#4 on Publishers Weekly's Bestselling Gardening Books list! This new, completely revised edition has over 500 new photographs, 400 new illustrations, 400 new plants and trees, the latest pest control recommendations, fruit and vegetable recommendations, new tips and plants specifically for Southern Texas, plus everything in the first edition.

This book was written with these things in mind, I guiding every lawn care enthusiast through the steps needed to continue caring for a lawn without letting the concerns that develop because of unnatural products overwhelm you or your lawn. The keys to organic lawn care, starting with how to create a low-maintenance lawn, are laid out in great detail in this book, providing the essential information you need to enjoy your yard while not endangering the environment, your pets, or your children. You will learn how to keep your lawn healthy with the right soil, seed, sod, and feed without using any chemically enhanced products and how you can start caring for your lawn by mowing, watering, fertilizing, edging, and trimming with organic fertilizers and tools. Finally, learn how to change your existing lawn so that it is both environmentally sound and just as beautiful as it has always been. The final step in the process will show you how to deal with pests, disease, and weeds in your lawn organically. --Book Jacket.

Compost your old "complete" gardening guide. There's a new way of gardening in Texas that's healthier for people and the environment, more effective at growing vigorous plants and reducing pests, cheaper to maintain, and just more fun. It's Howard Garrett's "The Natural Way" organic gardening program, and it's all here in Texas Gardening the Natural Way. This book is the first complete, state-of-the-art organic gardening handbook for Texas. Using Howard Garrett's new mainstream gardening techniques, Texas Gardening the Natural Way presents a total gardening program: How to plan, plant, and maintain beautiful landscapes without using chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides. Gardening fundamentals: soils, landscape design, planting techniques, and maintenance practices. Includes more native and adaptable varieties of garden and landscape plants than any other guide on the market. Trees: 134 species of evergreens, berry- and fruit-bearing, flowering, yellow fall color, orange fall color, and red fall color. Shrubs and specialty plants: 85 species for sun, shade, spring flowering, summer flowering, and treeform shrubs. Ground covers and vines: 51 species for sun and shade. Annuals and perennials: 136 species for fall color, winter color, summer color in shade and sun, and spring color. Also seeding rates for wildflowers. Lawn grasses: 10 species for sun and shade, with additional information on 16 native grasses, seeding rates for 32 grasses, and suggested mowing heights. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables: 58 species, with a vegetable planting chart and information on organic pecan and fruit tree growing, fruit varieties for Texas, grape and pecan varieties, and gardening by the moon. Common green manure crops: 29 crops that help enrich the soil. Herbs: 66 species for culinary and medicinal uses. Bugs: 73 types of helpful and harmful bugs, with organic remedies for pests, lists of beneficial bugs and plants that attract them, a beneficial bug release schedule, and sources for beneficial bugs. Plant diseases: organic treatments for 55 common problems. Organic methods for repelling mice, rabbits, armadillos, beavers, cats, squirrels, and deer. Organic management practices: watering, fertilizing, controlling weeds, releasing beneficial insects, biological controls (including bats and purple martins), and recipes for Garrett Juice, fire ant control drench, vinegar herbicide, Sick Tree Treatment, and Tree Trunk Goop. Average first and last freeze dates for locations around the state. Organic fertilizers and soil amendments: 61 varieties, including full instructions for making compost. Organic pest control products: 30 varieties. Common house plants and poisonous plants. Instructions for climbing vegetable structures and bat houses. 833 gorgeous full-color photographs.

A colorful guide covering the basics of replacing a traditional lawn with a wide variety of easy-care, no-mow, drought-tolerant, money-saving options that will appeal to today's busy, eco-conscious homeowner. Americans pour 300 million gallons of gas and 1 billion hours every year into mowing their lawns, not to mention 70 million pounds of pesticides and $40 billion for lawn upkeep. No Wonder the anti-lawn movement is thriving, as today's eco-conscious consumers realize that their traditional lawns are water-hogging, chemical-ridden, maintenance-intensive burdens. Lawn Gone!, from award-winning gardening blogger Pam Penick, is the first basic introduction to low-water, easy-care lawn alternatives for beginning gardeners, written in a friendly style with an approachable package. It covers all the available time-saving options: alternative grasses, ground cover plants, artificial turf, hardscaping, mulch, and more. In addition, it includes step-by-step lawn-removal methods, strategies for dealing with neighbors and homeowner associations, and how to minimize your lawn if you're not ready to go all the way.

How to grow grass.

In this complete reference to integrating edible plants into a wide range of private and public landscapes, landscape designer Cheryl Beesley thoroughly answers the questions of how to plant, where to plant, and what to plant. She covers garden layout, bed construction, and fencing options and offers specific design examples for a wide variety of possibilities for edible landscapes, such as a schoolyard, restaurant, or residence. She presents an extensive pallet of edible plant choices for Texas arranged by trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals and includes detailed information about plant families as well as individual plants. Appendixes instruct readers on disease and insect control, additional variety selections, and plant and seed sources. As the author points out, however they are incorporated, vegetables and fruits—long relegated to their own plots and often hidden from view—can become beautiful and practical additions to the ornamental landscape.

From abelia to zinnia, Neil's thorough and thoughtful answers are an invaluable resource to Texas gardeners, from the novice with one potted plant to the expert with a multi-acre spread.

Texas -specific information is offered throughout this book, including: Texas's probate code; Texas rules, regulations, and laws specific to estate planning; elements of a valid Texas will; planning your living will in Texas; explanations of Texas laws regarding durable health care power of attorneys, do not resuscitate (DNR) orders, and directives to withhold CPR. The book's easy-to-understand context clarifies this complicated and sensitive subject and gives readers the power to take control of their future.

Offers advice to gardeners on how to cope with the climateand soil of the Texas Gulf Coast region, reviewing the basics of how plants grow, soil preparation, planting and maintenance, and pest control; and featuring descriptions of major landscape plants, seasonal flowers, tropicals, vegetables, and table crops.