In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

Put ‘em Up! A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide
for the Creative Cook
by Sheri Brooks Vinton

Put ‘em Up! (Storey Publishing, 304 pages, $19.95) offers simple, step-by-step instructions with colorful photos and 175 delicious recipes for home preserving. The author begins with a section on techniques that offers how-to information for every kind of preserving: refrigerating, freezing, air- and oven-drying, cold- and hot-pack canning, and pickling. Equipment lists, process instructions, ingredients, and storage details are provided and highlighted with drawings. There is even a chapter entitled “Things that Will Surely Get You into Trouble,” to help the reader avoid common mishaps.

Recipes using many common fruits and vegetables include tried-and-true favorites like applesauce and apple butter, dried tomatoes, marinara sauce, bread and butter pickles, and classic strawberry jam. Some of the more unique recipes include “Wasabi Beans,” “Cherry and Black Pepper Preserves,” “Pickled Fennel,” “Sweet Pepper Marmalade,” “Berry Bourbon,” and “Salsa Verde.”

Flexible options for each recipe are provided with a color-coded, icon system. Within a single recipe, choices of various methods are listed at the end of each set of instructions so the cook can decide which process they would like to use.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7

Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web
by Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis

Smart gardeners know that soil is anything but an inert substance. Healthy soil is teeming with life—not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. The use of chemical fertilizers injures the microbial life that sustains healthy gardens. Plants then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial, often toxic, substances. The alternative to this vicious cycle is to strengthen the soil food web, the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants. 

Teaming with Microbes (Timber Press, 220 pages, $24.95) extols the benefits of cultivating the soil food web. First, it describes the activities and organisms that make up the web. Next, it explains how gardeners can cultivate soil life through the use of compost, mulches, and compost tea. This revised edition updates the original text and includes two completely new chapters. One is about mycorrhizae while the other covers archaea, single-celled organisms once thought to be allied to bacteria. 

This updated resource will help everyone create rich, nurturing, living soil—from organic gardening devotees to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses: Expert Plant Choices and Dramatic Combinations for Year-Round Gardens
by Adrian Bloom

There are thousands of perennials and grasses available to gardeners, and that can make it hard to know which plants are right for your own unique garden. Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses (Timber Press, 208 pages, $34.95) features 250 choices that are beautiful and easy-to-maintain, and also provide year-round interest.

Detailed descriptions have information on growth, care, and design tips for use in gardens of all sizes. The author shows how to design and plant well-structured borders that feature perennials and grasses with a mix of other plants playing supporting roles. He also shares his trademark “river of plants” design style that dramatically features a plant’s beauty throughout its life. 

Colorful photos throughout the book highlight unique plant combinations to create beautiful complementary designs, even in the winter season. A directory includes plant details and recommendations that focus on predicting how the plant will perform in your own garden.

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

The Pruning Book
by Lee Reich

The Pruning Book (The Taunton Press, 240 pages, $21.95) is a revised and updated reference book that includes the latest techniques on pruning. The author covers a wide variety of plants, including houseplants and exotics, and explains the dos and don’ts of cutting back your plants. Using many color photos and drawings, the details of how to prune for healthy growth and beautiful form are thoroughly covered. 

Three sections detail the basics of pruning, common plants, and specialized plants. The chapters expand on each topic by focusing on why to prune, tools of the trade, plant response to pruning, mowing the lawn, edible plants, ornamental plants, and more. The book teaches pruning as an art form and readers will learn how to train and maintain plants, control their size, produce bountiful fruit and flowers, sustain and restore plant health, determine plant types, and choose correct tools. There is also a glossary of terms unique to the process of pruning.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

The Vegetable Gardener’s Book of Building Projects
by the Editors of Storey Publishing

The Vegetable Gardener’s Book of Building Projects (Storey Publishing, 152 pages, $18.95) includes 39 simple-to-make projects that cost a fraction of the retail cost. Some of the projects include: cold frames, compost bins, planters, raised beds, potting benches, gates, trellises, storage containers, outdoor furniture, bird houses, and others. They are designed to increase your harvest, make your garden chores easier, and turn your garden and yard into an appealing outdoor space for relaxing and enjoying the fruits of your labors. 

Each project includes step-by-step instructions, detailed illustrations, complete materials and lumber lists, tips, and a four-color photograph of the finished product. Many of the projects are ideal for beginners, and most can be completed in just a few hours. Projects are labeled as half-day, full-day, or weekend to indicate the complexity of the project and the time commitment required for completion. This resource highlights a diverse array of popular projects that will enhance the efficiency and quality of vegetable growing.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

Tomatoes Garlic Basil
by Doug Oster

Tomatoes Garlic Basil (St. Lynn’s Press, 256 pages, $17.95) is the result of the author’s lifelong passion for these vegetables. This resource showcases the simple pleasures of growing and cooking these versatile foods by covering each step from soil preparation to cooking dishes with your harvest. It is filled with everything you need to know about growing all three foods and creating a garden in your backyard or even on your condo deck. 

In addition to the step-by-step instructional aspect of the book, there are also real life stories of love, life, travel, and, of course, food. The chapter titles include: Gardens are Good for You, Gardening in the City, The Kid in the Tomato Suit, A Passion for Seeds, Garlic in My Genes, and For the Love of Basil. It includes over 30 classic recipes, with creative twists, right out of the author’s garden and kitchen. This is a useful book for gardeners and food lovers alike.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

Lessons from Linden Hill:
Design Tips and Planning Pointers
by Jerry Fritz with Nancy Ondra

The lifelong dream of landscape designer Jerry Fritz comes to life when he purchases a farmstead in the heart of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The property includes an old, dilapidated stone barn filled with junk. Bucket by bucket, he and his family remove the junk and have the barn refurbished. They relocate their landscape business from their home to this new location, surround it with traffic-stopping display gardens, and open a collector’s-level nursery. So much so, that Martha Stewart invites Jerry to her show to design a deer-resistant container planting featuring unusual thrillers, fillers, and spillers—including “blurple” flowers from Linden Hill. Not quite blue, not quite purple—they’re blurple.

Not only is Lessons from Linden Hill (Linden Hill Gardens, 108 pages, $19.95) a must-read for green industry professionals, it is the story of a guy with a truck evolving into a destination garden center and gardens that give hope to deer-riddled gardeners. The incredible journey entails good instinct, an homage to history, and a passion for colorful foliage and flowers. The book is inspirational and packed full of fabulous plants and design tips, including how to look at a space and see what it could be, gardening in deer country, using stone in the garden, and working with a garden designer.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

In no particular order, we’re recapping 15 great books from 2010 for the gardener on your holiday shopping list. Any one of them would be a great holiday gift for the green thumb on your list. We’ll feature a book a day starting December 7.

Starter Vegetable Gardens:
24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens
by Barbara Pleasant

The idea of where to begin with a vegetable garden can cause anxiety for any new gardener. Starter Vegetable Gardens (Storey Publishing, 179 pages, $19.95) takes the guesswork out of growing food. Using simple language the author explains exactly how to start, maintain, and eventually expand an organic vegetable garden. What to buy, where to plant, and how to care for your garden are all discussed in this resource.

The 24 small-scale garden plans provide the reader with many options for growing your own fresh food. Some of the plans include: Backyard Veggie Border, Front-Yard Food Supply, Family Food Factory, Sweet Corn and Company, Marinara Medley, and the Managed Mulch Garden. Each plan includes a labeled chart in color, along with a supply and tool inventory, and a to-do list for each season. Intertwined in each chapter are color photographs and valuable information such as watering tips, plant supports, and insect issues. The book concludes with a dictionary of 46 common vegetables and a glossary of gardener’s basic lingo.

Click here to purchase from Amazon