(Part 3) Best gardening & landscape design books according to redditors
We found 2,026 Reddit comments discussing the best gardening & landscape design books. We ranked the 656 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
I just looked this up on Amazon, and lost it when I saw the URL:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K4SEXLK
If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...
(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)
Medical:
Where there is no doctor
Where there is no dentist
Emergency War Surgery
The survival medicine handbook
Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine
Special Operations Medical Handbook
Food Production
Mini Farming
encyclopedia of country living
square foot gardening
Seed Saving
Storey’s Raising Rabbits
Meat Rabbits
Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step
Storey’s Chicken Book
Storey Dairy Goat
Storey Meat Goat
Storey Ducks
Storey’s Bees
Beekeepers Bible
bio-integrated farm
soil and water engineering
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Food Preservation and Cooking
Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing
Steve Rinella’s Small Game
Ball Home Preservation
Charcuterie
Root Cellaring
Art of Natural Cheesemaking
Mastering Artesian Cheese Making
American Farmstead Cheesemaking
Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse
Wild Fermentation
Art of Fermentation
Nose to Tail
Artisan Sourdough
Designing Great Beers
The Joy of Home Distilling
Foraging
Southeast Foraging
Boletes
Mushrooms of Carolinas
Mushrooms of Southeastern United States
Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast
Tech
farm and workshop Welding
ultimate guide: plumbing
ultimate guide: wiring
ultimate guide: home repair
off grid solar
Woodworking
Timberframe Construction
Basic Lathework
How to Run A Lathe
Backyard Foundry
Sand Casting
Practical Casting
The Complete Metalsmith
Gears and Cutting Gears
Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment
Machinery’s Handbook
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic
Electronics For Inventors
Basic Science
Chemistry
Organic Chem
Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving
Ham Radio
AARL Antenna Book
General Class Manual
Tech Class Manual
MISC
Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft
Contact!
Nuclear War Survival Skills
The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm
For specific topics (electrical, plumbing, etc) I really liked the clear explanations and illustrations in the black and decker home improvement books when I was starting out. Use Amazon's look inside and see what you think of the electrical book - https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Guide-Wiring-ebook/dp/B00K4SEXLK. The other thing I'd note is that for the stuff the average homeowner wants to do, it is not complex work. You can do it. My friends won't touch electricity but I think it is the easiest thing to work on. Stuff like laying tile, easy. Next time you are in a public space look at the tile work. Really look. Most work looks like a complete amateur did it. The point being, since it is your house, you'll do a much much better job. Oh, one final point. Like the tile example, your work won't be cosmetically perfect. Nobody will notice. That tiny little nick, bump, scrape, not perfect 90-degree corner - do the best you can and then leave it. Only you will know it is there. If you really look at you own house (again really look), you see walls that are not straight, tricks with molding hide cosmetic issues and gaps. Youtube is great for fixing appliances. Somebody has probably had your same problem on the exact same equipment and posted a video repair. It's saved me tons of money.
Honestly, the best thing you can do at this point is to get a decent grow book. I recommend Marijuana Horticulture by Jorge Cervantes. The ebook is $10. He's been writing and rewriting this thing for 30 years, and it can take you from your first grow up to production of top shelf bud.
Seconding u/theUnmutual6's recommendations, in addition to u/BlueSmoke95's suggestion to check out Ann Moura's work. I would like to recommend Ellen Dugan's Natural Witchery and her related domestic witchery books. Ellen is a certified Master Gardener and incorporates plants into much of her work.
Some of my favorite plant books!
Plant Science:
Foraging & Field Guides:
Herbalism:
Ethnobotany:
I also encourage y'all to look into fungi as well. I work with both plants and fungi and I think they bring a fascinating and fulfilling aspect to my work. Plus, hunting for mushrooms is super fun! I can recommend field guide books for folks who are interested, they just tend to be very region-specific so I'm not going to list all of them here.
For general fungus reading I recommend the following:
Not true. The plant can sense when it's touching another thing. Actually plants "know" a lot of things. They have "senses" - of touch, "smell", "vision".
If you want to know more I recommend this wonderful book (What A Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz): https://www.amazon.com/What-Plant-Knows-Field-Senses/dp/0374533881
Well, Plants from Test Tubes will have you doing it like an amateur. The "pro" part is the next 20 years.
I personally really enjoyed What a Plant Knows. It was the core reading for my intro to botany course, and it uses peer-reviewed academic papers to present cool topics on how plants interact with the world around us.
Edit: I saw you like Pollan too? How to Change Your Mind is a cool read for the crossover of botany, ethnobotany, and neurochem.
I bought a tree from bonsai boy on Amazon.com when I was stationed in Texas, along with some of the other things to raise it like a drip tray, fertilizer pellets, and this $5 book.
It arrived in great shape, was pretty low-maintenance, and had a soothing presence. It's still in good shape now from what former co-workers tell me. It worked great for a starter.
Harry Tomlinson - here - also this
Harry Harrington - basics
This is a really good, thorough, and somewhat short book: Marijuana Buds for Less: Grow 8 oz. of Bud for Less Than $100
Edit: Whoops, left out the download: Download
Here's a few of mine that I really like. I have way more than these, but I'm not sure I'd recommend all of them, per se. Anyhow, should give you some ideas.
Security - Talks about small unit tactics with small arms and so forth.
Butchering and cooking wild game - If you hope to hunt for food, you gotta know what to do with it after shooting it.
SAS Survival Guide - Really tiny dimensions that make this easy to toss in my BOB.
Composting - If you plan to garden, you're gonna need to compost. I also have various gardening books such as container gardening, organic gardening, gardening according to the Mormons, etc. The Mormons have a lot of great homesteading-oriented books. Here's one called The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers
Bushcraft - Never hurts to learn some knots and be able to make simple things out of natural materials.
Organization and Planning - I'm reading this one now. Touches on a lot of areas of things to think about that you gotta plan for. A good amount of stuff I hadn't really thought about before.
Thanks for the tip!
Another really great book along these lines is What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses by Daniel Chamovitz.
It's super cheap (under $20) and is written specifically to be interesting to someone who doesn't have a botany degree. It's a lot more relaxing to read than most plant books and I found myself breezing through it. The author covers lots of really cool stuff including photoperiodism, how plants respond to touch, light spectrum, gravity, and more.
How much homework have you guys done on growing? If all you know about so far is tents, keep reading! Read the sidebar resources, read the grower's bible and maybe a couple other books like it. Once you know enough that you believe you can put together a complete shopping list (there's some shopping lists in the sidebar for reference), then come back and ask for critiques.
Once you're ready I would say start small, like one plant each, and take them through the entire cycle. That will give you an idea of what you'll be getting yourself into when you go full-scale.
plants from test tubes
Sorry to be a jerk but my lawn tip would be to not get one. A common water-wise plan I've seen in your area is groupings of agaves, aloes or other succulents set against a sharp stone mulch (not the 70s lava rock). It looks really nice, it's low to no maintenance and a responsible use of water. Many people have palms which look fancy/exotic and are appropriate for the area. You could also go with native plants (great on water) to get a nice habitat going and attract birds and pollinators.
I'd recommend getting The Sunset Western Garden Book. It has a really easy way of identifying which plants are suitable to which areas. Even if you decide on a lawn, you might want a decorative border for ascetics or to reduce the lawn size.
EDIT: My bad, I didn't know that thing would pop up. It's a bit unsightly.
It's likely not a magnesium deficiency because a magnesium deficiency would cause chlorosis all over the plant and not just the leaf edges (outside of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, chlorophyll has 4 nitrogen molecules and one magnesium molecule).
Micro nutrient deficiencies can be a pain to diagnose but empirically speaking this will clear up most any micro nutrient deficiency you'll likely encounter including copper:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BT4696/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00U1V7M36&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=006D8ARD9GQ5ESQGK1BP
I'd like to caution that growweedeasy is not a very reliable source of information. I've found way too many mistakes particularly in plant lighting (there's essentially a lot of what appears copy/paste going on). If this were a case of copper deficiency due to pH lock up as mentioned in that website then you'd also likely have iron (some new growth would be turning yellow), manganese, zinc and boron deficiencies from too high of a pH. This is a better source of information:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WKUY2S/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1
Shipping a tropical tree in winter is a terrible idea. If temps drop and shipping gets delayed (both likely around Christmas), you end up receiving a very dead tree.
The only way I'd get a tropical right now is if I could go to an actual garden center/greenhouse and buy one that I could see and immediately take home with me that day.
And as the guy who wrote that wiki page on gifting trees - my strongest possible recommendation is to buy her some really nice bonsai books instead, or a bonsai class in the spring if there's a place near you that offers them.
You can even make it a couple's project to go and pick out some nursery stock in the spring (or a finished tree, if you prefer) and work on it together. Or you could buy two seats to that bonsai class instead of one.
I strongly recommend reading these two books:
http://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Grow-Bible-Recreational-ebook/dp/B004P1JEBQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368393804&sr=8-2&keywords=growers+bible
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0932551467/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There are another couple books that I've read which have good bits of information but are by no means necessary to read. They are definitely lower quality than the two mentioned above:
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Horticulture-Outdoor-Medical-ebook/dp/B004WKUY2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368393921&sr=8-1&keywords=grower%27s+bible
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1478718390/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I redid all of the outlets and switches in my house when I moved in last year. Many were 50 years old, not grounded, wired unsafely, etc. It feels good to have new, safe outlets and wiring, and know it was done right. I highly suggest the Black & Decker Complete Guide to Wiring if you want to do more projects and learn how to do it right. ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K4SEXLK?cache=d30d28ef0acb37383205fe68ce906d4d&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70&qid=1408507310&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1)
Good for you to swap the outlet. :)
For those just getting started, Square Foot Gardening is great, it's a good starting point for getting in the habit of maintaining a garden, for making good use of small spaces, and for learning about gardening.
How to Grow More Vegetables is a fantastic book. It is a great reference book on sustainable gardening, and self-sufficiency gardening. It is used by several programs as a textbook to teach sustinence gardening in third-world countries.
Carrots Love Tomatoes is a great book for learning about companion planting.
I just ordered Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times. I haven't read it yet, so I can't give a review, but it is reviewed very favorably. My understanding is that it presents a more old-fashioned, traditional method of gardening that requires less water, less fertilization, etc.
Good luck, and let us know what you think of any books you try!
You're good to go then!
Yeah you're thinking of Paul Staments, he's a good one. David Arora is another. David has a book "All the Rain Promises and More" that's a great field guide.
For cultivating, I got this book. Between that, the subreddits, and shroomery.org I've learned a lot.
Sign up for free wood chips. They deliver 25 yards at a time, which should be enough to cover your three terraces. Once that's down and weed growth has been stifled, you can plan out what you want to do starting with the terrace closest to the house.
Here's an article about the benefits of wood mulch:https://puyallup.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/wood-chips.pdf
Here's a place to sign up if you think that might work for you:https://www.chipero.com/free-wood-chips-bay-area
I would also recommend getting a copy of the Sunset Western Garden book for advice about planting a garden in the west:https://www.amazon.com/New-Western-Garden-Book-Gardening/dp/0376039205/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485553079&sr=1-1&keywords=sunset+western+garden+book+2017
There are free copies available at your local library.
That book looks like it actually has useful detail. Think I'll pick up a copy. Here is a link to a substantially cheaper copy if others are interested--$20 instead of $56.
I can't help you with choosing a herbicide - other than to ask you to please not use one near me. Since you posted this in a gardening sub instead of a lawn care one, I have to plead you to consider food, not lawn.
If this isn't for you, then I wish you the best.
Over at r/seedstock we have nearly 500 listings of places to buy seeds and the like. Do your own research though, while people have commented on those they've purchased from in the past, there are many submissions that have no such comments. Between c-ray and I, many are permaculture-oriented, but a few are your typical mail order nursery fare.
You probably want to think about fruit trees. In the central Illinois region, you've probably alot of choice in that regard. Pecans and walnuts will do fine, almonds are probably too iffy. Apples of all types, more than a few pears, apricots and cherries and peaches. All sorts of berries should do well, blackberry, blueberry and the like. Grapevines too, for that matter. All of these things will reduce your need to till, since they continue to fruit year after year without replanting.
You could also check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Perennial-Vegetables-Artichokes-Gardeners-Delicious/dp/1931498407
My mother-in-law bought it for me for Christmas, and I like it quite a bit. Good for ideas. I don't know that half of what's in there is anything I'd ever want to eat, but the other half is still 80 or 90 edible plants most of which I was quite unfamiliar with.
Also, do you have any chickens? 3 acres is enough to consider having a sizable flock, and their poop's as important as any of the eggs.
Yes, I can definitely expand on those subjects - I just didn't want to go into more detail on a subject you didn't originally ask for unless you were interested.
Also, make sure any tree you keep indoors is tropical. Junipers are commonly sold to beginners as bonsai, but they are advertised by those who don't know better as indoor trees. Such species need winter dormancy or they will eventually die.
This is the book I first got when I entered bonsai many years ago - still good and sustained my interest even after some initial trees died.
https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Survival-Manual-Tree-Tree/dp/0882668536
I got this beginner book a while back and it also Is well written and has tons of useful basic information for your beginner journey.
https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-DK/dp/1465419586
Best advice is pick up a copy of Let it Rot!: The Gardener's Guide to Composting. Great information for beginners, lots of different methods to try if you're so inclined.
Here's a very brief rundown of some basic breeding info. It's actually enough to get you started as at it's most basic, you simply have to use pollen from a male plant, apply it to a female plant's buds and you're breeding.
For more in-depth and advanced coverage though, The Cannabis Breeder's Bible and Marijuana Botany are both good books with tons of info to get you started.
Awesome man! I used this recipe and changed it up a bit as per a friend's suggestions. It can be a bitch to get all of the ingredients together and mixing it all up by hand was a mission on its own.
Teaming With Microbes is a pretty solid book for learning about the soil food web. Not much plot or character development, but worth a read.
Once I'm done with my assignments for the quarter I'm going to readTeaming With Nutrients by the same authors.
Well, good luck! Reach out if you have questions, I'm no expert but I love doing learning about this stuff and seeing the results.
I would recommend The Cannabis Breeders Bible as a resource if you're interested. Also, there IS a database of strains on Seedfinder and it's great for checking out lineages of strains.
>I'm sure whatever strains a and b were bread from will want to rear their heads in some of the seeds
Yup. That is the exact problem with F1 hybrids; you get a whole mess of traits from each parent randomly expressing themselves in the seeds. The trick is to get a good phenotype you like (big, good flavor, whatever)and then isolate it by backcrossing it with the parent. You basically want to interbreed the plants back into each other until they stop showing large variation (called stabilizing). It's a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea.
Most growers do not actually do any breeding though. Normally, if we get a good phenotype from a seed we will just keep cloning that plant. It's much easier than breeding.
One Straw Revolution
Teaming with Microbes
Teaming with Nutrients
Master Cho's Lessons
Gaia's Garden
This is a good base into the natural side of things, if that interests you at all.
The internet is an excellent place, and honestly I would start with subreddits. Once you have exhausted their FAQ's, there are a lot of books on bonsai, I really like The Complete Book of Bonsai. It is the only non-internet, non-human rescource I have needed. Great guides on every aspect of raising, buying, and caring for a bonsai. Your best bet would be to do some preliminary research and talk to someone at a nursery with bonsai. With beekeeping, I cannot state how beneficial a local beekeeper was for me. I offered to work for free for a weekend and learned more in one day than I had from almost all the internet. I guess I would say do research online, find out basically how they work, then get out there and see it! You will probably make a few small mistakes early on, but just having a person to talk to helps greatly. Hope I helped and keep the questions coming.
Northeast U.S. I am fortunate to have access to land that my family owns on the outskirts of a city. Don't let your situation hold you back though, you can get experience growing things at any scale. I recommend checking out container gardening, helping someone in their garden, finding a community garden you could rent some space in, or volunteering at a farm.
Experiment, fail, learn, and have fun.
I don't have a definitive answer to you, but I will point you to a resource that is incredibly useful on these questions: The new Organic Gardener. However, we're not talking raised bed, because at a certain size, you need to be able to weed with a hoe or wheel hoe, use a mechanized planter, etc. This is a more traditional style market gardening, except Coleman takes a 100% organic approach, and discusses crop rotation, timing, spacing, green manure, etc.
This book does not talk about pollination or seed saving. I haven't found a good source of info on this, but I'm sure there are some good books.
We have four large raised beds, plus raspberries and fiddleheads. Two are quite sunny, so we rotate sunny crops between them, with two trellises on the north side for climbers like peas and cukes. The other two are shadier and we plant greens exclusively in one, and a mix of greens, carrots and beets in the other. With a raised bed system, you don't really have the real-estate (at least we don't) to do green manure or fallowing, so we maintain soil fertility with lots of compost (kitchen waste, home-made leaf compost, and some bought sheep manure).
Fill in your flair. Honestly my advice is to pick up a couple of nice books with that money before you dive in. Here are a few you might consider:
You can get syringes of Lion’s Mane liquid cultures and poke some spawn with it, like rye berries. Once colonized you can bust up the berries and use them to inoculate a ton of supplemented sawdust, then you can fruit that.
If you want some depth, I recommend this book as it’s geared for beginners (like me). You can find PDFs online if you’re willing.
I'd recommend Let It Rot! also.
Love Mike McG and didn't know he had a composting book. Will have to check it out. Thanks for posting.
I bought in July and these have been my book resources so far. The Black and Decker complete guide books are way better quality than any of their actual tools.
The Complete Guide to Wiring
The Complete Guide to Plumbing
Home Depot Home Improvement Guide
Be aware that this isn't a free guide, this is an unauthorized release of the author's book.
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Buds-Less-Grow-Than/dp/0932551874
There's many good books on the subject - this one is my favorite.
Check the links on the sidebar ->
For now I will give a couple quick answers....
-I have never done seeds, so I don't know of the best seed places.
-There are no "good indoor deciduous trees." Deciduous means that a tree loses it's leaves seasonally. You can't have a tree like that indoors because when they aren't exposed to the temp changes outside, they will just die. I will go ahead and assume you meant "I want a tree with regular leafing, not needles, etc." In that case you can't go wrong with a ficus (benjamina or microcarpa would be good).
-For materials your really jumping-the-gun. At best you might need a small pot or series of small pots for your seeds, and soil. Before the seeds pop, a fluorescent light. Then it will be another 2 years at LEAST before you need to look into bigger pots, tools, wiring, etc.
-Same goes with root pruning. You are years away from that.
-For book, you don't NEED one. I have only ever had one. Nearly all the info it contains is available in the links on the sidebar, or in several bonsai forums, but the pictures are inspiring. The author also created a smaller and cheaper book with just the general stuff.
Plants from test tubes is a great book
www.amazon.com/Plants-Test-Tubes-Introduction-Micropropogation/dp/1604692065/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=plants+from+test+tubes&qid=1567294752&s=gateway&sr=8-1
http://www.420magazine.com/forums/how-grow-marijuana/72079-breeding-beginners-create-your-very-own-strain.html -Basic Overview & http://www.amazon.com/The-Cannabis-Breeders-Bible-Definitive/dp/1931160279 -Books http://www.amazon.com/The-Cannabis-Grow-Bible-Recreational/dp/1931160589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411213996&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Cannabis+Grow+Bible
ha "winter" you don't know winter! :) you can grow almost anything where you are.
a bonsai is a bad idea as a gift, but a bonsai book is a good idea. i got a bonsai4me book by harry harrington (www.bonsai4me.com) on my kindle, and read a lot of stuff online but this book has been suggested.
bonsai's can literally last 100's of years, some are older than Canada and Australia. the most satisfying result i get from having one is watching it grow and the transformation that occurs yearly. The downsides are, if i was to go away for 3 weeks i would need to worry about my trees, but it's possible to leave them with proper precautions. I inspect my trees daily in the summer to make sure they're watered and pest free, so there is a daily time commitment that's required, in the winter we have snow here and most of them get buried in it, i hardly see my trees from dec-feb :)
so just to recap, don't buy a tree as a gift. A good bonsai book will be an eye opener to anyone that's interested in bonsai but has never dived in. good luck!
This is a good reference book for plants https://www.amazon.com/New-Western-Garden-Book-Gardening/dp/0376039205, as far contactors go it will depend on what you want you want to do. Astro turf one contractor flower beds another.
Whether or not your 'flush' was needed depends on what was in your fertilizer as you were using bottled chemicals and not organic inputs... Organic gardening relies on organic inputs decomposing in soil via microbial activity, broken down and fed to plants through a mycorrhizal fungal network. You don't need to use any sort of bottled nutrients if you are gardening organically. I'm no expert gardener, but I've worked in a few gardens and harvested a few plants, and I seem to see the healthiest, hardiest plants grown in plain soil with no bottled nutrients. Check out the book "Teaming with Microbes" by Jeff Lowenfels and explore the soil food web http://www.soilfoodweb.com/ if you want to learn about organic gardening. If you want to learn more Jeff has written a three part series, the next book is Teaming with Nutrients and lastly Teaming with Fungi.
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Buds-Less-Grow-Than/dp/0932551874
While I don't have experience with this Lowe's version, the concept is pretty standard and is one that my wife and I used in the past. The concept is called "Square foot gardening" and the idea is to plant a different crop in each square. Now considering that this raised bed is 48" squared and the number of squares are 6 in one direction and 5 in the other (as opposed to 4 in both directions), what you plant is going to be a bit more cramped.
Personally, I didn't like the idea and we just use raised beds that I built myself. You have to be very calculating regarding how you plant things. This is obviously a good thing. I just didn't like the super duper planning that it called for. My garden is currently 16'x24' and I have a good number of raised beds, so I don't need to be so perfect when it comes to the amount of space I use.
When buying something like this, realize that you could probably make this yourself for $20 or less. If you're being sold solid materials and it's less than $30 bucks, I'd say go for it and buy it. If the markup is high, forget it! Remember, 2 2x8 ($5 each) and some nails or screws (which you probably have already) are all you need. You can use anything to mark those squares. If you don't want to spend any more money, you can simply drill screws along the frame at 1' intervals and string yarn or anything of the like across.
edit: clarity
i think ordering chickens off the internet is absolutely fine, just make sure its an established hatchery that guarantees the health of their birds. we use murray mcmurray and enjoy some of the rare breeds they offer.
so much to read. a holistic urban gardening/farming manual i love is food not lawns, which has a DIY slant i get geeky about. also, barnyard in your backyard is a good one too.
I highly recommend Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition
It's an easy read as far as nonfiction goes.
A good start would be picking up and reading Eliot Coleman's book The New Organic Grower. It is very readable, and you can use it to come up with your own plan for growing year-round.
I've found this book to be a very good reference.
American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789441160/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jhgZCbGDR8N9C
If you want to see for yourself, give it a shot. Take a cutting, dip in rooting hormone, stick in well draining substrate, increase humidity and light for 2 weeks. Check to see for roots. Best of luck.
I’m going with this super soil approach, too. Just started, so I don’t have any wisdom yet.
But here’s what I’ve read/watched that’s been super influential.
Joshua Steensland
https://youtu.be/IbQASXEqd9g
Autoflower podcast
https://overcast.fm/+QfLIKH8bk
Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
(Free if you have prime and a kindle)
Also shout out to u/bong_sau_bob for what I think is a wing chun reference.
https://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Breeders-Bible-Definitive-Marijuana/dp/1931160279
https://www.amazon.ca/Bonsai-Beginners-Bible-Peter-Chan/dp/178472369X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=peter+chan&qid=1570281843&sr=8-1
And
https://www.amazon.ca/Bonsai-DK/dp/1465419586/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=bonsai+books&qid=1570281874&sr=8-2
For kitchen waste, a vermicomposter is ideal. I built an OSCR jr from these plans I found online and it lasted for about a decade and a half before the plastic became brittle from exposure to sun/elements. I'm in the process of building a new one (pay attention when drilling the holes, one of the three bins is done differently). The worm castings and the tea that drains into the bottom bin are excellent fertilizers and maintaining the bin is a cinch.
Having a pair of bricks to place in the bottom/drainage bin is helpful to keep the worm bin from sitting in liquid.
I'm going to either install a stop-cock or at least drill a hole and keep a rubber plug in it to make draining the bottom bin easier.
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For yard/garden or any other bulk/high volume a larger compost bin will be necessary. I find the commercially available ones to be too small. I built the three bin system detailed in the book "Let it Rot!" which is also an excellent resource if you want to understand these processes a little better. The three bin system works fairly well at handling grass and hedge clippings, leaves, old pine shavings from inside the chicken coop, etc.
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I almost exclusively use the worm casting tea for watering my houseplants and plants in containers, likewise the worm castings get spread primarily as a top dressing for the same containers and the surplus then goes to the garden and landscape plants.
The compost from the big triple bin gets used throughout the yard as mulch or to till in with new plants.
The B&D book, is it this one?
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Guide-Wiring-ebook/dp/B00K4SEXLK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502115692&sr=1-1&keywords=black+and+decker+wiring
definitely plan to install a composting toilet once I own a home.
check out Food Not Lawns for other radical(wholly integrated) ways to incorporate yourself into your ecosystem.
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Not-Lawns-Neighborhood-Community/dp/193339207X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209540596&sr=8-1
highly recommend this book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marijuana-Horticulture-Outdoor-Medical-ebook/dp/B004WKUY2S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343470602&sr=8-2
by jorge cervantes, covers literally everything, many things you wouldn't even think of (at least i wouldn't have), and helped us grow an amazingly healthy plant before we had to get rid of it :( . i'm sure you could find a pdf of it if you don't want to pay for it, but it really is the grower's bible
You absolutely must get this book: The Bountiful Container. It's said to be the bible for vegetable container gardening, full of info, and it's written so delightfully that you want to run out and plant all the things.
I have read all of these front to back multiple times. I read the grow bible 5 times before I even started purchasing equipment and propagating seeds. Do it right, take the time to do the research. You will find there are many cost effective ways to grow amazing Cannabis.
True Living Organics: The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors
The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medical Use
Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition (Science for Gardeners)
Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition (Science for Gardeners)
Fundamentals of Horticulture 4th Edition
The Secret Life of Plants: a Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man
edit: If you cant tell I am an organic cultivator. ;D
I've head only great things about What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses, by Daniel Chamovitz. Haven't read it yet myself but it's at the top of my list!
I love this one, especially if you want to know about gardening and horticulture.
If you want to know about plant physiology, phylogenies and ecology, I recommend this one.
Awesome work! Gardening is fun, and a lot of work!
I was just given This Book it has helped me tremendously with my garden this year. Definitely worth the read and something to take into consideration for next year :) Lots of great advice on how to make your garden more manageable, easier to maintain, more fruitful, and less expensive.
It will be useful for process, less useful for specific plants. Eric has another great book, Perennial Vegetables that includes resources for all over the US. Lots of familiar and lots of weirder but interesting food plants, coming from a permaculture perspective.
When I first became interested in gardening, my mom recommended the Sunset Western Garden Book. She said everything she knows about plants she learned from that book.
According to Ruth Stout, all you need is rotting vegetable material and hay mulch on top of your garden bed.
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I'm only a couple of chapters in currently, but I think that you'd be interested in this book: Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition
Also a newb here.. I've found this book to be quite helpful. You don't have to be a total science nerd to read it and apply the techniques he presents
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612121462/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Also this video is pretty thorough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckLJgKy2taM&t=1925s
Here's my proof:
I'll lead with this 2014 peer-reviewed meta-analysis of 48 peer-reviewed research studies into the reaction of plants to external stimuli. 40 of 48 studies found that plants have the ability to sense external stimuli and/or communicate their findings. How many of those 48 find that plants' ability to feel pain is involved? Zero.
Next up: Tel Aviv University’s director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences, Daniel Chamovitz, one of the leading plant intelligence researchers today, wrote the 2012 book What A Plant Knows, a great overview of how we think plants can do the equivalents of hearing, smelling, touching, and seeing. Notably absent? Feeling pain. Here's Chamovitz on the subject:
"The idea that damage has to be pain is mistaken. We feel pain because we have specific types of receptors called nociceptors which are programmed to respond to pain, not to touch."
Even the most emphatic believers in plant intelligence - Frantisek Baluska and Stefano Marcuso - have never once equated plant "pain" to animal (neurobiological) pain. In fact, Baluska specifically changed the name of his scientific journal, Plant Signalling and Behavior to remove the word "Neurobiology" because of the complete lack of evidence therein.
Anyway - your turn. And let me just say, before you think of citing that Daily Mail article, or the How Stuff Works article making the rounds, just know that both are based on this 2000 paper from the University of Bonn. That paper raises the concept of plant pain exactly zero times, revealing those DM/HSW stories to be the sensationalist internet hit grabs that they are.
So, go ahead! One reputable scientific paper that says plants feel pain. One! You believe what you believe against the weight of all scientific evidence, unless you can prove otherwise.
I've never dealt with such a problem. But my gut tells me to throw a bunch of carbon and nitrogen at it to make it really hot and that should kill anything bad in there with a high nitrogen for a while. You'll also want to add sod as it's a starter. But I think hit it hard with the grass trimmings for the nitrogen to run it hot.
Almost everything I've learned about composting came from this book, that I LOVE.
https://www.amazon.com/Let-Rot-Composting-Down-Earth/dp/1580170234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484012881&sr=8-1&keywords=composting+book
Pick up this book, it is the perfect beginners guide that gives a good summary of a broad range of related topics.
The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Oyster, Lion's Mane, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612121462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Le8lDbK2HHJGC
You're definitely wise to approach things as a skeptic. I was talking with a fellow permie once about all kinds of permie things, and I thought they seemed quite rational. Then, they started talking about energy healing. That was a "smile and nod" moment. I swear, we're mostly sane.
Teaming with Microbes and Teaming with Nutrients might be helpful books to check out. They don't directly address mineral accumulation, but it explains the processes through with accumulation occurs, if that makes sense. They're very thorough books that will make you wish you had paid more attention in Bio 101, but they're written in an engaging way.
This study is on bioaccumulation, though they're testing for heavy metals and not nutritional value. Maybe their methods are explained.
As far as comfrey goes, I know it dredges up minerals from the subsoil with its remarkably long roots. As the leaves die, they decompose on the ground and the minerals become available in the topsoil, which then makes those minerals available to other plants who don't have such deep roots.
Legumes, however, have bacteria colonies surrounding their roots that make nitrogen from the air available to the plant. When the plant dies, it decomposes and then the air-harvested nitrogen becomes available in the soil. Usually, we innoculate legume plantings with the bacteria. It occurs naturally in soil, but may not necessarily be present in every square foot of soil. So, better to be safe than sorry.
They are warm spectrum (2700K) CFL's which are the most common and yes you will be able to find them at Home Depot or any store which would sell household lightbulbs. Get the highest actual watt you can and nothing less than the 23 watt ones.
If you want to grow on the cheap with CFL's then your first purchase should be this book.
Or if you are strapped for cash you can just torrent it here.
Hey man I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. I just started.
For me my concerns were
I would recommend this book
http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Buds-Less-Grow-Than/dp/0932551874
If you can afford it buy it, otherwise the torrent is easy to find. It's a quick crash course.
I've also had to move my grow because of the smell. Be ready for that it is gonna hit you hard
Edit for clarity
Food Not Lawns!
I just met the author in California. She's an unusual woman to say the least. Very cool presence.
Oh man, sorry for the lag. I kept meaning to reply, but always got sidetracked.
Purple basil is tasty, and if I remember correctly, has a slightly more astringent flavor than sweet basil. It's great if you're making Asian dishes with it. If you're just growing it for Italian food and gimlets (basil gimlets are fantastic) plain old sweet basil with the big rounded leaves is where it's at.
As for rooting plant cuttings in water, sometimes it works. You end up with a stronger root system if you use substrate though, and I'm a little surprised that you got rosemary to root that way. I've used a 50/50 mixture of perlite and vermiculite with good success, and if you've got something stubborn there are rooting hormone powders available in various strengths.
If this is something that really appeals to you, and you'd like to learn more, this was used as a textbook in my plant prop. class last year.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Horticultural-Society-Propagation-Plant-/dp/0789441160/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331662223&sr=1-1
It's a good book, and not so intense that it's difficult to understand.
You're supposed to wait until May for a good reason: weather fluctuations. One night of frost will kill seedlings and young plants. Are you starting with seed? Or buying transplants? Transplants are so much easier, but limited on variety. Peppers and tomatoes are great for containers--they love warm soil, which is easier to obtain in a container, and lots of sunshine. Try mini or dwarf versions of each. Mulch around them to protect them from water loss and chilly (but not freezing) nights.
I started gardening in containers, too. This has been my bible: http://www.amazon.com/McGee-Stuckeys-Bountiful-Container-Vegetables/dp/0761116230
There are a surprisingly many things you can grow in pots: herbs, lettuce, green onions, even peaches and apples. The author even suggests specific varieties that are compatible with growing in containers. Good luck.
I cannot recommend the Square Foot Gardening book more. All that is required to start is a 4' x 4' raised bed, some soil, a small garden shovel and some seeds and/or plant starts. Its method uses intensive companion planting to naturally reduce the likelihood of pests, and increase yields in a limited amount of space.
There are lots of videos on Youtube to get started, too.
Joel Salatin just released an excellent online course, which could totally answer all those questions.
Also, check out the books New Organic Grower and Market Gardener.
But best of all, just contact local farms you admire and see if they have an internship/WWOOF program.
Ultimately, different strokes for different folks. There is no one way to do this. Just observe nature, work with nature and try to optimize energy inputs and outputs.
Fellow Minnesotan and Seed Analyst (Plant Biology degree) here!
I recommend having this book on hand for all of your greenhouse adventures: American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789441160/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_F8qQybT9GQCE7
It's full of photos and will provide you with endless practical advice as you're starting planties. I'm so excited for you and your students!
Ya, check out the buildasoil blog, too! That's definitely one of my resources! Jeremy, the guy that runs the site, is a really great guy who is passionate about educating himself and buying the highest quality stuff. He's a complete soil nerd and we all get to reap the benefits lol.
For a book, I'd recommend "Teeming with Microbes". I read the whole thing on my phone via the kindle app for $3 and it was the most info per page of any source I've come across, plus its written in a pretty accessible style.
For a movie, I'd recommend "Symphony of the Soil". Really great overview touching on the geological, biological, agricultural and even historical perspectives of soil and plant growth.
I enjoyed The Bountiful Container by Mrs. Stuckey and Nichols McGee. Mrs Nichols McGee runs a nursery not too far from me and I've had the pleasure of emailing with her a few times and she is delightful.
I’m following The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms . They are saying that I need to get the sawdust moisture just right to prevent bacterial competition to the mycelium. But to know how much water I must add I either need to completely dry the sawdust OR know the moisture content of my sawdust pile by taking a representative sample. They want me to take the rep sample, weight it then bake it dry, then weigh it again so I can make a ratio of dry to original weight.
It’s not that big of a deal, but each time I want to make a few bags I will have to do the oven method to see if my water content had changed. I thought it would be easier if I could spent 10-20 bucks on a moisture meter and just shove it in the bucket of sawdust for an instant read.
Get some self watering pots from Walmart. That's what I started with. They have a reservoir at the bottom that holds water and gets wicked up by the soil to the roots during the day.
You should be able to get these books from your library:
The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible
and
McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers
These are two of the first books I found on the subject and they came in handy.
Marketing PR for money. They aren't breeders.
The Cannabis Breeder's Bible: The Definitive Guide to Marijuana Genetics, Cannabis Botany and Creating Strains for the Seed Market Paperback – April 15, 2005
https://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Breeders-Bible-Definitive-Marijuana/dp/1931160279
The Square Foot Gardening book really helped me out. It's easy to read, has a whole section dedicated to the different types of garden bed layouts, and a glossary in the back for different plants that goes over when to plant/harvest and what sunlight conditions they do best in. You don't have to have a square foot garden to benefit from this book.
*Edit You should also research the zone you are in to get a better understanding of frost dates. These will tell you when the best times to plant or transplant are as well as how long your growing season is. Also, determine how the sun crosses your property. Doing so will help you determine the best location to start your garden.
I have a copy of Bonsai 101 Essential Tips by Harry Tomlinson. It outlines the basics of bonsai in a quick and easy to digest manner. It will definitely get you started on your journey. That combined with some research into the types of trees your using should be more than enough to begin.
book suggestion: plants from test tubes
I always like DK books for learning things because they tend to provide good intro info (it won't be super in depth) and they're very visual so enjoyable to look through and read. But honestly I recommend just going to your library and browsing what they have on this topic before buying anything so you can look inside the books.
This cause i always wanted one and since that's cheap This so i don't kill it :P
Chuck Finley
Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community
For composting, I would look at Let it Rot and the Rodale Book of Composting. The second is more detailed and is my choice for "if I had to choose just one."
It's not a field guide, but the Sunset Western Garden Book is pretty good for the west. I think there are versions of Sunset for the different regions, like East Coast Living and Southern Living. I'm sure they have a similar book that corresponds to wherever you live. And in case you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest, Pojar is pretty much the plant id bible, but it's not for gardens.
This may be something worth looking into.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1604692065?cache=16deecde5dcee98386fe864cd778457f&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1405176619&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1
I'm going to read Teaming With Nutrients next; Korean Natural Farming is awesome if you're willing to put in the time, and you have the space for fermenting stuff.
And because Imgur won't let me edit anything in my post via mobile, I will add more info here! I spent about two months researching container growing fruit trees/edible tree/bush before deciding to start with a blood orange and my favorite, lemonade. I'm hoping this helps someone else who might think they can't have a fruit tree due to space.
Although I bought trees on dwarfing rootstock (often called flying dragon rootstock, as that's the plant used to give it stunted growth), you do not need a tree marketed as dwarf. Using a container will naturally impede the process of growth, in addition to pruning.
This is very important because each type of rootstock will give different qualities to the root health. Pick the rootstock that works best for your growing conditions. The book Grow a Little Fruit Tree was invaluable for its information on rootstock alone, although it's geared towards deciduous trees and not evergreens like citrus.
Another helpful book for container gardening that helped me jumpstart my information search was The Bountiful Container. It's American oriented, not Aussie, but lots of helpful principles and ideas all the same.
Another great read, and useful, is this write-up on Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery about using bags (containers) to restrict tree growth in order to net better fruit production. Size restriction can help to produce more per hectare than just letting a tree go (which would be suicide to a home orchard anyways).
Honestly you've already found a great source of good information and discussion:) I use the search bar in this sub more than any other, but I still refer regularly to my Grandma's favorite: Western Garden. It's a time-tested and comprehensive run-down of theory and method, as well as an encyclopedia of plants that are easily cultivated/common in the western hemisphere, but is mostly geared to the continental US.
The wonderful thing about plants is that they want to grow, and if you can just create the right conditions they will reward you in many ways. Some are waaay more forgiving than others, so don't just jump into orchid cultivars and other exotic specimens. Start composting, plant the veggies you like to eat (and maybe some luffa gourds for your shower time) and be proud of your harvest, you will never taste better food :)
I'm pretty new to the whole bonsai thing myself and I found this book Bonsai 101 Essential Tips pretty helpful, it gives a ton of basic simple info and it's pretty cheap.
Please do some more reading, get a book like: The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms by Stephen Russel. The eBook is $10
The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Oyster, Lion's Mane, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612121462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_uJ2GzbQRZY3VM
And there's a give-away - a choice of one of Eric's workshops,either a forest garden tasting workshop or a bioshelter workshop. Or a copy of Perennial Vegetables if you can't make it to a workshop.
You may also want to reconsider your vegetarian diet since plants experience "pain" too. See here