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December 17, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Three Books for Beginning Veg Gardeners in the North

Books/Writing

A few years ago (gosh, it was 10!), I did a list of best books for beginning gardeners, with a focus on vegetable gardening. Those books are still good options, but several more recent books are really worth adding to your collection. And, any of them would make a wonderful gift for a young gardener just starting out.

vegetable gardening bookThe Homegrown Pantry (Storey Publishing, 2017) by Barbara Pleasant is the perfect book for a vegetable gardener who also loves to cook (and isn’t that most of us?). It’s also great for gardeners who aren’t sure how much to grow and want to make the most of their space, their time in the garden and their time in the kitchen. The focus of this book is both on growing vegetables, herbs and fruit, and on storing and processing them. It’s full of the kind of information your grandma learned from her mom, but updated for modern homes, kitchens and gardens.

The books starts with an explanation of why it’s good to grow your own produce, then covers basic storing and preserving techniques, including useful photos and step-by-step methods. The bulk of the book covers veg-by-veg information on how much to grow, best varieties and best ways to preserve the vegetable. For instance, she recommends growing five sweet pepper plants and 2 hot pepper plants per person. (I’d half that number for each child.) Then suggests varieties such as ‘Sweet Banana’ and ‘Early Jalapeno’. She covers when to plant them, how to care for them during the season and common pests and diseases to watch out for. She then explains how to dry, pickle and make sauce with them. Every vegetable and fruit gets this in-depth treatment.

Pleasant lives in Virginia, but her growing recommendations are based on frost-dates, so it’s easy to modify instructions for a northern climate. If you think this book might be too much for your newbie gardener, consider Starter Vegetable Gardens (Storey Publishing, 2010), also by Pleasant, which includes 24 plans for a beginner’s vegetable garden. One of the plans is specifically for shorter-season gardens.

The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest (Timber Press, 2015) by Michael VanderBrug is the perfect gardener’s Christmas gift because your favorite gardener can start using it in January. The book takes gardeners, month-by-month, through the year with what-to-do-when instructions. VanderBrug is a professional gardener who lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, so he knows cold. What I loved about this book is how well he explained the various climate zones of the Midwest and modified his instructions based on which zone a gardener is in. This is a basic vegetable gardening book, covering soil, watering, ways to trellis plants, seed starting and all the how-tos that go into vegetable gardening. The book also includes a helpful chart on when to plant and harvest each vegetable as well as variety recommendations specifically for Midwestern gardeners.

I did a mini-review of John Whitman’s Fresh from the Garden: An Organic Guide to Growing Vegetables, Berries and Herbs in Cold Climates, (University of Minnesota Press, 2017) about a year ago. Since then Whitman received the Gold Award from GWA, the organization of garden writers and communicators (beating out both my book and Pleasant’s). I’m a bit on the fence about recommending this book to a complete beginner, but if your gardener likes a thorough explanation of how to grow vegetables in the North and is committed to organic methods—this is your guide.

Whitman offers comprehensive information on everything from amending the soil when you start a garden to how to grow edamame organically in Minnesota. It’s the kind of book your new gardener will return to again and again as experience and love of gardening grows.

Related posts:

  1. Best Books for Beginning Vegetable Gardeners I haven’t done any kind of comprehensive review of vegetable...
  2. Book Review: Edible Gardening in the Midwest A Gardener’s Reading, 21 of 30 By Colleen Vanderlinden and...
  3. Best Bets for Beginning Vegetable Gardeners I spent most evenings over the past week digging through...
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It’s National Gardening Day! I’m not much for It’s National Gardening Day! I’m not much for special days (sorry, siblings, I missed that one last week) but any excuse to post a picture of a gorgeous peony, I’ll take! 

Peonies are a huge part of Minnesota’s horticultural heritage. They aren’t native but our cold climate is perfect for peonies. They’ve been hybridized in Minnesota for over 150 years, and the state still has several peony breeders based here. If you ever get a chance to go to a peony open day in June, jump on it. Seeing rows and rows of peonies all blooming at once is a northern gardener’s joy. 

Peonies will last forever, too. Plant one in the right place and it will outlive you by decades. What’s your favorite plant? 
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#nationalgardeningday #nationalgardenmonth #garden #peony #horticulturalheritage #garden #mygarden #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo #gardenblogger 
#mngardening #minnesota #mnhort
#gardeninglife #coldclimategardening
#stpaulgarden #stpaulmn
#Zone4garden #zone4b #nofilterneeded
This week’s podcast and blog post are about grow This week’s podcast and blog post are about growing summer bulbs. I grow lilies in containers, 1) because they look great and 2) because the rabbits 🐇 can’t get them as easily there. Growing bulbs in containers means you can move them around the garden for extra color where you need it. 

Bulbs aren’t that tricky to grow, though you will have to pull dahlias, gladiolus and canna lilies for the winter. Lilies can stay in the ground. This winter, I left some in their pots and held  them in the unheated garage. They survived and are already putting up foliage. 

Check the 🔗 in bio for links to my interview with Mike Heger as well as the blog post on growing bulbs in containers. 
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#bulbs #summerbulbs #lilies #liliesinpots #containergardening #summergarden #garden #mygarden #monalisalily #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo
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In bloom at the big box store: Columbine! These lo In bloom at the big box store: Columbine! These look pretty but most of the in ground columbines are just greening up in Minnesota. That’s one thing to remember when shopping for perennial plants now. If it’s in bloom, it’s a spring plant and will probably be green all summer. Nothing wrong with lots of spring bloom in the garden, but plan for the whole season by picking things that bloom in July, August, even the fall, too. 
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#columbine #plantshopping #gardentips #minnesota #mngarden #coldclimategardening #zone4b #springblooms #garden #perennials #perennialgarden #perennialflowers
So many things are suddenly blooming! . . . #spri So many things are suddenly blooming! 
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#spring #springinmn #bulbs #forsythia #irisreticulata #squill #earlyspring #garden #gardeninspo
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Uff da! This seems really early for daffodils 🌼 Uff da! This seems really early for daffodils 🌼 in Minnesota. Last year, I posted my first daffodil photo on April 12, and it was in snow ❄️! No snow this year, and this tracks with the info I heard earlier this week that we are 10 to 14 days ahead of schedule. I’m enjoying the warmth but can’t shake the memory of 2019’s mid-April blizzard. The joys of cold climate gardening! 
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#garden #mygarden #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo #spring #mnspring #daffodil #springbulbs 
#mngardening #minnesota #mnhort
#gardeninglife #coldclimategardening
#stpaulgarden #stpaulmn
#Zone4garden #zone4b
This weeks podcast is about rain gardens with Madd This weeks podcast is about rain gardens with Maddie Poling of @sacredspacegardensmn while rain gardens are great for water filtration, they also can be incredible pollinator gardens, especially if you plant lots of milkweed. Link to the entire episode is in bio. 
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#growitminnesota #raingardens #pollinators #pollinatorplants #milkweed #growitandtheywillcome #coldclimate #coldclimategardening #minnesota #mngarden #gardenpodcast #mnpodcast
Fun news 🗞! I have an essay in the upcoming iss Fun news 🗞! I have an essay in the upcoming issue of Gardening for Health, a special interest publication of Better Homes & Gardens. It’ll be on newsstands and in grocery stores, home centers, drugstores and more starting tomorrow. The essay is about why gardening matters, for our health, our spirits and our communities. I haven’t seen the layout yet, but I’ll be prowling my local Barnes & Noble tomorrow! Can’t wait to see it. 
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#gardenwriter #gardensmatter #gardeningforhealth #bhgspring #bhggarden #bhgspecialinterestpublications
Wondering what winter burn looks like on shrubs? C Wondering what winter burn looks like on shrubs? Check it out. I’ve got three of these dwarf Alberta spruce. This is the worst case. One has no burn, the third just a bit. This one faces south so it gets the most sun and wind. After it starts growing this spring, I’ll trim off the burn. May need some wrapping next winter. 
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#whatswrongwithmyplant #winterburn #evergreen #albertaspruce #dwarfshrubs #dwarfspruce #garden #mygarden #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo
#mngardening #minnesota #mnhort
#gardeninglife #notpretty 
#stpaulgarden #stpaulmn
#Zone4garden #zone4b #coldclimategardening #mnwinter
A pair of crocus cuties. This spring is coming on A pair of crocus cuties. This spring is coming on fast, though we know Mother Nature can slam on the brakes anytime she wants. Enjoy the early blooms and have a great weekend! 
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#crocus #springiscoming #minnesotaspring #springbulb #flowergarden #growflowers
#flowersofinstagram #plants #garden #mygarden #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo
#mngardening #minnesota #mnhort
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#stpaulgarden #stpaulmn
#Zone4garden #zone4b
My conversation with Amy from @milkweed.and.daisie My conversation with Amy from @milkweed.and.daisies on the @growitmn podcast got me thinking about annuals that are easy to grow from seed. There are a lot! She grows some I haven’t had in years, like hollyhocks and snapdragons, plus plenty of my favorites. Seven really easy options are listed in a new blog post (🔗 is bio) on the My Northern Garden blog. Cosmos, zinnia and sunflowers may be the easiest of  all. 

The sunflower 🌻 pictured is The Joker. The zinnia photo is one I took of the zinnia beds at the @ballseedgardens I’m not sure about the cosmos, which are from a tour garden. 

Plant any of these annuals in sun and let them grow. Suggestions for annuals to try this year? I’d love to hear them! 
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#annualflowers #cosmos #sunflowers #zinnias #growfromseed #growyourownflowers #coldclimategardening #minnesotagardening #northerngardener #zone4b #mnpodcast #gardenpodcast
The 3+ inches of snow from a couple of days ago is The 3+ inches of snow from a couple of days ago is melting, and the crocus continue to bloom. Hang in there, little flower, spring is on the way. 
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#bulbs #springiscoming #springbulb #minnesota #crocus #meltingsnow #garden #mygarden #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo
#mngardening #mnhort
#gardeninglife #coldclimategardening
#stpaulgarden #stpaulmn
#Zone4garden #zone4b
Crocus so soon! I was taking apart the holiday pot Crocus so soon! I was taking apart the holiday pot and noticed three crocus blooms in my south-facing front bed. This is a full week earlier than last year, and that felt early to me. They’ll probably get snowed on come Monday. 🌨🌸
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#minnesota #minnesotaspring #crocus #earlybloomer #springbulbs #garden #mygarden #mynortherngarden #gardeninspo
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#stpaulgarden #stpaulmn
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