Whittemore Seed Library

Packed with reliable information and insider tips, this excellent guide tells Massachusetts gardeners everything they need to know to make their gardens flourish, whether they live at the Cape or in the Berkshires, whether they have sandy soil or dense clay, and whether they want to grow petunias or prize pumpkins.

Get a jump on the gardening season! In this Storey BASICS® guide, Barbara Ellis provides the basic information that you need to start a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers from seed. Ellis shares simple, proven techniques for sowing seeds, managing indoor plants, and creating proper growing conditions so your seedlings can thrive. Packed with expert advice suitable for both beginners and experienced gardeners, Starting Seeds will inspire you to plant a seed and watch it grow.

Whether home is in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, or Vermont, get all the how-to and when-to information needed to grow, care for, and maintain your garden. Included is advice on growing annuals, perennials, ground covers, trees, shrubs, vines, and turf grass from author and acclaimed New England garden pro Charlie Nardozzi. Step-by-step seasonal, region-specific instructions give you the confidence you need to make your garden successful, fruitful, and beautiful, no matter the time of year.

A classic in the literature of the garden, Green Thoughts is a beautifully written and highly original collection of seventy-two essays, alphabetically arranged, on topics ranging from 'Annuals' and 'Artichokes' to 'Weeds' and 'Wildflowers.' An amateur gardener for over thirty years, Eleanor Perényi draws upon her wide-ranging knowledge of gardening lore to create a delightful, witty blend of how-to advice, informed opinion, historical insight, and philosophical musing. There are entries in praise of earthworms and in protest of rock gardens, a treatise on the sexual politics of tending plants, and a paean to the salubrious effect of gardening (see 'Longevity' ). Twenty years after its initial publication, Green Thoughts remains as much a joy to read as ever. This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Allen Lacy, former gardening columnist for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times and the author of numerous gardening books.

The classic gardening best-seller is now 100% organic and in full color. The Illustrated Guide To Gardening, a book that set the standard for gardening excellence more than three decades ago, has been totally revised to include the latest and most up-to-date information for today's gardener: All-new organic solutions take the mystery out of how to garden safely without using nasty chemicals. More than 800 diagrams and brand-new color illustrations offer step-by-step advice for gardeners of all abilities. The extensive plant directory with more than 700 plants and over 2,500 full-color photographs provides complete descriptions of the latest and best varieties for all hardiness zones, including Canada. Over 200 tables, problem-solving tips, garden design plans, and more provide invaluable guidance from the experts. Eco-friendly problem solving - from the latest, safest organic controls to beneficial bugs - will show you how to grow a gorgeous garden the natural way.

Forget structure. Forget trees, shrubs, and perennials. As James Fenton writes, "This is not a book about huge projects. It is about thinking your way toward the essential flower garden, by the most traditional of routes: planting some seeds and seeing how they grow."

In this light hearted, instructive, original "game of lists," Fenton selects one hundred plants he would choose to grow from seed. Flowers for color, size, and exotic interest; herbs and meadow flowers; climbing vines, tropical species--Fenton describes readily available varieties, and tells how to acquire and grow them.

Here is a happy, stylish, unpretentious, and thought-provoking gardening book that will beguile and inspire both novice and expert alike.

This book will feature fun, simple and engaging gardening know-how on growing, harvesting and arranging seasonal flowers and vegetables. It will include chapters on getting started, tools of the trade, getting down and dirty with dirt, growing flowers, harvesting flowers, arranging flowers, seasonal rotation, starting from seeds and/or seedlings and keeping it organic.

Books on container gardening have been wildly popular with urban and suburban readers, but until now, there has been no comprehensive "how-to" guide for growing fresh food in the absence of open land. Fresh Food from Small Spaces fills the gap as a practical, comprehensive, and downright fun guide to growing food in small spaces. It provides readers with the knowledge and skills necessary to produce their own fresh vegetables, mushrooms, sprouts, and fermented foods as well as to raise bees and chickens--all without reliance on energy-intensive systems like indoor lighting and hydroponics.

Readers will learn how to transform their balconies and windowsills into productive vegetable gardens, their countertops and storage lockers into commercial-quality sprout and mushroom farms, and their outside nooks and crannies into whatever they can imagine, including sustainable nurseries for honeybees and chickens. Free space for the city gardener might be no more than a cramped patio, balcony, rooftop, windowsill, hanging rafter, dark cabinet, garage, or storage area, but no space is too small or too dark to raise food.

With this book as a guide, people living in apartments, condominiums, townhouses, and single-family homes will be able to grow up to 20 percent of their own fresh food using a combination of traditional gardening methods and space-saving techniques such as reflected lighting and container "terracing." Those with access to yards can produce even more.

Author R. J. Ruppenthal worked on an organic vegetable farm in his youth, but his expertise in urban and indoor gardening has been hard-won through years of trial-and-error experience. In the small city homes where he has lived, often with no more than a balcony, windowsill, and countertop for gardening, Ruppenthal and his family have been able to eat at least some homegrown food 365 days per year. In an era of declining resources and environmental disruption, Ruppenthal shows that even urban dwellers can contribute to a rebirth of local, fresh foods.

An updated and expanded edition of Herb Gardening at Its Best, the classic primer for planning and planting 38 culinary herb gardens from America's largest herb grower and retailer, Gilbertie's Herbs.Garden-fresh herbs impart flavor and fragrance that packaged herbs simply can't. If you have a few yards of soil, or even a sunny windowsill, Herb Gardening from the Ground Up will show you how to design, seed, and nurture 38 culinary herb gardens. Also included- a new introduction on today's herb renaissance; a new chapter on container and windowbox herb gardens; new layouts for French, Italian, Asian, Tex-Mex, and BBQ herb gardens; and a discussion of popular herb newcomers like lemongrass, the new basils, garlics, sages, and more.

Many people would love to enjoy eating super-fresh homegrown produce but don't know how. Starting with what varieties to plant through how to tend their gardennbsp;and when and how to harvest the fruits ofnbsp;thei labors, this book is the complete vegetable gardening system for busy people. The book breaks things down into three simple steps: sow, grow, and harvest.Readers will learn how to set their garden; how to install raised beds and a watering system; and why the time spent getting ready to sow will be repaid many times over during the summer. They will find out how to grow, learning all about mulches and weed covers, garden sites, and planting plans. Then day by day through the growing season, they will see how to make their garden grow. And finally they'll learn how to tell when it's time to harvest and how to store vegetablesnbsp;they can't eat right away.
By spending growing their own vegetables,nbsp;readers willnbsp;enjoy crops harvested at the peak of perfection, bringing food from garden to table in minutes flat. Andnbsp;they'll be eating the freshest home-grown vegetables, herbs, and fruit available instead of the underripe or limp, sickly offerings so often found in supermarkets.