Sustainability is now one of those things that most people see as a consumer buzz word, but what actually brought the word out into the world was the observation of several uncontrolled industrial and commercial sectors, reeking havoc on the environment in the name of progress, higher yields and even hygiene.

Pesticides and the agricultural industry of mono-agriculture are probably the most villainous of all those industries to date, the leading weapon having been chemical warfarefor a little more than half a century against the superadapatability of a perfect system. Nature itself.

What the mono-agricultural industry of the 20^thCentury did not take into consideration was that There is no need to fix what is not broken. And thus we find our planet looking once again to pre-industrial times for solutions to repair what we seem to have broke, while trying to make things better.

Anyone looking to become an organic gardener, must be willing to put in just as much study time as those used to being the local pesticide douser, but when all the need-to-know information is stored in one easy-to-reach-for place on the bookshelf, that time can be reduced immensely.

As the lawn is an extension of the garden, and the yard as a whole becomes our retreat into the womb of Mother Nature, it is only fitting that we take care of our sacred recreational areas, even if that means re-creating our care-taking techniques for a more sustainable world through a more dedicated understanding of each organism we co-exist with, one plant at a time.

The more we resolve to spray organically, nurture the yard with well-oxygenated compost teas, amend soils with homemade worm castings or plant in guilds for a more beneficial existence, the more our garden or yard will become a healthier, insect-resistant space that produces an abundance of both nutrition and beauty.

That beauty may take a little more investment, initially, than spaying with insecticides, but it is worth every ounce of effort, eliminating our ecological footprints and CO2 emissions at the same time, while preparing tomorrow, with an oasis of natural insect and disease control that begins by gardening organically.

This 544-page paperback, edited by Barbara W. Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley, published by Rodale Books in May of 1996, measures 9.1 x 7.5 x 1 and ships at 2.3 lbs.

As a problem solving guide that will help you keep your garden and yard healthy, without chemicals, The Organic Gardeners Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control is complete, with explanations and tips on a variety of common plant listings from fruits and vegetables to flowers and trees, for a more sustainable way of dealing with Mother Earth.

Nothing compares to variety in an herbal paradise, butplacing that variety in an orchestra of color, a symphony of texture and blends of scent that bring life to even the darkest of corners in the garden in a practical how-to is exactly what makes this book so special to the home gardener.

The spiral-binding and wonderful photos in a practical language with 20 projects, bring inspiration, creativity and imagination into focus with well-being as the centerpiece of perennial gardening with herbs, no matter where you live.

This 112-page spiral-bound, written by George Carter, photographed by Marianne Majerus, published by Ryland Peters and Small in March of 2001, measures 12 x 7.1 x 0.6 and ships at 1.5 pounds.

Learn to make music with scent, color and texture, by Gardening With Herbs in a short but sweet spiral bound fully photographed project book that truly inspires, step-by-step.

Prevention of human illness starts with a basically healthy diet, using healthier soil, natural techniques and generally learning to steward the land rather than devastate it, as is so often done in traditional agriculture.

But J.I. Rodale knew this as early as 1930 and spent his life dedicated to changing that spectrum of limited human action through the simple, yet straight forward examples that we are given by gardening naturally.

Organic Gardening Magazine has been delving in the most environmentally friendly solutions available to agriculture since its first issue.

J.I. Rodale began putting them to experimental testing as early as the original title Organic Farming and Gardening magazine first set its roots into the American market in 1942 along with what is today Working Tree Center, a place of putting action where before there were only words.

As the most widely read gardening publication in the world, Organic Gardening Magazine provides sources, tools, ideas and the needed information for its readers to successfully grow anything at all without the use of chemicals, effectively becoming stewards of the earth for a more sustainable way of life on earth.

Teaching children to develop their creative ration sounds like a job for the schools and the board of education, but when we take kids home for the summer, does that mean their education is going to stop?

Of course not, because there is a little McGuiver hiding inside every kid (even little girls), and what better way to bring creative ways of thinking about the world, than with a little ingenuity?

Sneakier Uses for Everyday Things is a book that does just that while enchanting our imaginations AND challenging our speed of thought more than any creative writing or math assignment through fun gadgets and gizmos that will make this summer unforgettable.

This 160-page paperback, written by Cy Tymony, published by Andrews McMeel in October of 2005, measures 6.8 x 4.9 x 0.4 and ships at 8 ounces.

Little boys just love watching McGuiver shows and James Bond movies, and for those young fathers and grandfathers with curious boys that love to mess around with gizmos and gadgets, this bookis filled with activities that could fill a summer vacation with learning and creativity.

A great project for parent and child over the weekend or summer vacation, figuring out what kind of knowledge and work really goes into hydroponics are the key elements in this basic how-to manual that is short and sweet, filled to the brim with only the most relevant information, including tips and solutions to common misunderstanding in the field.

Anyone who has taken care of a mini windowsill greenhouse, will know that neither of these areas propose any considerable challenge for the average person, but learning and discovery are really what these small scale experiments are really about and hydroponics is no different.

This 80-page paperback, written and published by George Van Patten in December of 2004, measures 5.6 x 4.2 x 0.1 and ships at 1.6 ounces.

For students, educators and newcomers that see a more sustainable future in the realm of hydroponic growing, this book covers all the hydroponic basics, from plant science, the environment, gardening, supplies to doing-it-yourself construction.

Making food available locally means fresher food. If everyone made their own produce in the backyard, or in community gardens, there would be a LOT more choices and at far cheaper prices than what we pay for from the country farmer.

The CO2 emissions alone that are created daily in the transportation of one of this nations most valuable resources, fresh foods, is incredible, but by taking our backyards to market for the local neighborhood, we not only are doing a community service, but we are offsetting our CO2 emissions by helping the environment indirectly, eliminating a few eco-miles off the yearly toll on the ozone layer.

Building your own backyard market garden, or a community market garden, is not only going to do something for the environmental air quality around your home and neighborhood, it is going to provide your household and your neighbors with a quality source of fresh foods that fully pays for all the hard work and stimulates community awareness about sustainable practices.

Entrepreneurs that would like to show what stewardship of the Earth can mean in an urban setting, will most certainly find this little manual has the most relevant, need to know information, all in one place.

This 352-page paperback, written by Andrew W. Lee and Pat Foreman, published by Good Earth Publications in August of 1992, measures 8.8 x x 1.1 and ships at 1.2 pounds.

Making a profit from the fruits, flowers, herbs, vegetables and perhaps even small livestock in the backyard, is not only possible, it is done, and Backyard Market Gardening will show the novice everything s/he is looking for to do it right the first time through, for a more self-reliant planet that takes care of the needs of the future, today.

Before the dark-ages, more than two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire had already perfected the use of limestone and clay to keep their city-state safe from invaders and they already knew the secrets we use preciously today.

Let the ancient décor of lost Keptchu civilizations, Egyptian, Greek, Persian or perhaps even Mayan or Aztec delight the surroundings of your home in a meditation that takes you into a world of inspiration, through concrete.

Design ideas, instructions to address all sorts of solutions, from fireplaces surrounds, garden art, garden planters, pathways, floors, stepping-stones, counters, sinks, tabletops, columns, pyramids, spheres, cubes or whatever the imagination is capable of creating, this book is filled to the brim with emphasis on extravagance.

Finishing techniques such as, surface designs, paint treatments, polishing, sculpting, carving and texturing with mosaics and insets; you can tell stories in elaborate decoration that rival even the vast empire of Rome itself, all it takes is focus and intent on your inner most desires, and let them loose, in a permanentform.

With sixteen different projects to get you started, fully comprehensive step-by-step how-to photos, these easy to follow directions make each new piece of artwork an adventure in and of itself, taking you just that much closer to your own paradise at home.

This 192-page paperback, written by Jeanne Huber, is now in the second edition as of July 2007, published by Sunset Books, with 385 colorful photos, more than a 100 images and 50 pages more than the first edition, measuring 10.50 x 8.1 x 0.5 and shipping at 1.3 lbs.

Decorative Concrete is a DIY book for those looking to transform their home into a special meditation, filled with vast expanses of human art work in concrete, it is open to anyone willing to study the masters; this is self-reliance, taking concrete artwork onto a whole other level, one that transcends even thousands of years, permanently, in the vast expanses of your own home.

Traditionally speaking, rock gardening has taught the warrior to manipulate his surroundings and use them to his advantage, but stonework goes beyond this, launching into the realm of unlimited dreams and fetching them into stone.

Thousands of years ago, the very first hospitals, known as the Temples of Asclepius, had such awe inspiring stonework done to provide a permanent form for the healing dreams that had cured patient after patient, each work of stone teaching a different lesson on different ailments and cures.

Essentially, that is what one learns from placing a piece of stonework in an outdoor space, be the project as simple as an arrangement of bolder rocks, to the complexities of 13^th century gargoyles chiseled by hand and the size of a crouching animal ready to attack.

Safety, natural features, unique walls, stylish paving, Zen-style gardens, garden table, retaining wall or even flagstone steps; everything has been fully photographed and perfectly well detailed through construction diagrams and cross-section drawings, that permit a concise easy to read and fully comprehend text.

With sixteen different DIY projects that range from simple novice to the more complex, this book offers a wide range of styles to choose from, and with every new project, a new lesson can be learned, about ones self and how to better use the infinite power of human imagination to form hard stone, into a permanent dream that can be appreciated generation after generation.

This 128-page paperback, written by garden expert couple Alan and Gill Bridgwater, published by Storey in January of 2001, measures 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.4 and ships at 1.2 lbs.

For easy to build yard or garden projects that enhance beauty, Outdoor Stonework focuses on sixteen different projects for your outdoor spaces that are certain to make you look like an expert, step-by-step, project after project and inevitably, experience after experience for generations to come.

Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels, Wayne Lewis and published by Timber Press offers a friendly and comprehensive tone of voice that really is interesting to read, filled with useful information that not only makes you understand what its like down there, but really inspires the kind of passion a gardener her/himself feels and has been looking for in others.

Lownfels and Lewis advocate for a more organic approach to gardening, but instead of just stating their opinions, they go in depth to details about the very way of life of your garden inhabitants, without adding in.

Always quick and to the point, each word is placed so carefully on the page, as if these two were writing a Short Story, to give meaningful statements that need not repeat nor say how they feel, but show through concrete examples that we as readers can agree with and most of all, understand as fellow forms of life.

Teaming with Microbes is the kind of book you get when you want to actually be transported into the soil below your flowers and vegetables as if you were on some distant sci-fi world of swords and magic, playing out an adventure in gardening.

Measuring 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 and shipping at 1.3 lbs, this 196 page hardcover is published by Timber Press Incorporated and was reprinted in July of 2006; still a classic for anyone looking to delve into an organically perfect universe below their very feet.

Teaming with Microbes was written to appeal to human beings, not just rational scientists, by showing scientific knowledge in a way that any average reader will be inspired to read on into the realm of the soil food web without needing to be a professional botanist or fall asleep.

Teaming with Microbes is the perfect thing for those looking to understand the soil food web in minimal details through exciting and real examples that any reader will relate to.

Buy Now on Amazon.com

Read Excerpt:
Google Books

Ever dreamt of cultivating your very own herbs? As the ancient samurai of feudal Japan once did, this art form is not just a philosophical endeavor among those that dabble in the way of sword, it is open to everyone from spiritualist to scientist; this is a book for putting special flavors into your backyard garden.

Working with herbs is one of the founding blocks of ancient medicine and as this becomes a growing area among medical doctors of today, the demand for gardeners that know how to cultivate eventhe simplest of herbs also grows, this book is for every family with children or homeowner that thinks ahead.

Your Backyard Herb Garden is a safe way to approach herb gardening for the first time, with a full spectrum of ideas that range from cooking, crafts, insect repellants, health care, cosmetics and more; including a fully illustrated herb directory that gives practical advice and tips for success on your first attempt.

This 160 page paperback by Rodale Books was first released in January of 99, measures 9.7 x 7.5 x 1.1 and ships at 1.1 lbs.

Fifty of the most popular herbs and information on uses, harvesting, care, growing, pest control, watering, fertilizing and soil building; allowing you to cultivate teas, vinegars, potpourris and crafts of all kinds.

Enjoy Your Backyard Herb Garden with Miranda Smith, a charming writer and skilled gardener that teaches how to build your own self-reliant herb garden, right at home.

Written by Charlotte Green, Gardening Without Water is a 64-page paperback published by Search Press in August of 99 that measures 11.4 x 8.5 x 0.2 and ships at 11 ounces.

Charlotte Green is an expert in using and reusing rainwater to better our lives and the lifespan of our gardens, no matter how arid, dry or desert-like our home seems to be.

Her own 40-acre woodland contains more than 250 species of wild plants, but her knowledge goes beyond, traveling the world, studying exotic flora and fauna to get a better idea for what will grow where, what will survive and what will not.

Drought-resistant plants, dozens of herbs, vegetables and flowers, roofwater harvesting, gray-water from the drains and learning to increase the water supply for your garden even during the driest monthsof the years through technology, knowledge and a little creative thinking.

Selecting plants with a lower water requirement, planted in such a manner that fruits and vegetables alike will mature on frugal amounts of water, using mulch to reduce water lossand knowing how to keep a garden looking good are just some of the tips you will find in Gardening Without Water.

How to grow, design and maintain a garden are things you will find anywhere; Gardening Without Water is different in that it teaches how to collect, store and use water sparingly to achieve more sustainable methods of gardening while still maintaining our main objective; inspire beautiful art, through nature.

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook uses methods that can be traced as far back as the medieval art of alchemy, transforming the average household cook into a master chef with methods that are so simple, clear-cut and precise that the heart pumps with inspiration at the end of every page; almost turning coal into gold with but a single thought!

This 256 page hard cover written by the famous Ina Garten and Martha Stewart was published in 1999 by Clarkson Poter and still remains a classic for gourmet recipes that average cooks look to for quick and easy perfection without all the years of culinary school.

From choosing vegetables and spices at the farmers market, to the exquisite décor of a single plate, Garten and Stewart have prepared a manual of know-how that comes from years of experience in the field.

Measuring 10.5 x 7.7 x 0.8 inches and shipping at 2.4 lbs, Ina Garten will entice your passions for the ancient art of cooking through illustrations, anecdotes and knowledge that bridge the very sands of time themselves.

Entertaining easily with enriching plates that seem to have been made by a catering service, bring Ina Garten and Martha Stewarts expertise from the Food Network into your kitchen with The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook lifts the aroma of medieval passions into the modern art of the here and now, just for you.

This 768 easy to find your way gardening manual is considered by the publisher Sunset Books to be the gardeners Bible for western climates as it now finds itself in the eighth edition, both hardcover and paperback available.

With now 500 new plants, 30-plant selection guides, more than 70 years of advice, easy to follow diagrams and filled to the brim with encyclopedic knowledge, The Western Garden Book by Sunset is a great way to get deep into garden possibilities for those living in thisfabulous American environment.

Shipping at 4.3 lbs, the hardback measures 11 x 8.6 x 1.7 inches and offers practical information on the plants you want in your western garden exactly when you need it the most.

For easy access information a gardening encyclopedia with large photos and precise advice, The Western Garden Book from Sunset offers more than 8,000 plant listings and climate specific sections.

Sunset Western Garden Book helps transform the passion of your garden into a work of art.

Do you go crazy trying to figure out which product is right for the different surfaces you want to clean?

Do you feel that you dont have all the time in the world to clean and organize your home? Moreover, you want do it in a way that it stays organized and clean and you can enjoy life.

Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook makes it possible in 752 elegantly illustrated pages(product dimensions: 9.3 x 8.2 x 7.5 inches), published by Clarkson Potter.

This is the kind of book that should stay always at hand, and at the same time it will be slowly less and less looked up because the magic happens: your home is well kept! And it is kept just as well organized.

You will find tips on how to organize each room and also tips on the common utensils usually found in the respective rooms. Sometimes the information may seem too obvious (like keeping the more used utensils at hand!) but believe me, take a quick glance at your kitchen right now, aha! Not so simple, huh?

Well, Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook will help you turn theory into reality, and your home will thank you, and you will enjoy the company of your family and friends more.

Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook can help take theory into reality, right in your own home through practical organization that works.

All New Square Foot Gardening is an illustrated update paperback of 272 pages by Mel Bartholomew, the same author of Square Foot Gardening (1982).

Published by Cool Springs Press in February of 2006, Bartholomews All New Square Foot Gardening measures 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches and ships at 1.3 pounds.

The perfect gardening method for those looking to garden smarter, with novices, children or even adults with mobility challenges; this is a do-it-yourself classic with now an extra thirty years of updated experience.

Ten improvements are included, new location, new direction, new soil, new depth, no fertilizer, new boxes, new aisles, new grids, new seed saving ideas and tabletop gardens that make square foot gardening ten times smarter with ten times less work.

This wonderful space saving manual shows how putting the garden closer to your home can put the salads, spices and all purpose kitchen produce right in your yard.

Only ten minutes a day of work without any fertilizing extras, only six inches deep in build-them-yourself box planters that come with step by step photos and instructions that make All New Square Foot Gardening a must have manual for those interested in healthier living and self-reliance.

All New Square Foot Gardening makes it easy to garden large harvests of vegetables right in the comfort of your own backyard, even on the roof of your house if you lack space in your yard, All New Square Foot Gardening is a great gift item for those who enjoy green living.

Green This asks a simple question; Is the way we clean really good for us?

Green This offers to explain in summarized details how traditionally industrialized chemical products can cause harm to the human organism over longer periods of exposure and provides detailed alternatives to Green Cleaning that really work!

Deirdre Imus is the author of this 240-page paperback first published by Simon & Schuster in April of 2007.

Green This tells us of the harm we are really doing to our families and environment while at the same time, providing ways to Green your cleaning with environmentally responsible, non-toxic, more effective and cheaper alternatives to house cleaning.

Methods for cleaning every room in the house that are simple, everyday products to be aware of, the latest research on the toxic effect those everyday products have and a full resource list of widely available green cleaning products and retailers that measure just 8.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches and ship at 9.6 ounces.

Deirdre Imus is the author of Green This, streamlining testimonials, products and practices in order to live a greener life at home with Green Cleaning that works.

Most people climbed trees as children and many went on to become tree huggers as environmentalists in the last 30 years, some became professional outdoors enthusiasts, few became rock climbers but only a handful became professional tree climbers as adults, The Wild Trees is the story of those handful focused on the Californian Redwood Rainforest; one of Americas last and most ancient of native refuges.

Spectacular literature with images that depict what could very well be straight out of JRR Tolkiens Lothlorien, the elven forest of Queen Galadriel, The Wild Trees are incredible creatures, the largest individual organisms to ever exist on our planet, capable of surviving as long as anywhere from 2000 to 3000 years at the very least; so far, only the blade has been able to destroy these immortal giants.

The canopy of the Californian Redwood Rainforest is one of those places as of yet still untouched by our culture, a place where the animals know nothing of humans and their vast jungles of plexiglass concrete needles in heavens; The Wild Trees shows us a place where we are as strange to them as the quantum physics is to us.

Richard Preston calls the upper canopy of the Redwood forests a coral reef in the sky, and with reason, as they are a wondrous place with thriving forms of life and vegetation that all coexist in harmony with each other, completely oblivious to life on the ground.

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston tells the tale of how passionate biologists, climbers, environmentalists and a single journalist looking for something as far from writing as he could get as close to daring and surreal as possible.

The Wild Trees is a hardcover of 320 pages published by Random House on April 10^thof 2007, measuring 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches and shipping at 1.2 pounds.

The Wild Trees is a story of people and nature, living as one, in harmony with the meaning and essence life itself.

For those on a serious budget, looking to make masterpieces in stone, Sherri Warner Hunter offers a step-by-step how-to on concrete mixing, making molds and embedded mosaics that will endure the four seasons and stay in one place for centuries.

This practical 144 page paperback measures 10 x 8.5 x 0.4 and ships at 1.24 pounds, gathering low-tech techniques that have worked for sculptors and artists over and over; a total of 25 projects.

Pf. Sherri Warner Hunter brings to life the world of stonework in sculpture, unfolding our imaginations in concrete through coloring, incising, embedded objects, mosaics, modeling, carving, armatures and molds.

Making Concrete Garden Ornaments is the perfect do-it-yourself stone-working manual, giving you the ability to transform your dreams into reality.

Beautiful Madness: One Man’s Journey Through Other People’s Gardens, by James Dodson is this springs book for the passionate gardener. Although we may not really understand where Americans seem to get this passion for soil, flowers vegetables, landscaping and so on, James Dodson seems to have figured it out.

James Dodson, is an award winning golf writer and editor, who only writes about things that he loves, and after a whole year of research and travel around the United States, Britain and South Africa, he comes home with stories that tell more than just history, but what universally calls all of us gardening fans to the dirt.

When men prefer to look at their gardening magazines rather than their wives Victoria Secret catalogue, gardening takes on a new meaning that is totally contrary to most of the literature in the area. We tend to think of gardening writers as those people that have a very dry Zen style or a very soft Yin harmony that resonates in spring time when we all want to get out there and get ourselves dirty.

Beautiful Madness however by James Dodson is very different and brings a real Yang adventurous notion to the whole area; which is quite refreshing after piles of FengShui and sustainable vegetable gardening books have begun overflowing on our desks in the study.

Dodson begins the book with a clear notion of his own reasons for getting interested in gardening and how his love for a family Beech Tree took him all the way to the Philadelphia flower show and from there on a quest that would take him to Britain and even South Africa, while discovering a study course for the Master Gardener along the way.

The book journeys through the humor, excitement and basic passion that consumes gardeners around the world. His experience is that all gardeners are wonderful people who just want to show off how they have taken nature and created something extravagant. And each gardener he encounters takes him to another, and then another, along a path that he believes really is the only way to become a Master Gardener, by learning from the very best.

Beautiful Madness is the perfect book for those who have read everything about gardening and are looking for a book that is almost like a movie in words, filled with stories and adventures that tell it like it is.

Dodson uncovers the mystery of why New England gardeners are so obsessed with some of the most difficult places to do gardening in the world, that goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and even the first Botany Shop some 20 years before the American Revolutionary war.

America is on the brink of a new hobby that consumes more and more people every day. Gardening. In Britain the common blue collar citizens have been obsessed with gardening for decades, while the whole competitive art has been around since before Charles Darwins expedition across the New World.

The South African species that enchant with tropical temperatures were even some of the favorites of famous American Presidents as John Adams. All this and more goes into this revolutionary book of Americas secret passion for dirt and the garden.

Sometimes this secret passion was even taken to the point of smuggling sunflower seeds from Italy on pain of death. It turns out that Jefferson himself once did this in fact. New Hampshire seems to have had an important role in our forefathers little dirty secret and its all here in Beautiful Madness: One Man’s Journey Through Other People’s Gardens by James Dodson.