Off with their heads! Many homemakers and gardeners take the easy way out when it comes to exiling odors and banishing bugs--they use toxic chemicals that may be harmful to their families and the earth. Ellen Sandbeck has discovered that the all-natural alternatives are just as easy and effective to use, and that they are wickedly fun. Sandbeck's way of banishing thistles from her backyard kingdom is a case in point: she chops off their heads and lets them bleed to death. Slug Bread & Beheaded Thistles reveals all of her best tricks. From bedroom to bathroom, garden to lawn, your home will be clean and green and pest-free. Explode cockroaches with baking soda and sugar Freshen your car with coffee grounds Keep out slugs with a bread dough that kills Armor your plants with soap spray Grow disease-resistant plants by putting sick ones in your compost pile Eradicate crayon marks with mayonnaise Protect your roses with a minefield of garlic Get rid of raccoons with dirty laundry Cure plant viruses with spoiled milk

An advocate for organic household cleaners and pesticides shares her favorite methods for maintaining a clean home and a glowing garden, naturally.

The author of Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistles shares her healthful and entertaining approach to organic gardening, offering an array of nontoxic strategies and remedies to eliminate insects and garden predators, improve the soil, design an organic landscape, protect one's garden against disease, and more. Original.

RRon Krupp is a master of gardening and storytelling. "The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening" is a critical resource for beginning and experienced gardners who need seasoned, practical ideas. Ron has a deep respect for the power of the seed, and the importance of healthy soil. He shares his lessons through poetry, wit, and prose.S--Enid Wonnacott, executive director of the Northeast Farming Association of Vermont.

This practical and comprehensive guide will help us rethink how we treat our bodies, our spirits, and our environment. It shows how even our smallest actions can lead to a simpler, better life.

It’s fairly obvious that one can’t be a ‘perfect’ environmentalist. But that’s okay. Perfection isn’t the goal. A good life is. And a good life has as much to do with your intent as with the end result.” —from the Introduction The Newman’s Own Organics Guide to a Good Life is the essential book for those of us who can’t live in an organic hemp tepee but do care about our quality of life, global warming, clean water, and disappearing resources. Nell Newman shows you how to do what is within easy reach. Along with realistic, practical advice, she shows how and why living a more environmentally conscious life benefits you and your immediate surroundings. In addition to recycling and reusing, the book covers consumer-related steps such as • how buying and eating organic food supports small farms (and tastes better, too) • how you can buy clean power through your regular power company • which long-distance telephone companies offer competitive pricing and service while returning a portion of their profits to environmental and educational organizations • where to buy everything—from pots and pans to pet food—so that you can “vote with your dollar” and feel good about your purchases Packed with profiles of fascinating—and sometimes zany—people and a heavy dose of sanity, this book is organized according to the way you really live, making it easy to identify what areas of change are viable for you. A resource directory of publications, retailers, groups, and associations is included in the back of the book.