One Green Thing: Gardening Research

I’m going to be re-visiting Enviro-Mama Thursday here on Strocel.com. I won’t necessarily write on a green topic every week. However, I will still be doing my One Green Thing each month. Today I’m planning a trip to the library. It’s my One Green Thing for January. But first, I’ll talk about my quest to reduce, reuse and recycle packaging last month.

As it turns out, this Christmas featured some of the lowest levels of packaging coming into my home of any year I can remember. I meant to collect styrofoam for recycling, for instance, but we ended up with only one thin four by four inch square piece. After my son stepped on it and it fell apart, it ended up in the trash. Otherwise, most of my gifts came in cardboard, with some small amounts of non-recyclable plastic. As always, I kept the gift bags and boxes I received for reuse. However, there just really wasn’t a whole lot for me to do. I suppose that’s a good thing, really.

As you may recall, in November I focused on winterizing my garden. It was part of my ongoing quest to improve my garden’s performance. The next step is for me to plan my garden for next year. I’ve received my seed catalogue, and I’m planning my order. Along with seeds I’ll be buying some seed starting trays, a slug trap and some other things. I’d also like to buy some gardening books. However, I’m not sure which ones to get. These are the books that have caught my eye so far:

• Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
• The Polytunnel Handbook by Andy McKee and Mark Gatter
• Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett Markham
• Backyard Bounty by Linda Gilkeson
• The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman
• Year-Around Harvest: Winter Gardening on the Coast by Linda Gilkeson

At between $17 and $30 a pop, these books could add up fast. I’m not averse to buying two, or maybe even three, but I’d like to check them out first. Luckily, my husband came up with an easy solution – head to the library. There, I can check out a number of books. If they don’t have all these titles, they should at least have some of them, as well as others. If I find a manual I can’t live without, then I can consider forking over the cash. In the process, I can also do a little bit of background research to help me plan my seed order. Will it pay off in a better harvest? I don’t know, but it’s worth a try.

I’d also like to hear from you. Are there any gardening books you can’t live without? Have you read any of the titles I’m considering? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts and recommendations! Also, if you’d like to get in on the act and take on One Green Thing of your own, I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to grab the button from this post if you’re blogging about it, and spread the enviro-love.

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