Which Organic Gardening book is the best?

[rawbutterfly]

Or gardening book in general. I do not have a natural green thumb but every year I am getting better at growing an organic garden. I have pretty much stuck with the basics but next year I am determined to grow stuff other than tomatoes, squash and cucs. Does anyone recommend a good book about organic gardening...for dummies? :p

[michigan roman]

ide go to www.motherearthnews.com and just start reading in their archives for alot of great info . maybe also www.organicgardening.com . and ide request a catalog from www.territorialseed.com because its got great info , theyve great seeds , and they organically grow alot of their own seeds being very respectful of the enviroment .

and to me now that ive been organic gardening 15 years its like theres not one book thatll end up being perfect to you . itll end up being you derrive ways from many different sources to arrive at your way . and to me you can just as well accomplish that using the internet and searching for gardening sites / forums without spending money on books .

also search a guy J. I. RODALE , rodale started the organic gardening magazine like 50 years ago and was a very bright character . ide also search ruth stout - she wrote a cute book ' how to have a green thumb without an aching back ' . another one i got some good info from - lee reich's ' weedless gardening ' . and eliot coleman brings up some very good angles on striving to get as long a gardening season as possible , he'll get you focused on planting seeds from as soon as the ground thaws all the way to like 60 days til hard frost allowing one to harvest as much as possible . his book that i refer to is ' four-season harvest ' .

my method quickly is a big big mulch pile i feed with grass clipping - leaves - wood chips - twigs - bark from logs - wood ashes - lime - straw - etc . when possible i turn the pile and also shovel dirt over it which helps hold heat in pile which breaks it down quicker . then i just keep feeding my garden this mulch , shoveling on like 6 inches into empty beds (i have 4 foot wide rows with three foot wide paths between because i can get into the entire width of a 4; wide bed from paths . and with paths you keep soil compaction away from plant roots which helps because its much more difficult for roots to course through hardend soil . this hardend soil factor is also a GIANT reason you see STRAW - BARK - TWIGS - WOOD CHIPS in my mulch , these coarse/bulky slow to break down components in my soil prevent it from becoming too quickly compacted by the forces of gravity and water . and my looser soil allows my plant roots much much easier growth leading to much more vital / productive plants . ) , shoveling mulch around growing plants in order to HOLD IN MOISTURE - KEEP DOWN WEEDS - ENRICH SOIL . keeping down the weeds is huge because weeds are a gardeners worst enemy . and my favorite mulch addition is straw because it keeps soil loose - adds nutrients - keeps down weeds , its great at keeping my particular soil loosend up . which is a giant plus for me . and sprinkling straw all around my plants during the growing season for afore mentioned reasons is one of the best things i can do for my garden , i always like to have bails of straw laying around . here ijn the fall many people have them in yard for decoration and shall right after thanx giving be throwingb them out , so i pick up everyone i see on roadside and stock pile them in my garden for free . i also like to cover entire garden in straw over winter . btw , the wood ash and lime are to help keep the soil from becoming too acidic which the leaves tend to cause .

then besides the soil tending the biggy is fending off insects and a good method is hot pepper like cayene mixed in water and sprayed on foilage .

well hope this info helps :)

[rawbutterfly]

Thanks for all that good info!