Much Delayed List of Garden Books I Read in 2012

Beth asked me to post a list of the gardening books I read in 2012.

 Slow Gardening: A No-Stress Philosophy for All Senses and All Seasons


The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year  (This is a funny book about one woman’s attempt to eat solely off her ¼ acre piece of property for a year. And how she drags her children and husband along, kicking and screaming.)

I liked this one, too. It is also the story of one woman and her garden.

The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally   [HEIRLOOM LIFE GARDENER] [Hardcover] ( I loved this book and keep it by my bedside.)

Notes from an Italian Garden

Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World (Not all of this book is gardening, but he tackles it in an attempt to live a more simple life.)

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder (More of a nature book than a gardening book, it is very deep. It took me a long time to get through it. I know that what he has to say is valuable.)

Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener's Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History Great quote from the book: “Heirlooms seeds, saved from year to year, worked into our gardens and eaten at our tables make a much stronger statement for their survival. The foods produced from heirloom seeds must also be part of our daily lives if we are to actually preserve them for the future.” Page35

The Beginner's Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables: The 100 Easiest-to-Grow, Tastiest-to-Eat Vegetables for Your Garden Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation

Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone (Actually short stories of different people’s food obsessions, which for the most part, they only really practiced when alone.)

Wildly Affordable Organic: Eat Fabulous Food, Get Healthy, and Save the Planet--All on $5 a Day or Less

Edible Gardens (BBG Guides for a Greener Planet)

The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook: Easy Organic Vegetables and More Money in Your Pocket  (Loved this one!)

Newspaper, Pennies, Cardboard, and Eggs--For Growing a Better Garden: More than 400 New, Fun, and Ingenious Ideas to Keep Your Garden Growing Great All Season Long



Your Farm in the City: An Urban-Dweller's Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals

Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden: Creative Gardening for the Adventurous Cook

 Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space (This book helped me a lot. I have only a really small space, and this book gave great ideas for using the area above the ground in order to pack in more food in the space.)

 My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm (Another tale of one man’s attempt to live off the land. He didn’t want to live this way. It was an assignment. And he really does not provide a good view of the simple life.)

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

The Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Grower's Guide: Steve Sando's 50 Favorite Varieties

(Very funny back to the land book.)

 Growing at the Speed of Life: A Year in the Life of My First Kitchen Garden (I really liked this one, too.)

In the French Kitchen Garden: The Joys of Cultivating a Potager

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (This was a great and challenging book in the line of No Impact Man. I am not sure I could follow in her steps, because it was too radical. I like what she had to say, though.)

Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets

Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals

The City Homesteader: Self-Sufficiency on Any Square Footage

  (This is the book that gave me the idea to plant a sunflower garden for the kids. We have started it. It is their project, so when they get finished digging they can plant the seeds.)

Nature-Friendly Garden, The: Creating a Backyard Haven for Animals, Plants, and People

The Naturescaping Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Bringing Nature to Your Backyard

Flowering Shrubs and Small Trees for the South

Great Natives for Tough Places (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide)

Proven Plants Southern Gardens

(This was a good book, in which the author speaks to different long-time members of Seed Savers’ Exchange and explores their reasons for seed saving and seed sharing.)