| Author | : Benedict Macdonald |
| Publisher | : HarperCollins UK |
| Total Pages | : 232 |
| Release | : 2020-08-20 |
| Genre | : Sports & Recreation |
| ISBN | : 0008333742 |
By the Wainwright-Conservation-Prize-winning author of Rebirding Spend a year in an orchard, celebrating its imperilled, overlooked abundance of life.
| Author | : Benedict Macdonald |
| Publisher | : Pelagic Publishing Ltd |
| Total Pages | : 372 |
| Release | : 2019-04-08 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 1784271888 |
WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON GLOBAL CONSERVATION Winner of the Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Book Shop Literary Prize ‘splendid’ —Guardian ‘visionary’ —New Statesman Rebirding takes the long view of Britain’s wildlife decline, from the early taming of our landscape and its long-lost elephants and rhinos, to fenland drainage, the removal of cornerstone species such as wild cattle, horses, beavers and boar – and forward in time to the intensification of our modern landscapes and the collapse of invertebrate populations. It looks at key reasons why species are vanishing, as our landscapes become ever more tamed and less diverse, with wildlife trapped in tiny pockets of habitat. It explores how Britain has, uniquely, relied on modifying farmland, rather than restoring ecosystems, in a failing attempt to halt wildlife decline. The irony is that 94% of Britain is not built upon at all. And with more nature-loving voices than any European country, we should in fact have the best, not the most impoverished, wildlife on our continent. Especially when the rural economics of our game estates, and upland farms, are among the worst in Europe. Britain is blessed with all the space it needs for an epic wildlife recovery. The deer estates of the Scottish Highlands are twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. Snowdonia is larger than the Maasai Mara. The problem in Britain is not a lack of space. It is that our precious space is uniquely wasted – not only for wildlife, but for people’s jobs and rural futures too. Rebirding maps out how we might finally turn things around: rewilding our national parks, restoring natural ecosystems and allowing our wildlife a far richer future. In doing so, an entirely new sector of rural jobs would be created; finally bringing Britain’s dying rural landscapes and failing economies back to life.
| Author | : John Matteson |
| Publisher | : W. W. Norton & Company |
| Total Pages | : 512 |
| Release | : 2010-08-13 |
| Genre | : Biography & Autobiography |
| ISBN | : 0393077578 |
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography Louisa May Alcott is known universally. Yet during Louisa's youth, the famous Alcott was her father, Bronson—an eminent teacher and a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. He desired perfection, for the world and from his family. Louisa challenged him with her mercurial moods and yearnings for money and fame. The other prize she deeply coveted—her father's understanding—seemed hardest to win. This story of Bronson and Louisa's tense yet loving relationship adds dimensions to Louisa's life, her work, and the relationships of fathers and daughters.
| Author | : Sheila Connolly |
| Publisher | : Penguin |
| Total Pages | : 276 |
| Release | : 2008-08-05 |
| Genre | : Fiction |
| ISBN | : 1440634017 |
There's a killer in the orchard-and he's rotten to the core. INCLUDES RECIPES Meg Corey has come to the quaint New England town of Granford, Massachusetts, to sell her mother's old colonial home and apple orchard. Instead, she becomes embroiled in development plans that include her land, and her former flame from Boston. When he's found dead in the new septic tank on her property, the police immediately suspect Meg, whose only ally in town is the plumber Seth Chapin. Together, they'll have to peel back the layers of secrecy that surround the deal in order to find the real murderer, and save the orchard.
| Author | : Emma Blair |
| Publisher | : Piatkus |
| Total Pages | : 329 |
| Release | : 2016-10-20 |
| Genre | : Fiction |
| ISBN | : 0349415153 |
Bridie gets a job as a maid on Sir Ian of Seaton's estate and, much against her better judgement and will, falls in love with Sir Ian's brother's step-son, also called Ian. Ian optimistically feels that his father will understand and let them marry but Bridie expects what she gets - dismissal, with Ian threatened with the loss of his inheritance. Ian then gets involved with a burglary on the estate and is killed and Bridie, on hearing this, deciding she can't bear to live with Ian dead, goes out into the snow, lies by his grave and freezes to death . . . Praise for Emma Blair: 'An engaging novel and the characters are endearing - a good holiday read' Historical Novels Review 'All the tragedy and passion you could hope for . . . Brilliant' The Bookseller 'Romantic fiction pure and simple and the best sort - direct, warm and hugely readable. Women's fiction at an excellent level' Publishing News 'Emma Blair explores the complex and difficult nature of human emotions in this passionately written novel' Edinburgh Evening News 'Entertaining romantic fiction' Historical Novels Review '[Emma Blair] is well worth recommending' The Bookseller
| Author | : Pete Brown |
| Publisher | : Penguin UK |
| Total Pages | : 307 |
| Release | : 2016-09-29 |
| Genre | : Gardening |
| ISBN | : 1846148847 |
Taking us through the seasons in England's apple-growing heartlands, this magical book uncovers the stories and folklore of our most familiar fruit. 'An orchard is not a field. It's not a forest or a copse. It couldn't occur naturally; it's definitely cultivated. But an orchard doesn't override the natural order: it enhances it, dresses it up. It demonstrates that man and nature together can - just occasionally - create something more beautiful and (literally) more fruitful than either could alone. The vivid brightness of the laden trees, studded with jewels, stirs some deep race memory and makes the heart leap. Here is bounty, and excitement.'
| Author | : Jonathan Silvertown |
| Publisher | : University of Chicago Press |
| Total Pages | : 225 |
| Release | : 2009-08-01 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 0226757803 |
The story of seeds, in a nutshell, is a tale of evolution. From the tiny sesame that we sprinkle on our bagels to the forty-five-pound double coconut borne by the coco de mer tree, seeds are a perpetual reminder of the complexity and diversity of life on earth. With An Orchard Invisible, Jonathan Silvertown presents the oft-ignored seed with the natural history it deserves, one nearly as varied and surprising as the earth’s flora itself. Beginning with the evolution of the first seed plant from fernlike ancestors more than 360 million years ago, Silvertown carries his tale through epochs and around the globe. In a clear and engaging style, he delves into the science of seeds: How and why do some lie dormant for years on end? How did seeds evolve? The wide variety of uses that humans have developed for seeds of all sorts also receives a fascinating look, studded with examples, including foods, oils, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals. An able guide with an eye for the unusual, Silvertown is happy to take readers on unexpected—but always interesting—tangents, from Lyme disease to human color vision to the Salem witch trials. But he never lets us forget that the driving force behind the story of seeds—its theme, even—is evolution, with its irrepressible habit of stumbling upon new solutions to the challenges of life. "I have great faith in a seed," Thoreau wrote. "Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders." Written with a scientist’s knowledge and a gardener’s delight, An Orchard Invisible offers those wonders in a package that will be irresistible to science buffs and green thumbs alike.
| Author | : Ben Falk |
| Publisher | : Chelsea Green Publishing Company |
| Total Pages | : 323 |
| Release | : 2013 |
| Genre | : Gardening |
| ISBN | : 1603584447 |
The Resilient Farm and Homestead is a manual for developing durable, beautiful, and highly functional human habitat systems fit to handle an age of rapid transition. Ben Falk is a land designer and site developer whose permaculture-research farm has drawn national attention. The site is a terraced paradise on a hillside in Vermont that would otherwise be overlooked by conventional farmers as unworthy farmland. Falk's wide array of fruit trees, rice paddies (relatively unheard of in the Northeast), ducks, nuts, and earth-inspired buildings is a hopeful image for the future of regenerative agriculture and modern homesteading. The book covers nearly every strategy Falk and his team have been testing at the Whole Systems Research Farm over the past decade, as well as experiments from other sites Falk has designed through his off-farm consulting business. The book includes detailed information on earthworks; gravity-fed water systems; species composition; the site-design process; site management; fuelwood hedge production and processing; human health and nutrient-dense production strategies; rapid topsoil formation and remineralization; agroforestry/silvopasture/grazing; ecosystem services, especially regarding flood mitigation; fertility management; human labor and social-systems aspects; tools/equipment/appropriate technology; and much more, complete with gorgeous photography and detailed design drawings. The Resilient Farm and Homestead is more than just a book of tricks and techniques for regenerative site development, but offers actual working results in living within complex farm-ecosystems based on research from the "great thinkers" in permaculture, and presents a viable home-scale model for an intentional food-producing ecosystem in cold climates, and beyond. Inspiring to would-be homesteaders everywhere, but especially for those who find themselves with "unlikely" farming land, Falk is an inspiration in what can be done by imitating natural systems, and making the most of what we have by re-imagining what's possible. A gorgeous case study for the homestead of the future.
| Author | : Jack Staub |
| Publisher | : |
| Total Pages | : 0 |
| Release | : 2013 |
| Genre | : Gardens |
| ISBN | : 9781423621089 |
Private country paradises boasting remarkable plant palettes and combinations. Garden design expert Jack Staub presents more than twenty beautiful and sumptuous private country gardens in Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts. From a romantic garden with cottagey plantings that pays homage to the best of English garden vernacular to a splendid Eden of Maryland countryside meets Himalayan serenity, these garden paradises stand alone on their own terms but offer us examples of what we can all achieve with a modicum of respect, partnership and imagination. A passionate edible gardener and locavore advocate, Jack Staub is the author of the celebrated "75" series of edible gardening books, which includes 75 Exciting Vegetables for Your Garden, 75 Remarkable Fruits for Your Garden, and 75 Exceptional Herbs for Your Garden. With his partner, the renowned landscape designer Renny Reynolds, he is the owner of historic Hortulus Farm in Wrightstown, Pennsylvania: www.hortulusfarm.com. Rob Cardillo's work appears regularly in books, magazines and advertisements. You can see more of his award-winning photography at www.robcardillo.com.
