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Oklahoma Gardening

The best book(s) for veggie gardening in OK

11 years ago

I was wondering what books people recommend for gardening here in OK. I like Carrots Love Tomatoes, but are there others?

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Comments (2)

Macmex
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I really like The Resilient Gardener:Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times by Carol Deppe.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Here is a link that might be useful: Carol Deppe dot Com
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I don't know that there are any vegetable garden books specifically related to Oklahoma other than Louise Riotte's books. However, as written, they were intended for a national audience. I think it is just because we know she was from southern OK (Ardmore) that we treasure her books so much. I like all her books, and listed some of them in the previous thread about gardening books I'm going to link below.

Many of my favorite gardening books that I rely upon are mentioned in the link below, but I have a couple of new favorites that I don't think I'd read at the time last year's book thread was written, so I'll mention them here.

"The Texas Tomato Lover's Handbook" by Dr. William D. Adams, published in 2011. Dr. Adams enjoyed a long and distinctive career with the Ag Extension Service in Texas where he tested tomato plants year in and year out with the help of Master Gardeners in his county. He also maintains his own kitchen garden, and sells his excess produce at market. If there is anything you need to know about how to grow tomatoes in our climate and soils, he covers it in this book . I love, love, love this book so much that if I had to get rid of all my gardening books and could keep only one, this is the one I would keep. It would be really hard, though, for me to get rid of the next two.

"Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs" (a Creative Homeowner book), by Jim Wilson (of Victory Garden fame) and Walter Chandoha, published in 2010. This book was written/photographed by two men with over 100 years of gardening experience between them. Best of all, Jim Wilson gardened in the south, so the book is well-balanced for all regions of the country, which is not necessarily the case with all books geared toward a national audience. This book is outstanding. If I was a new gardener who was just getting into growing veggies, fruits and herbs, this book would tell me everything I needed to know in order to know where to begin, what to do and how to succeed.

I've mentioned this next book many times before. Even though I've had it for almost 3 decades and practically have it memorized, I'd panic if my copy was misplaced and I couldn't find it. Dr. Sam Cotner's "The Vegetable Book: A Texans Guide to Gardening" was published in the mid-1980s, and I am on my second copy, having totally worn out the first copy about a decade ago. Dr. Cotner was the head of horticulture at A&M before his retirement, and that was the position he held when he wrote this book. I learned how to grow veggies from watching my dad do it, but he was very quiet and didn't talk about what he was doing or why he was doing it--he just did it. So, I learned the how from observing my dad, but from Dr. Cotner's book I learned all the why's and wherefore's. It was this book that taught me about the effect of soil temps and air temps on plants, which may seem elementary, but most of us don't know those things when we're just starting out. Once you understand the effect of air and soil temps on your plants and their productivity, everything else just falls into place.

My favorite guide to growing herbs is "Southern Herb Growing" written by Madalene Hill & Gwen Barclay with Jean Hardy. No one was/is more qualified to write about southern herb growing than Madalene Hill and Gwen Barclay, except perhaps for Jim Long. All his books are great too.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Texas Gardener" magazine, which I've been reading for a couple of decades now. Although it covers all aspescts of gardening in Texas, I find its info just as appropriate for OK. It does cover all sorts of gardening, everything from lawns to trees and shrubs to water gardening, flowers, fruits and veggies. It seems to me that it has at least as much emphasis on fruits, herbs and veggies as on ornamentals, and I love it.

So, that's my two cents contributed to this discussion.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous Thread on Gardening Books
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