Bookstore - Albers Marcovina Vista Gardens https://albersvistagardens.org/bookstore/ Botanical Garden in Kitsap County | Bremerton, WA Tue, 26 Sep 2023 17:44:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Growing Conifers https://albersvistagardens.org/product/growing-conifers/ Wed, 31 Mar 2021 17:45:49 +0000 https://albersvistagardens.org/?post_type=product&p=2002 […]]]> Growing Conifers is a beautifully photographed, comprehensive gardening guide for selecting and cultivating conifers. Coverage includes:

  • Conifer taxonomy, classification, and geographic distribution
  • Selecting conifers for size, shape, color, and texture
  • Best practices for placement and planting of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers in urban and rural gardens
  • Growing needs and low-input maintenance
  • Building healthy soil, minimizing water stress, and integrated pest management
  • Benefits of conifers including habitat, water and air quality, carbon sequestration, aesthetics, and food.

Conifers are often overlooked in gardening and landscaping in favor of deciduous trees and shrubs. Yet conifers come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, colors, and textures and offer tremendous aesthetic, functional, and ecological benefits for any garden.
Growing Conifers is an essential, comprehensive resource for gardeners and landscape professionals looking to develop beautiful, sustainable landscapes.

]]> The Northwest Garden Manifesto https://albersvistagardens.org/product/the-northwest-garden-manifesto/ Thu, 30 Apr 2020 09:47:19 +0000 https://albersvistagardens.org/?post_type=product&p=1405 Gardens are extensions of our homes and imaginations, havens where we can spend time outdoors, relaxing, entertaining and relishing useful, physical exercise. But our gardens are also extensions of the natural world, conversations between us and the lands we live upon and beside. Through our gardens, as well as other neighborhood green spaces we can actually help counter some of the woes faced by larger environments: rampant development, loss of plant and animal habitat, the spread of invasive species, the exploitation of natural resources, air and water pollution, and the impacts of global warming. Yes, even our small, urban, backyard landscapes can help combat such man-made strains on our local environments. And it’s surprisingly easy to do!

In his new book, The Northwest Garden Manifesto, scientist and gardener John J. Albers teams up with photographer, David E. Perry to create a comprehensive and visually stunning guide to encourage and enable each of us to consider the local ecosystem in our own gardens. The ideas and concepts in this book reflect the most up-to-date thinking on urban ecology and how to best make our yards reflect the natural world around us.
The key to Albers’s approach is for gardeners to first assess the current state of their property and then focus on the following key principles:
1. Protect, conserve, and create healthy soil
2. Maintain healthy plants and create a sustainable landscape
3. Conserve water and other natural resources
4. Protect water and air quality
5. Protect and enhance wildlife habitat
6. Conserve energy
7. Use sustainable methods and materials

 
Through clear explanation, practical examples, and full-color photos, Albers and Perry show how to evaluate any yard in terms of these principles and then challenges the reader to improve each element, one step at a time. From creating better soil to starting a compost pile, attracting pollinators to adding more native plants, or creating a simple circulating water feature to building a fence from recycled wood–gardeners will ultimately turn their backyards into beautiful, healthy, and happy habitat for all.
]]> Gardening for Sustainability https://albersvistagardens.org/product/gardening-for-sustainability/ Thu, 30 Apr 2020 09:36:06 +0000 https://albersvistagardens.org/?post_type=product&p=1403 All gardeners will want to seek out this new, authoritative book by professor John J. Albers on the principles and practices for developing, maintaining, and enjoying stunning, botanically diverse, low-maintenance landscapes that can flourish year-round in tough conditions. Learn how to select the best plants, make garden rooms work, provide for pollinators and wildlife, make a rain garden, and simply enjoy his observations on restoring native habitat, pruning, transplanting and even on how to correct gardening mistakes. The book provides gardeners with strategies for the creation and maintenance of a healthy, vibrant, sustainable, botanically rich garden. It provides a clear rationale and guide for changing the way we create and maintain our gardens, and thereby points the way for all gardeners to reduce their environmental impact and make a difference in their communities and the ecological health of the earth. By following the basic principles and the latest scientific horticultural practices outlined in this book, everyone can take part in the beautification of our urban areas while enhancing biodiversity and ecological sustainability and resilience. A hands-on gardener for many decades with a keen eye for unusual and distinctive plants, the author accompanies you on a portable tour of his garden, showing what a passionate gardener with an eye for beauty and a keen interest in plant collecting can do. The first part of the book provides an inspiring example of the development of an urban botanical oasis using the principles and practices described in the second part of the book. It includes the evolution of the garden, the development of different horticultural and artistic elements, and illustrates the beauty and diversity of plant life. The second part of the book describes the practical principles, rationale, and practices that were used in the development of the botanical oasis, the important elements of maintenance, and concludes with a discussion of the common mistakes to avoid during the creation of a garden. Gardening for Sustainability has a hard cover; its 118 pages include 68 beautiful color illustrations.

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