Spending a lot of time dreaming, thinking about, and planning what I want to do in the garden this next year. When it’s too cold and wet to do much gardening, the next best thing is reading about it!
Two of the books I’ve recently read (which were checked out from the library) are The Contrary Farmer’s Invitation to Gardening by Gene Logsdon and The Bountiful Container by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey. I really enjoyed both books and think they are great resources.
The Bountiful Container would be super for anyone with limited space to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs and who is new to gardening. Very nice descriptions of individual vegetables and what they need. If I were only able to container garden I’d want this book in my permanent library. What I found helpful was thinking about what would be best to plant in my whiskey barrels. I’m taking my maple tree out of one and my bamboo out of the other so that I can grow vegetables on my deck in the whiskey barrels. My goal is to have a few of my vegetables close enough to the kitchen to make watering with rinse water from the dishes easy to do. First crop in one barrel will be lettuces and a few radishes and in the other peas. Probably a few calendulas and pansies too. In May I’ll be replacing these crops with squash and tomatoes. Just need to decide where the maple tree will go and have a warmer dry day to move it and then prep the barrels.
I loved reading Gene Logsdon’s book! I want to see if I can find more of his books and would like to add them to my own library. I’m going to try his suggestions for growing grains at some point. I’m also planning on trying a mulch bed for my tomatoes as a result of reading this book. And it made me want to have my own chickens again! I keep talking myself out of chickens because I can get eggs from my parents and if I have chickens I’ll have to fight with the raccoons and the skunks in the neighborhood.
The other book on my pile was Affluenza. I read it for a book club at Crunchy Chicken. Interesting book. Mostly made me think about how I spend my time…. Glad that I spend a lot of it gardening.