A neighborhood unites to create a community garden on an empty lot, then must fight to keep it when the owners of the lot want to build a parking lot.

So begins this lyrical tribute to the bugs, bees, and birds that make the garden such a busy place. With each turned page, more visitors appear, and all the while the “surprise”—a chrysalis—changes unnoticed until, on the last page, a butterfly emerges and flies away across the garden’s well-tended borders. Back-of-book notes about the natural histories of the garden’s denizens complete this lovely and lively portrait of backyard nature, which is also a gentle meditation on the rewards of paying attention. A chipmunk hides on every page to divert and engage young readers.Fountas & Pinnell Level O This is my busy green garden. There’s a surprise In clever disguise, That hangs in my busy green garden. This is a ladybug dawdling so, Near the surprise, in clever disguise, That hangs in my busy green garden. This is a honeybee buzzing below The red spotted ladybug dawdling so, Near the surprise, in clever disguise, That hangs in my busy green garden.

"A dazzling debut novel about resilience, courage, home and family."--Rebecca Stead, Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me SoHo, 1981. Twelve-year-old Olympia is an artist--and in her neighborhood, that's normal. Her dad and his business partner Apollo bring antique paintings back to life, while her mother makes intricate sculptures in a corner of their loft, leaving Ollie to roam the streets of New York with her best friends Richard and Alex, drawing everything that catches her eye. Then everything falls apart. Ollie's dad disappears in the middle of the night, leaving her only a cryptic note and instructions to destroy it. Her mom has gone to bed, and she's not getting up. Apollo is hiding something, Alex is acting strange, and Richard has questions about the mysterious stranger he saw outside. And someone keeps calling, looking for a missing piece of art. . . Olympia knows her dad is the key--but first, she has to find him, and time is running out.

Greenstreet and Back is an amazing, humorous autobiography that follows a journey from, a near death experience, to an incredible passage of self acceptance and realisation. The true story of painful rehabilitation dips into the black humour of facing your own mortality and the acceptance that the life once known was now a thing of the past. The book is a chronicle of courage and fortitude that shows with determination any obstacle can be overcome. Francis begins a pilgrimage to learn about his new life that eventually takes him to the other side of the world to exotic South East Asia. His hilarious encounters along the way happen mostly by chance and very unexpectedly. From a near molestation by a dancing Ladyboy in Northern Thailand to a "run in" with gun tooting bandits in Cambodia, the quest gets ever more bizarre and farcical. Eventually Francis experiences an epiphany but fate has one more harsh and cruel card to play towards the end of his odyssey.

This 1881 work by Marshall Wilder, president of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, provides an interesting history of horticulture in the city of Boston and its surrounding area.

A guide to growing beautiful gardens in drought-prone areas utilizing minimal water for maximum results. With climate change, water rationing, and drought on the rise, water conservation is more important than ever—but that doesn’t mean your gardening options are limited to cacti and rocks. The Water-Saving Garden provides gardeners and homeowners with a diverse array of techniques and plentiful inspiration for creating sustainable gardens that are so beautiful and inviting, it’s hard to believe they are water-thrifty. Including a directory of 100 plants appropriate for a variety of drought-prone regions of the country, this accessible and contemporary xeriscaping guide is full of must-know information on popular gardening topics like native and drought-tolerant plants (including succulents), rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, permeable paving, and more.