If you are just getting started with chickens, this charming book has the fresh, natural voice of a wise old neighbor sharing a lifetime of experience and skill. As Minnie Rose Lovgreen explains, chickens are the gardner's best friends, eagerly eating weeds, seeds, and bugs. They fluff up soil beautifully, enriching it with their homemade fertilizer as they make it ready to plant. This book will be a splendid guide for beginners and an absolute delight for chicken lovers everywhere.

"The main thing is to keep them happy."

NEW! The Biochar Debate: Charcoal's Potential to Reverse Climate Change & Build Soil Fertility
by James Bruges 2009, 120pp, $15

The Biochar Debate is the first book to introduce both the promise and concerns surrounding biochar (fine-grained charcoal used as a soil supplement) to nonspecialists. Charcoal making is an ancient technology. Recent discoveries suggest it may have a surprising role to play in combating global warming. This is because creating and burying biochar removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Furthermore, adding biochar to soil can increase the yield of food crops and the ability of soil to retain moisture, reducing need for synthetic fertilizers and demands on scarce fresh-water supplies.

While explaining the excitement of biochar proponents, Bruges also gives voice to critics who argue that opening biochar production and use to global carbon-credit trading schemes could have disastrous outcomes, especially for the world’s poorest people. The solution, Bruges explains, is to promote biochar through an alternative approach called the Carbon Maintenance Fee that avoids the dangers. This would establish positive incentives for businesses, farmers, and individuals to responsibly adopt biochar without threatening poor communities with displacement by foreign investors seeking to profit through seizure of cheap land.

The Biochar Debate covers the essential issues from experimental and scientific aspects of biochar in the context of global warming to fairness and efficiency in the global economy to negotiations for the future of the Kyoto Protocol.

Small-Scale Livestock Farming:
A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit
by Carol Ekarius 1999, 217pp, $19

A natural, organic, grass-based approach to livestock management for healthier animals, reduced feed and healthcare costs, and maximum profitability.

Through case studies of successful farmers, nitty-gritty details on every facet of livestock farming, and fascinating insights for working with nature instead of against it, you'll learn to make your farm thrive.

This wonderfully illustrated book is full of "I wish somebody had told me that!" information, from the "big picture" of small-scale-farming to mathematical equations for figuring feeds and feeding or interest and payments. The book is divided into sections on: The Roots of Grass-Based Farming, Animal Husbandry, Marketing, and Planning.

Ekarius has been a full-time livestock farmer for over a decade, in addition to writing for a variety of newspapers and magazines. This book is a wonderful meld of those skills. It is for "those people who are still in the dreaming phase, and for those who have recently taken the plunge." But Ekarious does such a good job of laying out her information that even city slickers will enjoy browsing through this book and picking up interesting bits of information such as how to use an animal's point of balance to move it backwards or forwards, or the anatomy of a goat.

Roots Demystified
by Robert Kourik  2008, 165pp, $25

Roots Demystified is the only book in print for gardeners with such an extensive variety of root illustrations. There are twenty-five meticulous drawings produced by horticultural researchers who actually dug, troweled, dusted, mapped, and drew their way through entire growing root systems, down to the tiniest root. The resulting illustrations are a revelation of the beauty contained in the actual patterns, and habits of rooting plants. Guidelines also provide a home gardener with tips for the practical use of the new information.

The Backyard Vintner: An Enthusiast's Guide to Growing Grapes
and Making Wine at Home
by Jim Law 2005, 176pp., $20

Anyone who ever wanted to have homemade wine and never thought they had the space or ability to make it will love this book. The Backyard Vintner is a handy guide to at-home wine making that teaches readers the tips and tricks of the trade. It is perfect for those who want to bring the feeling of wine country right into their own backyard.

Basic approaches to Tanks, Rainwater Catchment, Ram Pumps, Ground Recharge, Urban Stormwater, Ponds, Dowsing

Building Living Soil booklet
32pp., $7

Basic understanding of and approaches to soil health. Soil fertility, Earthworms, Cover Cropping, Getting the Most out of Your Compost Pile, the Art and Science of Sheet Mulching, Rhizosphere Wars: Tree & Soil Health, Keyline Planning for Soil Improvement, Very Intensive Beds, Silt as a Resource, Roof Gardens Using Leaves, Soil Pesticide Detox.

161 pp., 2006, $30

"Aside from some particularly thoughtful frogs and phragmites, no one on earth knows more about ponds than Tim Matson." -- Michael Pollan,

One of America's most beloved garden writers reflects on life with a pond. Whether it's fishing by moonlight, planting iris and weeping willows, catching crawfish, or supervising an unruly crowd of ducks, Louise Riotte knows how to get the most fun out of a family pond. She shares her experiences in this entertaining book, presented with her trademark mix of facts, anecdotes, lore, and lively humor. Includes:

• How the Riotte family built a pond
• Tips on fish farming with catfish, bass, or trout
• Creating a backyard pool for frogs and water lilies
• Waterside plants -- beneficial and harmful
• Recipes, stories, and fascinating asides