12 best garden books

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An introduction to gardening

An easy-to-navigate introduction covers everything from constructing a planter box to mixing and maintaining soil.

Easy gardening guidance

Keep your garden happy and healthy with help on essentials like crop rotating, seed starting, and partner planting.

30 Plant profiles

Explore overviews of 30 common vegetables and herbs, including growing and harvesting tips.

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Thyme to start a thriving garden, with crops such as:

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Grow more with less work

That’s the promise of gardener Ed Smith’s trusted gardening guide. First published in 2009 and an enduring reference for gardeners of all levels, this handbook offers essential, in-depth information on using wide, deep raised beds and organic methods resulting in bountiful harvests.

Gentle on Plants and the Planet

Smith’s approach to a healthy, high-yield vegetable garden relies on effective natural techniques for everything from creating nutrient-rich soil through composting and cover crops to managing weeds and pests through attracting beneficial insects and companion planting.

From Artichokes to Watermelons

A-Z vegetable profiles reveals the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of varieties of crops, and outlines where, when, and how to sow and plant each one. Advice on harvesting and storage give you the information you need to plan your best vegetable garden yet!

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What’s a Kitchen Garden and Why It’s Time for a Revival

“So, what exactly is a kitchen garden? Is it a garden inside the kitchen?” (I get this question a lot).

Called kailyards in Scotland and known as potagers in France (sounds fancy, right?), a kitchen garden is a place closely connected with your kitchen and everyday life. It’s a distinct area of your home and landscape where vegetables, fruits, and herbs are grown for culinary use.

A kitchen garden can be as small as a collection of garden boxes on the patio or deck or it can be as large as a formal stone garden that covers hundreds of square feet. No matter the size, the purpose is the same: a garden that’s tended regularly and used frequently in everyday meals.

It’s not a vegetable patch or homestead. It’s much smaller and doesn’t require nearly the amount of work those do. Unlike a farm, which is cleared all at once, planted all at once, and harvested (you guessed it) all at once, a kitchen garden is tended regularly.

Why a Kitchen Garden revival?

Kitchen gardens, though we may have forgotten the term, aren’t a new concept. They’ve been a thing for thousands of years. But somewhere along our way of progress, we lost the kitchen garden. With the input of technology and industry, our food systems have changed dramatically over the last century. And while not all the change has been bad, the kitchen garden is something that should’ve stayed.

To create whole and happy lives, for the beauty in our homes, for the benefit of our community and for the good of the world, it’s time for a kitchen garden revival. A revival is a magical thing. Perhaps this book will be that seed. (Fingers crossed!) But I’ll need you to bring the rain and the sunshine.

HOW TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN REVIVAL

If you’ve never grown a thing before, don’t forget the Gardenary (gardenary.com) step-by step plan.

There are loads of resources in addition to the journal to help you start growing herbs or salad greens right away. Grab yours at gardenary.com/book

Once you’ve begun to enjoy herbs and greens from containers or small planters, you’ll feel the nudge to go bigger. It’s time to install a full kitchen garden (even if it’s just one raised bed), add trellises or supports, and start growing roots and fruits.

Already growing or can’t stop talking about your garden experiences? We’d love to have you on the Gardenary platform as a Kitchen Garden Business or a Gardenary coach. Don’t forget: My mission isn’t just to bring back the kitchen garden but also to make gardening a viable profession.

So, if you’ve fallen in love with gardening and want to share that passion by coaching and helping others, Gardenary is the place for you. And bonus—you’ve already completed step one in the application process by reading this book!

As always, share your kitchen garden moments—the wins and the struggles—using #mykitchengardenrevival anywhere you post on the web. I’ll be looking for you!

Woody Herbs (Lamiaceae Family)

• Begin with locally grown plants
• Harvest outside and lower leaves regularly within 2 weeks of planting
• Water conservatively

Lettuce & Greens (Asteraceae Family)

• Begin with seeds
• Thin if necessary
• Water consistently
• Harvest outside and lower leaves frequently within 4 weeks of planting

Root Crops (Umbellifer, Brassica, and Amaranth Families)

• Begin with seeds
• Thin if necessary
• Water consistently
• Moderate fertilizer
• Harvest a few at a time within 45 to 90 days after planting

Fruit Crops (Solanaceae and Cucurbit Families)

• Begin with seeds or locally grown plants
• Water deeply
• Fertilize weekly or bi-weekly
• Prune regularly
• Protect, if necessary
• Harvest 60 to 100 days after planting

Add water to the potting soil mix and mix in thoroughly.

Fill the cells to the top with moistened soil mix.

Using a dibber, make the planting hole to the proper depth.

Place the seeds at the proper depth in each hole.

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Stephen Orr, editor-in-chief, Better Homes & Gardens

'I’ve been an avid fan of Erin’s beautiful photos of her flower farm on Instagram for years. Now, seeing her work preserved for posterity in a book is pure magic.'

Melissa Ozawa, garden and features editor, Martha Stewart Living

'One of the leading voices in the farmer-florist movement, Erin is a tireless advocate for locally-grown flowers. Here she has put together an indispensable four-season growing guide that will inspire you to sow your own cutting garden—whether you plant one row or hundreds.'

Grace Bonney, founder of DesignSponge* and author of In the Company of Women

'Among a sea of new florists and floral books, Floret Flowers stands out. Erin Benzakein's integrity, openness and passion for flowers is unmistakable. In her debut book she not only introduces us to the basics of growing our own flowers, she shares her deep love and understanding of gardening in a way that will leave even the most doubtful grower feeling inspired to get their hands in the dirt.'

Meet the Author

Erin Benzakein is the founder of Floret Flower Farm and is known for her lush, vibrant, romantic floral designs. She pushes the limits of what can be used in bouquets, which led to her winning the Martha Stewart American Made award for Floral and Event Design. Also a winner of the Better Homes and Gardens blogger award, Erin trials an enormous selection of unique varieties each season on her small-scale, high-intensity farm, and her work has been featured in numerous books, websites, and magazines including Martha Stewart Living, Sunset, Victoria, Country Living, Organic Life and more. She farms, designs, and lives in Mount Vernon, Washington, with her husband and two children.

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The Square Foot Gardening Series

Since Square Foot Gardening was first introduced in 1981, the revolutionary new way to garden developed by Mel Bartholomew has helped millions of home gardeners grow more fresh produce in less space and with less work. Now, based largely on the input and experience of these millions, the system has been even further refined and improved to fully meet today's changing resources, needs, and challenges.

Don't wait another season to try Mel's brilliant approach to gardening! We're sure it will work for you and you won't look back.

Whether you grow in a Square Foot Garden, a straw bale garden, containers, or a traditional garden plot, you can approach harvest time with confidence.

End world hunger.'

That’s the mission of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, articulated by Mel Bartholomew, the inventor of Square Foot Gardening and founder of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. It’s a tall order, but one we’re already tackling, one square foot at a time.

As the Foundation enters our third decade in operation, we’re continuing to spread Mel’s original message of growing more food in less space with less waste (of time, materials, and money). Here’s how we’re doing it, at home and abroad, and how you can join us!

HOW TO BUILD A CLASSIC SQUARE FOOT GARDEN TRELLIS

Mel developed the classic trellis for a 4 × 4-foot Square Foot Garden box after years of experimentation, and it remains perhaps the best way for supporting vertical crops—ridiculously simple, easy, and inexpensive. For the vertical supports, ordinary electrical conduit has proven to be an inexpensive and very sturdy material to use. It never rots away, and it is strong enough to bear up under the winds that can buffet a trellis once it is filled with growing vines.

HOW TO BUILD A SIMPLE WIRE COMPOSTER

A compost bin can be an elaborate affair with wooden sides made of high-quality cedar or redwood, but you can create a perfectly serviceable composter from five metal fencing posts, a piece of 4-foot-wide weldedmetal fencing about 8 to 10 feet long, and a dozen or so 1 × 4 pine boards. With this composter, it’s very easy to add materials and turn your compost regularly. This design is from Joel Karsten, author of Straw Bale Gardens Complete.

HOW TO CREATE MEL’S MIX

You’re getting close now. Your Square Foot Garden box is (or boxes are) built. And with all the math out of the way, the fun now starts as you create the actual Mel’s Mix and fill your garden box with the growing medium that will make the most productive garden you’ve ever seen. Before you get started, make sure that you know exactly where you want your Square Foot Garden boxes positioned in your yard, because once you fill them with Mel’s Mix, it will be tricky to move them around.