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The Greens of Summer

By Skokie Staff Advisory Services

Summer is a time to get outside and enjoy the warm weather. This means picnics, cookouts, camping, and hitting the beach. It's also a time to exercise that green thumb of yours. So get out into the garden and grow some stuff.

  • Raised Bed Revolution

    2016 by Tara Nolan

    Raised beds are great for your backyard or for creating community gardens in unused city lots. They have good drainage, are easy to maintain, and can even be mobile as some folks put wheels on theirs so they be moved to follow the sunlight throughout the day. This book features great photography as well as tips and advice on how to get in on the raised bed garden revolution.

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  • How to Build, Maintain, and Use a Compost System : Secrets and Techniques You Need to Know to Grow the Best Vegetables

    2010 by Kelly M Smith

    Ah, sweet compost. It's manna from heaven for a growing garden. Smith's book provides the budding gardener the basics of building and maintaining a compost system including how to get started, the science of composting, building piles and bins, and keeping the system going. So put those banana peels, coffee grounds, and red wigglers (earthworms) to work and let them do their thing.

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  • Weeds : In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants

    2010 by Richard Mabey

    Beauty lies in eye of the beholder, or maybe I should say, in the yard of the beholder. British nature writer Richard Mabey does not consider weeds to be ugly or invasive and he wrote this book in defense of a few of his favorites. From thoroughwort and knotgrass to burdock and Grelda, these plants have value, so don't call them weeds and don't let them ruin your summer. Learn to love them because, as Winnie the Pooh's friend Eeyore once observed: "Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

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  • Jerry Baker's Bug Off! : 2,193 Super Secrets for Battling Bad Bugs, Outfoxing Crafty Critters, Evicting Voracious Varmints and Much More!

    2004 by Jerry Baker

    You may be able to learn to love weeds, but bugs? Not as likely. Don't worry, Master Gardener Jerry Baker has a few thousand ideas on how you can limit the impact of, not just insects, but squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, and a variety of other bothersome varmints. Baker makes it sound like fun to battle what he calls lawn looters, tree trashers, shrub spoilers, and root-crop raiders with plans that deal with the offending parties be they creepers and crawlers, walkers and stalkers, or flitters and fliers. If you have ever lost a crop to a critter, you know how frustrating that can be. Let his book be your battle plan in this war of attrition.

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  • Fruit & Vegetable Gardening

    2012

    This guide contains helpful information on climate, location, and soil, as well as all manner of tips and advice from experts on how to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs in your home garden. Packed with useful suggestions that will help you better prepare for what you'll encounter in your bountiful garden.

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  • Waste : Uncovering the Global Food Scandal

    2009 by Tristram Stuart

    Caring for a garden gives one a whole new perspective on food production. It makes the gardener more mindful of the effort that goes into every plant that bursts through the soil. It can also increase awareness of what gets wasted. Unfortunately, food waste is a major problem worldwide and it's one that has a serious impact on the environment as well as on household budgets. Food activist Tristram Stuart explores the reasons food goes to waste at every step of production and delivery. It mainly focuses on his home country of Britain but highlights ways for all of us to change our wasteful practices.

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