With this page, I want to highlight some of the gardening books that I keep re-reading. These are the ones that I end up referring to again and again in some of my posts.
Since it's winter here, I have been reading lots of gardening books lately. This is my favorite time of the year to read gardening books in fact. During the growing season, I find myself using them more as reference books. I look up plant spacing or how to solve a particular garden problem. In the Winter and Early Spring I read entire gardening books for enjoyment, learning and future application. These books really prepare me for a successful gardening season.
Each year I read new books, but these are the ones I go back to over and over. Some of them are pretty old now, but have stood the test of time for me. Some are probably out of print and if it weren't for the magic of Amazon, might have been long forgotten. Also thanks to Amazon, the cost for most of these books are quite low. Since these are the books I have mentioned in my past posts, I will link to those posts in the book descriptions.
This was my first favorite gardening book, and I still love it. I use this book's ideas to get my extra early tomato harvests. It also explains how to build the cold frames that I use. I wrote about them in How to build a Cold Frame and Cold Frames: Great Investments. |
As far as I am concerned, Eliot Coleman is the Master! All about season extension, this book was written in 1992 and has been guiding me ever since. I quoted from it in Why We Built Our Hoop House. This is also where I learned about Soil Block Makers. |
More info about season extension and how to do it at low cost! It even has easy plans to build your own greenhouse, which I used to build ours. See my wife and I using the book to build our greenhouse in this post, and then read even more about our greenhouse in this post. |
For backyard gardeners, this is the book that started it all! Well actually that was his first book, Square Foot Gardening. This is the newer version containing the original ideas as well as 25 years of added gardening wisdom! |
Where would I be without this book? I use this continually to identify insects I find in the garden so I can decide what to do about them. It also easily identifies every stage of each insect. A must have for the organic gardener! I wrote about it's rave reviews here, and about getting my copy here. |
Originally written in 1975, this is the revolutionary book about companion planting. It tought me which vegetables to plant together and which ones to keep apart. It also surprised me by helping solve my blister beetle problem and helping my fight with raccoons. |
Jeff Cox was my favorite TV gardener back in the day. This book is a compilation of 100 of his best ideas and tips for your garden. I have used many of his ideas including one to keep raccoons out of your corn. |
This is Coleman's newest book that goes deeper into the idea of year-round vegetable production. I use this book to help get maximum use from my hoophouse. I first wrote about the book here. |
These eight books are not the only ones I've ever written about, but they are among my
25 most favorite gardening books. In that post, I also went into organic gardening books, composting books and worm books.
Also, if you want more recommendations for good books about hoophouses, frost protection and season extension, I wrote about several in this post.
And if you still want more, please visit my GardenDesk Amazon Store.
So what about you? What is your favorite gardening book? Are any of your favorites on my list, or are they completely different? Why don't you pick up that old favorite book again?
You still have a few weeks until spring in which to read it. :)
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