Mavis’ Top Garden Books – Real People, Real Stories

{Spring 2009}

In spring of 2008 we built the house we live in now. Over the summer, I created our first garden bed {12’x20′} and filled it will tons of tomato, cucumber and zucchini plants. Even though we had moved to a wooded neighborhood,  it still never occurred to me the deer who roamed freely up and down the street would bother my t garden.

Until the day came I looked out the window and spotted a lone deer in my garden. She had just finished off my last tomato plant and was smiling at me. I was beyond peeved. Gardening season was over for the year as far I was concerned.

Over winter, I read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Lifeby Barbara Kingsolver. It changed everything. All the sudden I didn’t just want to dabble in gardening, I wanted to grow it all. And I was going to need a very tall fence. {This was also around the same time the Handsome Husband starting talking about wanting to move to a condo.}

I spent almost the entire winter of 2008/2009 reading up on gardening, food miles and simple living. Which in hindsight was pretty funny because we had just built this big house in the suburbs and now all I wanted was to move to a small farmhouse to grow vegetables and raise a couple of chickens. I was ready to downsize even before the paint was dry.

{Spring 2009}

Books are funny that way. They change you. And sometimes if you are really lucky, hidden beneath the pages you’ll find what you were meant to do. What makes your soul happy.

For me that was gardening. Growing more than just a few tomato plants here and there has given me some sort of purpose over these past few years, and I can’t help to think it’s because I found the right books to read, at the right time.

Here is a short list of my favorite books about gardening, home life and everything in between.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

~Mavis

See You in a Hundred Years– I learned I never want to plow a field with horses.

Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet – I learned I need to live within 100 miles of a sugar cane field.

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer – I learned I never want to live near gang members or have a goat.

The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love – I learned having a CSA would be a tremendous amount of work and I am happy just growing enough food for my family, friends and neighbors.

The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family–  If could could have internet, and a washer and dryer, I think I could totally live like the Amish do. The Handsome Husband however, is another story. Ha!