Here's a question from reader lili2728 that we noticed in the comments on our recent post on garden tools:
I'm a novice gardener planning to begin a vegetable garden. Do you have any book recommendations?There were some great suggestions from the readers in the comment thread (we definitely agree with the local garden club suggestion). Here are a few more books that some of us here at The Kitchn have read and enjoyed.
Sheer Inspiration
• Designing the New Kitchen Garden by Jennifer Bartley - An urban garden should be more than a functional space to grow food. It should be beautiful as well as a taste of nature in the city. This book will help you dream of how beautiful a garden can be, and also give some practical guidance on gardens that are beautiful year-round. Gorgeous photos of French kitchen gardens, too!
• Edible Schoolyard by Alice Waters - Another very inspiring book that will encourage anyone with children to let them get their hands dirty in the garden. It's also filled with photos of a garden in progress, as well as tips and ideas for cooking with the produce a garden will yield.
Practical Get-Started Guides
• All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew - The classic. This is a very, very practical and easy-to-follow book with tons of photos and guides. The basic concept is to think of your garden in square feet - even if you only have a 4x1 windowbox, you can follow this method.
• You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail - Step-by-step guide to gardening for the first time, with plenty of coverage given to container gardens.
For Extra-Small Spaces
• Fresh Food From Small Places by R.J. Ruppenthal - No spare square feet? Try square-inch gardening instead! This is a good guide to taking advantage of windowsills, terraces, and strips of land between buildings.
• Don't Throw It, Grow It! by Deborah Peterson - If you don't even have room for a garden, you can start many small windowsill plants from your own kitchen scraps and clippings! A good supplement or alternative to composting, too.
But the Best Is...
• Someone you know. A garden is a living thing, and many of its questions and issues are super-local. Can this grow here? What is my dirt made out of? How do I know when to transplant this seedling? Should I bring these plants inside until June? How do I know this is big enough to harvest?
The best resource for these questions and the best way to start a garden is a garden mentor. Do you know someone else close by who is an experienced gardener? Consider bartering a couple homecooked meals or some chores in exchange for an afternoon of guidance and help in setting up your own garden, and see if they can be available for questions throughout the growing season.
All these books are good supplements, but having a mentor is one of the best ways to go through the very first steps of your first garden.
If you don't have a mentor, you can also look for help on online gardening forums. One of the best is Dave's Garden:
Readers, do you have other favorite books, websites, or resources for gardening?
Related: Weekend Project: Plan Your Garden! - With links to plenty more gardening resources
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Great resources, Faith! Thank you. I just listed a few of my favorites over here.
We're working on the 4th reincarnation of our vegetable garden and I have to say, all of the books are great but there's nothing like learning through trial and error...
view shayna r's profile
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is a good one. It covers a lot of topics without getting bogged down, but still conveys the important principles of gardening. I especially like its section on companion plants.
- Amelia of Gradually Greener
view GreenCayennes's profile
Great post! I use two of the books you have mentioned. Square Foot Gardening and Don't Throw it. SGF is very good with so many helpful tips as well as a very good website. Don't Throw it is fine for the classroom with some instant gratification projects but not really a gardening book. I just blogged about my new SFG that My Dad and I built for my students here:
http://www.bigredkitchen.com/2009/04/victory-garden-for-school.html
view Robin Sue's profile
Square Foot Gardening is great!! And so easy.
view amandamae's profile
In addition to Dave's there's also GardenWeb www.gardenweb.com which has forums on vegetable gardening and also regional gardening, where you can find someone who knows your area. (Most of the posters are pretty nice but once in a while there's a snot, so don't take anything personally.) Be prepared to tell them the USDA hardiness zone you're in (find it here: http://www.gardenweb.com/zones/zip.cgi ) and how many hours of sun your area gets. Most of the forums have FAQs that may get you started.
view whytephoenix's profile
I have been using squarefood gardening since i was in the third grade and this year I got a garden plot in a neighbors back yard thanks to http://www.sharingbackyards.com. I can't wait to use the time tested squarefoot raised beds this year as a new urban sharecropper
Luke
http://newurbansharecroppers.blogspot.com
http://producejigsawmystery.blogspot.com
view Luke's profile
I've been gardening for a long time, and gotta give the other point of view: I'm not a square foot gardener, and I never will be. It doesn't work as well with a low-water system like I use.
Some books to recommend:
Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden (she makes it fun!), and
Rodale's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener (simple explanations and low-cost ways to improve your garden)
view violet222's profile
There's a handy kitchen garden planner at the Gardener's Supply website, too. I can't be held responsible for anything you buy as a result of visiting their site, though. :)
http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html
view MissKatieMay's profile
An absolute MUST read is Katherine Whiteside's fabulous THE WAY WE GARDEN NOW!
view Elissa at Poor Man's Feast's profile
One of my favorites is The Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden: Creative Gardening For The Adventurous Cook by David P. Hirsch. It contains advice for all types of spaces (including container gardening, which I do). The back also has recipes so you know what to do with what you grow, and I also plan to use this to aid with using CSA veggies.
view nessie1013's profile
McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container. Hands down the best container gardening book I have found. Most of the book is actually taken up by entries on all different herbs, fruits & vegetables and how best to care for them -- useful whether you are container gardening or not.
view spinstah's profile
I just finished reading Fresh Food from Small Spaces, and unfortunately have to admit I thought it was mediocre. It was such a general overview of so many topics, that it provided little practical advice (although lots of references to webpages (I can search the internet myself, thank you)) and just a lot of "did you know you can _____ (garden, compost, pickle, etc...) in an urban home?" Then directs you to other books to learn how.
view amt230's profile
Thanks for all the suggestions Kichn!
view lili2728's profile
I love SFG. I've built my first one and I think it's wonderful. It's produced a lot of food already and it's super easy to use.
view ejbrammer's profile