In a fast-paced world with mega upheaval, including climate crises and a global pandemic, the allure of growing your own food, being self-sufficient, and living green is immense. This yearning for not being wholly reliant on the supermarket, and the growing concerns over pesticides and food miles has led to the resurgence in seeking old-world skills. As showcased in Urban Homesteads, the benefits of a productive garden on your doorstep or within arm's reach, tending to chickens, harvesting your own honey, and using eco-friendly water-harvesting techniques are clear: fresh herbs, vegetables, and fruit on tap, fresh eggs, delicious honey; plus living at a slower pace, better value for money, and a more soothing and mindful existence. Of course, a healthy garden and environment also attracts beneficial insects and birds. Get inspired with this book's range of eco-friendly possibilities from around the globe. With beautiful full-colour photos, gathered here are stories of people who have set up their own productive and abundant back yard or patio, as well as examples of great vertical planters, indoor gardens, and those who have reached into the urban community allotment. Use this book to start your own journey with an urban homestead lifestyle, with lots of generous tips, modern green concepts as well as a twist of modern, technically savvy know-how. All the practical guidance you need on how to be the change you want to see.

Announcing the changing of the seasons and the coming of summer, Lilacs are ubiquitous both within gardens and as a wild flower. Their scented flowers are well-known to many with whorls of fragrant blossom sitting perfectly at nose-height. Symbolising first love, their fleeting bouquet can provoke a sense of nostalgia. As a garden flower they became a popular choice in the eighteenth century, particularly across North America, and lingering shrubs and blooms in the wild are a telltale indication of where earlier dwellings might have been. Naomi Slade explores a wide range of different Lilacs, drawing our attention to the varying shades of pink, lavender, mauve, burgundy and of course, lilac, and also to white, blue and yellow varieties. Lilacs are durable plants and this book offers advice on how to care for and propagate your flowers, how to identify rare species and practical tips for how to get the most glorious blooms and the most bountiful cut flowers.

Botswana's rapid transition between 1965 and 2016 from one of the poorest countries in the world to one rated as middle income has been extraordinary. Fifty years of change has seen the widespread disappearance of coal-fired locomotives and popularly used passenger trains, and ox drawn wagons. Blacksmiths, paraffin lamps, rondavels and thatched buildings, lime, women carrying buckets of water, metal water tanks have gone. The list goes on: the displacement of the round by the rectangular, migrant labour, hand cranked telephones and party lines, older men in army great coats, school children with bare feet, guttering and down pipes, granaries, the decoration of the lelapa, indigenous foodstuffs, the sub-language fanagalo, the crafts made for domestic needs. Yet more: changes in clothing, housing, property and vehicle ownership, means of entertainment, untarred main roads, do it yourself housing and in many places, general stores. The majority of the photos selected are of people. This is deliberate. It means that this book has no photographs that are routinely included in other books - the country's marvellous wilderness and wildlife, the Okavango and the Kgalagadi, the sand dunes and places of great natural beauty.