1001 Old-time Garden Tips

Book excerpt: Timeless bits of wisdom on how to grow everything organically, from the good old days when everyone did Old-time gardeners were ahead of their time! Their ideas for wildflower gardens, children's gardens, organic pest controls, decorating with houseplants, healing with herbs, and more are at the forefront of modern gardening trends. Take a look back to the future of gardening with this incredible collection of gardening advice from successful 17th-, 18th-, 19th-, and early 20th-century gardeners. Early gardeners knew what they were doing--they had to, since they depended on their plants for food, medicine, home decorations, and recreation! Whether you're growing vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruits, trees, shrubs, wildflowers, houseplants, or lawn grass, these old-time tips will help you get the most out of your plantings. Do you want a lusher lawn? How about more beautiful flowerbeds or hints for making your yard look bigger? You'll find all that and more in 1,001 Old-Time Garden Tips. Learn how to read weather signs, improve your soil organically, hide landscape eyesores with ease, decorate your home with flowering vines, and soothe sore joints with herbal remedies. Discover creative ways to landscape your home with fanciful topiary tree houses or practical hedges and windbreaks. From fruits to nuts and artichokes to watermelons, you'll find recommendations for healthier harvests--not to mention recipes for unique and tasty side dishes, drinks, and herbal seasonings. Plus: hundreds of organic techniques that have been proven effective by generations of great gardeners! Look for these special features and more: * "Old-Time Wisdom" boxes present early gardeners' best planting notions. * Tried-and-true recipes from early kitchens will tickle your tastebuds. * "Strange but True" boxes reveal weird, wacky, and wonderful gardening techniques. * A source list makes it easy to locate wonderful old-time plants. * Authentic old-time illustrations take you back to a time when garden tips were on everyone's lips. * A "Recommended Reading" list guides you to more great ideas from the past.