Many of us love plants . . . but it often feels like plants don't love us back. For those people -- the people who have purchased several "impossible to kill" houseplants, only to find them dead mere weeks later -- there is The No Kill Garden, a charming collection of plants to craft and share. The handcrafted plants offered in this beguiling volume provide the sense of being surrounded by green, luscious plant life, without having to worry about that pesky watering. The No Kill Garden offers a wide variety of plants, from mushrooms and flowers to vines and terrariums, and a broad range of easy-to-follow crafts, including paper, felt, needle-felt, knit, and crochet. The more than 30 projects in this book are not just random flowers or leaves, either -- each of the crafted plants is inspired by a specific variety and is accompanied by a lively description of its main characters. Each of the plants is structured for a beginner, so that anyone with an interest in crafting can make them, and is paired with beautiful images of the finished project to delight and inspire readers.

This unique book provides a complete study of the exquisite Native American basketry from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey Bay region north to Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino and eastward across the Sacramento Valley to the crest of the Sierras. Baskets of the Pomo, Ohlone (Costanoan), Coast Miwok, Esselen, Huchnom, Lake Miwok, Maidu, Wappo, and Yuki people are lavishly illustrated and knowledgably and sensitively described. Color photographs and drawings illustrate the rare, fine California Indian baskets from museum and private collections in the United States and Europe. The vast majority of these baskets are illustrated for the first time. Ralph Shanks is vice president of the Miwok Archaeological Preserve of Marin. Lisa Woo Shanks is editor of the Basketry of California and Oregon Series. They are the authors of The North American Indian Travel Guide.