Books, Magazines, and Notecards

Following is a sampling of the many books and magazines available for sale at Common Ground.

Books

How to Grow More Vegetables

by John Jeavons. New 7th Edition available October 2006. Common Ground's best seller and every gardener's essential guidebook. Explains how to produce a beautiful organic garden with minimal watering and daily care. The method works in harmony with nature's cycles, preserving and enriching earth's nutrients, and nourishing the soil for future crops. The book includes updated gardening charts and the latest techniques.

The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia

by Rebecca Wood. Tips on how to heal with Ayurveda, Western nutrition, and traditional Chinese medicine. A complex index, organized so readers can research treatments by ailment as well as the food itself. Line drawings illustrating unusual foods so readers can recognize them in stores. A glossary of medical terms. Sidebar recipes throughout.

Miracle Manifestation Manual II

This delightful 2-Month Journal and Rapid Results Activity Book makes it easy to begin attracting and creating miracles in your life very quickly. It has over 750 examples that you can copy word for word, it's as easy as filling in the blanks or painting by numbers! You can get up and running right away and begin to attract and create miracles in your life. Patricia liked doing the journal so much that she invited the author Jacquelyn Aldana to come teach.

The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest

Written by Carol W. Costenbader. Revised by Joanne Lamb Hayes. Includes 150 Recipes for freezing, Canning, Drying, and Pickling Fruits and Vegetables. With this book, even the busiest folks can create a well-stocked pantry of fruits, vegetables, flavored vinegars, pickles, chutneys, and seasonings. Step-by-step illustrated instructions, information charts, and a host of delicious recipes make this an indispensable kitchen reference for cooks of all levels. This book covers the handling and managing of produce fresh from the market or garden.

The Self-Healing Cookbook

Written by Kristina Turner, and is a Whole Foods to Balance Body, Mind & Moods book. Here's a cookbook that makes good bedtime reading! This playful, user-friendly primer blends the wisdom of macrobiotics, the psychology of self-esteem, and a planetary view of healing. You'll find over 130 dairy-free, sugar-free, low-fat recipes -- all family-tested favorites from Kristina Turner's cooking classes, including: Sesame Waffles with Apple Syrup, Black Bean Soup, Rice Wedding Salad, Millet Burgers & Gravy, Apricot Mousse, and Strawberry Pie.

Panty Hose, Hot Peppers, Tea Bags, and more- for the Garden

Written by Yankee Magazine, and is a Rodale Organic Gardening Book. Includes 1,001 ingenious ways to use common household items and to control weeds, beat pests, cook compost, solve problems, make tricky jobs easy, and save time. Throught the pages of this book, you'll discover more than 1,000 ideas for using common households items or things you'd normally toss out in unique and unusual ways in your vegetable and flower beds. Why make a special trip to the garden center or home supply store when the solution might be lurking right in your garage, your closet, or your pantry?

Growing Medicinal Herbs in as Little as Fifty Square Feet

by Louisa Lenz-Porter. Discover the common medicinal herbs that can be easily cultivated in your own backyard. Both a step-by-step guide to growing and using medicinal herbs and a quick guide to common herbal remedies for a wide range of ills. A wonderful bonus is the comprehensive bibliography of reference books and articles.

California Native Plants for the Garden

is a musthave title for every California gardener. Learn about the amazing diversity of our area, and how to bring it into your own backyard! Authors Bornstein, Fross, and O'Brien each have over 25 years' experience with California natives, and they come together in this book to provide the most comprehensive information on using California natives in the garden. Discover the rewards of gardening with our native species! This is a bestseller!

The Organic Rose Garden

by Liz Druitt. Create beautiful blooms and heavenly scents without the need of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Druitt explains the basics of organic rose gardening and offers reviews and tips for over 175 rose varieties. An invaluable resource section details sustainably managed rose nurseries, environmentally responsible garden products, and helpful further reading.

Making Plant Medicine

by Richo Cech. The book is a modern making-medicine and formulary with its roots in original Herbalism. It is designed for every medicinal herb gardener to cultivate the full potential of the plant-human relationship. Making Plant Medicine is a preferred herbal reference, used by medicine makers of all descriptions. This book has found its way into kitchens, herbal laboratories, and herb schools throughout the world. In this fully updated third edition, Richo Cech has enriched his formulary with 12 new herbs, providing a broader view of useful plant species that can be cultivated in the home garden and used in family health care.

Herbal Harvest

by Greg Whitten. A hardcover book on organic production of quality dried herbs, it covers virtually every subject which needs to be considered by herb growers. Greg Whitten has pioneered the development of techniques for producing premium quality medicinal herbs in the country. Topics include propagation, planting, weed management, biodynamic aspects, processing, marketing and more.

How to Prune Fruit Trees

by R. Sanford Martin. This pocket-sized book of A-Z fruit trees is the perfect guide for any home owner. It gives straightforward explanations for why each fruit tree requires pruning to help the gardener understand simple step-by-step instructions.

Cass Turnbull’s Guide to Pruning

by Cass Turnbull. This book offers excellent pruning advice for over 160 species of trees, shrubs, ground covers, and vines. It also covers the basics of pruning to give the new gardener a sound general knowledge.

Common Ground Planting and Gardening Guide

An excellent but simple month by month guide of which seeds to plant directly into the soil, which seeds to plant in flats and when to transplant these. It also gives helpful reminders to keep your garden in great condition!

Golden Gate Gardening

by Pam Peirce. A complete guide to year-round food gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California. The defi nitive reference to local gardening principles, vegetables and herbs, fruit trees and shrubs, edible and cut flowers, rooftop gardens, soil amendments and fertilizers, watering and mulching, drought gardens and more. A must have reference book. A bestseller!

The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping

by Rosalind Creasy. Learn to landscape with food-producing plants using resource-saving techniques. Topics include water, energy and soil conservation, area layout, design, planning and resources, including edible plants for landscaping.

Kids

Wicked Cool Sustainable Solutions for the Earth

An activity and coloring book for little and big people. Especially for our young gardeners, a wonderful addition to your bookshelf! Recommended by a wide spectrum of educators, from Montessori teachers to college professors. This book guides readers of all ages toward solution-oriented activities that help them become problem-solvers, while having loads of fun!

Magazines

Mother Earth News

The original guide to living wisely. Features family farming stories, gardening suggestions and ideas to implement into your growing sustainable lifestyle.

Natural Home

Live wisely; live well. Read about how to ensure that your home is healthy. Learn to attractively organize your home, save resources and make your home comfortable and green.

Pacific Horticulture

Published by the non-profit Pacific Horticultural Foundation, whose mission is to stimulate and inspire gardeners in the art and science of horticulture on the West Coast. Beautiful photos with great articles, some written by customers of Common Ground.

Fruit Gardener

California Rare Fruit Growers' amazing publication of information, including a resource of seed banks and networking potential.

Videos

Dig It! DVD!

Watch and learn how to prepare your soil more easily by following the techniques developed by John Jeavons during over a quarter of a century of double-digging. Show the DVD to your friends in the morning, then go out and have a digging party in the afternoon!

Music Albums

Music

by Nancy Cassidy. We love playing Nancy’s music at Common Ground! We carry two albums of wholly original music and lyrics written by Nancy: “You Reel Me In”, “So Much Weather” and three of her popular KidsSongs CDs, which feature both classic kid favorites and original music.