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Re: Recommend me a good book


To understand soil...what it is, what it does, how to make it
better...my favorite of them all is Square Foot Gardening by 
Mel Bartholomew and Easy Care Perennials by Patricia Taylor.
After 5 years of disasterous gardens I had concluded that I had
a black thumb and had sworn off gardening forever! (And me
living on a farm!!!) The Bartholomew book was a lifesaver.  It practically
said "This is soil.  This is a seed. " Neither of these is a
landscape type of book.  Barbara Damrosch's book Theme Gardens
is a nice one for design and lots of fun to look at


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From: mcgrew@rahul.net (Darin McGrew)
Subject: Re: Faq? Newbie hints?
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References: <1994Apr08.065645.183536@zeus.aix.calpoly.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 18:46:59 GMT
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In article <1994Apr08.065645.183536@zeus.aix.calpoly.edu>,
Christopher Ambler <cambler@harp.aix.calpoly.edu> wrote:
>Well, I did it. I bought this house. And now, I've got a pretty nice back
>yard for growing things.

Congratulations!

>                         I'd like to grow anything I can, preferably good
>salad vegies and I'd love to grow corn if possible. I know, however, almost
>nothing about gardening. Is there a FAQ I could find, or any essential books?

For veggie gardening, I'd recommend the following book:

Ball, Jeff, _Jeff Ball's 60-Minute Vegetable Garden: Just One Hour a Week
for the Most Productive Vegetable Garden Possible_.  New York, NY:  Collier
Books, 1992, 228 pages, photographs by Liz Ball, illustrations by Frank
Rohrbach 1st Collier Books edition, ISBN 0-02-030376-9 (paperback).
First published as _Jeff Ball's 60-Minute Garden_.  Emmaus, PA:  Rodale
Press, 1985.  Presents numerous time-saving tools, devices, and techniques
for organic, intensive, raised-bed gardening.  Dispite the subtitle, his
emphasis is on getting a good harvest with minimal effort, although he does
point out ways that a few extra hours a week can help bring an excellent
harvest.

Here's another good beginner's book, although I prefer Jeff Ball's
less time-intensive techniques for some things (eg, watering):

Bartholomew, Mel, _Square Foot Gardening_. Emmaus, PA:  Rodale Press, 1981,
347 pages, photographs by John Hamel, illustrations by Erick Ingraham, ISBN
0-87857-340-2 (hardcover), ISBN 0-87857-341-0 (paperback).
Presents a simple, easily followed gardening style for organic, intensive,
flat- or raised-bed gardening.  The author's experience with traditional
community gardens motivated the design of a system that avoids the most
common mistakes of beginning gardeners.

>If location is an issue, I'm in Central/Coastal California (San Luis Obispo).

I forget offhand how much the coastal fog affects San Luis Obispo, but
you might find the following useful:

Peirce, Pam, _Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food
Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area & Coastal California_.  Davis, CA:
agAccess, 1993, 397 pages, illustrations by Mimi Osborne, ISBN
0-932857-10-8 (paperback).
This is easily the most useful book we've found for gardening in the San
Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California.  While it isn't as comprehensive
as other books when it comes to general gardening topics (eg, soil
amendments), it does thoroughly address the issues unique to our climate,
with its mild winters and cool, foggy summers.  Its illustrated compendium
vegetables covers an amazing variety of familiar and unfamiliar crops,
although a few crops that just don't do well anywhere in this region
receive a rather cursory treatment.  I don't mind its lack of photographs,
but there aren't enough sketches, so I need another book to help identify
the pests and diseases described.  Also, some readers may wish that the
information on flowers (both edible and ornamental) were as comprehensive
as that on vegetables and herbs; flowers recieve a sufficient, but
extremely concise treatement.

Anyway, happy reading, and happy gardening!
-- 
Darin McGrew <mcgrew@rahul.net>