ContainerSeeds - Gardening Books

I've given a brief review for each of the books that I have read. I'll add more reviews as time permits. If you would like to suggest other books and/or to submit a brief (two to four sentence) review of any of these books for publication here, please send them to pat@containerseeds.com. If you submit a review, please let me know if you want to be credited by name or just as "a reader."

The books are listed alphabetically by title. You can browse through the entire list by clicking here and then scrolling down, or you can go directly to a specific book by clicking the appropriate link on the list immediately below:



cover 1001 Old-Time Garden Tips : Timeless Bits of Wisdom on How to Grow Everything Organically, from the Good Old Days When Everyone Did, Roger Yepsen [Editor]
Just what the title says: a compilation of tips (many with editor's comments) from days gone by (from the 1700s right up until World War II). A few are outmoded, most are relevant to today's gardening. Book is arranged by topic and contains chapters on Planning Your Yard and Garden; Planting and Caring for Gardens; Vegetables; Herbs and Home Remedies; Flowers, Fruits and Nuts; Trees, Shrubs, and Vines; Wildflowers and Ferns; Houseplants and Flower Crafts; Pest, Disease and Weed Control; Garden Projects; and Tools and Gadgets. Also has a list of Recommended Reading and Sources (for many of the plants mentioned.) This is a fun book to read, I enjoyed it. It's definitely not a major gardening opus, the kind that should be in every gardener's library, but I think most gardeners who also enjoy reading about gardening would like it.

cover Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving, Carol Deppe
Breeding a much-improved variety of a favorite vegetable must be the ultimate thrill for the adventurous gardener. Deppe makes it sound easy. One chapter is heavy-going information on plant genetics. The rest of the book is easy and pleasant to read. Deppe relates her own, and others', adventures with breeding new varieties. She discusses seed-saving from a genetic and societal viewpoint, but refers the reader to S. Ashworth's "Seed to Seed" for specific seed-saving directions. She also discusses genetically-modified plants and cautions against their unrestricted and unstudied use. A brief discussion of domesticating and improving wild plants is also included. The last part of the book is a detailed and explicit discussion of pollinating (and, therefore, crossing varieties within) eight vegetable families, with drawings. This newer edition is much expanded upon the "old" book.


cover The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower's Guide To Pumpkins, Squash, And Ornamental Gourds, Amy Goldman


cover The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping: Home Landscaping with Food-Bearing Plants and Resource-Saving Techniques, Rosalind Creasy


cover Creative Vegetable Gardening: The Art of Combining Fruitfulness and Beauty, Joy Larkcom


cover The Edible Flower Garden: From Garden to Kitchen : Choosing, Growing and Cooking Edible Flowers, Kathy Brown


The Edible Garden Series
I've read three or four of the books in The Edible Garden Series. I did not learn much new from them, but I've been gardening - and reading about gardening - for many, many years. I think they might be considerably more useful to someone with less experience. In any event, I am including them here specifically because of their gorgeous photos of growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, and edible flowers. While Creasy is not a container gardener as such (she does have some pictures of containers), I think that looking at the photos should be very helpful and inspirational for those people who want to make their edible container gardens beautiful as well as productive. It's a revelation to see how just lovely these plants can look.
The Edible Asian Garden, Rosalind Creasy
The Edible French Garden, Rosalind Creasy
The Edible Heirloom Garden, Rosalind Creasy
Edible Herb Garden, Rosalind Creasy
The Edible Italian Garden, Rosalind Creasy
The Edible Mexican Garden, Rosalind Creasy
The Edible Rainbow Garden, Rosalind Creasy
The Edible Salad Garden, Rosalind Creasy


The Encyclopedia of Natural Insect and Disease Control: The Most Comprehensive Guide to Protecting Plants, Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Trees and Lawns
Another Rodale Press Encyclopedia. Very useful reference book. It's organized alphabetically by plant (vegetable, herb, flower, tree, etc.) and tells you the diseases and pests to which each plant is susceptible, with natural means of protecting your plants. The natural means of protection include rotenone, pyrethrum and other commonly accepted "organic" sprays. I've used this book quite often and identified by using it, for example, beet leaf miners that were attacking my chard and learned how to control them.


cover Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, Eliot Coleman
For gardeners who want to have many fresh vegetables and salad greens throughout fall and winter, even in cold-winter locations (Coleman lives in Maine). Tells which crops are suitable and how to use simple technology (unheated hoophouses, cold frames, and row covers) to extend the season. Has very valuable chart displaying when to start vegetables and herbs in late summer/autumn for winter harvest. Extremely useful for anyone in a cold climate trying to extend the harvest to all or most of the year.


Global Gardening, Hank Bruce and Tomi J. Folk
Written from the standpoint of easing world hunger. Discusses many uncommon plants that can be/are being used for food sources. Many of these plants will hopefully see wider use in the future. Some may benefit from further development. The emphasis here is on tropical plants, but there are also quite a few plants that will grow in a temperate (cold-winter) climate. Also contains discussion of world hunger: causes, and possible partial solutions. Global Gardening somewhat resembles Plants for a Future (see below), in that the heart of both books is a discussion of uncommon plants. The two books complement each other very well.


cover Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener's Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History, William Woys Weaver
A large book, giving the history of many varieties of heirloom vegetables. Weaver tells from what area of the world each vegetable originally came, but the bulk of the book is the specifically American history of these plants, tracing their development in the USA through time. Color plates are given for most of the varieties discussed. The author is from the southeastern Pennsylvania area and the book is somewhat oriented towards seeds developed and handed down by Quakers, Amish, and Mennonite people living in that area. Limited cultural (how to grow) information is included for most of the vegetables but includes very good section on uncommon salad greens, giving considerably more detailed cultural information for these under-utilized greens. Well written and a must for those interested in the history of heirlooms.


cover Heritage Vegetables: The Gardener's Guide to Cultivating Diversity, Sue Stickland


cover The Kitchen Garden, Sylvia Thompson
A lovely book, a real joy for anyone who loves to garden and loves to read gardening books. Thompson discusses growing many of the less-common vegetables and herbs, information that's difficult to find. Probably more useful for experienced gardeners than for beginners. Somewhat California-centric as so many gardening books are. Best enjoyed in tandem with its companion book entitled The Kitchen Garden Cookbook.


cover Kitchen Harvest: A Cook's Guide to Growing Organic Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs, Susan Berry


cover Living With Herbs: A Treasury of Useful Plants for the Home and Garden, Jo Ann Gardner


cover Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation, Ken Druse
A large book with many color photos. Making More Plants describes (and very clearly shows) many methods of plant propagation, including sowing seeds, stem cuttings, leaf cuttings, layering, grafting, division, geophytes, etc. Also has a "Plant Propagation Guide" listing propagation methods to use on each of many species of perennials, shrubs, and trees. The book is both helpful and inspirational and could enable readers to save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars by increasing the number of their perennials, shrubs, and trees. The photos are really great and "demystify" these methods so that anyone can attempt them with a more-than-fair chance of success. Many of the pictures are beautiful too. Most highly recommended for experienced gardeners or anyone who wants to learn these methods.


cover Melons for the Passionate Grower, Amy Goldman


cover The New Seed Starter's Handbook, Nancy Bubel
Greatly expanded from the 'old' book, with much more information, and no longer Zone 5 specific. Complete directions for starting seeds, germination information, a short section on seed-saving, and info on growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruit, trees and shrubs. Useful for both beginners and experienced gardeners. I'd rank this fairly high on the "must have for my gardening library" list.


cover The New Victory Garden, Bob Thomson
The author was a host of the PBS "Victory Garden" program . The book is organized by month: what to do each month in the (mainly) vegetable garden. Readers can easily adjust it to their own climates by shifting the months backwards or forwards depending on their own last frost dates compared to the last frost date listed by Thomson. E.g., my last killing frost is one month later than Thomson's. So I do in April the things the book lists for March, etc. Straightforward description of the various tasks, with quite a few color photos. Nothing revolutionary, but very useful. I like the 'what to do each month' format and this is the only book I have that uses it.



cover Oriental Vegetables: The Complete Guide for Garden and Kitchen, Joy Larkcom
How to grow and use many, many Asian vegetables. Invaluable for anyone seriously interested in these delicious vegetables. The only book I've read that makes sense of the bewildering variety of Asian vegetables: what's what, what part of the plant you eat (I didn't know in many cases) and how to grow each one. Includes some recipes. Larkcom lives and gardens in Great Britain, and American readers will need to make some mental adjustments for the different climates. I learned a lot from this book, and refer to it frequently. For some unknown reason (bad editorial decision?) the entire book is typeset in newspaper-style columns, which I find extremely irritating. Nevertheless, a great book and I'm very glad to own it. Highly recommended to anyone wanting to expand their gardening repertoire to include some of these great vegetables.

cover Plants for a Future: Edible and Useful Plants for a Healthier World, Ken Fern
Describes many (mostly uncommon) edible (or otherwise useful) plants suitable for an ornamental garden, lawns, shady areas, ponds, walls, hedges, agroforestry, and conservation projects - in accordance with the principles of permaculture. Organizes the plants by the conditions they prefer: full sun, woodland edge, wet marshy area, etc. Ken Fern writes well and the book is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended to anyone interested in edible landscaping in a temperate climate, i.e., not in the tropics (the author lives in England). And if you aren't interested in edible landscaping, you might change your mind after you read Plants for a Future.

Park's Success With Seeds, Ann Reilly
A reference book, not a book to read for pleasure. It gives seed-starting directions for many vegetables and a huge number of flowers and perennials. This includes the desired germination temperature, amount of time required for germination, and other special notes as applicable. In each case, a photo of the grown plant is included plus a photo of the seedlings as they appear when they have just sprouted. This is really good when you're wondering if those little plants are your marigolds or a weed! Very useful. I've had this book for about 25 years and have referred to it over and over and over. This is the most complete reference to seed-starting of which I am aware.

cover Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening : The Indispensable Resource for Every Gardener, Fern Marshall Bradley


cover Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs, Claire Kowalchik
A big book, organized alphabetically, with descriptions, drawings, and discussions on how-to-grow, and the uses of, more than 140 herbs. There are some additional sections (on dangerous herbs, on how to grow herbs in general, on dye herbs, etc.) which are also in alphabetical order. This seems an odd way to organize the book to me, but it's a good and useful reference work. It's the most complete reference to herbs that I've read.


cover Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, Suzanne Ashworth
Clear and explicit directions for saving the seeds of 160 vegetable crops, with abundant information on each vegetable. I believe that the newer edition also contains seed starting and growing information (but I have an older edition). Invaluable for anyone interested in saving seeds.


cover Straight-Ahead Organic: A Step-By-Step Guide to Growing Great Vegetables in a Less-Than-Perfect World, Shepherd Ogden


cover Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew
Square foot gardening can easily be adapted to container gardening and is very productive. The book is especially good for detailed seed-starting information and plant-spacing information. In my opinion, Bartholomew is sometimes overly dogmatic (his methods aren't the only way to have a very successful garden, in spite of what he seems to think) but his methods do work very well and are exact enough to give a feeling of security to beginners. Highly recommended for beginners. Bartholomew has made a few changes to his recommendations since the book was published and you can read the changes on his website: http://www.squarefootgardening.com. One of the changes is substantial but will not affect container gardening, i.e., he no longer recommends double-digging as the sole way to prepare a raised bed but now says that building the bed up by the addition of growing media works well too. (That's what we have done in our in-ground garden, and it does indeed work very well.)


cover Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, Lee Reich
This is a very valuable book for anyone wanting to go a step beyond the obvious in growing fruit in a temperate climate (i.e, it's not about tropical fruits) perhaps because the less common fruits often need far less care (insecticides and fungicides, etc.) than the everyday peaches and apples, etc. I know that is one reason why I will be growing some of these fruits. "Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden" is all solid information, no fluff at all. Reich discusses 13 main types of fruit, in each case giving a description, cultivation and propagation information, and harvest and use information. There are color plates of most of the fruits and plants, but I'd have like to have seen more photos - especially of the plants in growth. There are chapters for each of the following: Juneberry, beach plum, alpine and musk strawberries, pawpaw, raisin tree, lingonberry, actinidia (kiwifruits), mulberry, kaki and American persimmons, elaegnus (gumi, autumn olive, Russian olive), gooseberry, maypop, che, black currant, Nanking cherry, cornelian cherry, red and white currants, Asian pear, jostaberry, lowbush blueberry, jujube, shipova and medlar. Appendices include information on plant nomenclature, pollination, siting and planting, pruning, propagation, and mail-order (and Internet) sources for plants and seeds. I know of no other book that includes this depth of information on these plants: none that even comes close. "Plants for a Future" mentions many of the same fruits, but from a different standpoint and not in the depth they are given here: each one of the fruits I mentioned above has an entire chapter to itself in "Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden". Reich is a fine writer and reading this book was a joy for me, from beginning to end.


cover Urban Eden, Adam and James Caplin
This is a very pretty book with many lovely color photos of small urban gardens (in the UK, mainly London, I believe). I read it carefully and really did not learn anything from it. Maybe other less-experienced gardeners will learn from it, but I didn't.


cover Weeds in My Garden: Observations on Some Misunderstood Plants, Charles B. Heiser


cover Your Backyard Herb Garden : A Gardener's Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More, Miranda Smith


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