Great Gardening Books?

[LindyAdele]

Just off the bat, I own Epic Tomatoes (it is excellent and have bought copies for friends!), I always buy Heirloom Gardener magazine, and sometimes Fine Gardening magazines, when they have something interesting out.

I would really like to know if there are any good widely recommended general vegetable gardening books out there? I'm looking for something that goes through all vegetables - even the weird ones - how to grow them best, what they need to thrive, and then how to use them! Does something like that exist?

Most of what I could find in amazon searches were very specific to regions, or types of plants or uses. I love books, I will read and re-read them forever.

So - what have you enjoyed?

[Gardeneer]

I mostly educated myself about gardening in the internet and by experience. I have never read a gardening book.

Gardeneer

[KarenO]

Maybe hit your local library before investing. The reason books all seem rather regional is that it's really important to grow plants and use techniques specific to your zone. I, too am an Internet researcher rather than a print book person although I do have a number of books. Check to see if your local master gardener group has a website or Facebook page. You are welcome at mine as well. Look at "northern gardener" on Facebook
KarenO

[rockyonekc]

Eliot Coleman has a couple good books mostly related to 4 season gardening. I usually start with the local library and then buy the books when I find one that would be useful to own.

[bughunter99]

I've bought a lot of them. Best one I ever purchased was Gais Garden. Tons of great tables. Reviews on amazon sum it up well.

http://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-G...ds=gais+garden

Stacy

[habitat_gardener]

Besides regional books and herb books and field guides..

For general gardening:
Ed Smith, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible
Robert Kourik, Designing and maintaining your edible landscape naturally
Rosemary Creasy, Edible Landscaping

More specialized:
Kourik, Roots Demystified
Jeff Lowenfels, Teaming with Microbes
Douglas Tallamy, Bringing nature home
Carol Deppe, The resilient gardener
Deppe, Tao of gardening

Seed catalogues are great resources, too.

[ddsack]

I'm looking for something that goes through all vegetables - even the weird ones - how to grow them best, what they need to thrive, and then how to use them! Does something like that exist?

My favorite for the use of vegetables is The Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marian Morash, 2006. It's arranged by vegetable, Asparagus through Turnips (zucchini is in with Summer Squash, heh!) and includes individual chapters on each, with basic prep as well as more unusual recipes and pictures. It's a beautiful book, well written and illustrated and fun to browse as well. Still available new or used on Amazon.

[shatbox]

+1Gaia's garden

I immediately thought of this book too. My favorite; wonderfully comprehensive.

sBox

[PNW_D]

http://www.amazon.com/Rodales-Garden.../dp/087596639X

One I have is Rodale's "Garden Answers - Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs" seems to fit your criteria

[LindyAdele]

Thanks everyone! I have exhausted all gardening books at my library...poor selection. I just really love books. There are a few here on my list now!

[Worth1]

The only garden book I have is Carolyns book on tomatoes.
All the rest are Texas native plants a book on insects and one on medicinal plants.
I have a ton of books but no how to garden books so to speak.

I don't know how I get by.
Worth

[drew51]

I bought Lee Reich's book on pruning as I needed to know how to prune fruit trees, and many other plants, like grapes, and ornamental plants etc. It's not super comprehensive, but helped me a lot. His other books looked interesting, but I have yet to check them out.
http://www.leereich.com/books

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by LindyAdele

Just off the bat, I own Epic Tomatoes (it is excellent and have bought copies for friends!), I always buy Heirloom Gardener magazine, and sometimes Fine Gardening magazines, when they have something interesting out.

I would really like to know if there are any good widely recommended general vegetable gardening books out there? I'm looking for something that goes through all vegetables - even the weird ones - how to grow them best, what they need to thrive, and then how to use them! Does something like that exist?

Most of what I could find in amazon searches were very specific to regions, or types of plants or uses. I love books, I will read and re-read them forever.

So - what have you enjoyed?

Lindy,

It has been a long "week" today for me...exhausted . I may miss a few words.

I usually read all replies before responding, but this time, I want to respond directly to your question.

My favorite book beyond all others is: Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening. In a way, I'm hoping, one day, to be able to read the 700+ pages of info. But in another way, I hope I'm never that sedentary to do so.

Another favorite is from 1993. "Gardening in Fort Worth" because Fort Worth is 30 or so miles north of us. It is also a really good book.

I like the organic way our planet was formed. I agree that putting nature to work is a better way of gardening. I haven't been adding that in my posts lately, and I realize, I need to.

[LindyAdele]

Thanks Salt! That Rodale book sounds perfect.

[Ken B]

Originally Posted by ddsack

My favorite for the use of vegetables is The Victory Garden Cookbook, by Marian Morash, 2006. It's arranged by vegetable, Asparagus through Turnips (zucchini is in with Summer Squash, heh!) and includes individual chapters on each, with basic prep as well as more unusual recipes and pictures. It's a beautiful book, well written and illustrated and fun to browse as well. Still available new or used on Amazon.

Ha! She hasn't been reading this thread, but my girlfriend Irena just got this one, she says it looks pretty good.

A lot of my faves have already been mentioned in this thread. I'll add:
-- Introduction to Permaculture by Mollison and Reney-Mia. This one was published back in '91, there may be better Permaculture intro books that've been written since, but I liked this one for being a nice slim book with good illustrations and neat practical examples of what Permaculture can do. (At the time, the other Permaculture books were big thick theoretical design manuals too daunting for me to wade through...)

-- Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth -- great basic overview of veggies and grains seedsaving. It's a helpful read even for non-seedsaving, since there's good historical overviews of the development of different vegetables, like how plants in the brassicas family have been selected for different traits (flowers, stems, roots, heads, leaves, etc.)

There's a lot of new books I know I'd love if I had time to read them! Can't wait to read Carol Deppe's new The Tao of Gardening, the bit I've browsed has been really interesting. I posted this in another thread, but my friend Pam Dawling did make the time to read it (she's much more organized than I am) and posted a review on her farming blog -- http://www.sustainablemarketfarming....y-carol-deppe/