A Dozen Ideas from Donna
Suggested Gardening Books
Spring is a great time for gardeners to catch up on their reading. There’s nothing as relaxing as laying back in a hammock, having a cup of lemonade, and reading an informative gardening book.
I’ve put together a “baker’s dozen” of some of my all-time must read gardening books for you to review and perhaps enjoy. These books contain a wealth of information across the diverse spectrum of gardening and “green” organic living. Some are more technical in scope, but all carry a wealth of knowledge on gardening.
If you don’t already have a list of books to read, here are a few suggestions, all of them for sale at Goffle Brook Farms!
And they make excellent Mother’s Day Gifts!
“One Magic Square”
by Lolo Houbein
Lolo Houbein has 40 years’ worth of gardening wisdom to share—on how to coax an abundance of organic food from a plot that is just 3 feet square!
- Sustainable, cost-effective, and creative techniques: how to compost, save water, troubleshoot weeds and pests, create a plant-friendly microclimate, and more
- Over 40 themed plot designs, from antioxidant-rich and anti-cancer plots to salad, pizza, pasta, and stir-fry plots
- Encyclopedic information about every crop in every plot
- Tips on drying, freezing, pickling, and other ways to get more value and enjoyment from your homegrown produce
- And her irresistible gardening philosophy (“If herbs wanted to be used frugally, they would also grow frugally. But they don’t!”)
Ever encouraging, often charming, and always practical, this expanded second edition of One Magic Square Vegetable Gardening will help first-time gardeners get started—and help veteran gardeners get results—on a small, easy-to-maintain plot. No actual magic is required!
To read more about this book, click here!
“Attracting Native Pollinators”
by The Xerces Society
Attracting Native Pollinators is a comprehensive guidebook for gardeners, small farmers, orchardists, beekeepers, naturalists, environmentalists, and public land managers on how to protect and encourage the activity of the native pollinators of North America. Written by staff of the Xerces Society, an international nonprofit organization that is leading the way in pollinator conservation, this book presents a thorough overview of the problem along with positive solutions for how to provide bountiful harvests on farms and gardens, maintain healthy plant communities in wild lands, provide food for wildlife, and beautify the landscape with flowers.
To read more about this book, click here!
“Epic Tomatoes”
by Craig LeHoullier
S
avor your best tomato harvest ever! Craig LeHoullier provides everything a tomato enthusiast needs to know about growing more than 200 varieties of tomatoes, from planting to cultivating and collecting seeds at the end of the season. He also offers a comprehensive guide to various pests and tomato diseases, explaining how best to avoid them. With beautiful photographs and intriguing tomato profiles throughout, Epic Tomatoes celebrates one of the most versatile and delicious crops in your garden.
To read more about this book, click here!
“Homegrown Herbs”
by Tammi Hartung
Enjoy a thriving, fragrant herb garden and use your harvest to bring beauty, flavor, and health to your everyday life. Tammi Hartung provides in-depth profiles of 101 popular herbs, including information on seed selection, planting, maintenance, harvesting, and drying. Hartung also shows you how to use your herbs in a variety of foods, home remedies, body care products, and crafts. Whether you’re a seasoned herbalist or planting your first garden, Homegrown Herbs will inspire you to get the most out of your herbs.
To read more about this book, click here!
“The Year Round Vegetable Gardener”
by Niki Jabbour
Even in winter’s coldest months you can harvest fresh, delicious produce. Drawing on insights gained from years of growing
vegetables in Nova Scotia, Nikki Jabbour shares her simple techniques for gardening throughout the year. Learn how to select the best varieties for each season, the art of succession planting, and how to build inexpensive structures to protect your crops from the elements. No matter where you live, you’ll soon enjoy a thriving vegetable garden year-round.
To read more about this book, click here!
“All New Square Foot Gardening”
by Mel Bartholomew
Rapidly increasing in popularity, square foot gardening is the most practical, foolproof way to grow a home garden. That explains why author and gardening innovator Mel Bartholomew has sold more than two million books describing how to become a successful DIY square foot gardener. Now, with the publication of All New Square Foot Gardening, Second Edition, the essential guide to his unique step-by-step method has become even better. Mel developed his techniques back in the early 1980s and has been teaching them throughout the world ever since.
To read more about this book, click here!
“The Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible”
by Edward C. Smith
Harvest tomatoes on a patio, produce a pumpkin in a planter, and grow broccoli on a balcony! Best-selling author Ed Smit
h shows you everything you need to know to successfully create and care for an edible container garden, from choosing the right plants and selecting appropriate containers through controlling pests without chemicals and harvesting fresh vegetables. You’ll discover that container gardening is an easy and fun way to enjoy summer’s bounty in even the smallest of growing spaces.
To read more about this book, click here!
“What’s Wrong With My Vegetable Garden?”
by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth
We seek the satisfaction of nurturing amazing plants that become our platter of gourmet vegetables. We crave that moment when the flavor of a freshly picked tomato explodes in our mouths. Above all, by growing our own food, we know it is safe, clean, and chemical-free. The authors offer detailed plant portraits of popular vegetables complete with growth habit, growing season, planting techniques and temperature, soil, light, and water requirements. Rounded out with problem identification and organic solutions to these common problems, What’s Wrong With My Vegetable Garden? will quickly become one of your most essential garden tools.
To read more about this book, click here!
“The Well-Tended Perennial Garden”
by Tracy DiSabato-Aust
With more than 130,000 copies sold since its original publication, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden has proven itself to be one
of the most useful tools a gardener can have. Now, in this expanded edition, there’s even more to learn from and enjoy. This is the first, and still the most thorough, book to detail essential practices of perennial care such as deadheading, pinching, cutting back, thinning, disbudding, and deadleafing, all of which are thoroughly explained and illustrated. More than 200 new color photographs have been added to this revised edition, showing perennials in various border situations and providing images for each of the entries in the A-to-Z encyclopedia of important perennial species.
To read more about this book, click here!
“The Veggie Gardener’s Answer Book”
by Barbara Ellis
Barbara Ellis provides expert answers for all of your toughest veggie-growing questions. Designed to be used as a garden reference, this sturdy little volume is packed with helpful information on everything from planning a garden and sowing seeds to battling pests and harvesting crops. With clever tricks to cut down on weeds, secrets for maximizing production in confined spaces, and fail-safe watering guidelines, you’ll have the know-how and inspiration to grow your most abundant veggie garden.
To read more about this book, click here!
“1000 Gardening Questions and Answers”
by The New York Times
Carefully selected, updated, and expanded 
by Leslie Land, one of the column’s two authors, here are 1,000 Q&As that add up to an informal encyclopedia of gardening knowledge. The book covers flowers, trees, shrubs, the lawn, vegetables, herbs, fruit, indoor plants, soil, pests, and troublemakers. It addresses problems and provides answers to difficulties in every North American zone. Hundreds of line drawings illustrate the book, providing botanical identification and demonstrating how-to gardening techniques.
To read more about this book, click here!
“The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids”
by John Fisher and Whitney Cohen
In The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids, Whitney Cohen and John Fisher draw on years of experience in the Life Lab Garden Classroom and gardening with their own children to teach parents how to integrate the garden into their family life, no matter its scope or scale. The book features simple, practical gardening advice, including how to design a play-friendly garden, ideas for fun-filled theme gardens, and how to cook and preserve the garden’s bounty. 101 engaging, family-friendly garden activities are also featured, from making Crunch-n-Munch Vegetable Beds and Muddy Mini Masterpieces to harvesting berries for Fresh Fruity Pops.
To read more about this book, click here!
“How to Grow a School Garden”
by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle
In this groundbreaking resource, two school garden pioneers offer parents, teachers, and school administrators everything
they need to know to build school gardens and to develop the programs that support them. Today both schools and parents have a unique opportunity—and an increasing responsibility—to cultivate an awareness of our finite resources, to reinforce values of environmental stewardship, to help students understand concepts of nutrition and health, and to connect children to the natural world. What better way to do this than by engaging young people, their families, and teachers in the wondrous outdoor classroom that is their very own school garden?
To read more about this book, click here!
