Murphy - The complete guide to preserving your own seeds for your garden: everything you need to know explained simply

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication

Theres no one I know who better understands the value of family and commitment than my brother, Sean. He taught me to love the therapy of gardening, but more than that, he has shown me what selflessness truly is. Thanks, Sean.

Introduction: Encouraging Words for the Home Gardener

I grew up in the hot, humid sunshine of south Florida in a small, suburban home on less than one-fourth acre in the same house as my mother, brothers, sister, and grandparents. We had a little front yard and a little backyard, little extra money, and little extra time. Somehow, we always had flowers, fruit, and little garden vegetables growing despite all of our limitations.

Mom had her favorites, among them gardenias and sunflowers. Our front yard was always fragrant from the gardenia bushes and often dressed with tall, bright yellow sunflowers, both of which would grow almost year-round, with no harsh winter to impede on them. There was very little lawn, as lawns are difficult to grow in the sandy soil of Miami, which was ripe with ants and overwhelmed by crabgrass, so my family just grew plants lots of plants.

All along the chain-link fence that separated the yard from the sidewalk were my grandmothers prized yellow roses, some dozen or so rose bushes that formed a protective hedge and blessed our yard with a little bit of beauty in an otherwise concrete jungle. My grandmother planted these roses when her only son left to join the Marine Corps. They served as a reminder to the family of his sacrifice on behalf of others.

The neighborhood otherwise was a wasteland of crime, graffiti, and unsightly litter, but our yard was a haven with birds of paradise, yellow roses, bright white gardenias, a few palms, exotic orchids, an umbrella tree, a sea grape tree, a large pine tree, some hedges, and whatever we gathered from friends and neighbors. My personal favorite was lantana, which grew as a weed along the city sidewalks. I would gather the flowers and bury them in the front yard, hoping they would grow. That was, of course, before I ever learned anything about how plants actually reproduce.