Top Books on Vegetables and Vegetable Gardening

Top Books on Vegetables and Vegetable Gardening

1. All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
​This is a classic gardening book. Although I give some plants more room than he suggests this is a great resource on dense planting and getting more harvest out of a small space.

2. Epic Tomatoes: How to Select & Grow the Best Varieties of All Time by Craig LeHoullier
Tomatoes are one of my favorite plants to grow in my garden so this is one of my favorite gardening books. Epic Tomatoes is a great resource from a tomato expert and on how to grow tomatoes, save seeds, and even breed your own varieties. I also love the list at the end of the book on his favorite 250 varieties. I have yet to even grow 250 varieties, much less have 250 favorites! My only caveat in this book is to not follow his method of canning tomatoes. He claims he still follows the basics of the Ball Blue Book but then states he does not bother to remove the tomato skins. Unless otherwise specified (a very, very few canning recipes allow the skins to remain) all tomatoes must have their skins removed before canning. The skins can harbor high levels of bacteria which can potentially cause your canned goods to go bad or even make you sick. If you do not want the hassle of removing skins, simply freeze your product instead of canning it. See my previous post on safe canning if you wish to learn more.

3. Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw and David Shetlar
I use this book as a reference guide when I wish to identify an insect or learn more about a specific one. This book contains almost 700 pages of pictures and information on the majority of insects that can affect gardens in North America. I used this book to help me identify a thrips problem in my hydroponic grow system

4. Growing Great Garlic: The Definitive Guide for Organic Gardeners and Small Farmers by Ron L. Engeland
This is one of those books that I feel like I have had forever, at least since I was a teenager (I was a gardening nerd even then). The title says it all, if you want to grow great garlic, read this book. This is a comprehensive guide to growing garlic that will help you determine which varieties to grow, how and when to plant, what to use for fertilizer, and more.

5. How to Grow Vegetables Organically by Jeff Cox & the Editors of Rodale’s Organic Gardening Magazine
I use this as a reference guide when I need to look up specific growing requirements, fertilizers, soil types, watering guides, and more for certain vegetables. Although this is an older book and I wouldn’t mind updating to a newer organic grower’s guide, this book is still full of valuable information on basic gardening. A great all-purpose guide to gardening.

6. Saving Seeds: The Gardener’s Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds by Marc Rogers
This is a great starting guide if you are interested in saving seeds. It covers everything from easy plants like tomatoes and peppers to difficult-to-save seeds due to cross-pollination like squashes and pumpkins. It also covers cleaning, storing, and testing the germination of the seeds you save.

7. The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses by Eliot Coleman
Although this book is still in my to-be-read pile (I hope to get to it this year), Eliot Coleman is well known for his Winter Harvest Handbook and Four-Season Harvest books which explain how to extend your gardening season.

8. Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom, with over 300 Deliciously Simple Recipes by Deborah Madison
This is more a cookbook than a growing guide but still full of valuable information. Vegetable literacy is a large volume containing descriptions of the different edible plant families with beautiful pictures and tasty recipes. If you want to learn more about the plant families you are growing in your garden, this is the book for you.