Grass Roots' Green Thumb

      As I observe the streets and neighborhoods of Corvallis, the abundance of home gardens, edible front yards, and native landscaping makes me feel a little at home. It's a good feeling. Coming from Austin, I am no stranger to growing my own food. Even in the strangest places people find ways to grow their own food. While I totally love going to the Farmer's Market and supporting local farms, I also love, am obsessed with, and thoroughly enjoy getting my hands dirty. So I like to subsidize my diet with food I grow myself. It saves a little money, but more importantly, keeps me busy with a mentally and physically stimulating hobby.
     Through my years in Texas, I was able to garden in many different settings - nice big back yards, teeny weeny ones, concrete balconies and even community gardens. I've learned a lot but, I still need guidance sometimes, okay, a lot of times.
     While the gardening culture does remind me of the hot box I once called home, the weather and growing season here are very different. In a good way. I am uber-excited to learn this new territory and dive into Pacific Northwest gardening. What better way to get educated and acquainted than with a solid, regional guide? Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon, fits the bill.

Steve Solomon

     It should be a staple in the gardener's library and is a great reference for choosing the right vegetable variety as well as creating rich soils, controlling pests, proper irrigation and four season harvesting. Solomon has a fluid voice and is easy to follow. You can tell he definitely knows what he's talking about. Actually reading through the entire book is very helpful and he has a lot of great tips, but he also wants home gardeners to use methods that are good for them and explore and learn on their own. What I will use most, and like best about this book, is the instruction on cultivation for each vegetable. It helps to plan what I will try to grow myself (i.e. what I have space for, will be abundant, is easy/difficult) and what I will buy from local farmers (things that just aren't practical or cost effective for me at home).
    The thing about gardening books is that there are a whole lot of them. It can seem you're swimming in a sea of opinions and methods. How do you know which is best for you? My answer is usually found in having a few that I use in companion with each other. While I will most likely wear out the pages of Solomon's book for it's cultivation reference, when it comes to soil and planting methods, I'm also a big fan of double digging. Which isn't something that Solomon focuses on.

Jeavons's Willits Research Farm

     For this reason, I'm a fan of John Jeavons. His book, How to Grow More Vegetables, is in it's eight edition. I visited his research farm in Willits, CA and was impressed. The method he researches and writes about is bio-intensive. In Jeavon's book he makes that method, which is a sustainable form of agriculture found in places all over the world, available to the home gardener and smaller space gardeners. His climate is a little different than ours, but his ideas and methods of sustainable gardening are universal. I know from experience that his methods work.
     His books are usually pretty easy to understand, but there have been some criticisms on translating the bio-intensive method in writing. Like I said, it's hard to take just one gardening book and say its the one. By combining a couple, or a few, you are able to learn, start making educated decisions and create a method that works for you. Which is what our relationship with plants is all about.
     During the journey of gardening I have learned many things, most importantly is that what you put in, is what you get out. Permaculture is something I started trying to implement because of that. Our relationship with plants, with nature, with the world around us is what Permaculture is all about. But I can't do it perfectly, and sometimes need guidance. Thankfully, Toby Hemenway has made it a little easier for us with Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture.

Hemenway's Permcaculture Diagram

    Hemenway's book explains Permaculture in an understandable and applicable way. I love that the book has lots of illustrated designs to makes planning the garden a little more tangible. Permaculture isn't just about growing food, it's about creating a little ecosystem. His instruction includes incorporating animals into your garden, sustainable water use methods, companion planting, and attracting pollinators. Another unique part about Gaia's Garden is the incorporation of community as your ecosystem. Community is a big part of Permaculture and Hemenway talks about creating community gardening guilds. As much as I love Toby Hemenway, as a renter of a pretty small yard, some of the ideas aren't always feasible for me. (Although I dream of the day I will be able to do all the things he talks about.)
     Because I am, first and foremost, a small space gardener, I need books that address those needs. I like to explore project based books and add them to my repertoire of educational/reference books. This works for whatever your first and foremost is. Perhaps you are first and foremost a chicken herder, in that case we have Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom. Whatever your niche is, there's a project book for that. These books usually also include information on cultivation, soil and compost too, but I use them to compliment the more in-depth aforementioned titles.
      My top two project books for small spaces right now are Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden, by Andrea Bellamy, and Vertical Vegetables & Fruit: Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up in Small Spaces by Rhonda Massingham Hart.

Andrea Bellamy growing wheat!

     Andrea Bellamy has a blog about west coast urban gardening called Heavy Petal, and her book is a product of that. It has a lot of great ideas for tiny yards, balconies, using solely containers, or adding containers to what you already have. The best aspect of this book is the design ideas. The pictures of the gardens are really beautiful and have sparked my creative side. It's very much like edible landscaping and she give tips on what to mix together to both produce food and be aesthetically pleasing. She includes practical things about rotating your beds seasonally and how to save money using reclaimed materials as well.

Neat vertical technique.

     Rhonda Massingham Hart's book on vertical veggie and fruit gardening is also really great. The chapters are broken up by fruit/vegetable so I can peruse, or flip to exactly what I'm looking for. The trellising techniques she presents are really creative and have given me a lot of great ideas. She helps to open the door on some space loving fruits and veggies I didn't think I could fit into my yard.
     When it comes to niche and project based books the possibilities are endless and the creative inspiration they offer are well worth the purchase. But, they alone do not a great garden make. Gaining a greater, in- depth understanding of multiple methods and concepts from people like Steve Solomon, John Jeavons, and Toby Hemenway are also key to growing great grub! Good luck in your gardening adventures!