Craig's Gardening Recommends

Starter Vegetable Gardens
Pleasant, a master gardener and award-winning gardening writer, takes the guesswork out of growing food, explaining in simple, straightforward language how to start, maintain, and expand a bountiful vegetable garden in small, manageable spaces.



Garden Wisdom and Know-How
A large-scale practical guide to planting and maintaining a garden, "Garden Wisdom & Know-How" offers tips and techniques for gardening year-round, harvesting herbs, designing by bloom season, and much more. Photos throughout.

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

Discover the last W.O.R.D. in vegetable gardening with Ed Smith's amazing gardening system. By integrating four principles -- Wide beds, Organic methods, Raised beds, and Deep beds -- Smith reinvents vegetable gardening, making it possible for everyone to have the best, most successful garden ever. By following this complete system you cultivate deep, powerful soil that nourishes plants and discourages pests and disease. The result is fewer weeds, healthier plants, and lots of great-tasting vegetables. Plus, you'll enjoy gardening as you never have before. All of the best elements of the beloved first edition are here along with coverage of 15 additional vegetables plus growing information on more fruits and herbs; new photographs in many vegetable entries; and extending the season into the winter months.

The Garden Primer
Remarkably complete, this is the one: the indispensable one-volume reference guide to gardening simply, beautifully and well. It is jam-packed with useful information, old-fashioned common sense, and a lifetime's worth of experience, and is thoroughly revised and expanded to be 100 percent organic in its recommendations. Updated with the latest on plants, soils, techniques, and tools, it includes: The basics of landscaping, emphasizing sustainable methods. Understanding what plants need and avoiding complex rules and formulas. How to choose and combine flowers for season-long color, orchestrating with perennials and accenting with annuals. Extending the season - that's right, harvest carrots in January. The secret to raising roses without fuss, less demanding lawns, vines with discipline, and trees that will enhance your property. There is new information on native species, and all the gardening resources you need--explained in a voice that "has the snap of a good snowpea and the spice of an old rose"


The Beginner's Guide to Edible Herbs
This useful guide helps vegetable gardeners realize the pleasures of becoming an herb gardener. Readers will find complete information on growing, harvesting, preserving, and using 26 of the most popular kitchen herbs, from basil to thyme. Illustrated.