This rather deceptive work purports to be the collected horticultural columns of one opinionated Mertensia Corydalis. As Mertensia answers her readers' innocent gardening questions, she reveals more than she intends about her life, her relationships (from her prissy ex-husband to questionable interactions with her employees, Miss Vong and Tran), and her state of mind. Radical Prunings is a literate, funny, and surprisingly bittersweet fiction debut from a writer with a sharp wit and a very green thumb.

The gardening world’s favorite expert on pruning offers a comprehensive guide full of tips and tricks on how to prune your trees, shrubs, and other plants so they grow to be healthy and beautiful. Covering 160 plants with clear instructions and illustrations, Cass Turnbull will show you exactly how to prune any plant in your garden. This third edition of Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning covers more than twenty additional plants in three new chapters. Includes all the basic pruning techniques, plus specific advice on mounding-habit shrubs, cane-growing shrubs, tree-like shrubs, vines, trees, groundcovers, fruit-bearers, native plants, and more. The result is the definitive, time-tested guide for the home gardener with friendly, expert advice. Cass Turnbull founded Seattle's PlantAmnesty, whose mission is “to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs caused by mal-pruning.” Here are Cass’ ten commandments for preventing such gardening sins: The Ten Gardener Commandments 1. Thou shalt not shear thy bush. 2. Thou shalt not top thy tree. 3. Thou shalt not plant thy sun-lover in the shade, nor thy shade-lover in the sun. 4. Thou shalt mulch. 5. Thou shalt not leave stubs. 6. Thou shalt not flush cut, neither shalt thou paint wounds. 7. Thou shalt not cover up the base of thy plant, or thy tree, or thy shrub. Neither with mulch, nor with soil, nor with any landscape material. 8. Thou shalt cut circling/girdling roots. 9. Thou shalt not compact the root zone of thy tree, nor trench near the trunk of thy tree. 10. Thou shalt not weed-whip the trunk of thy tree, nor bash it with thine mower, nor leave anything tied on thy tree or the branches of thy tree, as is done in the land of the philistines.

Nothing about pruning is obvious; in fact, most of it is downright counterintuitive, says expert Cass Turnbull. This second edition of her definitive illustrated guide adds 40 percent new material, with more coverage of different kinds of trees, shrubs, and ground covers and how to prune them for health and aesthetics. The book is organized around the most common types of plants found in Northwest gardens: evergreen and deciduous shrubs; bamboos and tea roses; rhododendrons, camellia and other tree-like shrubs; hedge plants like boxwood and heather; clematis, wisteria and all those vines; and detailed information on trees by species from dogwoods to weeping cherries. In her trademark witty style, Turnbull also addresses tools, landscape renovation, and design errors. Included too are her amusing Ten Commandments for gardeners, which feature such treasures as "Thou shalt not weed-whip the trunk of thy tree, nor bash it with thine mower, nor leave anything tied on thy tree or the branches of thy tree, as is done in the land of the philistines."

Chronicles loud music from its colicky infancy and troubled adolescence smack into its midlife crisis and beyond.

Richard's Poor Almanac, inspired by seven years of weekly contributions to the Washington Post, is Richard Thompson's omnium-gatherum of seasoned observations for all seasons -- indoors and out. Like the almanac we've all come to know and ignore, Richard's Poor Almanac is an annual compendium of weathered wisdom rendered in the more palatable form of cartooning.