If you’re a Pacific Northwest gardener looking to plant some herbs on your windowsill, try your hand at organic gardening or grow your own carrots and peas, these helpful gardening books will help get you started. Although most of these books are specific to the region, they all include helpful gardening tips no matter where you live.
- The Ann Lovejoy Handbook of Northwest Gardening: Natural, Sustainable, Organic by Ann Lovejoy – A revised edition of this handbook contains tips for reducing the workload of a garden through companion planting, matching the appropriate plant to the right environment, mulching, using compost, building healthy soil, making a garden based on reduced watering, and many other techniques. This book focuses on gardening in the Pacific Northwest, including lists and descriptions of shrubs, trees, perennials, and annuals.
- Sunset Western Garden Book edited by Kathleen Norris Brenzel – The latest edition of this comprehensive guide provides gardeners in the western part of North America with up-to-date information on some 8,000 plants. In addition to the A-to-Z encyclopedia of plants, the text contains 30 specialized plant selection guides and a helpful guide full of gardening techniques, tools, and basic problem-solving for maintaining a healthy landscape.
- Garden Sense: Secrets of an Experienced Gardener by Roy Jonsson – Jonsson, a well-known North Vancouver gardener, draws on his extensive experience as a landscaper/gardener and horticultural educator to give information that most garden books skim over or do not cover. This small but comprehensive book deals with such topics as soil, pruning and shearing, fertilizers, annuals and perennials, and propagation.
- Container Gardening for Canada by Laura Peters, Alison Beck & Don Williamson – Container gardening is a fast-growing practice, as popular with homeowners who want to accent a patio or deck as it is with high-rise dwellers who want some greenery on their balcony. This is a handbook of how to put together garden containers with suggestions for plants to use and effective ways to combine containers. It also addresses sometimes overlooked container garden issues, like over wintering pots, keeping plant roots cool in summer and what pest problems to expect.
- Grow Vegetables by Alan Buckingham – While not specific to gardening in the Pacific Northwest, Buckingham’s guide is still indispensable for vegetable gardening no matter where you live. In this guide full-color photographs, step-by-step how-tos and advice show how to grow your own vegetables. A discussion of choosing and preparing your garden space is followed tips, tools, and techniques to help demystify the art of growing vegetables; a month-by-month planner explaining what to do to maximize your success and a “vegetable doctor” outlining effective and appropriate cures and treatments for any pests or diseases you may encounter. Both organic and nonorganic options are presented, with regional vegetables discussed.
Happy gardening!