Gardening: It Grows on You
By Hannah Herrlich, Emerging Technologies Librarian
With summer here, it’s the perfect time to embrace the beauty of nature and engage in eco-friendly activities. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner looking to start a sustainable living journey, the Fordham Libraries have a wealth of resources to help you get started.
So grab some gardening gloves and shears, and dig into these books selected from our catalog on gardening, sustainable living, and eco-friendly practices. Surely, these top titles will help inspire and guide you through a green summer.
- First Garden, by C.Z. Guest, combines basic instruction with personal reminiscences and advice in a guide to the essentials of planning and maintaining flower and vegetable gardens of modest, but satisfying, yields.
- A Garden’s Grace: Down-to-Earth Lessons and Simple Rewards, by Nancy Hutchens, offers a unique nostalgic and spiritual look at gardening. With family anecdotes, recipes, and folklore, this beautifully illustrated memoir is as heartwarming and inspiring as it is practical.
- American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening, by Christopher Brickell, guides readers expertly through the latest gardening techniques, details information on garden planning and design, and covers useful tools and materials.
- The Gardener’s Year, by Karel Čapek, is a beautifully written account of the trials and tribulations of the gardener’s life. First published in Prague in 1929, The Gardener’s Year combines a richly comic portrait of life in the garden, narrated month by month, with a series of delightful illustrations by the author’s older brother and collaborator, Josef.
- Easy Edibles: How to Grow & Enjoy Fresh Food, by Judy Barrett, offers a primer on the various kinds of garden beds that are easy to create and maintain.
- The City Gardener’s Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Small-Space Gardening, by Linda Yang, is a comprehensive guide that has everything you need to know to successfully design and maintain an urban garden in whatever space and conditions you have available.
- Sustainable Gardens, by Rob Cross, introduces the reader to the historical context of the global, national and local environmental issues that confront us, and examines the idea of sustainable living as a means of addressing these issues.
- The Well-Gardened Mind, by Sue Stuart-Smith, offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives.
- Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook, by Jennifer Bartley, shows how the pleasures of growing your own food can be multiplied by creating a garden that is, ultimately, a productive, beautiful, and well-integrated part of a home landscape.
- The Botanical Garden, by Roger Phillips, and Martyn Rix combines the finest in photography with up-to-date, expert commentary to bridge the gap between gardener-friendly books and scientific texts.
Let’s Let this Garden Grow
Once you feel comfortable with the basic principles of gardening, it’s time to get your green thumbs a little dirty! Not sure what to plant first? Tomatoes are a classic summer crop. Though mastering the art of tomato growing is not for the faint of heart, the reward of devouring this juicy vegetable/fruit on a hot summer day is totally worth it. Of course, if you want to broaden the scope of your crops, summer is an excellent time to also grow other vegetables, such as beans, peppers, and squash. With all those new veggies, you’ll also want to properly dress them with just the right amount of herbs.
Looking forward to planting a vibrant bed of flowers? Not to worry, the library catalog has all the information you need to get started.
Beyond Books
There are plenty of resources other than books that you can consult for your new budding garden.
You can always try these magazines:
Or, hop on over to one of these databases:
Lest we forget, the Fordham Libraries Gardening & Agriculture research guide has a vast array of resources and advice for planting and growing.
So, whether you’re planting your first garden, looking to adopt a zero-waste lifestyle, or simply wanting to make more eco-friendly choices, these resources are an excellent starting point. Embrace the summer by going green and making a positive impact on the environment!
The Fordham Library News Blog is taking a brief summer break. We’ll be back in August with new posts. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the blog so you’ll receive email notifications when a new post is published. Simply enter your name and email in the “Subscribe” box to your right.
All of us at the library wish you a fantastic summer. Thank you for reading, and we’ll see you back here soon.
