Nelson County Master Gardeners

Our Favorite Gardening Books

Groucho Marx reportedly said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read". No matter the time of year take the time to take stock of the gardener’s silent partners – the books in your home reference library.

All Nelson County Master Gardeners have one book in common on their shelves – the 598 page loose-leaf Master Gardener Handbook – A Guide to Gardening in Virginia. The text for MG classes, the book covers topics from basic botany to water quality and contains study guide questions. Revised in 2009 by the Virginia Cooperative Extension, it’s available for reference in all Extension offices.

After the MG “bible”, however, our local experts take many paths on the “favorite books” question. Nelson County Master Gardener Association past president Jack Jensen has a library with books on specific plants as well as volumes that cover general problems. However, both Jensen and MG Ruth Powell rate the 1999 Southern Living Garden Problem Solver (Oxmoor House) as a pick for the home library.

“From the first chapter titled ‘Gardening Down South’, you get the feeling that they understand our climate and soil,” says Jensen. He also likes the American Horticultural Society’s 1999 Plant Propagation (Alan Toogood, editor, DK Publishing).

MG Barbara Gibb recommends The Gardener’s Handbook (Peter McHoy, Barnes & Noble Books, 2002) because of the color photos and step-by-step instructions. She also admires Flower Garden Designs (Penelope Hobhouse, Frances Lincoln Ltd, London, 1999). MG Bill Hathaway chooses the Ortho Home Gardener’s Problem Solver (Denny Schrock editor, Meredith Books, Des Moines, 2004) citing “extensive clear photography and a logical format covering trees, shrubs, flowers and lawns in 642 pages. Another MG Tim White, who sells cut flowers at the Charlottesville Farmer’s Market, admires The Flower Farmer(Lynn Byczinski, Chelsea Green publishing Co., 1997). He calls the book, “particularly good on varieties of flowers for cutting by region."

Our gardening book philosophy is best explained as enthusiastic. We own more than 80 gardening books. We have general books on flower growing, arranging and drying and more specific volumes on herbs, roses, mushrooms, daylilies and wild flowers. There are also facsimile editions of 19th century books, including The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (Edith Holden, Holt Rhinehart Winston, 1977) and An Island Garden (Celia Thaxter, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1988. But a favorite volume is a collection of essays by probably the best garden writer this country has ever known. Henry Mitchell on Gardening (Houghton Mifflin, 1998) contains the last of the weekly “Earthman” columns that Mitchell wrote for the Washington Post during 20 years. With wise and funny tongue-in-cheek observations about gardening, his columns were often illustrated with sketches of a friendly terrier in the middle of a flower bed or pulling a garden cart, (The author’s other passion was dogs.) Once a student at U.Va., Mitchell closes an essay on Thomas Jefferson’s gardening activities thusly: “One of Jefferson's most endearing qualities was his serenity in the face of garden disasters, which were as frequent at Monticello as anywhere else. You win some, lose some. That was Jefferson’s garden philosophy. You keep on planting stuff. If it failed last year, try giving it more rotted manure this year".