pathways. Biological methods include crop competition, smother crops, rotation crops, and allelopathy, as well as specific insect predators and plant pathogens. Mechanical methods encompass an array of tools from short handled hoes to sophisticated video-guided robotic machines. Integrating these technologies, in order to relieve the negative impacts of weeds on crop production in a way that allows growers to optimize profits and preserve human health and the environment, is the science of weed management.