Self-Sustainability

Grow more food, with less work, in any yard – now completely revised and expanded!

Are you itching to start your own garden or grow more in the one you have, but feel that gardening is too challenging or time-consuming for your busy schedule?

Now completely updated and expanded, Backyard Bounty will demystify gardening, bringing it back to the down-to-earth, environmentally practical activity that anyone can enjoy.

Author and master gardener Linda Gilkeson covers everything you'll need to grow a successful garden, including:

• Planning your garden and preparing the soil
• Organic fertilizers and simplified composting
• Planting for winter harvests and intensive planting schedules
• Comprehensive information on pests, diseases, and working with an unstable climate
• Greenhouses, tunnels and containers
• Organic pest management.

Packed with a wealth of information specific to the Pacific Northwest, this complete guide emphasizes low-maintenance methods, covers problems related to common pests and climate concerns, includes a monthly garden schedule for year-round planting and harvesting, and features plant profiles for everything from apples to zucchini.

Perfect for novice and experienced gardeners alike, Backyard Bounty shows how even the smallest garden can produce a surprising amount of food twelve months of the year.

Reviews
"Backyard Bounty is very likely the best book ever written on growing food in the Pacific Northwest, and it sets a whole new standard for garden writing. By acknowledging the impacts of climate change on our gardens, Gilkeson further elevates the literature. This is the first “real time” gardening book. It is fresh and timely, and every page courses with practical advice and revelations. All growers should own this amazing and insightful book, and we should refer back to it often." —Mark Macdonald, West Coast Seeds

"Ideal for both new and seasoned gardeners, this new edition adds more listings to the detailed fruit and vegetable profiles, updates variety choices, and supplies practical information on dealing with common pests and diseases, including new ones to our region. Tips on adapting gardening practices to changing weather patterns are eminently helpful, as is a focus on the soil as a life force that fosters health in plants." —Helen Chesnut, Garden columnist, Times Colonist

"Whether you have a small or large lot, little or plenty of time, this book shows you how to grow your own toxic-free fruit and vegetables the whole year-round. From preparing the ground to harvesting and storing the ripened produce, all is clearly explained. An invaluable book for novices and experienced gardeners". —Barry Roberts, Past-President, Master Gardeners Association of BC

Additional Information
384 pages | 7.50" x 9.00" | 120 b&w illustrations and photographs 

What can we do, right now, in our own landscapes, to help solve climate change?

Predictions about future effects of climate change range from mild to dire - but we're already seeing warmer winters, hotter summers, and more extreme storms. Proposed solutions often seem expensive and complex, and can leave us as individuals at a loss, wondering what, if anything, can be done.

Sue Reed and Ginny Stibolt offer a rallying cry in response - instead of wringing our hands, let's roll up our sleeves. Based on decades of experience, this book is packed with simple, practical steps anyone can take to beautify any landscape or garden, while helping protect the planet and the species that call it home. Topics include:

• Working actively to shrink our carbon footprint through mindful landscaping and gardening
• Creating cleaner air and water
• Increasing physical comfort during hotter seasons
• Supporting birds, butterflies, pollinators, and other wildlife.

This book is the ideal tool for homeowners, gardeners, and landscape professionals who want to be part of the solution to climate change.

Reviews
"Sue Reed and Ginny Stibolt bring complementary backgrounds to bear on the subject of how we can adapt our landscapes to a changing climate. Starting from the premise that the impacts of climate change will only become more severe in the future, the authors have created a comprehensive book that outlines dozens of actions that people can take to adjust to evolving climate regimes. In the process, they articulate a new gardening aesthetic for people who work with small garden plots, farms and woodlots. The result is a positive and hopeful story of how people can use their imagination and ingenuity to help craft more resilient landscapes." -Dr. Peter Robinson, former CEO, David Suzuki Foundation

"Climate-Wise Landscaping is a comprehensive, yet easy to read, source of information on climate-change adaptation and mitigation actions for the homeowner, gardener, and landscape professional. Beautiful photos and pleasing graphics illustrate key ideas and actions while informative sidebars and inspiring quotes from climate and landscape experts provide clarity of complex systems and motivation to adapt to a changing future. The text provides an engaging blend of broad ideas along with specific actions we can take to adapt to climate-change at the level of our home landscapes, whether a small garden plot within an urban area or twenty acres in the countryside." -Julie Richburg, Ph.D., Ecologist

"Given the lateness of the hour, a book on climate-wise landscaping could not be more timely or more necessary. We are moving into a new and critical era, and this book takes landscape professionals and home gardeners where they need to go. The facts, well-presented and practical, will be an eye-opener for many people, and empower us as horticulturists of all stripes to do what is both helpful and imperative. Landscaping has always been more than just exterior decorating, and now we have one more tool in our kit to make the landscape ecosystem a part of the solution. Thank you, Sue and Ginny, for hitting a home run." -Owen Dell RLA, ASLA, landscape architect, educator, author, Owen Dell & Associates

"Gardening is not always as green and good for the planet as we might think. Sue Reed and Ginny Stibolt open our eyes to surprisingly common, unsustainable landscaping practices and inspire us to rethink how we create and care for land. This fantastic resource is filled with climate-wise solutions for anyone who owns or manages a piece of ground – even if it’s just a few containers on a tiny rooftop garden. You will quickly learn about exiting ways to offset some of the effects we people have on the planet. The book is easy to navigate and it passionately links better gardening practices with better life quality and a brighter future for our planet." -Claudia West ASLA, Principal, PHYTO STUDIO LLC

Additional Information
320 pages | 7.50" x 9.00" | full colour throughout

From fiddleheads to spruce tips, wild food can be adventurous and fun--with the right guide. In Eating Wild in Eastern Canada, award-winning author and conservationist Jamie Simpson shows readers what to look for in the wilds and how and when to collect it.

Grouping foods by their most likely foraging locations—forests, fields, and shorelines—and with 50 full-colour photographs, identification is made accessible for the amateur hiker, wilderness enthusiast, and foodie alike. Includes historical notes and recipes, cautionary notes on foraged foods' potential dangers, and interviews with wild-edible gatherers and chefs. While gathering wild edibles may be instinctive to some, there is an art to digging for soft-shelled clams and picking highbush cranberries, and Simpson joyfully explores it in this one-of-a-kind narrative guidebook.

Additional Information
152 pages | 6.50" x 9.00" | Paperback

From sunfish to catfish, there are almost 800 species of freshwater fish in North America. Freshwater Fishes is the ideal pocket-sized, folding guide for the avid angler. This beautifully illustrated guide highlights over 120 familiar species. Laminated and durability, this handy guide will fit into your pocket as you cast your fishing rod into the pristine water.

Additional Information
12 pages | 3.75" x 8.25" | Foldable guide 

Sanikiluaq, a small Inuit community in the Belcher Islands region of the Far North, has a long history of artistic output. But as the demand for stone carvings grew, grass basket sewing—once a traditional skill for Inuit women—faded from the community consciousness. That was until a group of women, including educator and artist Margaret Lawrence, came together to renew the lost art of basket sewing.

In Our Hands Remember: Recovering Sanikiluaq Basket Sewing, Lawrence guides readers through creating their own grass baskets in the unique style of the Sanikiluaq region with step-by-step instructions and photographs. From tips on preparing the grass and forming even coils to the different types of embellishments, this book is accessible to all skill levels.

Additional Information
120 pages | 9.00" x 8.50" | Colour Photographs

Food recalls, dubious health claims, scary and shocking ingredients in health and beauty products. Our increasingly industrialized supply system is becoming more difficult to navigate, more frightening, and more frustrating, leaving us feeling stuck choosing in many cases between the lesser of several evils.

Author Deborah Niemann offers healthier, more empowering choices, by showing us how to reclaim links in our food and purchasing chains, to make choices that are healthier for our families, ourselves, and our planet.

In this fully updated and revised edition of Homegrown and Handmade, Deborah shows how making things from scratch and growing some of your own food can help you eliminate artificial ingredients from your diet, reduce your carbon footprint, and create a more authentic life.

Whether your goal is increasing your self-reliance or becoming a full-fledged homesteader, it's packed with answers and solutions to help you rediscover traditional skills, take control of your food from seed to plate, and much more.

This comprehensive guide to food and fiber from scratch proves that attitude and knowledge is more important than acreage. Written from the perspective of a successful, self-taught modern homesteader, this well-illustrated, practical, and accessible manual will appeal to anyone who dreams of a more empowered life.

Additional Information
336 pages | 7.50" x 9.00" | 2nd Edition

“We are all visitors to this land, our land has so much to offer, our land is overflowing with the medicines our bodies need, but we are only passing through. With respect, our purpose is to watch, to learn, to grow, to love, to teach. Then we will return home.” – Caroline Sanoffsky

Muskgege is a written record of traditional knowledge, passed down through the generations. It features descriptions and illustrations of 36 wild plants that can be used to make medicines. It is a beautiful and compelling reminder of the important role nature plays in First Nations culture.

Educator Information
Grades 6 and under.

With over forty years since its original printing, and over 30,000 copies sold, this bestselling guide still remains a trusted and much-consulted reference for those interested in identifying, foraging and growing wild plants for food and medicine. Now Some Useful Wild Plants is back in print for a new generation of foragers and herbalists.

Some Useful Wild Plants contains sections on useful herbs, trees, berries and seaweeds, as well as commentary on avoiding poisonous species. Pick the young tender leaves of orach, salsify and miner's lettuce for a delicious and vitamin-rich spring salad or stir-fry. Concoct a cherry bark and licorice fern syrup to soothe a sore throat. Repel insects naturally using sage oil or vanilla leaf. From alder to yarrow, each featured plant has useful descriptors for identification and details on how to harvest, as well as how the plant is traditionally used for medicine by First Nations, pioneers and contemporary herbalists. Clear line drawings are provided to assist foragers in accurate identification. Directions are included for the preparation of ointments, salves, poultices, compresses and tinctures.

Dan Jason also addresses sustainability when foraging to ensure that harvesting supports the continuous growth of the plant and the natural environment.

Reviews
Great for both foragers and growers, the book draws from many sources, including the rich traditions of First Nations healers and Doukhobor wildcrafters, to identify the properties and uses of a wide range of plant life.... For those who feel skeptical about corporate farming and modern society’s mediated relationship with nature, this guide is a breath of fresh air. — Publishers Weekly

Occasional black-and-white illustrations enhance this venerable and practical guide sustainable foraging. From edible wild plants, to natural remedies for common ailments, to poisonous plants that should be meticulously avoided, Some Useful Wild Plants is reader-friendly, practical-minded, and highly recommended. — Midwest Book Review

Additional Information
186 pages | 5.00" x 7.00" | Line drawings | Revised edition

Fertilize your garden naturally--a guide to growing your plants in healthy, happy soil

People want to know where their food comes from, who grows it and how it is grown. Interest in permaculture, backyard composting, and gardening in general, is growing. So how does the budding gardener ensure that his soil is healthy and nutrient-rich enough to support all the produce he intends to grow? Here's a hint--think worms! Vermiculture is the healthiest and most cost-effective way to ensure that your soil receives the nourishment that it needs. A simple vermicompost bin can produce the completely natural , nutrient-rich fertilizer that can be used to boost soil health and, in turn, increase your crop yield.

In true Crystal Stevens' fashion, Worms at Work is a practical, easy-to-implement guide to fertilizing your garden naturally. It discusses the vital role worms play in boosting soil health, and the reasons why every gardener should use vermicompost in order to decrease reliance on toxic synthetic fertilizers. Coverage includes:

• Simple designs to build your own vermicompost bin
• Caring for your worms
• Garden applications for your worm castings
• Lesson plans to incorporate vermicomposting into the school science curriculum
• Whether you're tending to a small backyard garden or managing a large farm, Worms at Work can show you how to start vermicomposting today in order to grow healthy plants in healthy, happy soil.

Educator & Series Information
Useful for incorporating vermicomposting into the school science curriculum and school gardens.

This book is part of the Homegrown City Life Series:
You’d like to be self-sufficient, but the space you have available is tighter than your budget. If this sounds familiar, the Homegrown City Life series was created just for you! Authors of this series will help you navigate the wide world of homesteading, regardless of how big (or small!) your space and budget may be. Topics range from cheesemaking to gardening and composting—everything the budding urban homesteader needs to succeed!

Increase your self-reliance

• Take back DIY skills
• Work with the space you have, apartment balcony or suburban backyard
• Learn about fermenting, crafting, growing, preserving, and other skills for the urban homesteader.

Additional Information
224 pages | 7.50" x 9.00"

The waters of the Pacific Northwest are home to some of the most unique and diverse marine creatures in the world, including rockfishes, greenlings and, of course, salmon. This full-colour brochure is packed with information on seventy-eight "must-have" common fishes of the Pacific Northwest. A Field Guide to Common Fish of the Pacific Northwest provides a succinct rundown on a huge variety of our fishy neighbours, and is an ideal guide for fishermen, divers and anyone interested in the marine life that fills our surrounding waters.

A Field Guide to Foraging for Wild Greens and Flowers pinpoints easy-to-find greens and flowers that many don't realize are edible--such as dandelion, clover, chicory, sheep's sorrel and lamb's quarters--and also introduces readers to the delicious leaves of such native plants as goldenrod and fireweed. And readers can also eat their way to conservation by enjoying edible invasive plants in salads, like garlic mustard and fennel. A lightweight pamphlet that will easily fit into a purse or back pocket, this laminated guide will turn every walk from the bus stop, backyard ramble or stroll around the neighbourhood into a fun foraging expedition.

Additional Information
2 pages | 4.60" x 8.80"

Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information she shares in Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask. Geniusz gained much of the knowledge she writes about from her years as an oshkaabewis, a traditionally trained apprentice, and as friend to the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman from the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan and a scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of native ethnobotany. Keewaydinoquay published little in her lifetime, yet Geniusz has carried on her legacy by making this body of knowledge accessible to a broader audience.

Geniusz teaches the ways she was taught—through stories. Sharing the traditional stories she learned at Keewaydinoquay’s side as well as stories from other American Indian traditions and her own experiences, Geniusz brings the plants to life with narratives that explain their uses, meaning, and history. Stories such as “Naanabozho and the Squeaky-Voice Plant” place the plants in cultural context and illustrate the belief in plants as cognizant beings. Covering a wide range of plants, from conifers to cattails to medicinal uses of yarrow, mullein, and dandelion, she explains how we can work with those beings to create food, simple medicines, and practical botanical tools.

Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask makes this botanical information useful to native and nonnative healers and educators and places it in the context of the Anishinaabe culture that developed the knowledge and practice.

Additional Information
344 pages | 7.00" x 10.00" | Paperback

If wild berry foragers followed vague advice such as "berries of red and you'll soon be dead" or "berries of blue will do harm to you" imagine how many of nature's delicacies would be passed by! On the other hand, for anyone who has thought twice before popping that delicious-looking morsel into their mouth, the reality of poisonous berries growing in the wild is reason enough to be berry aware.

With a basketful of information presented on a two-sided, lightweight and pocket-sized pamphlet, A Field Guide to Edible Fruits and Berries of the Pacific Northwest is the perfect resource for wild fruit- and berry-lovers of all ages, whether on a short walk in the woods or a backcountry hiking trip. In addition to more commonly identified specimens such as strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, explore the delicious possibilities of evergreen huckleberries, cloudberries and crowberries, and learn how to tell the edible lingonberry from the poisonous baneberry.

Each entry is illustrated with a colour photograph and accompanied by a brief description and seasonal availability to help identify more than forty kinds of fruits and berries found in the wild, along with information on how best to prepare and preserve the edible ones.

Additional Information
2 pages | 37.00" x 9.00" | field guide with 50 colour photographs

How knowledge of plants and environments has been applied and shared over centuries and millennia by Indigenous peoples.

Volume 1: The History and Practice of Indigenous Plant Knowledge
Volume 2: The Place and Meaning of Plants in Indigenous Cultures and Worldviews

Nancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge, she integrates her research into a two-volume ethnobotanical tour-de-force. Drawing on information shared by Indigenous botanical experts and collaborators, the ethnographic and historical record, and from linguistics, palaeobotany, archaeology, phytogeography, and other fields, Turner weaves together a complex understanding of the traditions of use and management of plant resources in this vast region. She follows Indigenous inhabitants over time and through space, showing how they actively participated in their environments, managed and cultivated valued plant resources, and maintained key habitats that supported their dynamic cultures for thousands of years, as well as how knowledge was passed on from generation to generation and from one community to another. To understand the values and perspectives that have guided Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge and practices, Turner looks beyond the details of individual plant species and their uses to determine the overall patterns and processes of their development, application, and adaptation.

Volume 1 presents a historical overview of ethnobotanical knowledge in the region before and after European contact. The ways in which Indigenous peoples used and interacted with plants - for nutrition, technologies, and medicine - are examined. Drawing connections between similarities across languages, Turner compares the names of over 250 plant species in more than fifty Indigenous languages and dialects to demonstrate the prominence of certain plants in various cultures and the sharing of goods and ideas between peoples. She also examines the effects that introduced species and colonialism had on the region's Indigenous peoples and their ecologies.

Volume 2 provides a sweeping account of how Indigenous organizational systems developed to facilitate the harvesting, use, and cultivation of plants, to establish economic connections across linguistic and cultural borders, and to preserve and manage resources and habitats. Turner describes the worldviews and philosophies that emerged from the interactions between peoples and plants, and how these understandings are expressed through cultures’ stories and narratives. Finally, she explores the ways in which botanical and ecological knowledge can be and are being maintained as living, adaptive systems that promote healthy cultures, environments, and indigenous plant populations.

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge both challenges and contributes to existing knowledge of Indigenous peoples' land stewardship while preserving information that might otherwise have been lost. Providing new and captivating insights into the anthropogenic systems of northwestern North America, it will stand as an authoritative reference work and contribute to a fuller understanding of the interactions between cultures and ecological systems.

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Volume One

Figures and Tables ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xv
Note on the Writing System Used in This Book xxxi

1 Introduction to the Book: Ethnobotanical and Ethnoecological Knowledge across Time and Space 3

Part One | History
2 Into the Past: Ancient Relationships among People, Plants, and Environments 43
3 Reflections on Plant Names in Understanding the History of People-Plant Relationships 117
4 Change, Loss, and Adaptation of Plant Traditions 191

Part Two | Development
5 Plants as Food: Development, Diversity, Dissemination 263
6 Plant Use in Technology over Time and Space 335
7 Herbal Medicine and Healing Traditions 415

Appendix 1: Major Sources of Information for the Book 467
Appendix 2: Names of Selected Native Plant Species in Indigenous Languages of Northwestern North America 473
Appendix 3: Names of Two Introduced Plants (Turnip and Potato) in Indigenous Languages of Northwestern North America 507
Notes 515

Volume Two

Figures and Tables ix
Preface xiii

Part Three - Integration and ManaGement
8 Moving for the Harvest: Seasonal Rounds and Plant Knowledge 3
9 Cultural Institutions Related to Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Practice 51
10 Trade and Exchange: Sharing Plant Products and Ethnobotanical Knowledge across Geographical and Cultural Space 101
11 Management and Sustainability of Plant Resources and Habitats 145

Part Four - UnderlyinG Philosophy
12 Narratives in Transmission of Ethnobotanical Knowledge 231
13 Worldview and Belief Systems in Ethnobotanical Knowledge Systems 297
14 Ancient Pathways and New Pathways for Retaining and Renewing Botanical and Environmental Knowledge Systems for the Future 351

Notes 413
References 441
Index of Plant Species 503
General Index 513

Additional Information
1056 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover