The heirloom gardener : traditional plants & skills for the modern world / John Forti ; illustrations by Mary Azarian, Patricia Wakida

Includes index

Angelica -- Apple cart -- Artisanal skills -- Bee balm -- Biodiversity -- Botanizing and herbaria -- Chestnut -- Cordials -- Dandelion -- Distillation -- Dooryard gardens -- Edible flowers -- Elder -- Elm -- Ethnobotany -- Fiddleheads -- Floriculture -- Foraging -- Garden craft -- Gruit -- Heirlooms -- Herbalism -- Indigenous plants -- Jack-o-lanterns -- Johnny-jump-ups -- Kelp -- Kitchen craft -- Kitchen gardens -- Language of flowers -- Lawn -- Maple syrup -- May Day -- Milkweed -- Nasturtium -- Old ways -- Organic growing practices -- Perennial crops -- Queen Anne's lace -- Quince -- Raised beds -- Rhubarb -- Rosemary -- Sage -- Seasonality -- Sorrel -- Tea -- Thanksgiving grace -- Tonics -- Valerian -- Victory gardens -- Wattle -- Wreaths -- Wuttahimneash -- Xeriscaping -- Yards -- Yarrow -- Zinnia -- Zucchini

An award-winning heirloom specialist, garden historian, ethnobotanist and writer offers this wood-block illustrated, alphabetical compendium of heirloom flowers and artisanal crafts like distilling and wreath-making to help inspire gardeners to connect with the natural world

Forti celebrates gardening as a craft, and shares the plants, lore, and traditional practices that link us with our environment and each other. Arranged alphabetically from angelica to zucchini, the brief chapters are a trove of garden history to different elements of the craftsmanship behind building an heirloom garden-- and a happy homestead. -- adapted from back cover and Introduction