The following gardening book recommendations come from my personal favorites, books I turn to again and again. When it’s snowy and cold, the best thing to do is read – and dream – about your garden. Let these recommendations tide you over until spring.
Gardening Book Recommendations
It’s wintertime, and here in south-central Virginia, we received a foot of snow on Sunday. It’s beautiful outside,e with the snow sparkling like spun sugar around the Christmas decorations. The cats love snow days because all seven felines warm themselves in the house and sleep on our bed at night. All right, not all seven sleep with us – but they try. Oh yes, they try.
In the meantime, I’m starting to miss my garden. We finished raking leaves and spreading them over the strawberry bed just in time. The compost pile lies blanketed under a thick layer of snow, and I’ve resorted to a giant compost bucket in my garage until the snow melts enough to trudge it out to the compost pile.
The seed catalogs are slow to arrive this year, too. I have the Baker Creek catalog, which is a favorite, but I’m waiting for Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and the Cecho’s company, Medicinal Herb Seeds. My pen waits to circle all the seeds I long to grow while my bank account reminds me rather waspishly that no, I cannot buy all the plants I wish to…
While I wait for the snow to melt and days to warm, I’m finally getting a chance to read several gardening books that have been waiting for me. Here are three new favorites I’ve completed recently.
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Review: Deep Rooted Wisdom – Skills and Stories from Generations of Gardeners
Deep Rooted Wisdom – Skills and Stories from Generations of Gardeners by Augustus Jenkins Farmer
If you love good gardening stories and clever, creative ways to work with what you have, this book is for you. Farmer knows many old-time gardeners from different cultures but mostly from the south of the United States, and he shares stories, tips, and ideas about how they garden. For example, he shares stories from a Haitian immigrant who transformer her Miami-area lot into a food production paradise; he talks a lot about making garden elements from bamboo, wood, scraps around the property.
Be warned that he and his partner grow lilies, and you will get sick of hearing about his lily farm! But the book sparked my imagination, and I love learning about how other people garden. It is a fun read that also helps gardeners think differently about everything from soil to structures.
Review: The Cook’s Garden
The Cook’s Garden by Sheridan Rogers
I love to cook, and I enjoy growing interesting fruits, vegetables and herbs to play with in the kitchen. Often the vegetables I grow cannot be found in the supermarket or aren’t common. Finding recipes for them can be a challenge. That’s why I absolutely love “The Cook’s Garden.”
Recipes for Every Vegetable
The Australian author Sheridan Rogers provides recipes for almost every vegetable. I found new recipes for radishes. I always have tons of radishes in the spring, and sometimes, you just get sick of eating fresh radishes! There were recipes for aubergines (eggplants), squash, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, and all sorts of fruits and herbs, too.
The instructions are simple, and the ingredients are what I call “normal.” You can find them at any grocery store. Although the book is out of print, you can find plenty of good used copies on Amazon, and mine is on order for Christmas (I initially borrowed the book from the library). It’s illustrated with pretty pen and ink drawings rather than photos, adding to its charm. All in all, this combines the recipe book and inspiration that I’m finding a great addition to my cookbook library. I can’t wait to play with the recipes all year long!
Review: The Seed Garden
The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Seed Saving by Lee Buttala et al
I had the pleasure of interviewing Lee Buttala for an article I wrote for the October issue of Virginia Gardener. Lee took the time to explain many aspects of seed production that I did not know, especially the nuances of organic, conventional, GMO, and other types of seeds. He’s a gardening expert but humble; he’s the kind of gardener I’d love to spend an afternoon with just soaking up the wisdom.
Lee kindly sent me a copy of his book, a book which I treasure. If you have every wanted to learn how to property save, store, and share seeds, this is the book for you.
Seed Saving Tips from a Master
Seed saving used to be a commonplace experience. People saved seeds and shared them with neighbors. My next-door neighbor, Mr. Hoffman, taught me how to save pansy seeds when I was in kindergarten; I learned how to save marigold seeds from him as well. My dad saved seeds from tomatoes and Chinese lantern plants and tried to propagate ferns from spores he collected on his lunchtime walks at work. Our family always collected and shared seeds, but I have since learned that this pasttime is fading along with many other skills.
It’s time to relearn those skills and Lee’s book will show you how. Lee and the other contributors to this wonderful volume teach you how to save dozens of seeds including fruit, vegetables, and flowers, as well as how to test them for viability and more. The layout makes it easy to find any plant you’re interested in and the photographs offer gorgeous, tantalizing images to inspire the gardener within. It’s a great book and I recommend it highly.
New to my reading list this week is Michael Pollan’s book, Second Nature – A Gardener’s Education. I borrowed it from the library. Our public library recently added ebook borrowing and I’m in seventh heaven, borrowing books right, left, and center. Thankfully, with the winter snows and my distaste for most television shows, I’m happy to curl up with a great read. If it’s about gardening, so much the better.
