In a time of climate change and mass extinction, how we garden matters more than ever: "An outstanding and deeply passionate book." —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of AnimalsPlenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much—not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal co...

Peeling off sheets of skin from a sunburned back. Visiting five nurseries and spending $1,000 in an afternoon. Raising 200 monarch butterflies. Feeding grasshoppers to a spider. Hearing the wings of geese thirty feet overhead at sunset. How one piece of mulch can make all the difference. These are the stories of Benjamin Vogt’s 1,500 foot native prairie garden over the course of three years. After a small patio garden at his last home teases him into avid tinkering, the blank canvas of his...

An essential guide to rethinking and remaking the American landscape.Never before have so many people been as eager to rethink their lawns and garden with native plant communities. From over-tapped aquifers, polluted waterways, the heat island effect, and the plight of pollinators and birds, everyday gardeners, garden designers, landscape architects, and city planners are rethinking landscaping as something integral to the health and future of our communities. UNLA...

Connecting to nature with native plantsLandscaping with native plants has encouraged gardeners from the Midwest and beyond to embark on a profound scientific, ecological, and emotional partnership with nature. Benjamin Vogt shares his expertise with prairie plants in a richly photographed guide aimed at gardeners and homeowners, making big ideas about design approachable and actionable. Step-by-step blueprints point readers to plant communities that not only suppor...

Anyone who has always wanted to draw in colored pencil but finds all those colors intimidating can breathe a sigh of relief after opening this book. Drawing Made Easy: Colored Pencil shows readers how to draw almost anything in colored pencil with ease! After introducing readers to the tools and materials needed to get started, award-winning artist Eileen Sorg demonstrates how to draw flowers, still lifes, animals, and a variety of other objects by building up color and form in simple laye...

This guide is designed to be a simple approach to a complex tradition dating back nearly a thousand years - the art of Bonsai! As a beginner, this ebook will help you to soon master your skills of growing and maintaining your very own bonsai, covering every topic from varying styles and shaping techniques to propagating and appropriate display.

Claudia Nice shows you how to turn ink and watercolors into the coarse-barked trunk of an oak, or the burnished smoothness of brass, or the verdant velvet of moss. Or any of many other things. She shows you how to use dots, fine lines, brushstrokes, black and white, color-a mixture of mediums and techniques-to suggest:• glass• cast iron• adobe and brick• sunrise and sunset• driftwood• leaf textures• basketry• surf and ocean waves

An easy to read, how-to guide with complete instructions for creating lifelike portraits of wild and domestic animals using colored pencils.In this comprehensive, thirty-two–page book, accomplished artist Debra Kauffman Yaun shares her artistic insights and techniques for creating strikingly realistic animal drawings in colored pencil. The book opens with essential information on choosing tools and materials, understanding color theory, and creating basic pencil str...

If we garden, we have seen damage done by insects. Whether it is damage done to fruits and vegetables or to our prized ornamentals, it is frustrating to say the least. Often, seeing the damage provokes our indignation and we declare war on all the insects in the garden without considering the repercussions that our actions might bring. Instead of pulling a chemical pesticide off the shelf, an alternative method of insect pest control would be to attract the natural predators to our gardens...

Put a new face on fun!No matter what your experience level, you can turn everyday faces into sweet, funny or frightening works of art that move, laugh, grow and always make people smile! The first half of this book features fun, friendly transitions, such as birds and butterflies, puppies and princesses, knights and night skies. Part Two crosses over to the dark side with strikingly horrible, downright unnerving personas, including vampires, zombies, gargoyles and ...

Donna's unique One-Stroke method - which lets you blend, shade and highlight all in one stroke - makes painting quick and easy. And there's just no better way to learn this technique than by Donna's example.In this book, Donna leads you through all the strokes you need - shell strokes, C-strokes and more - to create leaves, roses, fruit, ribbons and many other beautiful subjects. You'll also find 12 step-by-step projects that show how Donna's One-Stroke method can be used to decora...

Since 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.