I promised in my first post to share my ten favorite books for beginner (or ALL) gardeners. Woohoo! What a timely post because…a big gift-giving occasion season is upon us. And really, any garden-related gift is timely, because a garden (for gardeners and just about everyone else) are gifts that keep. on. giving!!!
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“Garden Crafts for Kids” by Diane Rhodes
Simply put, this book has it all: great pictures, interesting projects, engaging writing. It was the first book to make me want to write fan mail to its author. My children, and their cousins used to pore over the photos, and they helped me in the garden, because the kids seem to be having fun in the photos, and the scarecrow is straight out of a Mulholland Drive scene. Enough to scare more than crows. (Okay, maybe you don’t want an Stephen King type of garden tutorial.)
There is science, things to make and bake, and very clear how-to instructions, for people of all ages who REALLY want to learn “how-to” garden. Because, in my life, I have come to realize many books are called “introductions” or “beginner” books but they are written with a language and lack of photos or instructions that assume one already knows “how to”. Not this one, I promise! I even recommended it to my college class. (But, because I am awesome, I did not require ANY textbooks last semester:).
“How to Grow More Vegetables” by John Jeavons
A great treatise on not just growing things, but building soil, and the economics and ethics behind it. I read it at the beginning of my journey with composting, double-digging and planting seeds, and now am reading it again, 25 years later. Though it has been through many printings, it is all still relevant and much-needed information.
There are helpful charts and the language is easy to read, and breaks down scientific concepts for people who just want to grow carrots for that carrot cake at the party five months from now. Instilled with a “You can do this!” attitude, which is always appreciated at the beginning of a new journey.
“New Organic Grower” by Eliot Coleman
Not only has Eliot Coleman reinvented the gardening season for people living in places with very cold winter temperatures, but he has invented tools to help people do it, and written a book (actually many books) to help you take advantage of all the things it took him many, many seasons of trowels and errors. (sorry, couldn’t help myself).
For people who would like to go on vacation mid-summer but don’t want to miss out on gardening, he has given them a reason to garden in different seasons: less weeds, and (for market gardeners) less competition.
Coleman has spent much of his adult life studying and now living on the same homestead as his esteemed mentors, the late Helen and Scott Nearing. I think he has made them proud, and he has laid out in this book the basics of all the techniques that has kept many many people fed for many many years. Too far or cold to drive to Maine and learn from a master? Avail yourself of this book, and thank me later.
“The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by Carla Emery
This book was, around the time the book was published, was “listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “largest mimeographed volume in general circulation” (700 pages) and was listed as having sold the most copies of a self-published guide: 45,000 mimeographed copies as of 1977″.(source: en.wikipedia.org). Additionally (and more important to me when I first began reading the Encyclopedia), Carla wrote it while actually farming and raising many children. To me, a new homesteader with three small children and little income at the time, this made her a bona-fide rock star.
I met her through a contact in Countryside Magazine in the mid 1990s. The person asked me if I could find a venue in my hometown (then Virginia Beach) for Carla to speak and sell her books. I did set her up with a table during a sparsely-attended Harvest festival at the old Farmers market off Dam Neck Road, but I may have been the only person to actually purchase a book (I had borrowed it several times a year at that point from our local library, so finally made the investment). I still have my dog-eared, stained, and signed copy, and it is a treasured possession at this point.
At that point, my backyard chickens, mushroom logs and other unconventional growing methods seemed like quirks almost no one I ran across in real life shared an interest in, but a few years later, in 1998 or maybe early 1999, there was very real (at the time) concern of Y2K and the havoc it was predicted to cause. From computers, the supply chain, shipping (and many things we actually have seen during the Covid-19 Pandemic), many expected that the world was going to be turned upside down, and they got to preparing for it by attempting to be more self- sufficient. Carla’s book shot to the top of the bestselling book lists almost thirty years after it was first published.
I felt happiness for her, thankfulness I already owned the book (and had absorbed and practiced many of its lessons), and relief on January 1, 2000 when almost none of our fears about the new year, decade, century and millennium came to pass. These days, those concerns have returned, but thankfully the recipes and information in this substantial publication are all still very helpful. Looking for some of the best ways to use or store green tomatoes, raise chickens, or hang laundry? Carla’s got you!
“Worms Eat My Garbage” by Mary Appelhof
It is estimated that thirty to forty percent of the food produced in the United States is wasted. That is a current fact, but not a stagnant one. We could keep lamenting this waste. OR…we can do something about it. For the past 25 years, I have chosen to compost. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
The best thing about this little book is it provides a fun collection of instructions for different kinds of worm bins. Which makes using waste to grow food also fun. I have learned that kids under the age of eight are generally more excited about the worms in the bins, regardless of results. Young adults and college-age students appreciate the eco-friendly aspect of using worm bins to compost, but are not as thrilled with actually touching the redworms. Duly noted.
Anyway, whether you want to use coffee grounds and banana peels high up in your apartment on floor number thirty-seven, or you have a couple acres three streets off a rural highway, this book will show you how to set up the bin, where to get the worms, how often to feed them, and where to use them (clue: houseplants and rows of kale equally appreciated worm “castings” (aka: “poop”). It is a great companion for your seventh grader’s science project, or a way to pass time in lockdown if you live somewhere that doesn’t allow “pets”. (Worms are the quietest and easiest pets I have ever had. You don’t even need to feed them every week!) Travelers, take note-this could be a fun and educational way to offset your carbon footprint. Have fun!
“Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte
Aside from the romantic possibilities lurking in a garden, this book is really an encouragement to the gardener to enjoy not just vegetables, fruit, or flowers produced, but the complex web of relationships within this world; insects, birds, soil microorganisms. Soap operas seem rather boring after you witness the balance established as tomato hornworm caterpillars first appear, followed shortly by eggs of parasitic paper wasps laid right on their backs. If a trip to an art gallery is not possible in your day, the web of a Garden Orb Weaver spider can be just as inspiring. Bonus points if you get to see the artist weaving it on-site or catch the installation early morning, with drops of dew accentuating its well-crafted form.
Of all the books on this list, this book is possibly the best for someone with a couple years’ of gardening experience under their belt looking forward to planning their garden in the winter months. Riotte has written other helpful books about planting by the moon, and interplanting flowers in the garden, called “Roses love Garlic”.
This book (and her others) help kickstart the establishment of balance in a new garden, and set you up for a more enjoyable garden experience with better production, less loss to disease and predators, and possible experiments you can conduct on your own to test them: Do roses actually grow better when planted with garlic at their feet? Try it, I dare you!
“Introduction to Permaculture: by Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay
Though I’d been gardening for several years before I was acquainted with this book, or permaculture in general, this literally changed my outlook on what I planted, where and WHY. It also changed my outlook on life, and gave me a way to synthesize things I did and to truly “work smarter, not harder”. I heard my eighth grade math teacher used that adage many times, but in the garden, it took Mollison and Slay’s book helped me put it all into practice.
There are disagreements about who should be able to use the trademarked term “permaculture”, but ism/schisms aside, the approach to garden and home planning here will save you money and hard work many times over its purchase price.
I am so thankful this book came into my life when it did, and I hope you are able to find it as helpful as I have thru the past two decades.
“Back to Eden” by Jethro Kloss
As its title suggests, this book has a definite Biblical bent. it was first published in 1939, so some of the language and advice may be dated and referred to as a historical non-fiction source rather than a first reference. However, even if you are not religious or even spiritual, this book was and still is pretty groundbreaking, with its common-sense methods of herbal preparations and use, and approach to health in general.
While there is not too much in this veritable reference book about actual gardening, the fact remains that you can indeed grow most of the herbs in it to promote your own health, and it is one of the best advertisements for herb gardening around.
So much of the landscape of the United States was gardened and farmed in a very sustainable way, until the past century.
The beauty of this book is you can learn the songs the original inhabitants of this land once used while planting corn, and feel the importance of what still surrounds us. This is one of the original “sustainable/eco-friendly” how-to farm books, recorded and written before those terms were used, or even needed yet.
The language makes it a historical living document, and a pure delight to read.(Fyi: it also makes a very good case to have a companion dog in the garden, for kids reading this that are trying to convince their avid-gardener parents they really REALLY need a puppy:)
“Edible Landscaping” by Rosalind Creasy
I have worked at a renowned nursery with the same name as this book, and I assure you that aspiring to have “Edible Landscaping” as a book, and a front (or back) yard is worthwhile endeavor.
There are helpful charts for things such as soil indicator plants (clues growing to tell you what your soil can already support without amendment) and inspiring photos and lists of the type of place you can create right out your door.
Especially transporting, when referring to it in the middle of January in Virginia, (when you aren’t sure that winter will ever actually end).
“Trees and Shrubs” by George A. Petrides
Good field guides don’t seem as important in this day and age of apps (short for “applications”) like Picture This or even Google Lens. But don’t be dissuaded by purchasing a few for the areas you live in, for trees, birds, insects and mushrooms.
So many times where I hike is beyond the reach of cell phone reception. Sure, I can take a photo and identify it later, but sometimes you NEED to know in the moment. And, I usually WANT to know. It is fun, and rather like a treasure hunt to track it down in a little field guide- that surprising flower, bright mushroom or huge leaves WANT to be known.
Better than that, each field guide is a great primer and re-hash of all those things you forgot from 8th and 9th grade earth science classes, and come in handy when describing a plant or animal to others or for identification purposes. Is your tree evergreen or deciduous? Are its leaves opposing or alternating? Deeply veined, fine toothed, compound, or elliptic?
Knowing how to describe in the proper terms is still relevant and deeply helpful. Also, these field guides are great in assisting you when choosing a plant at the nursery. Generally if you like the plant in the picture, you can read the description, and learn which exact conditions will help it will grow best. If the field guide is for your area, there is a good bet the plants within it are native or naturalized. This information helps determine future successful planting areas, and also lets you know the plant belongs in your local ecosystem. A field guide for Trees and Shrubs of the area you live in could also be subtitled “What to plant for your area”. Happy hiking!
And happy reading! Do you have favorite books you have referred to over and over in your garden? Feel free to share in them in the comments.