Category: Gardener’s Guide Serie

Gardener's Guide Serie, Sample Chapter

Sample Chapter – Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation

People have stored food underground since ancient times. Many times, this practice involved simply placing the food in an urn or barrel and burying it or digging trenches and mounding the earth over the food. The first walk in root cellars didn’t appear in England until the 17th Century. The North American English colonists took the concept along with them and used root cellars extensively to store food. Continue reading Sample Chapter – Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation

Gardener's Guide Serie

Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation

Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation includes the history of many different types of food preservation as well as the modern techniques used to preserve food in the home. Use the guide to preserve your harvest or that purchased during seasonal farmers markets.  Sections in this guide include:

Canning Food        

Freezing Foods        

Pickling and Fermenting Foods        

Root Cellar        

Room Temperature and Refrigerator Storage        

Freeze Drying        

Preserving in Sugar        

Salting Food Preservation        

Immersion in Alcohol        

Vacuum Sealing Continue reading Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation

Gardener's Guide Serie

Gardener’s Guide to the Raised Garden Bed

The Gardener’s Guide to the Raised Garden Bed provides a wealth of information about growing vegetables in raised beds. The book includes chapters about building materials, siting, plant nutrients, soil amendments, irrigation, soils, composting and much more. Gardeners will find a monthly journal of garden activities to guide them along. Gardeners using row style gardens will find the information useful, as well Continue reading Gardener’s Guide to the Raised Garden Bed

Gardener's Guide Serie

Sample Chapter – Garden Trowels

A garden trowel is an indispensable tool for every gardener. All gardeners should have one trowel and it is best to have several for different purposes. The word trowel derives from the Latin word “truella”, which means “small ladle”. A trowel can serve as a ladle but that is really just one use for a trowel. Indeed, a trowel is the most used tool in the gardener’s toolbox so it is important to get a good one. Nothing is as aggravating as a poor quality trowel that bends when you try to dig. Additionally, a poorly designed handle tires the hand and causes blisters. Continue reading Sample Chapter – Garden Trowels

Gardener's Guide Serie

Gardeners Guide to Compost

Compost is an invaluable ingredient for garden soil. It enriches the ground with minerals and other nutrients and can provide ideal mulch for growing plants. The Gardener’s Guide to Making Compost is a primer that both gardening beginners and veterans can use to help them make better compost. The book covers most popular types of compost systems, making compost with worms, mulching and green manures. It is an excellent primer on making and using compost. Continue reading Gardeners Guide to Compost

Gardener's Guide Serie, Sample Chapter

Sample Chapter – Garden Soil Types – A Quick Soil Primer

Garden Soil Types – A Quick Soil Primer
Soil is the top several inches of the earth’s crust. Soil is necessary for civilization to exist, as it supports the plant life that sustains forests, plains, agriculture and other habitats. Five basic factors influence the formation of soil, the bedrock, climate, local fauna and flora, topography and the passage of time. The gardener will find three layers of soils underlying their garden, the topsoil, and subsoil and parent material. The parent material is the minerals that originally formed the soil. The subsoil is the intermediate level between topsoil and the parent material and will have some qualities of both. The topsoil is the part that concerns most gardeners. Continue reading Sample Chapter – Garden Soil Types – A Quick Soil Primer

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Pick Your Dinner

Pick Your Dinner
We have reached the stage in the garden season where I can go out in the garden and pick our dinner. The spring lettuce has been harvested two or three weeks ago. The winter squash and pumpkins have taken their place in the garden. The peas have already found their way to the compost heap, after yielding a good crop of both shelling and snap peas. Continue reading Pick Your Dinner