A colleague asked if I could recommend books related to edible gardening. I quickly replied that I have a Books Page on my site but afterwards realized that those books are about gardening in general but specific to the Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC area. Over the past few years, I have become much more interested in growing edibles rather than ornamentals and have read many books, most are specific to this area. I typed up a short, 2-page list to give to her and thought I would post my recommended list here in case any one is interested in growing their own veggies, herbs, and fruits in the Washington DC metropolitan area. These are in alphabetical order.
American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden & Gardens Across America, Michelle Obama
Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden, Jessica Walliser, and her other books
Backyard Berry Book, Stella Otto
Cool Season Gardener, Bill Thorness (and his other book, lives in WA)
Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager, Jennifer Bartley
Eat Your Yard, Nan Chase
Edible Front Yard, Ivette Soler
Edible Heirlooms, Bill Thorness (and his other book, lives in WA)
Edible Landscaping, Rosalind Creasy (new edition and any of her other books)
Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist, Michael Judd (lives in Frederick MD)
Four Season Harvest, Eliot Coleman and his other books
Good Bug/Bad Bug, Jessica Walliser and her other books
Groundbreaking Food Gardens, Niki Jabbour and her other books
Grow a Sustainable Diet, Cindy Connor
Grow Great Grub, Gayla Trail (You Grow Girl)
Guide to Year Round Vegetable Garden in the Southeast, Ira Wallace
Homegrown Herb Garden, Ann McCormick and Lisa Morgan
How to Grow More Vegetables, John Jeavons
How to Grow Perennial Herbs, Martin Crawford
Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers, Edward Smith (and any of his other books)
Landscaping Fruit, Lee Reich and any of his other books
Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Gardening: Plant, Grow, and Harvest the Best Edibles: DE, MD, PA, VA, DC, and WV, Katie Elzer-Peters
Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One Tenth of an Acre, Eric Toensmeier (and any of his other books)
Perennial Vegetables, Martin Crawford
Perennial Vegetables from Artichoke to “Zuiki’ Taro, Eric Toensmeier (and any of his other books)
Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs, Claire Kowalchik, William Hylton, and other Rodale books
Square Foot Gardening, second edition, Mel Bartholomew, and his other books
Starter Vegetable Gardens, 24 No Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens, Barbara Pleasant (and any of her other books, lives in VA)
Take Our Advice: A Handbook for Gardening in Northern Virginia, Margaret Fisher
The Bountiful Container, Rosemarie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey (good for minimum depth of container to grow veggies)
The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook by Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch (and any of their other books)
The Sustainable Vegetable Gardener, John Jeavons
The Veggie Gardener’s Answer Book, Barbara Ellis
The Virginia Fruit and Vegetable Book, Felder Rushing and Walter Reeves
The Winter Harvest Handbook, Eliot Coleman, and his other books
The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, Niki Jabbour (and her other book)
Thomas Jefferson’s Revolutionary Garden at Monticello, Peter J. Hatch
Fruits for Every Garden, Lee Reich (and any of his other books, lives in NY)
Vegetable Gardener’s Container Bible, Edward Smith (and his other books)
Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way: 18th Century Methods for Today’s Organic Gardeners by Wesley Greene
Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits, Matthew Biggs and Jekka McGiver
Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, Ron Kujawski and Jennifer Kujawski
What’s Wrong with my Vegetable Garden, David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, they have a series of “What’s Wrong” books
75 Exciting Vegetables, Jack Staub, has an “exciting” series – herbs, vegetables, and fruits, lives in PA
This list could go on plus there are books focused on particular types of plant/vegetables. Other sources are public or botanical gardens such as Greensprings in Virginia and Brookside Gardens in Maryland; both have non-lending libraries. One can look at publishers’ web sites such as Chelsea Green Publishing, St. Lynn’s Press, Timber Press, Story, Rodale Press, and Cool Springs Press.
