Edible Gardening: The Vegetable and Fruit Garden
Edibles not only feed our bodies but they can be beautiful in the landscape. Here is a selection of books to help you grow wonderful, healthy vegetables and fruit.
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The $64 Tomato : How One Man Nearly Lost his Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden
"In this appealingly witty memoir of one man's battle with nature, Alexander weaves a cautionary tale for those who have ever tasted a grocery-store tomato and vowed to grow a better one in their own backyard." Carol Haggas
Book Description William Alexander had a simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard. It was a dream that would lead to life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, and weeds; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer); the near electrocution of the tree man; and the pity of his wife and children.
When Alexander decided to run a cost-benefit analysis, adding up everything from the Havahart animal trap ($60) to the Velcro tomato wraps ($5) to the steel edging ($1,200), then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it came as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each tomato.
A gardener with an existential bent, Alexander gives excellent advice about everything from peaches to leeks, while tackling such questions as What do our gardens tell us about ourselves? Do we get the gardens we deserve? And why does the groundhog have to take one bite from half a dozen tomatoes when any gardener would gladly grant him six bites of just one?
75 Exciting Vegetables For Your Garden
Book Description: Seventy-five eminently beautiful fruits and vegetables are profiled in this charming new book by expert gardener and garden designer Jack Staub. Discover produce you'll likely not see in the local supermarket, including the Asparagus Bean, Green Zebra Tomato, Prescott Fond Blanc Melon, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, True Lemon Cucumber, Turkish Orange Eggplant, and many more. Staub seeks not only to infuse America's backyard gardens with color and variety, but to enlighten and amuse with amiable text, surprising history, scraps of unexpected lore, and tidbits of culinary insight. Unique in content and tone, 75 Extraordinary Vegetables shares the history, evolution, and details about each vegetable, and then provides simple solutions for using them in the kitchen every day. Be they heirloom or hybrid, native or transplant, Staub presents seventy-five really superb vegetables in current culture that are as exciting for their physical beauty as they are for their taste.
The Apple Grower: Guide for the Organic Orchardist
Book Description: For decades fruit growers have sprayed their trees with toxic chemicals in an attempt to control a range of insect and fungal pests. Yet it is possible to grow apples responsibly, by applying the intuitive knowledge of our great-grandparents with the fruits of modern scientific research and innovation.
Since The Apple Grower first appeared in 1998, orchardist Michael Phillips has continued his research with apples, which have been called “organic’s final frontier.” In this new edition of his widely acclaimed work, Phillips delves even deeper into the mysteries of growing good fruit with minimal inputs. Some of the cuttingedge topics he explores include:
- The use of kaolin clay as an effective strategy against curculio and borers, as well as its limitations
- Creating a diverse, healthy orchard ecosystem through understory management of plants, nutrients, and beneficial microorganisms
- How to make a small apple business viable by focusing on heritage and regional varieties, value-added products, and the “community orchard” model
The author’s personal voice and clear-eyed advice have already made The Apple Grower a classic among small-scale growers and home orchardists. In fact, anyone serious about succeeding with apples needs to have this updated edition on their bookshelf.
The Backyard Berry Book: A Hands-On Guide to Growing Berries, Brambles, and Vine Fruit in the Home Garden
Book Description: In the late 20th century, unfortunately, berries are seen primarily in the supermarket at certain times of year, and while this is welcome, it used to be that everyone had a few berry bushes in the backyard: some currants, some gooseberries and a few rhubarb plants. Stella Otto explains how to bring this tradition back and raise lush crops of berries and fruit with pointers on soil nutrition, plant nutrients and mulching that will make your home-grown berries the envy of folks who only see them in the supermarket. This mouth-watering book will get you going.
The Backyard Orchardist: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home Garden
The Berry Grower's Companion
Book Description: Bowling uses her twenty years of personal experience and professional expertise to illuminate the art and science of growing strawberries, brambles (including raspberries and blackberries), blueberries, grapes, and a host of minor small fruits such as kiwi, currants, and gooseberries.
A chapter is devoted to each of the main berry types and includes cultural requirements, botanical traits, the history of the plant in cultivation and in commerce, appropriate cultivars for each region of the United States, and pest and disease considerations. Because berry fruits are all too often ignored for their aesthetic and practical benefits, Bowling includes a chapter on their contributions to the garden landscape.
Blueberries, Cranberries and Other Vacciniums
Book Description: Here is a wealth of information and advice on growing blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries and dozens of lesser-known relatives, otherwise known as the vacciniums. Jennifer Trehane explores the historical, ornamental and edible aspects of Vaccinium, a diverse genus of more than 400 species that grow worldwide from Malaysia to Scandinavia. The culinary importance of these berry-bearing plants is well known: who has not savored blueberry pie or drunk a refreshing glass of cranberry juice?
Too few people, however, are aware of the ornamental potential of vacciniums. Many of the plants described in these pages have brightly colored young growth, flowers that are sometimes scented and either evergreen or deciduous leaves of brilliant fall color.
Some vacciniums become large, bold shrubs, while others remain small and compact, making them ideal for containers and small gardens. The author lists dozens of little-known species deserving more attention, and all who read this book will find a range of plants suitable for each garden habitat.
The author sorts out huckleberries from bilberries, highbush blueberries from rabbiteye and lowbush blueberries and cowberries from cranberries. Detailing their cultivation, harvest and uses, she also offers expert guidance on pests and diseases while providing a fascinating summary of the commercial methods used to grow these wonderful plants.
Designing the New Kitchen Garden : An American Potager Handbook
Book Description Most gardeners know how rewarding it is to harvest ripe, sun-warmed tomatoes or pungent herbs straight from the garden. But those pleasures can be multiplied a hundredfold by creating a garden that is not only productive, but also a beautiful, well-integrated part of the home landscape. In this handsome volume, Jennifer Bartley shows how the traditional features of the classic kitchen garden, or potager, can be adapted to contemporary American needs and conditions. The book is informed by her conviction that the nurturing, preparing, and eating of fresh, home-grown vegetables contributes enormously both to our ties with the natural world and our ties to each other. Copiously illustrated with photographs and with the author's delightful watercolors, Designing the New Kitchen Garden offers the perfect blend of inspiration and practical guidance.
The Edible Container Garden: Growing Fresh Food in Small Spaces
Book Description: No space is too small to grow delicious and healthy food.
Enjoying tasty and fresh produce no longer requires a trip to the local farm stand or gourmet grocery. With The Edible Container Garden as your guide, everything from salad greens and savory herbs to luscious fruits and vegetables can be as close as your patio, balcony, or rooftop.
The Edible Container Garden explains how to plant, grow, and harvest vegetables, edible flowers, fruits, and herbs, even when time and space are limited. Discussing the wide variety of planting options, from simple window boxes and raised garden beds to trellises and other vertical structures, The Edible Container Garden shows you how to
Decide what kinds of plants you want to grow and which soil to use to keep them healthy and vibrant Select the right containers and tools to design a beautiful and fertile garden Discover which seasons are best for certain plants so you can design a practical and productive growing space Feed, tie, prune, and clip your plants to fit almost anywhere, whether they're in containers, over arches, or even along footpaths
Illustrated with beautiful color photographs and packed with helpful and creative tips, The Edible Container Garden provides all the information you'll need to transform your outdoor space into a bountiful paradise.
The Edible Garden
Book Description: Putting delicious food on the table doesn't get more fulfilling-or fresher-than this!Whether you have a tiny rooftop plot or a serious chunk of dirt, The Edible Garden is packed with practical advice for designing a horticultural haven that's as tasty as it is beautiful-just think of it as art you can eat! This appealing text covers tried-and-true methods as well as more avant garde approaches to growing herb gardens, vegetable plots, fruit trees, edible flowers, and more.
Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory: An Inventory of Nursery Catalogs Listing All Fruit, Berry and Nut Varieties Available by Mail Order in the United States
Fruit And Nuts: A Comprehensive Guide to the Cultivation, Uses And Health Benefits of over 300 Food-producing Plants
Book Description: An informative and comprehensive guide to growing and using more than 300 species of fruits and nuts, this A–Z reference will inspire gardeners to grow and use a wider variety of edible plants. Each entry includes a brief history, detailed description, and authoritative information on propagation, as well as helpful advice about harvesting times and methods, cultivation and location needs, pruning, pests and diseases, nutrition and health benefits, and medicinal uses. An extensive, annotated list of cultivars will help gardeners and growers select the most appropriate plants for their location and needs. Suitable for home gardeners, horticulture professionals, orchardists, and nutritionists.
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
Book Description: The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.
Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food.
Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies - working an average of two hours a day during the growing season.
Garden Seed Inventory: Inventory Of Seed Catalogs Listing All Non-Hybrid Vegetable Seeds, Available in the United States and Canada
Book Description: Garden Seed Inventory is an essential reference for all serious vegetable growers who care about seeds and preserving our common garden heritage. This comprehensive "catalog of catalogs" is now available in an updated sixth edition, and lists nearly 8,500 nonhybrid varieties of everything from amaranth to zucchini.
As traditional plant breeding gives way to bioengineering and patented varieties, it has become even more important to recognize and preserve our rich vegetable legacy: seeds brought to this country by immigrants from every corner of the world, or developed here by farmers and breeders for superior taste, regional adaptability, disease resistance, and other virtues. Far from being obsolete or inferior, these varieties represent the cream of our vegetable crops. Garden Seed Inventory opens the door and invites us all to discover them.
Garlic Is Life
Loosely the story of how a divorced, middle-aged Jewish professor of English moved from San Francisco to rural Sonoma County, California, and found fulfillment in the ups and downs of garlic farming, this intensely personal narrative describes the interplay of generations and cultures in Northern California. It should have particular appeal for garlic heads, would-be writers, middle-aged men in transition, feisty septuagenarians, and touchy-feely types. Along with fiercely prejudiced discourses on garlic, Chester Aaron presents his sentimental story in crisp, no-nonsense prose loaded with Woody Allen-esque asides and self-deprecating observations. The book ends with 40 recipes.
The Grape Grower
A Guide to Organic Viticulture
Book Description: Grapes are the most popular and widely grown fruit in the world. From the tropics to Alaska, grapes will grow successfully in almost every climate. Whether you raise them for fresh eating, or for making wine, juice, or jellies and preserves, the right grapes will reward you with abundant crops for a modest investment of time and effort.
Now for the first time comes a book for grape growers who wish to use organic growing methods to raise healthy, thriving vineyards in the backyard or on a small commercial scale. The Grape Grower distills the broad knowledge and long-time personal experience of Lon Rombough, one of North America's foremost authorities on viticulture.
From finding and preparing the right site for your vineyard to training, trellising, and pruning vines to growing new grapes from seeds and cuttings, The Grape Grower offers thorough and accessible information on all the basics. The chapters on grape species, varieties, and hybrids are alone worth the price of a college course in viticulture. Technical information on the major (and minor) insect pests and diseases that affect grapes, as well as their organic controls, makes this book an invaluable reference that readers will turn to again and again.
Rombaugh also provides a wealth of information on hardy but little-known grapes that are native to North America, and on a wide range of topics, including:
- pruning neglected or overgrown vines
- growing grapes on arbors and in greenhouses
- controlling animal pests in the vineyard
- bunch grapes and muscadine grapes for the South
- winter protection, and how to increase the hardiness of grapes
- creating your own new varieties
Growing and Using Garlic
Book Description: Since 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.
Growing Great Garlic: The Definitive Guide for Organic Gardeners and Small Farmers
Ron L. Engeland has made his living as an organic garlic grower in Washington State for nearly two decades. He has cultivated more than 450 strains from all over the world. If you want to grow incredible garlic for yourself, he's the man to listen to.
The first garlic book written specifically for organic gardeners and small-scale farmers. Growing Great Garlic is the definitive grower's guide written by a small scale farmer who makes his living growing over 200 strains of garlic. Commercial growers will want to consult this book regularly.
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening
Book Description Here's a fully revised edition of this regional bestseller- considered to be the definitive food gardening manual for the Pacific Northwest. This is the bible of vegetable gardening for anyone turning the soil west of the Cascade Mountains-from Western British Columbia to Northern California. It includes the basics of soil, when best to plant, the art of composting, what varieties grow well here, which seed companies are reliable, information on handling pests, and an extensive section on the cultivation of each vegetable.
How to Grow More Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine
This book is based on biointensive gardening techniques to get the most out of your edible garden space.
How to Grow Organic Vegetables in Containers
Book Description: A well–written and straight–forward look into how easily people can grow fresh vegetables in the small spaces of back yards, patios and balconies. Through the use of simple directives and annotated photographs, you are informed step–by–understandable–step on seed set–up, transplanting, cultivation, fertilizers, composting and harvest. Also included is a glossary of commonly used terms, advice on pests, recommended tools and resources.
How-To-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins
Normally I don't go along with the idea that bigger is better, but I have to go along with the Peanuts gang when it comes to bigger pumpkins. I too am in search of the great pumpkin! This book is for those of us who let our inner child say yes to some fun! This book will give the instructions on how to grow the great pumpkin for the grownup side of you to please the inner child.
How-to-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins II: Sequel to the Classic Book on Growing Giant Pumpkins
The sequel to How-To-Grow World Class Giant Pumpkins.
Kitchen Gardens in Containers
Book Description: Growing your own has never been simpler! With containers, even the smallest outside space--a patio, roof, balcony, or window box--can become a garden bursting with delicious organic fruits, tasty vegetables, and fragrant herbs. Use them to cook, make beauty preparations, and decorate. Along with fabulous photographs that show how wonderful this mini garden can look, get all the basics on plant selection and care, plus choosing and preparing containers. Pictures display a wealth of attractive and practical ideas, like low-growing herbs surrounding an evergreen box topiary; a charming miniature peach tree that fits so nicely into a tight corner; and purple ornamental kales (flanked by cyclamen and winter heather) that grow right on a sill. Bonus: a plant directory with detailed information on over 140 varieties and mouthwatering recipes!
Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding!
Book Description: Lasagna gardening is a unique and environmentally friendly method that employs layering mulch materials such as old newspapers, fallen leaves, and grass clippings to provide a nutrient-dense base for healthy gardens. It is a time-saving technique that works. Gardener extraordinaire Lanza offers her tips and specific lasagna gardening procedures for the most popular vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruits, and more-all without digging and tilling! Lasagna Gardening will increase the gardener's bounty and leisure time and decrease environmental waste.
Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces: A Layering System for Big Results in Small Gardens and Containers: Garden in Inches, Not Acres
From the Publisher Now you can create the garden of your dreams, no matter how limited your growing space is. Pat Lanza's proven lasagna gardening method produces amazing results in pots and small plots. Even in beds just 4 inches wide, you can grow bountiful, beautiful gardens with no digging, no weeding—no kidding!
McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers
Book Description With few exceptions-such as corn and pumpkins-everything edible that's grown in a traditional garden can be raised in a container. And with only one exception-watering-container gardening is a whole lot easier. Beginning with the down-to-earth basics of soil, sun and water, fertilizer, seeds and propagation, THE BOUNTIFUL CONTAINER is an extraordinarily complete, plant-by-plant guide.
Written by two seasoned container gardeners and writers, THE BOUNTIFUL CONTAINER covers Vegetables-not just tomatoes (17 varieties) and peppers (19 varieties), butharicots verts, fava beans, Thumbelina carrots, Chioggia beets, and sugarsnap peas. Herbs, from basil to thyme, and including bay leaves, fennel, and saffron crocus. Edible Flowers, such as begonias, calendula, pansies, violets, and roses. And perhaps most surprising, Fruits, including apples, peaches, Meyer lemons, blueberries, currants, and figs-yes, even in the colder parts of the country. (Another benefit of container gardening: You can bring the less hardy perennials in over the winter.) There are theme gardens (an Italian cook's garden, a Four Seasons garden), lists of sources, and dozens of sidebars on everything from how to be a human honeybee to seeds that are All America Selections.
Organic Gardener's Composting
Pollination with Mason Bees : A Gardener and Naturalists Guide to Managing Mason Bees for Fruit Production
Book Description: Introduces concept of pollination and bees/ mason bees to gardeners in order to increase fruit production. Includes information on nest construction and mason bee build-up with detailed pen and ink illustrations.
The Postage Stamp Garden Book: Grow Tons of Vegetables in Small Places
Book Description A postage stamp garden is a small area that can produce a bounty of herbs and vegetables. Many gardeners complain that they are short on both time and garden space. The Postage Stamp Garden Book solves both of these problems. The instructions in this book clearly demonstrate how anyone can produce tremendous amounts of vegetables in small spaces (using containers as well as ground gardens) by following intensive, ecologically friendly techniques that require much less weeding, watering, and overall effort.
The Rodale Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
Book Description The complete, fully illustrated guide to natural and chemical-free gardening.
Whether an experienced gardener looking to go organic or a beginner wanting to create a healthy, eco-friendly garden, Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening contains the tips and techniques needed to produce beautiful flowers, top-quality herbs, and appetizing, wholesome fruits and vegetables. Explore the latest methods for cultivation without chemicals, discover the benefits of composting, and learn how to maintain an organic garden year-round.
Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
A seed saving guide for gardeners who grow heirloom vegetables and for those who would like to save money by not having to buy seed every year.
Sprouts, The Miracle Food
Book Description The Sproutman's guide to indoor organic gardening shows you step by step, how to grow these delicious baby greens and mini-vegetables in just one week from seed to salad. This guide can make anyone a self sufficient gardener of sprouts that are bursting with concentrated nutrition. Includes comprehensive nutrition charts, Questions and Answers, seed resources, illustrations, photo's & Charts.
Square Foot Gardening
My all time personal favorite. I bought my first copy back in the 70s and gave it away after I thought I had the swing of things. I then found it was such a good resource book I bought it again. I ended up giving 4 copies of this book away to other gardeners. I finally bought a hard back version a few years back and I still have that copy. But then perhaps I haven't met another fledgling gardener that needed it. For intensive gardening in small spaces this book is the one to get you started! I highly recommend it, after all I bought five of these books!
The Story of the Apple
Book Description The Story of the Apple reveals the solution to a long-standing puzzle. Where did the apple come from, and why is the familiar large, sweet, cultivated apple so different from all other wild apple species with their bitter, cherry-sized fruits? This book will fascinate gardeners who wish to know more about the origin and natural history of the plants that they grow in their yards or orchards, researchers and students in botany and horticulture who want the evidence from DNA, geology, anthropology, archaeology, zoology, and Classical history, and anyone with an interest in diet, well-being, and the benevolent effects of plants on the emergence of humankind.
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Book Description: Lee Reich provides a valuable guide to fruits and berries that add an adventurous flavor to any garden. Though names like jujube, juneberry, maypop, and shipova may seem exotic at first glance, these fruits offer delectable rewards to the gardener willing to go only slightly off the beaten path at local nurseries. Reliable even in the toughest garden situations, cold-hardy and pest-resistant, they are as enticing to the beginning as to the advanced gardener. This expanded sequel to the author's celebrated Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention offers new fruits, new varieties, and new photos and illustrations to entice the reader into an exciting world of garden pleasure.
As useful as it is inspiring, this volume emphasizes the practicalities of plant selection (a thorough source list is included), cultivation, propagation, and maintenance. Importantly for the environment, good harvests are possible from these tough plants without the rigorous spraying or fussy pruning required of more familiar tree fruits. Nearly all the fruits in this book offer year-round ornamental interest even when not in fruit or flower.
Graced by beautiful pen-and-ink drawings, colorful photos, and the author's own eloquent style, Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden is a delightful book in the tradition of classic garden writing. Each gardener who reads this book is only a growing season away from enriching the home table with unexpected delicacies.
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions
Book Description Discover the last W.O.R.D. in vegetable gardening with Ed Smith's amazing gardening system. By integrating four principles -- Wide beds, Organic methods, Raised beds, and Deep beds -- Smith reinvents vegetable gardening, making it possible for everyone to have the best, most successful garden ever. By following this complete system you cultivate deep, powerful soil that nourishes plants and discourages pests and disease. The result is fewer weeds, healthier plants, and lots of great-tasting vegetables. Plus, you'll enjoy gardening as you never have before. The Vegetable Gardener's Bible -- the last W.O.R.D. in vegetable gardening.
Weedless Gardening
Book Description Conventional wisdom says to garden from the bottom up, turning over the soil every spring until your back aches. Ironically, this does such a good job aerating that gardeners spend the rest of the season pulling weeds and replacing the suddenly energized (and easily used up) nutrients. Mother nature, on the other hand, gardens from the top down-layering undisturbed soil with leaves and other organic materials. In following this example and synthesizing the work of other perceptive gardeners, Lee Reich presents a compelling new system called weedless gardening.
THE WEEDLESS GARDEN is good for plants and it's good for people. It protects the soil, contributes to plant health, reduces water needs, cuts down on a gardener's labor, encourages earthworms and, of course, mitigates weed problems by keeping the seeds dormant. Four basic tenets form the system's backbone-minimize soil disruption; protect soil surface; avoid soil compaction; use drip irrigation-and the way to get there is simple. For a new bed or established garden, layering is key, and the perfect material to use is also among the most common-newspaper. Add organic mulch and compost on top, and plants are growing in rich, self-generating humus. From vegetable gardening to flower gardens to planting trees, shrubs, and vines, THE WEEDLESS GARDEN works everywhere-allowing the gardener to work quite a bit less.
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