Flourish: New Zealand Women and Their Extraordinary Gardens by Barb Rogers; Juliet Nicholas

$30.00 NZD

Category: Gardening

This book celebrates the endeavours and achievements of women gardeners who are responsible for some of the most-admired gardens within New Zealand. Often starting as a home-based hobby, fitting around child care and other domestic tasks, the gardens developed by the women featured in this book have evo lved into living works of art. Scattered from the far north to Stewart Island, these gardens have a few things in common. Each one has been developed by a woman responding to her own landscape and locale with energy and verve. Often an outlet for a creative urge, the gardens portray a wide cross-section of styles. The stories of the gardeners also share common bonds - hard work and a passion for the landscape - but also stories of combating isolation, loss and joining a sisterhood of gardeners. Some gardens are well known and justly celebrated both here and overseas- Bev McConnell's Ayrlies in Auckland, and Margaret Barker's garden at Larnach Castle in Dunedin. Others are undiscovered gardens worthy of wider attention. Gracious country rose gardens, inner city courtyards and edible gardens all feature. ...Show more

Flight Lines: Across the globe on a journey with the astonishing ultramarathon birds by Andrew Darby

$20.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: near fine

Andrew Darby follows the extraordinary migratory shorebirds from Australia's southern ocean to the Arctic and back. On these travels he explores the power of science to reveal the mysteries of these birds, and to heal both their endangered world - and unexpectedly - himself. As the sun lowered and turne d Gulf St Vincent fiery, they each called a high-pitched 'peeooowiii!', flashed their black wing-pits, spread their tail skirts and took flight. Andrew Darby follows the odysseys of two Grey Plovers, little-known migratory shorebirds, as they take previously uncharted ultramarathon flights from the southern coast of Australia to Arctic breeding grounds. On these extraordinary flights they chance predators, typhoon weather and exhaustion before they can breed, and maybe return to familiar southern feeding grounds. But the greatest threat to these, and other long-distance migrants on the flyway, is China's dragon economy, engulfing their vital Yellow Sea staging spots. The author meets the dedicated people working to save these intrepid birds, from Russia to Alaska, and the rim of the Arctic Sea to the coasts of the Southern Ocean. Out of their hard-won science he finds hope for the birds - a bright light for our times. But his journey to understand this work and these birds almost ends when he is suddenly diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Then he finds science coming to his rescue too.     ...Show more

It's a Long Road to a Tomato - Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life by Keith Stewart; Flavia Bacarella (Illustrator)

$14.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

A new edition of longtime farmer Keith Stewart's deeply personal and highly acclaimed book on the hows and whys of running a small organic farm in 21st century America--updated with five new essays, a foreword by Deborah Madison, and gorgeous new woodcuts by Flavia Bacarella Keith Stewart, already in hi s early forties and discontent with New York's corporate grind, moved upstate and started a one-man organic farm in 1986. Today, having surmounted the seemingly endless challenges to succeeding as an organic farmer, Keith employs seven to eight seasonal interns and provides 100 varieties of fresh produce to the shoppers and chefs who flock twice weekly, May to December, to his stand at Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan--the only place where his produce is sold. It's a Long Road to a Tomato opens a window into the world of Keith's Farm, with essays on Keith's development as a farmer, the nuts and bolts of organic farming for an urban market, farm animals domestic and wild, and the political, social, and environmental issues relevant to agriculture today--and their impact on all of us. ...Show more

The Plant Magic Man by Lawrence Durrell

$15.00 NZD

Category: Travel | Series: Yes! Capra Chapbook Series Number Five | Reading Level: very good

The Old Red Sandstone or New Walks in an Old Field by Hugh Miller

$50.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: good-very good

1,000 Years of Gardening in New Zealand by Helen Leach

$55.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Royal Horticultural Society Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Year Planner: What to Do When for Perfect Produce by Royal Horticultural Society

$16.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Written by RHS experts with more than 50 years of combined growing experience, RHS Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Year Planner provides the life-changing advice that gardeners need to grow a year-round supply of healthy fruit and vegetables for their table. The book starts with planning what to grow and where to grow it, whether that's an allotment, a series of containers, raised bed or veg patch, then how to get the best from your soil, and how to get started. Next, in season-by-season chapters, the book takes the reader from sowing to harvesting with simple, clear instructions that will help them stay on top of the challenges and joys of a productive garden. From apples to asparagus, raspberries to radishes, this book will show how to apply age-old techniques to get the most from your plot. ...Show more

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

$16.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

As heard on NPR's This American Life "Absorbing . . . Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever." --Christian Science Monitor A rollicki ng true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief. On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins--some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them--and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature. ...Show more

Plant Love: How to Care for your Houseplants by Alys Fowler

$16.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Houseplants are more than just decorations. They turn a room into a living space and breathe life into our interiors. Not all of us can have a garden or even a window box, but everyone can own a houseplant - and everyone should. Not only are they an affordable and attractive way to add a decorative and personal touch to a space, indoor plants also have unique air purifying properties and their presence is good for our health and wellbeing. In this practical yet inspiring guide, gardening expert Alys Fowler explores all the possible indoor plant options available, helping you to find the perfect plant for any location, from cool, shady bedrooms to warm, sunny kitchen windowsills. As well as more traditional indoor plants, Alys looks at specialist plant groups such as indoor tropical edibles, orchids, cacti, succulents and climbers. With her encyclopedic knowledge and trademark inspirational style, this definitive guide will give you all the knowledge you need to care for your plants. ...Show more

Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques: A Step-by-Step Guide to Key Skills for Every Gardener by Royal Horticultural Society

$35.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

This step-by-step guide to essential Royal Horticultural Society gardening practice is a must-have reference showing modern methods to a new generation of gardeners. Compiled by leading RHS specialists in every area of gardening, the book contains a vast amount of expert information clearly demonstratin g the tried-and-tested techniques honed by the world's leading gardening authority. Using more than 1,600 artworks in more than 400 step-by-step sequences, the book covers every aspect of gardening from pruning to sowing, watering to feeding, and propagating to planting. Covering all plants including trees, flowers, shrubs, climbers, lawns, vegetables, fruit and herbs, it shows how to create water features and patios, and add lighting. It also includes organic techniques, recycling and how to treat pests and diseases. The wealth of practical information makes this book an essential purchase for both professional and amateur gardeners. ...Show more

The Virago Book of Women Gardeners by Deborah Kellaway

$15.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

From diggers and weeders, to artists and colourists, writers and dreamers to trend-setters, plantswomen to landscape designers, women have contributed to the world of gardening and gardens. Here Deborah Kellaway, author of The Making of an English Country Garden and Favourite Flowers , has collected ext racts from the 18th century to the present day, to create a book that is replete with anecdotes and good-humoured advice. Colette, Margery Fish, Germaine Greer, Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, Vita Sackville-West, Rosemary Verey, Edith Wharton and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the writers represented in this book. ...Show more

Pacific: The Ocean of the Future by Simon Winchester

$12.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

Travelling the circumference of the truly gigantic Pacific, Simon Winchester tells the story of the world's largest body of water, and - in matters economic, political and military - the ocean of the future. The Pacific is a world of tsunamis and Magellan, of the Bounty mutiny and the Boeing Company. It is the stuff of the towering Captain Cook and his wide-ranging network of exploring voyages, Robert Louis Stevenson and Admiral Halsey. It is the place of Paul Gauguin and the explosion of the largest-ever American atomic bomb, on Bikini atoll, in 1951. It has an astonishing recent past, an uncertain present and a hugely important future. The ocean and its peoples are the new lifeblood, fizz and thrill of America - which draws so many of its minds and so much of its manners from the sea - while the inexorable rise of the ancient center of the world, China, is a fixating fascination. The presence of rogue states - North Korea most notoriously today - suggest that the focus of the responsible world is shifting away from the conventional post-war obsessions with Europe and the Middle East, and towards a new set of urgencies. Navigating the newly evolving patterns of commerce and trade, the world's most violent weather and the fascinating histories, problems and potentials of the many Pacific states, Simon Winchester's thrilling journey is a grand depiction of the future ocean. ...Show more