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Health & Fitness

Can You Dig It?

Spring is here. That means it's time to slip into those dungarees, crack out the shovels, and prepare those plant beds. Here are a few books to help you achieve your gardening goals.

Winter, or whatever that was, is over and spring is definitely here. That means it’s time to slip into those dungarees, crack out the shovels, and prepare those plant beds.

Prepare them for what? Exactly.

If you're anything like me, you feel spring nudging you to go out and dig in the dirt, you find the notion of growing (at least some of) your own food appealing, and you're ready to do the work. And yet, when you get right down to it you're not entirely sure it'll be worth it in the end.

What do you do?

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Relax. You have options. You can query that friend of yours who floods the office with zucchini every summer. You can bug the people at Benhke’s until they run when they see you coming in the store, or you can come to the (CPCL) and check out—both literally and figuratively—our books on gardening. Be it composting to container gardening or pests to pumpkins, we’ve got you covered. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, here’s a run-down of some books that are sure to turn your thumb green.

Organic Gardening: The A–Z of Healthy Gardening

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Lush with information and photos, Organic Gardening can teach you everything you need to know about growing your own fruits and vegetables. The book begins with “The Organic Approach” and from there moves on to enlightening readers on “How Plants Grow,” “Creating Living Soil,” “Managing Your Garden,” and finally, “Getting Started” (from planning to species diversity, to hardiness zones). But that’s just the first half of the book. The second half serves as a gardening encyclopedia that takes readers on a trip through a diverse array of vegetables (from Asian greens to winter root crops), herbs, fruits and nuts, and flowers. In short, if I had to sum this book up in one word, that word would be thorough.

The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible

If you consider yourself a gardening novice and Organic Gardening sounds a bit too intense, consider The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. It’s not quite “Gardening for Dummies” (which we don’t have on our shelves but I’m sure exists), but it does seem to take things down a notch from the first book I mentioned. Like the first book I mentioned, this one also has a lot of full color photos, but unlike Organic Gardening, this book advocates the WORD system of gardening (an acronym for Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds, and Deep soil) and the book begins with an overview of each of these four principles. From there, it goes into picking the right place for your garden (and making the best use of the space you have), figuring out what to plant, starting your seeds indoors, when to plant, watering, maintaining soil health, and much, much more.

The Contained Garden

Okay, you feel that nudge of spring, but you live in an apartment. So what do you do? You grow stuff in containers on your balcony or patio or even in hanging baskets. Not only does The Contained Garden tell you everything you need to know to do this, it even shows you how to build your own containers, preparing the soil, planting, watering and feeding, and propagation. From there the book goes on to help you make the most of whatever space you have.

The Rodale Book of Composting

Okay, maybe you know the gardening basics, but maybe you’re not so well versed in the ins and outs of composting. If you can relate, look no further than The Rodale Book of Composting, a book that boasts “easy-to-follow instructions for making and using compost and helpful tips for apartment dwellers, suburbanites, farmers, and community leaders.”

The Weather-Resilient Garden

Finally, maybe you like getting out to dig in the dirt, but for you, gardening has more to do with the landscaping around your home rather than growing vegetables in your backyard. If that describes you, then you might want to take a look at The Weather-Resilient Garden. I mean, if it’s closing in on 80 degrees in March, what is August going to be like? If you want to be prepared, The Weather-Resilient Garden will show you “how to plant a garden that is both beautiful and tough enough to withstand almost anything nature delivers.” The book mentions “100 hardy plants” to help you diversify your garden and “includes detailed advice on what to do when a weather disaster strikes your garden.”

Again, these are just some of our gardening books. To see the whole lot, come on in and peruse the shelves of our reference section.

Until next time, keep reading.

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