Looking for good, reliable Vegetable Garden Reference site or book

[larry_stewart]

As you all know, you can search for some information online on any topic and find 100 different answers.

Ive been gardening for decades and aside from learning from my dad, who learned from his dad.

With information now at our finger tips, and products as accessible as a push of a button and on your doorstep within days ( or even hours), we are exposed to so much that it can be overwhelming.

My question is, can someone recommend a vegetable gardening side or book ( I have no problems thumbing through pages, I actually kinda like it ) that would provide general information on many crops including soil, watering, fertilizer, temperature.... Any general information per crop .

I see so many different suggestions that contradict each other, that I dont know who or what to listen to.

So, if anyone has a reliable resource , where the majority of the info is in one place, Id appreciate it. and when I say reliable, reliable to your own personal gardening experience. One that you personally trust.

 

[GotGarlic]

Your county Cooperative Extension office is the best place to find that information, in part because it's specifically tailored for your climate, and also because it's all research-based information. Search for Cornell Cooperative Extension and the name of your county.

 

[dragnlaw]

I have a humongous book from, believe it or not, Reader's Digest. All on Gardening but specifically in Canada. I can't vouch for all of it but what I have gleaned from it has been good for me.

Why don't yo go to your Library and see what they have - or you can get from another library. You'd be able to peruse and decide which book would help you the most.

I also agree with GG but I understand that you probably also want the info at your fingertips. When you are sitting there at 1 am and suddenly have a question you can reach for the book, eh?

 

[larry_stewart]

Yeah, I love the convenience and endless info from the internet, but I also like going old school and having some kind of reference at my fingertips that is well organized, good info and I can highlight and make notes in. Kinda like I am with cook books. Sure, I can get recipes online ( which I do), but having the cook book in front of me, with a few dog eared pages, some stains from keeping it too close to the cook top, and the occasional burn mark from supply placing it on a burner that was still hot ...

 

[taxlady]

Don't the county extensions offer pamphlets?

 

[larry_stewart]

Don't the county extensions offer pamphlets?

They may, but im looking for a complete reference - like book with all the info organized in one place , instead of having a box full of pamphlets. I know that no book is going to have everything, and thats fine, as I have no problems adding personal notes and ideas in it.

 

[GotGarlic]

Don't the county extensions offer pamphlets?

They may, but im looking for a complete reference - like book with all the info organized in one place , instead of having a box full of pamphlets. I know that no book is going to have everything, and thats fine, as I have no problems adding personal notes and ideas in it.

They might have a gardening guide all in one PDF that you can download and print, or offer a book for sale. The home food preservaion guide from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is available in book form as well as online.

 

[bethzaring]

My go to book has always been Rodale Press The Complete Book of Organic Gardening books . My copy was published in 1977 and I still use it. It covers everything, including saving seeds..

https://www.amazon.com/Rodales-Ultimate-Encyclopedia-Organic-Gardening/dp/1594869170

 

[pepperhead212]

My go to book has always been Rodale Press The Complete Book of Organic Gardening books . My copy was published in 1977 and I still use it. It covers everything, including saving seeds.

That's a book that I got many years ago...I think it was some sort of deal, when Organic Gardening magazine was still around. I did learn a lot from that, but I honestly don't remember the last time I looked in it. I have some books on specific topics, that I tend to go to for info. - garlic, propagation, hydroponics, etc.

Trying to find a book with everything in it is sort of like finding a cookbook with everything in it! The more they try to put into it, the more "diluted" it becomes, so to speak. And there are always new things - plants, pests, and diseases.
Especially in this day and time, with more insect and disease problems, and especially locally, those books won't help much in those categories. I have to go online, to get info on these kinds of things, and to see what kinds of experiences people in my area have with various things - different plants - which do well for them, as well as problems with different plants.

 

[GotGarlic]

My go to book has always been Rodale Press The Complete Book of Organic Gardening books . My copy was published in 1977 and I still use it. It covers everything, including saving seeds..

https://www.amazon.com/Rodales-Ultimate-Encyclopedia-Organic-Gardening/dp/1594869170

Knowledge of plants and how they work has advanced quite a bit since then. For a couple of examples, tilling the soil is not recommended because it destroys the soil food web and it's been shown that putting pebbles or other stuff in containers actually inhibits good drainag.

 

[dcSaute]

I have my grandfather's 1959 first printing of Rodale's

Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.
I have a later edition as well, the old volume was starting to show it's use....


it is still up-to-date. some of the technical data like % of NPK in stuff may not be as accurate as 'modern data' - but no till, hugel-kulture, double digging, composting, no dig gardening . . . the whole shebang is there.


it also explains the whys and hows - not just 'plant this like this' type stuff more prevalent in "gardening books"



some prof recently got some big award for his theories on 'husbanding the soil' and not the crop. jeesh - that's like the whole point of organic gardening, and totally well documented in the book.

 

[GotGarlic]

This looks good.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Vegetables-Regional-Vegetable-Gardening/dp/1604698829