What are some recommended books for newbies to gardening?

Citrine Dream: What are some recommended books for newbies to gardening?
Especially helpful if they’re about small spaces, herbs, and organic gardening. I have an apartment and I’d like to have a small organic herb and flower garden on my deck, but I’m not sure where to start. Thanks!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Madame M
Mel Bartholomew’s “square foot gardening” method is really inspiring, and can teach you to fit a lot of plants into a small space. (Here’s the site; there’s also a book:

For nuts and bolts kind of gardening, I like Barbara Damrosch’s Garden Primer (from amazon: .

If you are into preserving foods at all, I really like Mike and Nancy Bubel’s books; the root cellar book has a lot of info about planning your garden, too. They also have one on seed-starting. (From amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Root-Cellaring-Natural-Storage-Vegetables/dp/0882667033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231314436&sr=1-1 also https://www.amazon.com/New-Seed-Starters-Handbook/dp/0878577521/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231314436&sr=1-7)

Good luck, and have fun!

Answer by K10
lifeonthebalcony.com is a great website and has links to books

Answer by PIECE NIKTAB
check out these books from your local library:
square foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew
food not lawns by heather C. Flores

look over those for starters.
you can also do tomatoes in 5 gallon buckets with wholes punched in the bottom. thats all for now, my brain is a little tired from a 12 hour non stop work day.
PIECE

Answer by fi ♠
i can also rec ommend mel bartholemews square foot gardening

i bought it last year, have read from cover to cover, several times and it has everything you need to know about gardening in smaller spaces, it is so good that i am opting to go for this method in my back garden this year as it makes 100% use of every available space, you will have no problems establishing a herb garden from this book, and you may find you can grow other things too, no matter how small space you have, good luck, its VERY addictive once you get started

Answer by FeralSpirit
If you have a used book store in your area stop in on a regular basis.
I have purchased some of the best gardening/plant books I own, from stores like that.
You will go in on one day and they may not have anything you can use but on another day you may find five books on your specific subject.

I recently has looking for a few reference books on Orchid Culture and Hydroponics and found a better selection at a local used book store than they had at Barnes & Noble – I returned the books from B & N and saved about $ 65.
The three books I bought at the used book store cost me $ 21.
The two books I purchased at B & N were almost $ 90 with tax.

Used book stores also carry ‘overstocks’. Books that were printed for sale and never sold – so they are new. Two of the books I purchased at the used book store were new the third had belonged to someone at some point but was in new condition. They were also more than half the cost of the purchase price printed on the books by the publishers.

Of course, the local library is a good source for reading and note taking but sometimes it’s nice to have a few reference books handy.
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