Organic horticulture – The Salem Garden

My Favorite Gardening Books, and Yours?

Yesterday one of my co-workers asked me what gardening book I would recommend for beginners and I had to stop and really think about it. I love so many gardening books that it’s hard to choose, and I tend to rely on the internet these days as my first go to when I have a question. I started looking through my books today and thinking about all of the joy that they’ve given me as I’ve studied and learned. There’s nothing as wonderful as a good book!

I can quickly identify my favorite gardening book as ” The Moosewood Kitchen Garden Book” by David Hirsch. Mine is a first edition and as I think back I’m sure that I purchased it in 1992, before I had children. It includes all of the basics for anyone who wants to grow edible flowers, herbs, veggies and fruit and it’s readily available on Amazon in original and revised formats. I have happy memories of rocking my babies and planning gardens with this book in hand.

Another of my favorites is the classic herb guide, “Herb Gardening in Five Seasons” by Adelma Simmons. Adelma’s unique and wonderful take on herbs and herb gardening throughout the year comes to life in this book. I tend to pull it out at the beginning of each season to help me think about what’s coming next.

I have certainly enjoyed all garden joys and herbal magic in the years since 1994!

When I was talking with Andrew yesterday the first resource that came to mind was Rodale. Anything published by the Rodale Press seems to work for me and the guide just above is perfect for answering basic gardening questions. I also use their website, organicgardening.com on a daily basis.

While looking around for one of my current favorites, “The Garden Primer” by Barbara Damrosch, I realized that my nightstand is full of gardening books too. As you can see I love to read about adaptive gardening and container gardening and I always have a few Organic Gardening magazines in the queue and free books on my kindle.

Here’s my current favorite “The Garden Primer” by Barbara Damrosch. This is an original edition that I found at the used book store recently. It’s a great resource for the more experienced gardener who’s looking for details, but it’s also simple enough to work for someone who needs a basic understanding. Like the Moosewood book, it’s easy to read and digest and has beautiful hand drawn illustrations. When I googled Barbara Damrosch I learned that she’s published several books, speaks extensively, writes for the Washington Post and owns an experimental farm in Maine.

So, there you go Andrew… my favorite garden books! Let’s put this out to the blogosphere: What book would you gardeners recommend for a new gardener?

Let us know in the comments section… just a quick note for my facebook friends, comment here rather than on facebook so everyone can see what you have to share!

Michele

For the Lady I Met In Walmart Yesterday…How To Start Your Garden

Hi there!

I heard you ask for help yesterday in Walmart and spoke with you a few minutes later and told you a little bit about my blog. Since then I’ve been thinking about how I can help people like you who are just starting out with their very first garden and I came up with a few simple ideas. These are my thoughts after talking with you for just a minute or two.

—You said that your garden will be next to your driveway and you want some things growing and some color. I didn’t say it, but I should have said that you would want to dig down 12-16 inches to loosen the soil really well. If you just scratch the surface it will be tough for the roots to grow and establish themselves.

—Then, see what kind of soil you have. It may be nice topsoil (black, brown and crumbly), or sandy (light colored and very fine) or clay like (sticks together in a clump when it’s a little wet). It may be very rocky (try to take out as many as you can), or not. Adding compost that you can buy in bags from garden centers will help improve most soil. If you have an extreme version of any of the above you may need to work at it a little bit more. Here’s a link that can help you with that.

—As you work on getting the soil ready watch the way sun shines on the space. How many hours of sun the garden gets is really important in choosing plants that will do well. It might be over 8 hours a day (full sun), 3-6 hours a day (part shade) or less than 3 (shade). Match the light requirement on the plant tag with the type of light you have. It’s really important to do this!

—Look for plants that will fit the light requirement and the type of garden that you have in mind. Read the labels again to get an idea of how tall the plants will be and when they’ll bloom. Some tags even tell you what to plant together which is really handy when your first starting out!

—Try to arrange the plants so that the tallest are in the back and shortest are in the front.

—Pull the weeds as you see them pop up. If you do this for a few minutes every day you’ll be able to keep up with them easier.

—Watch the weather and be sure to water if it doesn’t rain.

—Take off dead flowers and leaves so that new ones can grow.

—Leave me a message here if you have any questions. I’m happy to help if I can!

— Most importantly, enjoy it! Don’t worry too much if plants don’t make it, it happens to all of us! You can do it!!!

Michele

ps/ Other gardeners, feel free to chime in with your ideas and suggestions in the comments section.

Let’s help this lady have the best first garden ever!

English: Soil types by clay, silt and sand com... — English: Soil types by clay, silt and sand composition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whats Happening in the Garden-September 1st

Today is September 1st. How is that possible? I can’t believe this summer has flown by so quickly! My kids start school on Wednesday so we’re very busy running around, buying the last minute supplies and shoes. We’re going kind of light on the clothing shopping this year but everyone needs a few new things. I am about to head out to the mall with my teenage girls so I may be recalling that last statement in a few hours! 🙂 It’s fun to get ready and anticipate new teachers, new friends and the return to predictable routine. In our case the routine will be intense this fall with soccer, dance and golf, something for each of my kids, along with church, scouts and lots of other community commitments.

Since I just posted an update a week or so ago things have not changed too too much out in the garden. Here are a few quick photos from the past few days:

The cabbage looks beautiful! I’m excited about this because usually I’m at war with the slugs. Maybe we won the battle last year and the victory is still fresh.

The carrots are also coming along beautifully! This type of carrot (scarlet nantes) does well without being thinned too much so I did it a few times early on and then let them go. There’s also a few rows of a rainbow blend variety. Their white, yellow, red and purple. I’ll post a few photos of them soon.

The pumpkins are turning color..

Here’s a sad and rather stressful part of our week. We had to cover every herb and vegetable because the Mosquito Control people sprayed throughout our part of the city. I put us on the “no spray” list but, really, we live in a dense neighborhood and I know that that was an exercise in futility. I still had to make my point and feel that we were doing our best to keep the pesticide away as much as we could. If I decide to venture into more opinionated, political topics I’ll be writing more about this. I would like to focus on the benefits of organic gardening sometime soon. It’s hard to write those types of focused posts during school vacation with my kids bouncing around.

And finally, a step out of the garden to a pretty shot of the moon over the harbor. Michael took this last night with his new little camera. It seems to take great photos and he’s having lots of fun playing with it. I’d share what model of camera it is but he went out and took it with him. He really likes it! That makes me happy!

so, Happy September and Happy Labor Day weekend! Hope you all enjoy these last few days of summer and find some time to get outside. It’s a gorgeous New England day here…as soon as I can get those girls out of the mall, I’ll be in the garden!

Love to you all,

Michele