The Good Garden: How to Nurture Pollinators, Soil, Native Wildlife, and Healthy Food – all in Your Own Backyard
This thorough introduction will help you build meaning into your garden right alongside bean trellises and compost beds.
Thoughtful Gardening
With the days finally getting longer and the first blooms of the season bobbing their heads in warming breezes, all I’ve been thinking about is garden planning. My backyard garden has been a source of joy and learning for many years, and I’m always amazed at what the dirt can teach me. This season, I’m working toward making my little green space a contributor to a more sustainable local ecology through permaculture practices.
“Permaculture” can be an intimidating word for those of us with tiny city gardens, but it basically means aligning your gardening habits to the systems that naturally occur in the local environment. Plant flowers to attract native pollinators! Learn about companion planting and native species! Encourage biodiversity! Help your green spaces do the things they do best. A thriving ecosystem helps our cultural landscapes thrive, too! Explore the list below to learn how to start small, reduce waste, and build joyful, bountiful communities.
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Groundcover Revolution: How to Use Sustainable, Low-Maintenance, Low-Water Groundcovers to Replace Your Turf
Tired of all the work required to keep a tidy grass lawn? This book will help you plant low-maintenance groundcovers that look great, use less water, and encourage biodiversity.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla.
How to Create a Wildlife Garden: Encouraging Birds, Bees, Butterflies and Bugs into Your Outside Space
Welcome beneficial winged creatures into your garden to help your plants flourish. Pollinators are a vital part of any healthy growing space. Here’s your chance to make friends with a bee!
The Milkweed Lands
Milkweed is an important part of a healthy southwestern Pennsylvania ecosystem throughout all four seasons. Lushly illustrated by Beverly Duncan, this enlightening guide is also a feast for the eyes.
The Regenerative Garden
These 80 small-scale projects divided into Soil, Water, Plants, Climate, Ethics, and Community are a great way to get started with sustainable garden practices. Learn by doing!
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
A memoir about the benefits of cultivating gardening and cultural spaces. Nature writing at its finest.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy
This collection of interviews, essays, poems, and photographs celebrating the history and present-day lives of Black farmers will help you build meaning into your garden right alongside bean trellises and compost beds.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby, as an eBook on Hoopla, and in eAudio on Hoopla.
We Are the Ark: Returning Our Gardens to Their True Nature with Acts of Restorative Kindness
Award-winning gardener Mary Reynolds makes a moving argument for the power of a tiny garden as necessary to the success of the larger network of natural and human-guided processes of growth.