New item! Books!

This past week, I made a series of purchases at quite a few places on a number of items. My husband and I went to several local used bookstores (Halfprice books in Countryside and Frugal Muse in Darien) in search of books for our hobbies. The best books I found were the following:

The Midwest Fruit and Vegetable Book (Illinois Edition) by James A. Fizzell

This book is amazing! There are many types of vegetables listed with advice as when to plant them and any special notes for care. I am revising and reworking (hopefully to publish here soon) my planting calender based on the recommendations of this book.

Carrots Love Tomatoes  by Louise Riotte

This is a very interesting book. It gives a good list of vegetables/herbs/flowers that produce beneficial (or detrimental) effects on each other when planted close together. I first heard about this book when I was at the library a few weeks ago. The book that pointed this one out to me was The Truth About Organic Gardening by Jeff Gillman (my brief reading of the first few chapters leads me to believe it is fairly unbiased). He had pointed out that Carrots Love Tomatoes is pretty comprehensive, although he doesn't believe in a lot of the "remedies" to control certain pests.

My only experience with companion gardening is planting tons of marigolds amongst your vegetables as my Grandpa had done. I had an exterminator comment that that was a wise idea but the actual benefits eluded me.

The New Victory Garden by Bob Thomson

This is an older book, but the pictures are fantastic. I haven't had time to take a good look, but I wanted to get some creative ideas to use in a small garden.

The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers by Grace Gershuny

Also haven't really touched this book, but I am hoping it will guide me into drastically improving my backyard soil.