Outdoor Living & Gardening
Get outside! Plant a garden! Explore nature! But before you go, prepare ahead with some reading on the great outdoors.
The Camping Cookbook
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Trade paperback
$16.99
Reader Reward Price: $15.29
A practical and inspiring guide to cooking outdoors with limited space, equipment and ingredients
In this beautifully illustrated book, Annie Bell shows you how to make delicious and interesting camping recipes with just the barest of essentials. Using a traveling barbecue, one-ring burner or a tripod and pot, she creates portable feasts such as Baba Ghanoush, Chicken Tagine with Pine Nuts and Raisins, and Apricots with Gooey Nougat, demonstrating the best equipment to use for minimum mess and clearing up.
From hearty brunches and tea & cake to one-pot cooking and sweet treats, this essential guide has more than 60 recipes for every occasion, so you can eat in style wherever you are.
Green Fire
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Hardcover
$50.00
Reader Reward Price: $45.00
A stunning cookbook celebrating the art of cooking over fire and vegetarian cuisine by world-renowned chef Francis Mallmann.
In Green Fire, explore the flavourful potential of cooking vegetables--caramelized, charred, smoked, and always delicious--using chef Francis Mallmann's acclaimed live-fire cooking method. Divided seasonally, each of the more than 80 vegetarian dishes will become your main meal and not the side. Enjoy also Mallmann's impressive seasonings, sauces, and finishings with Argentine influences. Spring artichoke and fava salad, salt-baked beets with lemon confit, and cabbage steaks with a mustard fennel crust are just a few of the stars. And desserts and cocktails are included, too.
Filled with Mallmann's masterful knowledge of live-fire cuisine, which he learned from his Patagonian upbringing, you will be the at-home outdoor cooking master thanks to this cookbook. Learn tips to tailor your cooking times and methods no matter the vegetable or texture, and how to easily adapt the recipes no matter the type of indoor or outdoor grill.
Featuring gorgeous photography, which beautifully exhibits the diverse colours and textures of his ingredients amid the picturesque views of Bodega Garzón in Uruguay, Green Fire is a celebration of Mallmann's cultural experience of cooking over open fires, while revolutionizing simple ingredients.
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide
- Terence Dickinson 
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Hardcover
$49.95
Reader Reward Price: $44.96
Revised Edition
The touchstone for contemporary stargazers.
This classic, groundbreaking guide has been the go-to field guide for both beginning and experienced amateur astronomers for nearly 30 years. The fourth edition brings Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer's invaluable manual completely up-to-date. Setting a new standard for astronomy guides, it will serve as the touchstone for the next generation of stargazers as well as longtime devotees.
Technology and astronomical understanding are evolving at a breathtaking clip, and to reflect the latest information about observing techniques and equipment, this massively revised and expanded edition has been completely rebuilt (an additional 48 pages brings the page count to 416). Illustrated throughout with all-new photographs and star charts, this edition boasts a refreshed design and features five brand-new chapters, including three essential essays on binocular, telescope and Moon tours by renowned astronomy writer Ken Hewitt-White.
With new content on naked-eye sky sights, LED lighting technology, WiFi-enabled telescopes and the latest advances in binoculars, telescopes and other astronomical gear, the fourth edition of The Backyard Astronomer's Guide is sure to become an indispensable reference for all levels of stargazers. New techniques for observing the Sun, the Moon and solar and lunar eclipses are an especially timely addition, given the upcoming solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024.
Rounding out these impressive offerings are new sections on dark sky reserves, astro-tourism, modern astrophotography and cellphone astrophotography, making this book an enduring must-have guide for anyone looking to improve his or her astronomical viewing experience.
The Backyard Astronomer's Guide also features a foreword by Dr. Sara Seager, a Canadian-American astrophysicist and planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an internationally recognized expert in the search for exoplanets.
Two Wheels Good
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Hardcover
$38.99
Reader Reward Price: $35.09
A panoramic revisionist portrait of the nineteenth-century invention that is transforming the twenty-first-century world
"Excellent . . . calls to mind Bill Bryson, John McPhee, Rebecca Solnit."--The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker
The bicycle is a vestige of the Victorian era, seemingly at odds with our age of smartphones and ride-sharing apps and driverless cars. Yet we live on a bicycle planet. Across the world, more people travel by bicycle than any other form of transportation. Almost anyone can learn to ride a bike--and nearly everyone does.
In Two Wheels Good, journalist and critic Jody Rosen reshapes our understanding of this ubiquitous machine, an ever-present force in humanity's life and dream life--and a flash point in culture wars--for more than two hundred years. Combining history, reportage, travelogue, and memoir, Rosen's book sweeps across centuries and around the globe, unfolding the bicycle's saga from its invention in 1817 to its present-day renaissance as a "green machine," an emblem of sustainability in a world afflicted by pandemic and climate change. Readers meet unforgettable characters: feminist rebels who steered bikes to the barricades in the 1890s, a prospector who pedaled across the frozen Yukon to join the Klondike gold rush, a Bhutanese king who races mountain bikes in the Himalayas, a cycle-rickshaw driver who navigates the seething streets of the world's fastest-growing megacity, astronauts who ride a floating bicycle in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station.
Two Wheels Good examines the bicycle's past and peers into its future, challenging myths and clichés while uncovering cycling's connection to colonial conquest and the gentrification of cities. But the book is also a love letter: a reflection on the sensual and spiritual pleasures of bike riding and an ode to an engineering marvel--a wondrous vehicle whose passenger is also its engine.
The Hawk's Way
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Hardcover
$27.00
Reader Reward Price: $24.30
A splendid and luminous celebration of one of nature's most perfect and mysterious creatures--the hawk--from the New York Times bestselling author of the "astoundingly beautiful" (NPR) The Soul of an Octopus.
When Sy Montgomery went to spend a day at falconer Nancy Cowan's farm, home to a dozen magnificent birds of prey, it was the start of a deep love affair. Nancy allowed her to work with Jazz, a feisty, four-year-old, female Harris's hawk with a wingspan of more than four feet. Not a pet, Jazz was a fierce predator with talons that could pierce skin and bone and yet, she was willing to work with a human to hunt. From the first moment Jazz swept down from a tree and landed on Sy's leather gloved fist, Sy fell under the hawk's magnetic spell.
Over the next few years, Sy spent more time with these magnificent creatures, getting to know their extraordinary abilities and instincts. They are deeply emotional animals, quick to show anger and frustration, and can hold a grudge for years. But they are also loyal and intensely aware of their surroundings. In this mesmerizing account, featuring sixteen pages of gorgeous color photographs, Sy passionately and vividly reveals the wonderous world of hawks and what they can teach us about nature, life, and love.
The Regenerative Garden
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Trade paperback
$32.99
Reader Reward Price: $29.69
Discover how to work with nature, instead of against it, by employing permaculture techniques to create a garden that is not just more beautiful and productive, but also more resilient.
While the word permaculture might sound intimidating, the principals behind it are not. The main goal of permaculture is to turn your space into a functioning ecosystem that's less reliant on external resources and better able to sustain itself through many seasons of growth and change as it resists pests, diseases, and climate extremes. Whatever the size of your space, from a tiny patio garden to a big backyard, and whether you grow food, flowers, shrubs, trees, or a combination of all, The Regenerative Garden is here to help you become a better, more eco-conscious gardener.
Through 80 DIY projects, author Stephanie Rose of the popular website Garden Therapy introduces you to basic backyard permaculture concepts in an easy-to-follow, logical way. Each of the six chapters represents a living element of the garden, capable of playing a valuable role in its constant regeneration, including soil, water, plants, climate, ethics, and community. As you check these projects off your to-do list, you'll find you've reduced your long-term work load, conserved water and other resources, turned your yard into a habitat for wildlife, and learned to grow perennial foods in creative ways.
The 80 featured projects include step-by-step instructions on how to:Employ intensive planting to reduce weeding and watering choresUse living mulches to amend the soilBuild self-watering planters and wicking beds to reduce water useInstall a rain garden to catch runoffPlant a wildlife hedge to support creatures and create a windbreak and noise bufferCompost projects and systems to repurpose waste on-siteMake a butterfly migration station to support pollinators of all sorts
A healthy, organic, regenerative garden is a perfect example of a self-sustaining ecosystem; everything works in tandem, is intricately connected, and comes full circle to create its own never-ending cycle of life.
Gardening Naturally
- Laurie Perron , Sarah Quesnel-Langlois , J C Sutcliffe
Hardcover
$32.99
Reader Reward Price: $29.69
Ecological gardening with ease and simplicity.
Gardening Naturally offers a wealth of information and practical advice for growing indoor and outdoor plants based on sustainability, a rejection of artificial chemicals, and respect for biodiversity and the natural world. From advice on planning your garden and dealing with disease, insects, and the arrival of cold weather, to tips for starting your own compost, repotting effectively, and choosing which local and native flowers to best attract pollinators, Gardening Naturally will interest anyone who wants to add flowers, edibles, and greenery to their daily life, no matter the size of their balcony or the extent of their garden.
The Prairie Gardener's Go-To Guide for Trees and Shrubs
- Janet Melrose , Sheryl Normandeau
Trade paperback
$15.00
Reader Reward Price: $13.50
Book six in the Guides for the Prairie Gardeners series demystifies planting and caring for trees and shrubs on the prairies, with tips on stock size, fruit production, pests, and winter protection.
Trees and shrubs together make up the bulk of Earth's biomass. They are responsible for carbon dioxide storage, oxygen production, movement of water, and a host of other functions. In our gardens, trees and shrubs provide numerous benefits, including reducing air, light, and noise pollution, protecting our homes from wind, cold, and heat, and providing habitat for birds, insects, and other animals.
In the sixth book in the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series, lifelong gardeners Janet and Sheryl offer advice and recommendations to help you successfully grow trees and shrubs from the ground up. They answer your questions onWhether to choose small or large trees and shrubs to match your needs The fine art of digging holes Care and feeding (and mulching and watering and fertilizing) When and how to train and prune for your plant's health and appearance How to protect young trees and shrubs through a bitter winter When to call your local arborist Janet and Sheryl help you trouble shoot on common issues like a tree's failure to produce fruit, girdling, and weather-related challenges, as well as an introduction to pests and diseases like leaf miners, leaf rollers, leafhoppers, and their friends. They also provide prairie-specific lists of recommended trees and shrubs for flower displays, autumn colour, beautiful bark, smaller yards, hedges, and shade.
The Prairie Gardener's Go-To Guide for Soil
- Janet Melrose , Sheryl Normandeau
Trade paperback
$15.00
Reader Reward Price: $13.50
Honorable Mention, American Horticultural Society Book Awards
The fifth book in the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series is all about getting good soil--from chemical composition to compost, fertilizer to fungi, and much more.
Soil is a whole world under our feet, full of fun words you may have heard but never quite understood, like hard-pan, humus, loam, and tilth. In this fifth book in the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series, master gardeners Janet and Sheryl provide the basics of soil science so that you can apply it to your gardening endeavours.
They answer your questions on things likeHow do I test the chemical composition of my garden soil?What's the difference between organic, inorganic, and natural fertilizers?What do those numbers on packages of fertilizer mean?How and when should I amend my garden's soil?Hot compost? Cold compost? Worm compost?Egg shells, coffee grounds, banana peels--yes or no?What exactly do mycorrhizal fungi do?In this handy Q-and-A guide, focused specifically on the prairie region, you'll learn what particles are dominant in your soil, how to make successful compost, the value of mulch, tips on no-till practices and cover crops, and solutions to problems such as compaction, heavy clay, salinity, and soil-borne diseases. With Janet and Sheryl's insight you'll soon be well on your way to healthy, happy soil.
The Prairie Garden
- The Prairie Garden Committee
Trade paperback
$19.95
Reader Reward Price: $17.96
This year’s edition of The Prairie Garden, the 83rd, zeroes in on how to make the best of a small space, whether it is in your back yard, on a balcony, or even just a not-so-sunny corner of a room. We know there are many novice gardeners interested in learning more, so this edition concentrates of providing a lot of how-to information. Guest editor Mr. Tomato shares his secrets about how to make your small garden look and feel bigger. He also tells us of a natural remedy for invasive creeping bellflower and Canada thistle. He instructs us on how to build a light table. His valuable contributions are backed up by solid information and experience. Other expert gardeners in the region pass on their tips and experience in using all available space to the very best advantage, from creating a garden fence with espalier (Mark and Ben Cullen), to building a magical rooftop garden over a garage (Greg Klassen), to the best hardy shrubs and roses to grow (Rick Durand). Sandra Venton paints a picture of growing upward in a garden. When it comes to houseplants, we learn about light and how it works (Dr. Meera Sinha), all about coleus (Igor Kaftan), cyclamen (Susanne Olver), amaryllis (Eva Patrician) and miniature orchids (Chris Bryan). No garden book would be complete without a word or two on common pests and insects, beneficial and harmful. Jason Gibbs provides a look at specialist bees. Committee chair Ian Wise explains how to manage rose weevils and sucking insects. Former editor Linda Dietrick points out how to attract pollinators. There is so much more. Would you like to grow giant pumpkins? Milan Lukes, now just starting university, has been doing this since he was 11 years old, and he tells us how. We learn how one Churchill gardener managed to feed his restaurant patrons fresh local produce (Joan Airey). Balcony gardeners get advice on what to plant under what conditions and how to deal with spent soil (Dorothy Dobbie). In all there are 65 stories with photographs that will enlighten, entertain, and delight you. There is so much practical wisdom in this little booklet that you will want to get copies of some of the fabulous past editions produced by the Prairie Garden committee.
A Year in the Woods
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Hardcover
$32.95
Reader Reward Price: $29.66
From the acclaimed author of In Praise of Paths comes a humorous and modest Walden for modern times.
As nature becomes ever more precious, we all want to spend more time appreciating it. But time is often hard to come by. And how do we appreciate nature without disruption? In this sensitively-written book, Torbjørn Ekelund, an acclaimed Norwegian nature writer, shares a creative and non-intrusive method for immersing oneself in nature. And the result is nothing short of transformative.
Evoking Henry David Thoreau and the four-season structure of Walden, Ekelund writes about communing with nature by repeating a small, simple ritual and engaging in quiet reflection. At the start of the book, he hatches a plan: to leave the city after work one day per month, camp near the same tiny pond in the forest, and return to work the next day. He keeps this up for a year.
His ritual is far from rigorous and it is never perfect. One evening, he grows so cold in his tent that he hikes out before daybreak. But as Ekelund inevitably greets the same trees and boulders each month, he appreciates the banality of their sameness alongside their quiet beauty. He wonders how long they have stood silently in this place--and reflects on his own short existence among them.
A Year in the Woods asks us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world. Are we anxious wanderers or mindful observers? Do we honor the seasons or let them pass us by? At once beautifully written, accessible, and engaging, A Year in the Woods is the perfect book for anyone who longs for a deeper connection with their environment, but is realistic about time and ambition.
Draw Your World
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Paperback (PST applies)
$24.00
Reader Reward Price: $21.60
See the world around you in a whole new way with this inspiring guide to nature drawing, urban sketching, travel drawing, drawing from memory or photos, and sketch journaling.
In Draw Your World, Samantha Dion Baker gives you everything you need to begin a new art practice or enliven an existing one. She shares her favorite tools and materials, simple technical lessons such as composition, shadows and light, symmetry, and perspective, plus fun motivational exercises like drawing from memory, urban sketching, travel journaling, and experimental art. With helpful step-by-steps and stunning visual examples from Baker's own work, Draw Your World will help you hone your skills and capture the details of your unique and remarkable life in a sketch journal or as finished artwork.
Fox and I
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Hardcover
$34.95
Reader Reward Price: $31.46
WINNER of the 2022 E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing PEN America Award
A solitary woman's inspiring, moving, surprising, and often funny memoir about the transformative power of her unusual friendship with a wild fox, a new window into the natural world, and the introduction of a remarkable literary talent.
Catherine Raven left home at fifteen, fleeing an abusive, disdainful father and an indifferent mother. More comfortable in nature than among people, she worked as a National Park ranger, eventually earning a PhD in biology. She built a house on an isolated plot of land in Montana, teaching remotely and leading field classes. One day, she realized that the mangy-looking fox who had been appearing on her property was now showing up every day at 4:15 p.m. She had never had a regular visitor before. How do you even talk to a fox? So, she brought out her camping chair, sat as close to him as she dared, and began reading to him from The Little Prince. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, but as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself--and he became her friend.
But friends cannot always save each other from the uncontained forces of nature. Fox and I is a poignant and dramatic tale of friendship, transformation, and coping with inevitable loss--and of how that loss can become meaningful. It is also the introduction of an original, imaginative, stunning literary voice.
Birdpedia
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Hardcover
$23.99
Reader Reward Price: $21.59
Birdpedia is an engaging illustrated compendium of bird facts and birding lore. Featuring nearly 200 entries—on topics ranging from plumage and migration to birds in art, literature, and folklore—this enticing collection is brimming with wisdom and wit about all things avian. Christopher Leahy sheds light on “hawk-watching,” “twitching,” and other rituals from the sometimes mystifying world of birding that entail a good deal more than their names imply. He explains what kind of bird’s nests you can eat, why mocking birds mock, and many other curiosities that have induced otherwise sane people to peer into treetops using outrageously expensive optical equipment. Leahy shares illuminating insights about pioneering ornithologists such as John James Audubon and Florence Bailey, and describes unique bird behaviors such as anting, caching, duetting, and mobbing. He discusses avian fossils, the colloquial naming of birds, the science and history of ornithology, and more. The book’s convenient size makes it the perfect traveling companion to take along on your own avian adventures. With charming illustrations by Abby McBride, Birdpedia is a marvelous mix of fact and fancy that is certain to delight seasoned birders and armchair naturalists alike.
Manitoba Walks & Scenic Drives
- Wendy Wilson , Leone Banks
Trade paperback
$24.95
Reader Reward Price: $22.46
This may well be the definitive guide to exploring Manitoba on foot or by car.
More than 20 years in the making, authors Wendy Wilson and Leone Banks have selected the very best of their favourite places to explore in the province.
As with previous Prairie Pathfinder publications, they have helpfully divided the province into quadrants, interspersing each section with a tantalizing mix of enticing hikes and opportunities for a scenic drive. Purposely included are a myriad of options to match a wide range of interests and fitness levels. from Hunt Lake’s offering of “a real workout over some particularly rugged terrain” to the Brokenhead Interpretive Trail’s “easy, level trail (with) several rest stops for contemplation along the way”.
There are several hikes that could easily be described as hidden treasures, in part due to the authors’ focus on highlighting lesser-known spots found outside of provincial or national parks. Exhaustively researched with a keen attention to detail, each walk is described in an easy, conversational style, beautifully complemented with requisite maps and some gorgeous photographs.
What makes this book particularly noteworthy are the ‘some history’ additions paired with many of the walks. Their welcome addition provides valuable insight into the history of the hike’s setting, whether explaining how a receding glacial lake created a unique landscape or how schoolchildren used to cross an eastern Manitoba river using a cable basket pulled by hand. St Lazare - as legendary for its beauty as its fascinating history - is a description that could as easily be applied to many of the hikes in this book.
From the Rae Trail’s “secluded rolling woodland interspersed with lush wildflower meadows,” to Lester Beach’s “majestic stretch of shoreline with beautiful cliffs beckoning in the distance” there is much to offer those looking for interesting places to explore.
Our final words come from the book’s introduction: “This book has been a labour of love and we hope you enjoy these hikes and drives as much as we loved scouting and mapping them.”
Well said, now get out and take a hike!
This is a selection of our current Outdoor Living & Gardening titles. To find other titles or authors, or just to browse, please use the search box.
