My other gardening favorites are all specific to my state and region, for tips on what does well here and how to do do things in our weather.

The new edition of the Southern Living Garden Book is great, too, for those of us who live in the region it covers.

Another favorite that I've now read through three or four times is "Earth on Her Hands: The American Woman in Her Garden" by Starr Ockenga. A beautiful, inspiring book, highlighting the gardens and gardening lives of 18 American women whose passion for the soil is bone-deep. Several of the women are now in their 70s and 80s and have been gardening for decades. Many created their extensive gardens with their own hands---building walls rock by rock, nurturing tree seedlings into giants, absorbing wisdom along the way. Wonderful book to curl up with on a winter's night when you're looking for inspiration for next year's garden. I picked up a copy at a book outlet, read it that evening, went back the next day and nabbed three more copies to give as gifts to gardening friends.

One of my favorites is Gardening in the Lower Midwest: A Practical Guide to the New Zones 5 and 6
by Diane Heilenman. Sound information in an easy, conversational stuff -- she helps sort the big stuff from the little, and she doesn't worry much about the little.

She says our unpredictable weather here makes the area-- the Zombie Zones of gardening!

cranebill

"How Groundhog's Garden Grew" is a darling picture book for children interested in vegetable gardening.

Being a So.Cal. native, I also recommend the Sunset Western Garden Book to all western gardeners. And as a cottage gardener, I like Sunset's "Cottage Gardens."

Diana

Others are:

Jeff Cox' 'Perennials All Star'
Colston Burrell's 'Perennial Combinations'
Christopher Lloyd's 'Color for Adventurous Gardener'
Rodale's 'Great Garden Shortcuts'
Rob Proctor's 'Naturalizing Bulbs'
All of Allen Lacy's books.
'The 3000 mile Garden' & 'Undaunted Garden' already mentioned above.

I had Mel Bartholomew's 'Squarefoot Garden', but for the life of me cannot find it.

Can't stand 'Tasha Tudor's Garden' -------too contrived for my taste... nauseatingly coy...

my other fav is Perennials for Every Purpose by Larry Hodgson. easy to read, sidebars with info on light, soil & water preferences & bloom time, etc. also gives the bad side regarding aggressiveness, etc.

I'm heading to the library tonight to try and pickup Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza. I've heard great things about this book. It's gonna be a wet weekend here in the Northeast!

it follows the progress of an empty lot as it is transformed into a community garden in a tough, ethnically diverse urban area. it gives a really lovely view of the transformative aspects of gardening.

next time you stop by your library check it out!

BOTANY OF DESIRE is a documentary which tells the utterly original story of everyday plants and the way they have domesticated humankind. An interpretation of the relationship between plants and people. This two-hour documentary explores plant evolution and takes viewers from the potato fields of Peru and Idaho, the apple forests of Kazakhstan, and the tulip markets of Amsterdam.

View online in it's entirety: here

This is another related program by the same presenter on LINK TV (a cable access channel) which is timely:

Deep Agriculture
Traditional methods of agriculture in most developed nations have long ignored environmental concerns. Factors such as soil erosion, water shortage and the impact of chemicals on bio-systems have been overlooked in favour of massive crop yields and cheaper food. But what impact does this have on our health and our environment?

View online in it's entirety: here

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Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and witness the evolution of an Organic Kitchen Garden.