Great Gardening Books for Winter Reading by Jeff Rugg on Creators.com

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Great Gardening Books for Winter Reading

Winter is beginning, and most of us are just starting to dream about next summer's garden. To help get your own ideas flowing or for the gardener on your gift list, I have a few books that you can read by the fireplace to warm your green thumb.

"No Guff Vegetable Gardening" is a fun approach to vegetable garden books. Written by a pair of Canadians, it's still appropriate for all U.S. gardeners. Donna Balzer is a boomer-generation gardener from Calgary who has had her own gardening television show. Steven Biggs is a gen-X gardener from Toronto. Together they use a he-said/she-said approach to explaining gardening techniques.

The "guff" referred to in the book's title comes from conventional wisdom, such as that often dispensed by the neighbor who looks over the fence to offer unsolicited advice. Very often, this advice is worth what's paid for it: nothing. But, conventional wisdom persists, even when it's not particularly useful.

Donna and Steven take on Mr. Guff's dogma in a lighthearted but scientifically accurate manner. Because many aspects of gardening are not cast in stone, the two authors don't always agree, but reading two sides of an issue can help the reader better understand his own gardening situation.

The artistic team of Bryan and Mariko McCrae created the unconventional graphics for the book. For instance, the table of contents is a garden map. You begin the gardening journey in the first chapters of climate and soil and end in later chapters on maintenance and harvesting.

The book is packed with photos and illustrations. If you can't find it locally, it is available in printed and electronic form at GardenCoachesChat.com.

On the opposite end of the graphic scale is "Vertical Gardening" by Derek Fell. The author of more than 80 gardening books, Derek's new book covers how gardeners can produce a larger harvest in both vegetables and flowers while using much less space.

The beginning chapters cover the structures used in vertical gardening. The middle chapters cover gardening techniques, and the last couple hundred pages cover many species of plants and how to grow them.

Rick Baker's "The 7-Minute Organic Garden" explains a system for gardeners that uses no chemical herbicides and saves up to 80 percent on water use. Even if you don't know what an organic garden is, you should read this book before you start planting your garden next spring. Written in collaboration with a group of organic producers from across the world, the book is easy to read and very well-photographed. Find it at EvoOrganic.com.

"How Carrots Won the Trojan War" is an unusual book by Rebecca Rupp about the curious but true history of vegetables. With chapter titles such as "Melons Undermine Mark Twain's Morals" and "Corn Creates Vampires," the book is hard to put down. Each chapter includes many short stories from the past and present that make for entertaining reading.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.