Permaculture teacher Christopher Shein highlights everything you need to know to start living off the land lightly, including how to create rich, healthy and low-cost soil; blend a functional food garden and decorative landscape; share the bounty with others; and much more.

Don't sacrifice your garden or green space because you suffer from chronic pain, health issues, or other ailments. The Wellness Garden is your guide! If you love to garden but also worry about the physical strain, or if you are in search of ways to promote a healthier lifestyle, and even combat specific, chronic, health issues, then noted garden author and speaker Shawna Coronado has good news for you! You can stay active, fight chronic pain, and keep the garden you've worked so hard to cultivate. In The Wellness Garden, her new book from Cool Springs Press, Shawna details exactly how she has learned to use her garden as a key tool in her battle with osteoarthritis and other chronic pain issues. In this inspiring but highly practical book you will learn from Shawna's life changing garden experience and see how you can create your own Wellness Garden--and gain the healthier lifestyle you desire and deserve.

In The Whole Grain Promise, Robin Asbell shares quick and easy whole grain recipes that will entice the pickiest eater and appeal to the whole family. Whether you want to improve your health or try something new for dinner, whole grains are the perfect place to start. Beginning with the basics, Asbell takes you through the major types of grains, their health benefits, and how best to cook them. From there, she offers more than 100 mouthwatering recipes that will encourage everyone to embrace the whole grain diet.

The Whole Okra is a lighthearted but information-rich collection of okra history, lore, recipes, craft projects, growing advice, and more. Follow along with author Chris Smith as he recounts what he’s learned from various chefs, food historians, university researchers, farmers, homesteaders, and gardeners.

The Wild Wisdom of Weeds is the only book on foraging and edible weeds to focus on the 13 weeds found all over the world, each of which represents a complete food source and extensive medical pharmacy and first-aid kit. More than just a field guide to wild edibles, it is a global plan for human survival.

Meet the natural love child of the popular local-foods movement and craft cocktail scene. It’s here to show you just how easy it is to make delicious, one-of-a-kind mixed drinks with common flowers, berries, roots, and leaves that you can find along roadsides or in your backyard. Foraging expert Ellen Zachos gets the party started with recipes for more than 50 garnishes, syrups, infusions, juices, and bitters, including Quick Pickled Daylily Buds, Rose Hip Syrup, and Chanterelle-infused Rum. You’ll then incorporate your handcrafted components into 45 surprising and delightful cocktails, such as Stinger in the Rye, Don’t Sass Me, and Tree-tini.

Turning waste into wealth sounds too good to be true, but many worm farmers are finding that vermicomposting is a reliable way to do just that. Vermicast—a biologically active, nutrient-rich mix of earthworm castings and decomposed organic matter—sells for $400 or more per cubic yard. Compare that to regular compost, sold at about $30 a cubic yard, and you’ll see why vermicomposting has taken root in most countries and on every continent but Antarctica.

Vermicomposting is also one of the best sustainable solutions for organic waste management. Vermicomposting manure and crop wastes on farms improves crop yields while reducing demand for off-farm inputs. Vermicast has higher nutrient levels and lower soluble salt content than regular compost, and it improves soil aeration, porosity, and water retention. Plus, vermicast suppresses plant diseases and insect attacks. Municipalities, businesses, community gardens, schools, and universities can set up vermicomposting operations to process food residuals and other waste materials.

The Year-Round Hoophouse is a comprehensive guide to designing and building a hoophouse and making a success of growing abundant, delicious fresh produce all year, whatever your climate and land size.

Fresh, local, nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables are hard to find in winter in cold climates. Growing warm-weather crops such as tomatoes, bananas, avocados, and other perennials is nearly impossible using conventional structures. The solution for millions of backyard and small-scale commercial growers is self-heating solar greenhouses.

The Year-round Solar Greenhouse is the one-stop guide to designing and building greenhouses that harness and store energy from the sun to create naturally heated, lush growing environments even in the depths of winter. This book covers principles of solar greenhouse design and siting, glazing material properties and selection, controlling heat loss, ventilation, and construction methods. Additionally, an in-depth section covers sustainable ways of heating the greenhouse without fossil fuels (including using thermal mass and storing heat underground with a ground to air heat exchanger).

Variations include attached solar greenhouses, earth-sheltered greenhouses, plus integrating hydroponics and aquaponics. More than a dozen case studies from across North America provide inspiration and demonstrate specific challenges and solutions for growing year-round in any climate.

Grow your own food, anytime, anywhere using the power of the sun!