Gardening
There are tons of gardening books—some more useful than others. These are some of the evergreen titles that I refer to regularly and recommend often. I recommend borrowing or checking out from the library to determine if you find a particular book helpful. Hampshire Gardeners Society, this list is for y’all. Shhhh…
General Gardening: A Garden is a Reflection of the Gardener
Fowler, Alys. Garden Anywhere: How to grow gorgeous container gardens, herb gardens, kitchen gardens, and more—without spending a fortune. Chronicle Books, 2009.
This is hands down my favorite gardening book, top of the list it is. I love Alys Fowler and maybe you’ll enjoy her books and her videos that can be found online. Alys is a very practical and talented gardener. Combining beauty and bounty. Repurposing and DIY. Keep in mind that we are simply the partners to the soil and plants, supporting them in what they want to do: flourish.
Coleman, Eliot. The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener. Chelsea Green, 1995.
Eliot didn’t invent four season growing or soil blocking but he did put it in a tidy package for U.S. readers and gardeners. I recommend this book solely on the basis of the invaluable content in chapters 14 and 15 which are entitled soil blocks and setting out transplants respectively. These 24 pages changed how I garden overnight.
Get out of the plastic rut. Buy less plastic and more seeds. There is a bit of a learning curve but the plants and the garden are better for it. Magical things like growing three beets in one soil block—less seed starting material, less time transplanting, more efficient gardening. Corn is also grown three seeds in one block! I was a not a believer until I did it had an incredible 20’x20’ patch of black corn in San Diego. We are so conditioned in the U.S. to tiny cell planting, pony packs, etc. etc. and spend what must be a gazillion dollars to use plastic that degrades rather quickly and requires storage and management.
Deppe, Carol. The Resilent Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, Including the Five Crops You Need to Survive and Thrive—Potatoes, Corn, Beans, Squash, and Eggs. Chelsea Green, 2010.
It is one thing to grow a bit of this or that to eat out of hand, it’s a different thing to grow enough to put up to last until the next harvest. Trading, bartering, borrowing, etc are touched on in the context that we are not alone and cannot do it all alone—working together to be a resilent community. Labor in the garden is exercise not drudgery.
Jeavons, Johns. How to Grow More Vegetables: (and fruit, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine. Ten Speed Press, 2006.
I like to refer to the planting charts in this book. Solid all around reference book to read and see how it fits into your situation.
Gardening in the Southeast: It’s Different Here, Adjustments Required
Wallace, Ira. Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast. Timber Press, 2013.
If you are new to Southeast region of the United States, get. this. book. Cut through the mountains of information and get down to brass tacks about growing in this region. Specific vegetable varieties, growing year-round, techniques that are pivotal to successful gardening in the Southeast.
Hunter, Margie. Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee: The Spirit of Place. University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
Revealing my love of charts, there are plenty of charts to break down the endemic plants of Tennessee and growing them in your garden.
Perennial-Centric Gardening: The Plants that Keep Giving Year After Year
It only takes a season or maybe a handful of seasons for a gardener to discover “Hey wait a minute, the more perennials that I have the less work I have, the less of a push during the busy seasons…I should be planting more perennials.”
Creasy, Rosalind. Edible Landscaping: Now You Can Have Your Gorgeous Garden and Eat It Too! Sierra Club Books, 2010.
When I was gardening in the city I wanted a front garden that didn’t scream edible garden. I planted fruit trees, globe artichokes, various edible flowers, nestled herbs in barrels, and so forth. Rosalind is outside of rows and all that of a typical vegetable or kitchen garden. There are many plants that are grown for beauty but are also edible. Enter turmeric, edible canna—why plant inedible canna if you can also eat canna? Lots of plant lists to research too.
Toensmeier, Eric. Perennial Vegetables: From Artichoke to ‘Zuiki’ Taro, a Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-Grow Edibles. Chelsea Green, 2007.
I love that this book exisits but importantly remember that this is Eric’s list. These are the things that he found worthy and performed in his experience. Look left and right in your neighborhood and your region: What’s growing? What’s growing well? What is not performing? What are the varieties? When did you see folks planting them? All the questions based on just observing. Then take a book like this and see how you can push the envelope. Some things might be incidental and not a big food source but very rewarding. Somethings might out perform other plants that are grown in your region while easily overcoming weather, water, pest, and disease pressure.
Facciola, Stephen. Cornucopia II. Kampong Publications, 1998.
This is a primary resource. This is a resource to have on your shelf and find plants that will perform in your region and source them. Pests a problem on your neighbor’s trees? Grow something different.
The Orchard in the Garden: Trees are Vital in the Garden
Well tended fruit trees, shrubs, vines, brambles, etc. are the effort that keeps fruiting year after year.
Phillips, Michael. The Holistic Orchard: Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way. Chelsea Green, 2011.
After checking tons of books out of the library, this is the one book that I settled on for guidance for our urban orchard. I later added Grow a Little Tree, it’s listed on this page under Pruning and Grafting.
Holistic Gardening: Gardening Harmony with Mother Earth
Viewing our gardens and landscaping efforts as part of a whole widens our focus to include water—collecting and diverting, placement of our gardens and garden planning, trees and perennials are essential elements, considering the wildlife from the pollinators to the creatures that attack the pests, and so on.
There was that day I watched black birds in our front yard diving and attacking something. I couldn’t quite see what was going on. Dozens of birds dive bombing, staying on the ground for a bit, then hopping up onto the bird bath. Later I went outside to discovered they had destroyed all the june bugs that were attacking my nearly ripe guavas. The front yard had tall trees, short trees, water, and cover so a nice place for birds to get an easy to get lunch.
A note regarding these permaculture books: I recognize that it is troublesome that two white men claim to have somehow invented the holistic approach to agriculture, systems, and life in harmony Mother Earth and called it permaculture. And that other techniques and strategies are dominated by white folks (and the educators are mostly white too) in the United States. Regenerative. Sustainable. Organic. Beyond Organic. Naturally Grown. Permaculture. Holistic. Different names—same or similar techniques used by people around the globe while not ruining Mother Earth for millennia. So while I do not think any of us need to run out and get a permaculture design certificate—some of the books are useful.
Hemenway, Toby. Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. Chelsea Green, 2000.
While Toby is no longer with us to inspire us in person, he left us with this book which is just plain approachable and digestible. Lots of plant lists and lots of inspiration.
Side note: His book The Permaculture City (2015) is interesting to look back on as folks are flocking to rural areas and the challenges that presents for folks: community, access to water, decentralized services (electricity, gas/propane), all the things each household will have to make and do for themselves, and so forth. When Toby spoke at the Heirloom Expo not too long after The Permaculture City was published I wasn’t sure that I agreed with bonuses of centralized city life. In retrospect, I’d say the biggest piece of rural life that can make it tough is not having community—and my friend pointed that out to me as we were leaving San Diego—that we were leaving behind an extraordinary community. Toby shared that he and his wife were regularly driving to the city to visit friends and finally they left their rural home place—not having connections with people is really tough. Many of the other bits of rural living are manageable over time as one learns, makes, and does the things but but not meeting and connecting with folks can be isolating and challenging.
Bloom, Jessi and Boehnlein, Dave. Practical Permaculture for your Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth. Timber Press, 2015
This tidy volume brings quite a lot together and of particular interest is systems that work together. I’d consider this an “and also” book but it is nice to check out from the library and determine if you find it useful. Bill Mollison’s Introduction to Permaculture is nice too and quite digestible. Frankly I think that Permacaulture: A Designer’s Manual isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be unless you want to sit down and study the tome from a theoretical perspective. Introduction to Permaculture hits all the high notes and you can read it in a weekend or a long afternoon of reading and note taking.
Morrow, Rosemary. Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture. Permanent Publications, 2006.
I’m not sure why this book isn’t touted more. As noted on page one, “Because other books such as David Holmgren’s…Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, and Bill Mollison’s ‘bible’, Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, already comprehensively cover the theory of permaculture, this book is less about theory and more about doing…” And that it is. Doing. Less talk, less words, doing.
Propagation & Seed Saving: Keep Seeds and Plant Material in the Hands of the People
Along with perennial plants comes making more plants and saving seeds. Save money. Grow plants that are naturalized and acclimated to your microclimate—all the good things and save money too. Ask friends and neighbors for cuttings, divisions, seeds—and share yours too. Spreading the plant material freely and far and wide offers you a back-up in case you need it in the future.
A friend gave me six cuttings of her vigorous passionfruit vine. It took forever to root but they did and years later I was harvesting fruits by the 5-gallon bucket. Then sadness. The friend who gifted me the cuttings had a new neighbor. The new neighbor had a landscaper who cut all the vines on the fence line to the ground and pulled and tugged. No more passionfruit. I rooted cuttings for her and other folks while I was at it. Years later when we moved the vines (and most of the garden) were elimanted but that passionfruit lives on in other gardens.
Druse, Ken. Making more Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation. Clarkson Potter, 2000.
This is my go-to reference to make more plants. Consider abstaining from purchasing patented material that has propagation rules—which mostly boil down to no propagation allowed or only with permissions.
Ashworth, Suzanne. Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardens. Seed Savers Exchange, 2002.
This is my go-to reference for seed saving. Excellent to have on the book shelf. It has region specifc guidance which is an important piece.
Pruning & Grafting: Higher Yields Under Cultivation
Here’s the thing with pruning and grafting—you’ve gotta just get out there and do it. You’ll probably make mistakes. Every pruner has a signature—those little preferences, what the aim of the pruning is, how experienced the pruner is, and so forth. Learn to prune by pruning. Observe the response of the trees and plants.
One time I hired someone to help me bang out all the pruning (we had over 40 backyard and front yard fruit trees and the pruning needed to get done), we could recognize each others work as we each had our own style. Just get out there and prune. No, we don’t want to make big mistakes like cutting a hole in a tree’s canopy or removing all the fruiting wood but short of critical errors such as those we are learning on the job.
Martin, R. Sandford. How to Prune Fruit Trees and Roses. Walter Andersen Nursery, 2012.
This super brief book covers all the essentials.
Ralph, Ann. Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy Harvest Fruit Trees. Storey Publishing, 2014.
Huge trees are not required for a huge harvest. Most of my urban fruit trees were under 7’ tall. A bushel was a typical harvest per mature tree. Small trees managed well are likely to out perform large neglected trees—by far.
Reich, Lee. The Pruning Book. The Taunton Press, 2010.
This book covers it all in terms of pruning—so beyond fruit trees. Essential for a well-tended garden.
Garner, R.J. The Grafter’s Handbook. Chelsea Green 2013.
The go-to guide since 1947. All things grafting. All the details to do it well. Grafting is done for several reasons but the reason of most interst to me is to progrogate—make more plants economically.
Building Soil & Composting: Does Nature Rotate Crops?
Rollins, Carole Ann and Ingham, Elaine. 10 Steps to Gardening with Nature: Using Sustainable Methods to Replicate Mother Nature. Gardening with Nature, 2011.
Make it easy…work with nature. Check out details about the soil food web online then read Jeff’s book below. Learn more about Dr. Elaine Ingham’s work: soilfoodweb.com. The gear is relatively inexpensive and transforms one’s view of what’s going on in the soil and how to be a better partner with the soil and it’s inhabitants.
Lowenfels, Jeff and Lewis, Wayne. Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web. Timber Press, 2010.
Soil health and building soil is essential to a sustainable garden. Buying, buying and spreading, spreading is not only expensive but consider what did folks do before all the packaged stuff was available? How can we manage our gardens in a healthful manner? Does nature rotate crops?
Jenkins, Joseph. The Humanure Handbook: a guide to composting human manure. Chelsea Green, 2005
Flush, flush all that poop away. I like to consider composting humanure as alleviating pressure on my rural septic tank which saves money, time, and frustration and the bonus is compost for the garden. Looking around and all the animals’ poop returning to their habitat but we flush it away with potable water into septic tanks or sewer lines to head to massive municipal waste water treatment plants. And what happens when these systems fail—contamination. Meanwhile the humanure toilet is a simple and elegant system—as are privys and composting toilets. Each requiring different management but all resulting in returning our waste to the earth.
Steinfeld, Carol. Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants. Ecowaters Books, 2007.
Sometimes it can be more valuable to divert urine. Some composting toilets have a urine diverter, some folks use buckets and straw to collect urine, some folks have urinals to collect urine, and some just pee outside. Direct use of urine in the garden requires diltution but other than that it is a quick, simple, and basically free garden amendment.
Appelhof, Mary. Worms Eat My Garbage: How to set up and maintain a worm composting system. Flowerfield Enterprises, LLC, 1997.
Worm bins equal worm castings. Worm bins can fit under sinks, on porches, and in other protected areas during the winter depending on the severity of the winter where you live. Much like managing black solider fly larvae, it can be a situation of slow season in the cooler months and a fast season in the warmer months. I found that having two bins was a great way to manage food scraps that don’t go to the flock as worm castings are lovely for the garden. Each worm box accepts three deposits and by the time you need to make a seventh deposit the first deposit quadrant in the first box is ready for a new deposit. See Alys Fowler’s book Garden Anywhere. for a simple, repurposed bin design.
Considering Water: Water is Life, How to Manage it Better
I gardened in San Diego for years with less than a dozen inches of rainfall annually—so it is magical to be in Tennessee with so much rain from the sky! I don’t understand when folks complain of the lack of rainfall in Tennessee—because compared to San Diego… We had a bucket under our bathroom basin, outdoor sink, and diverted washing machine greywater to the landscape. Rain from the sky requires considerations too—how to capture, divert, minimize run off, etc.
Ludwig, Art. Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choose, Building, and Using Greywater Systems, Includes Branched Drains. Oasis Design, 2012.
This is the book. I’m not sure that other books are needed to get started with considering water in our homes and gardens. Brad Landcaster certainly takes it several levels deeper and gets into things like curb cutting, community-wide water considerations. I’ve found once you grapple with greywater in your own home and landscape that folks then look beyond their own spaces. Greywater, greywater, greywater systems at your very own place is an excellent first step.
Allen, Laura. The Water-Wise Home: How to Conserve, Capture, and Reuse Water in Your Home and Landscape. Storey Publishing, 2015.
There are a number of other books about water but this book is accessible and the techniques can be quickly implemented. I first heard of Laura Allen’s work when it was known as Greywater Guerrillas—it just made sense to me to divert any water possible to the landscape, to have a humanure toilet in the shed, and so forth.
Woodland Gardening: Adjusting to Living in Woodland
Brett, McLeod. The Woodland Homestead: How to Make Your Land More Productive and Live More Self-Sufficiently in the Woods. Storey Publishing, 2015.
How to carve out a life that’s not 10-acres of grass with a house in the middle.