Loving Nature's Garden » Green Books

How to Raise Chickens

Alison Kerr — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:06:57 +0000

How to Raise Chickens is a 192 page paperback book endorsed by the National Future Farmers of America, written by Christine Heinrichs, and published in 2007 by Voyageur Press.

“Chicken people are the most interesting and helpful group of people I’ve encountered.” Thus begins the introduction in How to Raise Chickens.

Everything You Need to Know

Whether you already love chickens, or are just thinking of getting started, there’s going to be good information in this book for you. I’ve not kept chickens, yet I found lots of interesting stuff here. It’s a good read and full of detail and attractive photos.

It will be of particular interest if you want to learn about different chicken breeds.

What’s in How to Raise Chickens?

When you think of keeping chickens do you think of cute birds scratching in your yard, fresh eggs, raccoons raiding your hen house, or maybe all of the above? There’s information on all of this with 14 chapters in the book as follows:

Why keep chickens – different motivations for keeping chickens, from food, through entertainment, to breed conservation.
Chickens and history – the origins of the domestic chicken, chickens as part of human culture, the spread of chicken keeping in the USA.
Breed types – how to choose breeds, breed characteristics, information on more than 60 breeds with lots of lovely photos.
Obtaining Stock – getting started, hatcheries, finding local resources.
Housing – legal requirements, choose a site, build or buy, chicken tractors, size, light, predators.
Feeding – feed, protein, greens, calcium, feeders and waterers.
Flock management – organic, pastured, barnyard, urban, deep litter, profit.
Breeding programs – goals, trap-nesting, rolling matings, line breeding, clan matings, breeding out-and-out, grading, crossbreeding, sex links.
Incubation and care of chicks – broodiness, broody breeds, hatching, selecting eggs to hatch, artificial incubators, turning, candling, hatch rate, fertility rate, caring for chicks, food and water.
Selection and culling – principles, inbreeding, genetic drift, selecting for production, selecting for conservation and showing, defects, behavioral traits, culling, professional processing.
Showing – attending, preparation, readiness, traveling, etiquette, cooping out.
Health care – good health and husbandry, finding a vet, injuries, administering medication, national poultry improvement plan, bacterial and fungal diseases (11 described), parasitic diseases, diatomaceous earth.
Avian influenza
Legal aspects – poultry ordinances, voluntary agricultural districts, state and federal regulations.
Resources – useful organizations and websites.

What is not in How to Raise Chickens

How to Raise Chickens is a wonderful informational resource, a kind of chicken encyclopedia, rather than a step by step guide. It does not contain any plans for chicken tractors or hen houses.

Get Yourself a Copy

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in chickens because all of the information it contains is thoroughly researched and reliable. I learned a lot from reading it.

I’d like to thank Christine Heinrichs for sending me a copy of this book to review. If you’d like to support Christine you can order a copy through The Poultry Bookstore, or you can support my writing at Loving Nature’s Garden by shopping for How to Raise Chickens at Amazon.com.

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Gardening with Prairie Plants

Alison Kerr — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:44:45 +0000

Gardening with Prairie Plants is a book by Sally Wasowski. Of all the “how to” native gardening books I’ve read this is my out and out favorite. It’s a definite inspiration, full of wonderful detail.

Subtitled “how to create beautiful native landscapes“, if you live east of the Rocky Mountains, you’ll want to add this book to your collection.

I was very excited to receive my very own copy, courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press – now I get to share with you why I love this book.

You Want to Landscape with Prairie Plants? Why?

This is the question Sally Wasowski was asked at the beginning of her journey in writing Gardening with Prairie Plants.

There are many reasons to use prairie flowers and grasses in your garden and many ways to go about planting prairie gardens, no matter how large or small your space. Sally covers all of them in her book, amply illustrated with wonderful photographs, and with an absolute wealth of detail on native plants, their natural ranges, and their growing conditions.

Things to Know About this Book

It’s a 285 page paperback book published in 2002. The author, Sally Wasowski, is a leading authority on landscaping with native plants and has several other published books, and many published magazine articles. Sally has been named a Top Ten Gardener of the South by Southern Living. Sally’s husband Andy Wasowski is the photographer behind this book.

What’s In Gardening with Prairie Plants?

When you think of a prairie do you imagine an open, grass-like, treeless, sun-parched landscape? Prairies in fact contain a mixture of habitats from dry to moist (mesic) and from open, to dotted with shade-giving shrubs or trees (thicket or savanna). All of these various habitats are covered in the book with the following sections:

Part One – Prairies and Prairie Gardens

Getting Acquainted with Prairies - what prairies are.
A Gallery of Home Prairie Gardens - preserved, transplanted, re-created, prairie-like, prairie neighborhoods. Each has photos and illustrated landscape plans with plant names.
Beyond Home Landscapes – examples of prairie planting in public places and commercial situations.
Using Preserved and Replicated Prairies as Models - lowland prairies, mesic prairies, upland prairies, sand prairies, savannas, thicket shrubs. What to do if you have trouble finding a prairie to copy.
Anatomy of a Prairie – soil and root layer, ground layer, grasses and grasslike plants, shapers of prairie.

Part Two – Design, Installation and Maintenance

Designing Prairie Gardens - pocket prairie, bird thicket and savanna, wet prairie garden, nectar garden, food and medicine garden, designing with prairie and woods. There are lots of drawn plans and photos in this section.
Installing Prairie Gardens – history of prairie gardening, preparing a seedbed, what to plant, how to plant.
Maintaining Prairie Gardens – weeds, insects, watering, fire.

Part Three – Plant Profiles

Grasses, Sedges and Rushes – grasses are grouped by family. Each grass has a range distribution map and cultural information. Most grass species described have a photo. There’s a three page reference chart explaining the type of prairie each plant is native to.
Cool Season Forbs - plants with flowers which bloom from spring to mid-summer. Organized by plant family – bean, orchid, lily, iris, primrose, evening primrose, rose, geranium, madder, crowfoot, parsley, borage, saxifrage, bluebell, spiderwort, dogbane, figwort, phlox, flax, mallow, aster. There’s a five page reference chart explaining the types of prairie each of these native plants belongs to.
Warm Season Forbs – plants which flower from May or early June in southern areas and mid-summer in northern areas. Plants are listed by family – mint, acanthus, bean, spurge, milkweed, aster, gentian. There are beautiful photographs and distribution maps, just as with the grasses section, and three and a half pages of reference chart.
Savanna Trees and Thicket Shrubs – trees and shrubs to use along with prairie. Make no more than half of your garden in shade. Families of trees and shrubs are: beech and oak; pine and cypress; willow; rose, plum, and cherry; honeysuckle, including viburnum; dogwood; cashew; citrus; oleaster; buckthorn. There are many photos, as well as maps and two pages of reference charts.

There’s also a glossary and resources section with recommended periodicals, organizations, and plant nurseries (website addresses included). And there’s an extensive four and a half page bibliography.

Who Should Buy Gardening with Prairie Plants

This book is highly suitable for you if you are a native plant enthusiast living east of the Rocky Mountains, a garden designer or landscape architect looking to move toward more natural landscapes, a naturalist who wants to bring the plants you love home to your garden, an ecologist, ecosystem gardener, or someone who just wants to invite wildlife into your garden and really wants to learn.

Don’t Buy This Book If

If you are looking for a classic-style gardening book which uses simple layouts and tells you step by step what to do you could be overwhelmed by the wealth of information in this book. It’s not a book you can absorb at one sitting. Rather it’s a book to come back to again and again as you grow your knowledge.

Gardening with Prairie Plants is available from Amazon.com. I thoroughly recommend this book. Sally Wasowski is also the other of a number of other fabulous native plant gardening books which you’ll want to check out.

Have you read any great green gardening books which I should check out? Have you added native plants to your garden?

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Rain Gardening in the South

Alison Kerr — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:03:18 +0000

Rain Gardening in the South is a book by Helen Kraus and Anne Spafford. Here you will find the information to allow you to decide whether this is the book you need as you plan your rain garden.

Rain Gardening in the South is published by Eno Publishers, a small, non-profit book publishing company which focuses on producing books important to the culture of the Carolinas and the South.

Eno Publishers generously invited me to review this book and provided me with a copy.

Things to Know About Rain Gardening in the South

This is a surprisingly compact book at 142 pages long, considering it seems to contain everything you’d need to know for designing and building a rain garden in the following states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia.

Is it Just for the South?

Although this book is titled “…for the south” it’s usefulness extends beyond the listed states. I am in Kansas and I recognize many of the listed planting suggestions as being suitable for my area.

I’m certainly learning a lot from this book which I can put to use as I plan a rain garden for my Midwest back yard.

What is in Rain Gardening in the South

This is both a thorough and readable book with wonderful diagrams, charts and photographs which explain about how rain gardens work, where to site them, and what to plant.

Chapters are as follows:

Introduction – water in the landscape and why to use rain gardens.
Rain Gardens - what rain gardens do, dry gardens, wet gardens, the anatomy of a rain garden, rain gardens at home and abroad (examples).
Designing a Rain Garden – property factors, water flow, location, style, design and maintenance.
Laying the Groundwork – water movement in soil, size matters, rain barrel vs rain garden, filter beds, soil basics, a rain garden in action. Includes a table with numbers for calculating needed garden size.
Plantings – natives and non-natives, grouping plants by water needs (hyrdozones), composition with plants, shade plants, sun plants, part-shade plants. Tables detail plants by light needs with vines, shrubs, groundcover, perennials, and tree choices. How to choose, plant and maintain healthy plants is also explained.
Troubleshooting – slow drainage, fast drainage, dying plants, erosion, fungi problems.
Other Water-wise Gardening Options – rain barrels, rain chains, drip irrigation, porous hardscapes.
Appendix – soil types and suitable amendments.

The One Thing I’d Like Changed

The plant choice tables contain a wealth of information. I’d like to have seen an indication of which plants are native within the tables.

Who Should Buy Rain Gardening in the South?

I recommend this book for all gardeners who want to do their part for the ecosystem by building a rain garden. While it is most suitable for gardeners in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia there is much valuable information for those gardening in other southern states as well as in the east and midwest.

Shop for Rain Gardening in the South at Amazon.com (list price is $19.95, Amazon.com is selling it, at the time of this article, for $14.96), or online from your local independent bookstore.

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Growing Great Vegetables in the Heartland

Alison Kerr — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:11:23 +0000

Growing Great Vegetables in the Heartland is a vegetable gardening book by Andrea Ray Chandler. Decide whether this is the book you need.

I’ve been on a search for a great vegetable growing book which covers everything I need to know for growing in Kansas, and which I would be happy to recommend to you.

How to Grow Vegetables in Kansas

Growing Great Vegetables in the Heartland is now my first choice book for vegetable gardeners in Kansas and the Midwest. The list price is just $18.95 and it is available for a lot less (currently around $2) through the Amazon.com marketplace.

Things to Like About Growing Great Vegetables…

When it comes to gardening, much of the knowledge you need is regional. It’s worth finding resources customized for your area. This book covers USDA zones 4, 5, and 6 and the following states: South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, most of Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio and parts of Minnesota and Oklahoma.

What You Will Not Find

There is no claim to be using new and amazing methods in this book.

What is in Growing Great Vegetables…

Beyond being a regional book, Andrea Ray Chandler has a no-nonsense, readable, writing style. She covers such things as: composting; mulching; labor saving; organic pest management; indoor seed starting; container gardening; and seed saving in the vegetable garden.

Sections are as follows:

Introduction – what makes the Heartland special for gardening.
Your Garden Ground – soil, composting, digging, raised beds, siting your garden, rainfall and watering needs.
Understanding Catalogs – seed terms, packet sizes and costs, proven winners, narrowing down choices.
Seed Starting and Garden Planning – equipment, containers, indoor starting, transplanting, garden layouts, spacing, maximizing harvest.
Moving Out of Doors – frost dates, plant protection methods, mulch, trellising, tomato cages, supplies.
Spring and Autumn crops – cool season vegetables.
Warm Season Vegetables – squashes, corn, beans, tomatoes etc.
Growing and Cooking with Herbs
Bugs, Slugs and Four-legged Thugs – pests and methods of organic control.
Tool Selection
How to Get Brilliant (no extra charge for this part)!

Who Should Buy Growing Great Vegetables…

Growing Great Vegetables in the Heartland is for anyone living in the Midwest states listed above. Whether you are new to vegetable gardening, or already have some experience, this book has lots of information without being overwhelming. I hesitate to state that it has all the information you need, but it must be close to it.

Shop for this book at Amazon.com (new, or for around $2 from the marketplace) or online from your local independent bookstore.

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A Guide to Happy Family Gardening

Alison Kerr — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:48:32 +0000

This is a book review of A Guide to Happy Family Gardening by Tammerie Spires.

A Guide to Happy Family Gardening is a slim, readable, paperback book published by Good Books. This book was first published in 1999 (Amazon.com incorrectly states that it was published in 1969). Although it is not in stock at Amazon.com you can purchase it through Amazon.com marketplace sellers for around $3. That’s a good deal!

Things to Like about A Guide to Happy Family Gardening

If you’re fond of lists you’ll like this book. It starts with point 1. in the first chapter and continues to point 121. at the end of Chapter 7.

What You Will Not Find

There are no colored illustrations or photographs in this book. There are no garden planting plans.

What is in A Guide to Happy Family Gardening

All the information is presented in bite-sized pieces which is just perfect for busy parents. There are simple and fun suggestions for involving kids, such as “To measure how much water you have applied with the sprinkler, ask a child to set a cup in the garden to catch water.”

Chapters are as follows:

Anytime, Instant Gardening
The Dreaming Season (I love this title) – thinking about what you want to grow and planning your family garden.
The Digging Season
The Planting Season – what you need and how to involve your kids.
The Tending Season
The Harvesting Season – includes some very simple recipes such as pesto and tomato salad as well as information on storing the harvest.
The Sleeping Season
Resources – includes reading suggestions and five simple designs for vegetable garden essentials – composting bin, cold frame, drip system, plant cage, raised bed.

Who Should Buy This Book?

This book is ideal for a beginning gardener who wants to try growing a few vegetables and wants an uncomplicated guide to getting started and involving kids. It certainly won’t answer all of your gardening questions, but it’s an inexpensive and inspiring book to add to your garden book collection.

Notes: written by a mom who speaks from experience. Contains a couple of religious references, such as a Gardener’s Prayer.

Although A Guide to Happy Family Gardening is not in stock at Amazon.com you can purchase it through Amazon.com marketplace sellers for around $3.

Do you have a favorite beginners or family gardening book you’d like to recommend? Are you planning to garden with kids this spring?

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Green Gardener’s Guide

Alison Kerr — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:00:36 +0000

This review is for The Green Gardener’s Guide by Joe Lamp’L. This book is published by Cool Springs Press. It is available from Amazon.com and from your local bookseller through Shop Indie Bookstores.

Joe Lamp’l is a nationally recognized garden writer and host of PBS and DIY Network gardening series GardenSmart and Fresh from the Garden.

Things to Like about The Green Gardener’s Guide

A comprehensive and readable guide to greening all aspects of your garden, whatever type of garden you have, with lots of resources. It is printed on 100% recycled paper.

What You Will Not Find

This is not a garden design book with pretty pictures. There are NO garden photos. It does contain a few lists of plants, but this is a small part of the book. Neither is it a guide to growing food in your garden. Rather it’s a guide to greening whichever kind of garden you are interested in.

What is in The Green Gardener’s Guide?

With 8 chapters and 363 pages The Green Gardener’s Guide is a comprehensive guide to why and how to green your gardening. The chapters are as follows:

Chapter 1 – Gardening to Make a Difference – “By changing a few small habits, gardeners can save billions of gallons of water… all while making the world a more beautiful place!”
Chapter 2 – Conserving Water in the Garden – watering the right amount and at the right times. Lots of ways to save water in the garden.
Chapter 3 – Reducing Garden Chemicals – choosing plants, catching problems early, beneficial insects, biological controls, mulching, worms, solarizing, corn gluten, soil testing, treated woods, de-icers.
Chapter 4 – Landscaping to Control Run-off – protecting topsoil during construction, using perennials, trees and shrubs, porous paving, grading, drainage, terracing, swales, rain gardens, seasonal water features.
Chapter 5 – Turning Waste into Gardening Gold – composting garden and household waste (food scraps, grass, garden trimmings from trees and shrubs), recycling garden and planting stuff like pots, creating garden art out of found objects.
Chapter 6 – Consuming Less Energy – landscaping to reduce cooling and heating needs, trees to purify air, green roofs, prairie and meadow gardens, eco-friendly paving, passive solar design, locally grown materials, grow food, reduce lawn, reduce fuel use, low energy lighting, saving with your swimming pool.
Chapter 7 – Gardening to Protect the Ecosystem – what not to plant, insect traps, responsible wood, water for wildlife, supporting butterflies, NWF Wildlife Habitat Program.
Chapter 8 – Taking it Over the Fence – working with local garden centers, educating neighbors, sharing with neighbors, eco-friendly neighborhood and school gardens, tree preservation and planting, parks and green spaces, bird habitat programs, get political.

Following the chapters are notes with website links for each chapter then there’s a list of actions to take.

Who Should Buy This Book

I recommend this book for any level of gardener who wants to garden responsibly for a green Earth. Even experienced gardeners will be prompted to consider greening aspects of gardening they may not have considered.

The Green Gardener’s Guide is available from Amazon.com and from your local bookseller through Shop Indie Bookstores.

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Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses

Alison Kerr — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:16:18 +0000

Native Ferns, Moss & Grasses is a beautiful hardbound book written by William Cullina of the New England Wildflower Society. Here is my review of Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses – From Emerald Carpet to Amber Wave: serene and sensuous plants for the garden.

I recently checked this book out of my local library. The photos are marvelous and it contains a wealth of inspiration. If you tend to think only of flowers, trees and shrubs for your nature, wildlife, or green garden, I urge you to think again. Ferns, mosses, grasses, sedges and rushes have something wonderful to offer and this book is an inspiration on why and how to use them.

Why Plant Ferns, Mosses, Grasses, Sedges and Rushes?

My favorite part of this book is the introduction. That’s not something I’m prone to say, but in this case its true. The beautiful photographs and eloquent words made me want to start planning a space for verdant ferns and mosses in my nature garden right away.

It’s too bad that Kansas really isn’t great for anything which loves moist, acidic soil. Still, Kansas is a great place for flowing waves of grasses and William Cullina taught me some things I didn’t already know about grasses and suggested some great plants for me to consider.

What You’ll Find in Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses

Information you’ll find in this book includes:

What are Native and Invasive Plants?
Plant Hardiness and Global Warming.
Cultivation – light, soil fertility, soil pH, diseases.
Ferns – introduction, fern habitat, encyclopedia of ferns, fern hybridization and polyploidy
Mosses – introduction, anatomy, gardening with mosses, site preparation, transplanting, wild collecting, maintenance, encyclopedia of mosses.
Grasses, Sedges and Rushes – introduction, gardening with grasses, warm versus cool season grasses, encyclopedia of grasses, sedges and rushes.
Propagation – 28 pages.
Uses and conditions section – ferns, sedges, grasses and rushes listed by uses and conditions.
Sources of native plants, native plant societies listings, gardens and arboreta specializing in native plant displays.

Who Should Buy This Book

I recommend this book for native plant society members, nature and ecosystem gardening professionals, experienced amateur gardeners, and nature lovers who are serious about learning more on native plants, including ferns, mosses, sedges, rushes and grasses.

I do not recommend this book for casual or beginning gardeners. Who knows though, it might just be the inspiration you’d need to become a more serious enthusiast. By all means check it out of your local library or get yourself a copy. It’s a beautiful book.

What do you think? Do you have an interest in adding native ferns, mosses, grasses, sedges or rushes to your nature garden?

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Bringing Nature Home

Alison Kerr — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:24:07 +0000

The Conservation Gardener told me to read Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W Tallamy. I wondered just what could be so great about it; I have read plenty nature books. I’ve even read books about nature gardening. But Carole is a friend of mine and she offered to send me a copy. I jumped at the chance!

Now I’m telling you, “Don’t read this book” unless…

Need One More Environmental Problem?

America is in a mess. Maybe you’ve heard of global warming, water pollution, mountain-top removal. We’re squeezing our native wildlife out, trying to feed our birds and bugs on indigestible imports, and releasing aliens into our gardens to take over our patriotic landscapes. But, who needs one more thing to worry about? Really.

Unless you’re someone who cares about nature, don’t read this book.

Who Has Time for Gardening?

As we toss kids in and out of the SUV, zoom around to dance, soccer, baseball, piano lessons and earn enough to spin the lawn mower so our kids have nice green grass to run on, who has time for planting something you can’t find at Walmart?

Unless you want to stop and visit with nature in your garden, introduce kids to cecropia moths and katydids, provide a rest-stop for migrating avian friends, and learn which tree supports 534 species of butterfly and moth larvae, don’t read this book.

Who Needs a Nature Gardening Rant?

I promise you, this book is not a rant on nature gardening, nor is it a typical garden design book, or a stuffy academic textbook. The author Douglas Tallamy might be professor and chair of the department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware but he has written a book which is readable, scientific, fascinating, and highly digestible. It’s full of amazing bug photos too, if you don’t believe me you can see 1 of them by looking inside at Amazon.com. It also comes recommended by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.

Unless you’re looking for a book which will lead to a true understanding of why American wildlife needs native plants and why you should be gardening with them, don’t read this book.

Get Bringing Nature Home – How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants through my Amazon.com link and contribute $0.49 to the upkeep of Loving Nature’s Garden. But if you’re not yet sure you want this book, at least go ahead and request it from your local library.

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Nature Books, Gardening Books, and Nature Gardening Books

Alison Kerr — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:31:51 +0000

To help you find nature, gardening and nature gardening books you’ll love I’ve created a Loving Nature’s Garden Amazon.com A-store with books and more.

Here’s how this works. Books in the store fit one or more of the following criteria:

Books I Own and Love

I have quite a few books at home and I like to share my favorites. Most of my books have stood the test of time and are not new releases. My books include ones about nature, gardening and on green topics.

Books I’ve Borrowed and Reviewed

At any point in time I am reading 2 or more books, most of which come from the library. I publish reviews here of many of the books I enjoy. You can find book review articles here in the category Books and Reviews, or just visit the Loving Nature’s Garden A-store to see books I recommend.

Books Recommended by Others

I often find really great reading suggestions on topics such as nature, gardening, outdoor kids, organic gardening, homesteading, or growing green. Places I find these books include: at other websites written by people I trust; in lists of award winning books; and at Amazon.com. When I’ve not read a book myself I prefer to list it at my A-store only if it has at least 5 highly rated reviews at Amazon.com and/or if inside views are available.

If you like to shop at Amazon.com please consider shopping through the Loving Nature’s Garden A-store and supporting a small business owner and writer. Otherwise, I hope you will still enjoy my reading suggestions. Please leave me an encouraging comment and subscribe to my RSS feed to keep up with my new reviews.

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Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House

Alison Kerr — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:04:18 +0000

Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House is a book by Carol Venolia and Kelly Lerner. Carol Venolia is an award-winning architect and author. Kelly Lerner is an architect and innovator in the fields of sustainable development and straw-bale construction.

I recently checked this book out of my local library. Half-way through reading I’m really impressed by how much I’ve learned from it.

How Can I Improve My Existing Home?

You might have read or seen some of the environmental options for building a new home. Most of us aren’t building a new home though. What can be done to improve an existing home? This book gives lots of ideas to answer that question.

I like that the first thing you are asked to do before designing a remodel is to complete a rather extensive questionnaire about how you live in your house and the things you value in the indoor and outdoor environment. In fact you are advised to have each member of your household complete the questionnaire.

This book isn’t just about design or remodeling it’s about:

Indoor and outdoor living spaces.
Using sunlight and passive solar gain.
Your home as part of the natural environment.
Wind direction, air movement through your home, and how good or bad design influences fuel use.
Water in your home and landscape.
Using paving, trees, and vines to control temperature and humidity in your indoor and outdoor living spaces.

Good and Not So Good

Although Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House contains some ideas for projects you can do now its strength lies in outlining the steps to form an overall comprehensive plan to improve an existing home. To get the best from the advice in this book will involve projects which involve considerable time and money.

The good thing is that I think this book can lead you to some really wonderful solutions for not just greening your home, but for fitting your home to the natural environment and for fully fitting it to your needs. And some great guidelines are given to help you choose reasonable solutions that will have payback. It’s an especially ideal book for someone buying an older home with a commitment to remodel.

My one criticism is that I’d like to have seen more attention paid to relating solutions to climate zones. While there is an upfront declaration of the importance of climate zone I think more could have been done to tie solutions covered in the text to zones by using symbols or charts.

What do you think? Do you have an interest in greening your home?

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