Favorite farming/gardening books?

[Nahum]

I just thought I would ask others what are some of your favorite farming or gardening books. One of mine that I have read and reread over the years is John Seymour's The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency (1976).

So, what texts have you found helpful? Thanks.

 

[jennywrenwrites]

I really enjoy the Farmers Almanac. My husband makes fun of me because he swears it is all superstition. I ignore him because I find it to be chock full of information, tips and tricks. I love it.

 

[Nahum]

+1 to the Farmers Almanac. We subscribed to it for as long as I can recall.

 

[Trace]

Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew, is probably the most helpful book on gardening I've read. In fact, it kept me from totally giving up on the idea after the first two (relatively) disastrous gardens.

And of course, The Old Farmer's Almanac. That has tons of great tips, and the moon phase planting charts.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I have an amazon account and the Kindle app on my iPad, so what I have been doing is getting some of the free books on gardening that Amazon offers every day. They change books each day, so you have to be checking all the time to see what is free that day, and download it to your kindle or kindle app. If you type in gardening, and then do a search by price low to high, you will get all the free ones first, then the 99 cent ones, and so on. Some of them are pretty cheap anyway, but some of the more expensive ones are on there also, and , after all, free is free , so it is all good.

 

[Trace]

I have an amazon account and the Kindle app on my iPad, so what I have been doing is getting some of the free books on gardening that Amazon offers every day. They change books each day, so you have to be checking all the time to see what is free that day, and download it to your kindle or kindle app. If you type in gardening, and then do a search by price low to high, you will get all the free ones first, then the 99 cent ones, and so on. Some of them are pretty cheap anyway, but some of the more expensive ones are on there also, and , after all, free is free , so it is all good.

I do this, too. And some of the stuff that comes up is amazing. You get some bizarre historical stuff along with the more modern titles. It's great when you get the good titles at a bargain like that. Sometimes, though, you get exactly what you pay for, and it takes a bit of trial and error to get good at sorting the useful information from the Internet version of compost. I have found a LOT of great herbal information this way.

One cool thing about this is you don't even have to have a Kindle or smartphone app for it. I do have a Kindle, but I often read from my laptop or desktop also. All you need is an Amazon account, and I think you have to download a small (free) reader app for your computer. I don't remember for sure since it's been a while since I set that up. But it's well worth the effort to run a quick search there every day.

 

[veg11]

Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew, is probably the most helpful book on gardening I've read. In fact, it kept me from totally giving up on the idea after the first two (relatively) disastrous gardens.

And of course, The Old Farmer's Almanac. That has tons of great tips, and the moon phase planting charts.

I looooove his book! I just planted a sq. foot garden!

 

[LindaKay]

I love the Farmer's Almanac. It's definitely a classic.

Square Foot Gardening sounds fascinating, and it's something that I would really love to read. I would love to learn how to better utilize the space that I have. Our yard isn't as big as I would like for it to be.

 

[Trace]

I love the Farmer's Almanac. It's definitely a classic.

Square Foot Gardening sounds fascinating, and it's something that I would really love to read. I would love to learn how to better utilize the space that I have. Our yard isn't as big as I would like for it to be.

The basic concept is that you don't need nearly as much space as traditional gardening demands because you have optimal soil and spacing. Beyond that, it's good sense, laid out in easy to use format.

 

[Nahum]

One other classic text I have enjoyed is Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management, by Maurice G. Kains. It was written during the Great Depression era, but still contains some good material.

 

[veg11]

I really like the book:The homesteaders handbook to Raising small livestock. It show some good information on raising small meat animals like rabbits and chickens.

 

[Rzashida]

I really enjoy the Farmers Almanac. My husband makes fun of me because he swears it is all superstition. I ignore him because I find it to be chock full of information, tips and tricks. I love it.

I like all the garden quotes and gardening humor. My favorite magazine is Mother Earth.

 

[Trace]

I like all the garden quotes and gardening humor. My favorite magazine is Mother Earth.

I like Mother Earth News also (I assume you meant Mother Earth News?), but there are some articles that are a lot more political and alarmist than I like. On the other hand, some things that were alarmist ten years ago have come to pass, so maybe that sort of article does belong there. I like a lot of the DIY things they offer, though most of them are well beyond the budget (like the dome house, which I thought was awesome). The gardening information is great!

 

[claudine]

Okay, this is not exactly a gardening book, but I think that I can post it here. I'm talking about the Secret Garden. It's one of my favorite books You can't really learn anything from it, but it definitely is very inspiring! My dream garden would look like the secret garden, with climbing roses growing everywhere

 

[Cammie27]

Square Foot Gardening is my go-to garden book, and it is pretty beat from years of reference. I have a bunch of others on my Nook and Kindle apps too... The Joy of Hobby Farming, The Backyard Homestead, Mini-Farming,. I also have a subscription to Urban Farm and to Grit, and used to get Mother Earth News but let that lapse because it seemed like its gotten more political/social and less how-to.