THIS MONTH’S BOOK GIVEAWAY IS ALL ABOUT MY HEROES. The two books up for grabs are ones I have turned to many times in my decades-long gardening career. Their authors, mulch-mad, no-work-garden Ruth Stout, and the original “Victory Garden” host Jim Crockett, feel like old friends. Want a chance to win “Gardening Without Work” or “Crockett’s Victory Garden”? I tracked down copies just for you.
Last month’s giveaway, my first ever on the blog, was such a hit that I promised a monthly event (though in April we might just have a surprise “extra” edition, so stay tuned). As a garden writer, it seems fitting that I should give away not just my own book (as I did last month, and promise to again) but also books by those who’ve taught me. I have been stockpiling some goodies from the used-book dealers the last few weeks.
Crockett’s Victory Garden
James Underwood Crockett (first published, 1977)
The star of the PBS series “The Victory Garden” was also the author of a series of books on how to garden, and this is my favorite of his. It was my first garden book ever, given to me by my sister, so maybe that’s why, but I think its value far exceeds the sentiment attached. Dated (meaning chemicals are used and cultivars are passé) but the best beginner’s book there is, taking you month by month through all the basics of growing food and flowers. Remember: skip the chemicals. I hope he would if he were here today.
Gardening Without Work
Ruth Stout (first published, 1961)
Ruth Stout’s wonderful work was published when she was 76. Though I am a couple of decades shy, the subtitle running up the right side of the cover cries out: “For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent.”
It is more the spirit of the book than anything else that I love, an attitude brought to life in a series of videos of her that I found and shared recently, as you may recall. Written a year before Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” came out, Stout’s funny little volume likewise decried use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. Stout had no tolerance for the burning of leaves, or for wasting the most precious of commodities, water. What she loved: mulch. And mulch. And more mulch. (If you haven’t read my ode to her, it’s here.)
Both books were bought used to offer as prizes, and are paperback editions. I’ll draw two names using the random number selector at random dot org; the first will win the Crockett and the second the Stout. Here’s how to enter:
Simply comment below, telling us who your garden-writing heroes are. What book(s) did you learn from, and therefore treasure your copies of?
Entries will close at midnight next Monday, April 26, and winners will be announced Tuesday. Good luck to all. I can’t wait to hear what books have shaped your gardening careers. Could lead to more shopping for future prizes.
My favorite??? That would have to be Ann Lovejoy!
I used to love to watch the Victory Garden on TV, but not so much with the changes they have made to it. The book I turn to the most is my Sunset Western Garden book and I have a collection of older versions of it as well. The books I enjoy reading for inspiration are Rosalind Creasy’s books or Sharon Lovejoy. And one of my favorite garden blogs that entertain and inspire me would be yours! You were right on time with your raised bed article, it is something I am struggling with right now and keep thinking that once the plants are spilling over the edge it will all be uniform.
My garden hero is my mother. She has the greenest thumb.
My first garden book was my Dad’s copy of “Better Homes and Gardens, New Garden Book” which I still have. Then came Martha Stewart’s “Gardening Month by Month” with its beautiful photography. From that book I learned about Sydney Eddison and bought a used copy of her, “The Self-Taught Gardener: Lessons from a Country Garden”, which I loved reading. I would love to own Gardening without Work by Ruth Stout because I love the title and I have little free time! I remember seeing The Victory Garden on TV when I was younger and wish for another good program like that one. “Crockett’s Victory Garden” is on my Amazon wish list.
One of the books that inspired me to start gardening was definitely “Food Not Lawns” by Heather C. Flores. Afterwards, I started gathering more practical advice by reading books such has “The Northern Gardener”. This is a book from the 80′s that I found in a second hand store and that fits perfectly with the climate that we have here. I am now eager to learn more about ecological design.
What a cool question! We’ve just moved so most books are packed so I couldn’t go to the shelf and remember by looking, have to wing it. (Also am purposely not looking at other answers which would surely spur my memory :)!) Another caveat… Very difficult to separate out vegetable gardening cookbooks as all of those celebrate growing vegetables also, don’t they? With all that said, I’d first pick Dick Raymond’s Joy of Gardening! LOVE IT!!! Learned so much from that man. That with Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening flipped my world. The concept revolutionized small space planting for me. Is there every enough space for all one wants to grow? Next would be Sunset’s Western Garden Guide for all things west coast. Of late a very favorite is Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, hands down. The concept of living off your own land for a year is compelling as are her explanations for our historical use of corn, soybeans, etc.; the politics of agribusiness. Robert Smaus, Gardening Editor of late for the LA Times wins my heart over and over. and to break my own rule, I’d have to say my go-to favorite is the Joy of Gardening Cookbook! As for web sites, of course there is newly discovered YOU!!! And Farmgirl Susan has taught me alot about planning ahead, which as SoCal gal, I never had to worry about. Here in Connecticut, planning seems to be important :)! Thanks for your questiong. Love you!
Emily Whaley of Charleston, SC is my gardening hero. Her book, Emily Whaley’s Charleston Garden, is wonderful and really a bible for those of us who garden in the coastal south. I have planted everything in my garden that she has in hers and her descriptions and knowledge of plants amaze me.
Ann Raver writes the best essays, she’s a perennial favorite :)
But here’s a gem, The Gardener’s Year by Czech writer Karel Capek, first published in Prague in 1929 is a comic portrait of life in the garden month by month, illustrated by his brother Josef. Capek is also a novelist, short-story writer, and playwrite. Michael Pollan wrote the intro to the 2002 edition , his series is called the Modern Library. “The best thing of all is to be a living man – that is, a man who grows.” The garden is a metaphor for what is most human in us and Capek tells it true. ISBN 0-375-75948-4
Happy Gardening!
I have been a backyard gardener for years but now we live in the country and I have much more room. The downside is now I’m in a wheelchair so all my garden beds are raised. My favorite book is Square Foot Gardening. It’s been resourseful, especially since now I am using raised beds.
My favorite early gardening book that I turn to time and time again is The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Rodale. I still take it to the garden with me when I plant my veggies after 38 years. I love Earth on Her Hands for inspiration and have it by my bedside table to tuck myself in with at night. I love gardening books and have two copies of A Way to Garden, one to use and one for my bookcase. How’s that for indulgence?
My first gardening book I bought when I started my garden in Boulder, Colorado—”The Postage Stamp Gardening Book” by Duane Newcomb….also “The Complete Book of Vegetable Gardening and Canning” – Banner Press, Inc. My latest is “All New Square Foot Gardening”, by Mel Bartholomew…I have been watching the Ruth Stout videos that you shared with us over and over and over…so I am thinking how amazing it would be to win her book!!! And I love your blog!
I enjoy books about Pacific Northwest gardening by Ann Lovejoy.
I’ve only recently acquired the gardening bug, and so – aside from flipping through my grandparents’ Texas Gardener magazines as a kid – blogs and seed catalogs are all I’ve ever read. Garden Rant and HoustonGrows.com are two URLs that readily come to mind, though I’ve subscribed to about a hundred different blogs and outlets through my RSS feeder … So, pick me! pick me!
The book I refer to most often is “The Victory Garden”, but another book I like is “A Year of Flowers” by Peter Loewer. It was the first book that helped me see the beauty in winter gardens.
Welcome to all the first-time commenters! Those of you who have been here before know I normally greet each one personally on the occasion of their first comment…but with this many at once, and also the random drawing in mind, I’ll keep my intrusions to a minimum.
However, as a group hello, let me say welcome to: Beth, Melissa, Mariann, Duncan, Amy, Julie, Leena, Laura, Teresa, Sarah, Kristie, Ami, Kitty, Barbara, Chris G., Eileen, Valerie, GAL, Alvaro, emo, Robin, Trudy, Karen, Elaine, Robin, Jayne, Mary, Nelly, Bev, Cassie, Carol, MJ Stark, Anita, Kathryn, Patsy, Lydia, Carol, Lisbeth, Kris, Carolyn, Kathie, Sandy, Lynda, Kim, Susy, Linda H., Katie, Amy, Barbara D, Paula, Fran, Daphne, Ferne, Bonnie, Flora, Becky, Anna, Sydney, Brandon.
Nice to hear from all of you. What great suggestions — and you are getting me scurrying for many books I haven’t touched in years, thanks.
I confess to a love of Penelope Hobhouse and Gertrude Jekyll. Inspiring works. Inspiring gardeners.
Mel Bartholomew’s “All New Square Foot Gardening” is the book that got me into my current method of gardening. “The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening” by Rodale mentioned above is another reference I use.
I’m only 3 years in to owning my own dirt (and gardens), but am off and running with the veggies and yard re-design. I’m early in the whole lifetime-of-gardening process I’ve got planned, and so far my main gardening hero is Margaret Roach. Hopefully, flattery will get me everywhere.
you are my garden writing heroine. i’m old but new at gardening and find you inspiring, encouraging and absolutely charming. thanks.
I don’t have a favorite garden writer – but the book I look at the most is Sunset’s Guide to Gardening in the Northwest
Hi Margaret!
I really enjoy Barbara Damrosch’s “The Garden Primer.”
Thank you!!!
Sharon Lovejoy is my favorite so far. I have Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots and a little garden tip book that show her sense of humor and have some great ideas for organic gardening.
I was just thinking of Ruth Stout last weekend when my husband and I planted potatoes and peas in our garden in the Sierra Foothills of California’s historic Gold Country. (Still in the 50′s during the day, with snow flurries and temps in the high 30′s at night). One of the pea packets said that soil temp should be above 45 before planting peas. I don’t think my soil was much above that mark….so no tomatoes til late, late May. I was reminded of, however (and had to chuckle about) Ruth Stout’s method of determining whether the soil was warm enough to support growing crops like tomatoes, peppers and corn. If I remember correctly, she advocated going out to the garden on a nice, sunny day; making sure no one was around, then discreetly dropping your drawers and sitting on the ground….if it was warm enough to feel comfy on your bare bottom, she said, it was warm enough to plant!!! That’s what you call really getting in touch with nature! For my own favorite gardening tome as a western gardener, Sunset Western Garden Book has been my Bible over the last 30 years. And now your column, Margaret, is the best online source of inspiration and information. Thanks!! Mary
Favorite hands down: Dan Hinkley.
My newest hero and biggest day to day support for my growing passion and confidence in gardening is Margaret Roach and her presence in “A Way to Garden.” I can’t thank you enough.
My first garden hero was my maternal grandfather, who came from England as a youth with a green thumb tucked inside his winter gloves. He loved flowers most, and trees second. Evergreens and cherry trees his faves there. Not a “rose man.” I remember helping him plant petunias when I was 7.
My next hero was Dad, who began to garden when he bought our house the summer I was 12. He was a rose Master. His long specimen bed caused a few fender-benders when people slowed down to look from their cars.
My first gardening book which I still use is the 1968 “McCall’s Garden Book,” My favorite quote (p. 5): “Lots of loving pays off.”
Moving to Rhode Island, “How to Get Started in Northeast Gardening” by Darrell Trout was my standby, dedicated to his garden hero, his great-grandmother. My other favorite garden voice (besides Margaret’s) is Patricia Thorpe in her 1988 “The American Weekend Garden.” She helped me with garden paths, and has much wisdom on wildflowers.
I love the look and spirit of Ruth Stout’s book; hope I win!
MJ
I have no favorite gardening book because I am new to gardening. I need some good books on my shelves to turn to when I have questions. Right now your blog is my main source of information. Thank you for that!
Living as newlyweds in a one-room apartment with a murphy bed, my grad-student husband subscribed to the Time Life Encyclopedia of Gardening for me as a gift. We paid the $6.95 each for as many volumes as we could afford over the course of the next year or so, and I devoured each one (even though we didn’t see a patch of dirt we could call our own for 5 more years!). Most of the text is by James Underwood Crockett (Crockett’s Victory Garden was in its infancy then), and I still enjoy and treasure the books today – for several reasons, obviously!
Well can’t say that I’ve had a hero in particular. But since I’ve been introduced to Ruth Stout I’ll have to say she probably will be from now on. I’m with her and going the more mulch is better route from now on : )
Let’s see… I love Tracy DiSabato Aust’s books The Well Tended Perennial Garden and The Well Designed Garden. Also Helen Dillon. Rosemary Verey’s A Country Woman’s Garden, but that maybe because I actually met her and this is the book she signed for me so it is the most special in my collection. Any book by that Margaret Roach lady. : )
Barbara Damrosch, Wayne Winterrowd and Joe Eck, and Gordon Hayward are other great inspirations.
There are many more. Unfortunately no one in my family gardened when I was growing up. Although my grandmother was a great gardener she died before I was born and her garden disappeared with her death. I am passionate about the garden and knitting which was another great love of hers so maybe she was more of an influence than I know.
Anyway, I love your blog and your writing and look forward to every day you have a post, so maybe you have the biggest influence of all.
I’ve never read a book on gardening. Though I follow your blog religiously. I guess that makes you, Margaret Roach, my favorite garden writer.
My signed copy of “Southern Herb Growing” by mother-daughter duo Gwen Barclay and Madalene Hill that says “Kathi, Always grow where you are planted!” is my absolute favorite gardening reference. I consult this book so often it is tattered and the spine is loose.
Great topic!
“DIRT” by Diane Benson. A real touchstone for me. Read when I knew less than zero about gardening, she turned me on to all the fabulous plants (mostly perennials, of course) I would never be able to grow in my small space urban garden, yet, I could not get enough of her intelligence, wit and passion. I love the checkmark system she uses denoting the level of lust she has for each plant!
Also, I’ve long been a fan of the comprehensiveness of Linda Yang’s “The City & Town Gardener.” For a reference book, it has personality and charm in spades.
A great quote by Erasmus (Convivium Religiosum, circa 1500) from her Preface:
This (garden) place is dedicated to the honorable pleasures of rejoicing the eye,
refreshing the nose, and renewing the spirit.
I have to go with E. Perenyi’s Green Thoughts, and for the record she too is “mulch mad” as I’m sure everybody here knows. I like her wistful take on the treehouse best…a clearer sense of what children need than so many of the gazillion raising-kid-bloggers out there on zee webs, all the more bittersweet for her clear sense that there will be no need for another treehouse on her property in her lifetime.
One of my favorites is “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens” by Douglas Tallamy.
One of the first gardening books I ever consulted was The Readers Digest book “Back to Basics” (although it is so much more than just a gardening primer! Published in 1981, it’s #1 on the “10 books to take to a desert island” list, as it is a guide to many of the survival skills the “back to the land movement” felt people needed to know. Interesting reading, and my first introduction to the science of soil preparation. Good stuff! Love the blog, Margaret, thanks for the information, support and humor!
Our goal is to achieve diet sustainability here on our 5 acres. To that end, I use Nancy Bubel’s Seed Starting Handbook for the greenhouse, and Ed Smith’s Vegetable Gardener’s Bible for the gardens. For the flower beds and orchard/fruit, I stick with Sunset’s Western Garden Book.
I have only been gardening for a few years. At this point, my most well-used references are Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew and The New Seed Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel. I also read everything I can get my hands on from my state university’s cooperative extension–it’s a great resource!
Other books: On Margaret’s recommendation, I tracked down a copy of Eleanor Perenyi’s Green Thoughts last year and loved it. I have also found Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Joan Dye Gussow’s This Organic Life to be very inspiring.
I’ve had such a good time reading everyone’s posts. I’m going to create a reading list for myself based on the books mentioned here. Thanks!
My favorite book on gardening isn’t a garden book at all, I read it as a young girl and I know it grew my love for gardening- it is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, written in 1910. Following Mary, Colin and Dickon into the secret garden, watching the garden come back to life, it did it for me. I have a great little garden with my own ‘secret’ area in one corner. With lots of birds and animals and it always takes me back to that wonderful book.
I read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” while growing up in Germany. It motivated me to strive for organic approaches to living. Since those days I have moved around a lot and lived all over the planet, with little to no chances of gardening; however, since settling in Virginia I’ve been gardening to my heart’s delight and enjoyed reading your blog. It serves as an inspiration to my humble attempts.
The Vegetable Gardner’s Bible by Edward C. Smith. Great information on raised beds, composting, insects , crop rotation and so much more. I take it off the bookshelf beginning of Mar and don’t put it back until end of Oct.
A Woman’s Hardy Garden by Helena Rutherfurd Ely. One of her gardens is still going strong in Sussex County, New Jersey some 100 years or so on.
Well I’ve been devouring Piet Odulf’s books on design, Ken Druse, Tracy di Sabato-Aust, & more, but my most treasured is my first gardening book. Myy mom gave me when I got my first community plot: Best Ideas for Organic Vegetable Gardening by the editors of Organic Gardening mag. It’s a used hardback copyrighted the year I was born. In her inscription, she wrote, “maybe it was written with you in mind down the line?” Nice contest, Margaret!
I love The Self -Sufficient Life and How to Live It. by John Seymour. Is it technically a gardening book – well not solely, but I find it so useful I return to it again and aagin. I also live with copies of all of Euell Gibbons’ books – again more for plant identification that “gardening” but they all meld together for me.
My garden hero was my grandmother. She had a healthy outlook on life and loved her garden and putting up all those quarts every year. She had it goin’ on! Loved to be out in the dirt with her big floppy hat, and she’d tell me stories of when she was young. She really was an angel.
My garden hero was, and is, my Dad. He learned to garden working on a university extension garden in Waseca, MN Being one of five children, the time I spent in the garden with him was my private time for his attention.
I’m not sure what gave me that first gardening itch, but I subscribed to Rodale’s Organic Gardening and Farming while in junior high school and have been gardening ever since. Certainly the book I use for reference the most is Sunset’s Western Garden Book, a book used as a textbook in my college Hort 101 class (Cal Poly early 60′s), and still my favorite even though I now live in Ohio. My garden hero has got to be Mrs. Barbour, the gardening enthusiast neighbor down the street who hired me to help her with garden tasks that were too menial for her gardener. When I reached 12, she bought me a used greenhouse which she helped stock with many orchids and exotics from her garden club buddies. She taught me a lot about gardening but even more about life!
Back in the 90′s I lived in the high desert of New Mexico and was an avid organice gardener even then. Lauren Springer’s, The Undaunted Garden, we my bible as I tried to establish a durable, colorful perennial and herb garden.
Also love Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor’s, books on gardening in Texas.
I seem to be vulnerable to all garden books, not so much the bid glossy ones. Sometimes just wondering and observing neighborhoods on a walk to get ideas.
Worked at one of the best nurseries here in the PNW learning how much I didn’t know and what new plants there. There was a compose pile that all questionable plants were tossed into, we as employees could grab what we wanted, paying attention to the knowledge of others I was able to get some nice specimens that were healthy. I learn a lot that summer and created a nice garden that my neighborhood appreciates. I have always learn by doing and trying, not always successful but gaining practical experiences.
Favorite book; The After dinner Gardening Book, growing from seeds and pits.
My first job when I came to New York City in 1962 was as assistant to the promotion director at Exposition Press, a vanity publisher who had first published Ruth Stout. Her book was so successful that it had been taken up by a trade publisher. This was one of Exposition’s few success strories! I loved what she said then and was ecstatic to see the Ruth Stout video that you posted on your site recently. Thank you.
Bette Craig
my favorite gardening books right now are by Eliot Coleman and harvesting through the winter months.
i remember as a kid waatching ‘The Victory Garden’ on TV. i learned a lot from those shows.
Ruth Stout i have studied a little bit and seen a couple of videos of her work. she’s truly amazing…like your blog here and all its info!