What Gets Me Through the Winter

Thank God for the pile of garden books and seed catalogs that brighten the darkest corners of winter. On days when it's just too miserable to go outside-this is "never" for my husband, who can be found turning the compost or checking on the bamboo when the temperature is 10 degrees and ice covers the yard- I count on my colorful garden books to keep me going. I have read and re-read my favorites so many times that it's not really reading anymore. I am studying intently, hoping to absorb the wisdom and gardening experience of the dear authors who have become part of my garden psyche over the years. Here is a list of the best and most beloved of those books.

#1 Most useful and most used: The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, by Edward Smith. Ed is the gardening father or neighbor many of us don't have. Reading his book, I feel like I am learning from a master who also happens to be a humble guy who just loves digging around in his garden. This is the best book to start a garden with. Ed will lead you through understanding soil, compost, organic methods, and why tilling is neither necessary nor a good idea. I pull it out almost daily through the growing season to get advice on seed spacing, water and nutrient requirements, when to harvest, and how to cure the harvest for storage.

Rosalind Creasy's Edible Landscaping is the best for lovely garden pictures combined with intelligent musings. Rosalind is a passionate advocate for improving the world through gardening, and she shares her expertise through gorgeous, lush pictures and detailed descriptions of a variety of gardens. Rosalind shows us how vegetable gardens can be beautiful front-and center, rather than relegated to the back corner of the yard. This practice of putting the garden far away from the house has always puzzled me; my garden has gotten closer to my kitchen over the years, where it is much more likely to be used, cared for, and enjoyed. Her perspectives on the wastefulness of lawns, conserving water, and spreading the word through community sharing and education make gardening a calling, not just a personal hobby.

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin. This book really expanded my understanding of different ways to achieve the same result: the black gold we all know is so important for our soil. I especially love the "comforter compost" idea and have been using it on beds that have been harvested for the year and for starting new beds. 

Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook, by Jennifer Bartley, and Taylor's Weedned Gardening Guide to Kitchen Gardens by Cathy Wilkinson Barash. I love these books for their photos and design inspiration. Bartley includes plans that bring out the inner landscape architect in the reader, and Barash has a great section on edible flowers.  

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle lacks the glossy pictures but makes up for it in a series of engaging essays that take the reader through a year of eating local. Kingsolver shares her efforts to grow food for her family and make good use of the resources in her local community. The recipes are really quite good and tailored to the harvest. She can be preachy at times, and I love that about her; she's earned the right through her tremendous efforts and serious explorations of what it means to garden when food is so widely available in prepackaged form.