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Cool Fall Reads: New Books, Old Faves, And Some Great Deals
The chilly air, fall wind, and damp everything have harshed my gardening mellow over the last few weeks. Luckily, the downturn in weather has coincided with a rush of new books and some great deals on old favorites, so I can enjoy a connection with the outdoors without actually having to, you know, go outside.…
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Fruit Trees in Small Spaces by Colby Eierman
There’s nothing quite like breaking into a fresh jar of yellow plum-infused liqueur or pear gin at the start of winter. It’s like a bottled bit of summer sunshine. And ever since we’ve figured out precisely what to do with all of the fruit and vegetables I’ve been growing, my nursery trips have been most…
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Small Space Container Gardens by Fern Richardson
Longtime readers will know I’ve been a fan of Fern’s stylish blog Life on the Balcony for some time. Fern’s like an approachable version of Martha Stewart for container gardeners – while her photos and ideas are gorgeously inspiring, her projects are never so difficult or time-consuming that I feel I couldn’t possibly fit them…
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The NEW Sunset Western Garden Book
16 years ago, when I took my first horticulture class, The Sunset Western Garden Book was the very first book I bought. Its status in the West is such that I owned three copies by the end of my first year: one old edition which had the best basic gardening tips, one new edition with…
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The Chicken Encyclopedia by Gail Damerow
I grew up a big-city gal, so when I moved to Humboldt County to go to college, I was amazed to find a field of cows just outside the backyard of my apartment complex. Passing by each day, I’d watch them grazing with an odd sense of unreality. Cows! Right there in town! With their…
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Free to Amazon Prime Members! Amy Stewart’s Last Bookstore in America
You guys know I’m a big fan of Garden Rant-er and author of Wicked Plants, Amy Stewart. Her clever writing and ability to unearth the stories in any topic make her books a singular pleasure to read. If you feel the same way, then you’ll want to head on over to Amazon to pick up…
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Book Review: The Beginner’s Guide to Gardening
Katie Elzer-Peters is one of those dynamos of the gardening world who is so busy Getting Things Done that you may not have actually heard of her yet. But she’s been working behind the scenes on so many projects – nursery newsletters, writing articles for sites too numerous to mention, and mentoring authors with Cool…
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Dirr’s Encyclopedia a New Industry Standard
***Timber Press is holding a giveaway for the new Dirr book! Details below.*** The internet has removed the need for so many types of book. Between the online nursery descriptions and search engine image searches, you can find basic information on many types of plant, and that’s often good enough. However, things become tricky when…
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The Visitor’s Guide to American Gardens
If your winter “gardening” is usually comprised of bulb and perennial catalogs, highlighters, and very little in the way of actual outdoor gardening, then I have a new tool to make your winter plotting that much more exciting. Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp has written The Visitor’s Guide to American Gardens, which is a beautifully-organized and…
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Kindle Awesome: Free Gardening Books for Amazon Prime Members
I was delighted to read about Amazon’s new Kindle lending library for Prime members, where we can choose from 5,300 books to borrow and read on our Kindle. While the list of people who have both a Kindle and an Amazon Prime account may be small, if you’re on that list (like me!) I think you’ll…
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50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants
EDIT: Patrick is the winner of the giveaway! You all remember my excitement recently to have discovered this lovely new book from Timber Press. Ruth Rogers Clausen shows off 50 top picks for deer-resistant gardens, and gives about two pages of in-depth information about how to design with each plant, what other plants look best…