THE VEGETABLE GARDNER'S BIBLE

EDWARD C. SMITH wide rows, organic, raised beds, deep soil

very good all around reference book.

My advice: if you've got the Rodale book coming, save your money on anything else. It will take a beginner far down the road.

Go to http://seedsavers.org and join up. I did this a few weeks ago, then called and told 'em I was real dumb could they recommend some books. I got "Seed to Seed" because I'm interested in maintaining fertile seed year to year and "How To Grow More Vegetables".

Phineas,

A couple of things... the Rodale book is good. It will give you a fine start. But don't lose the Cornell link. It has a very nice search function and our ancestor ag-folks were very clever. So when you have the inevitable pest problem, or mildew in the squash, give the old ways a trial. They work.

Another step would be to accumulate local weather information. Not just frost dates, but daily highs/lows, insolation values, rainfall tables, insect hatch dates and so on. Your university extension service will have this info and they will be on the web. Also get a seed sowing calculator. They are cheap slide-rule things where you set the spring and fall frost dates and it backs into sowing/harvesting schedules. Get over to your new property and record the sun-shade situation, before the leaves fall.

An aside... don't dink around with commercial greenhouse starts. The real fun of gardening begins in January when you order seed. There's amazing stuff out there. With good soil and pest management you will eat like a king.

Try "Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture"
by Toby Hemenway

Also consider "The One Straw Revolution"
by Masanobu Fukuoka

If you are in a cold temperate climate (North America, especially the Northeast US and Southeast Canada), ...

then check out "Edible Forest Gardens"
by Dave Jacke
http://edibleforestgardens.com/

SCT's recommendation on Seed Savers is excellent because it will allow you to continue your garden from your own seed. You have to use open-pollinated or what are called heirloom type seeds (most commercial seeds are hybrids but you can't save their seeds because they won't produce true to whatever the hybrid was). Saving seed from your garden helps assure you of having a garden the next year.

I would also recommend The Four Season Harvest by Elliot Coleman. He talks about ways to extend the harvest, to do succession plantings, mulches, etc. He also talks about plants to put in in colder weather (plants you won't find at the grocery and which will open a new eating experience). The book is also based on organic principles. Good luck, we're all learning as we go.