Places and Books of Learning

Over the past few years (three, to be precise), I have done a lot of reading and a lot of learning. Here are some of my resources that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to grow vegetables in the Willamette Valley, or in general in other parts of the country. One thing I learned was to read books that are particular geographically; otherwise there can be a lot of misleading and erroneous information. Also, buy seeds from seed companies that supply mostly to your region. Otherwise you may be buying a lot of varieties that may not do well for your climate. You can probably grow any variety, but it will be harder to grow it well and may yield less.

I hope to update this post as I read and learn more! So come back!


Books

Steve Solomon's, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades (and other books)
- a real definitive guide to understanding from the ground up how to be a vegetable gardener. His books are less of a reference guide and more of a manifesto. He obviously puts his heart and soul into what he does and his books help you to understand how to do this if you know nothing about growing things. I think the first chapter is "Think Like a Plant" or something. This perspective has helped me troubleshoot when things go wrong ("Ok, what would I need if I were that plant?"). Oftentimes I don't know the answer, but it gets me meditative and contemplative in a calm way, rather than "Shit! All the beans died! Damn! Now I have to start all over!" I probably still would have to start over, if all my beans were to die, but I'd go back to that first chapter and think, "Well, why did the beans die?"

Seattle Tilth's Maritime Northwest Gardening Guide
- an excellent resource for growing vegetables here. It's a booklet that goes month by month, what to grow (specifically what varieties) in the garden in our climate. It says for each month - what you should start inside, what you should start outside in a protective frame, what you can direct seed outside. Really great; the only thing that is hard I find with this guide is that it doesn't just have "squash", it goes strictly by each particular type of squash only. So it may say to start X variety of squash indoors in mid-March, and Y variety of squash indoors at the end of March, while Z variety of squash can be direct seeded in July outside. Well, if you aren't growing THOSE varieties, it's hard to use. For a beginning gardener like myself, I need something a bit more general. Like "most tomatoes can be started indoors now" would be better for me. You can get this by looking at the guide, but you have to sift through it for a while and sort of see when most of the kale is being planted. That too is misleading since there is kale you can plant in spring and overwintering kale that you plant in Fall. The guide doesn't go into any of this, so you need a bit more education I'd say before really utilizing this guide.

Ed Smith's Vegetable Gardener's Bible
- although he is a Vermont (yikes!) year-round vegetable gardener, this book is fantastic as a quick reference book. The chapters are brief, with lots of pictures; the first half being about his techniques and the second half about each vegetable in detail. I'd recommend this book to someone starting out. I wish I'd had it three years ago!



Classes

I recommend taking classes if you can! I think the key to good classes is that they should be affordable (very affordable or by donation or free) and lengthy (ie comprehensive). A two hour class for $60 for instance automatically sends up warning flags that this will be an information kind of class without a lot of practical hands-on (so to speak) information. There will probably be coffee and donuts, lots of glossy pamphlets about the organization giving the class, and lots of introductions about the teacher and the organization. I've sadly taken a few of these kinds of classes and they were never worth it.

A few years back both W and I took an organic gardening 101 class through Oregon Tilth's OEC out at Luscher Farm. It was great and really comprehensive, two full days and lots of time for personal Q&A about your specific situation/garden. I am not sure how the classes are now, but they are probably quality, since it's Oregon Tilth. Oregon Tilth's newsletter I get each month is still printed on newsprint with minimal color and house to a lot of interesting articles about important issues - a true sign of a good nonprofit. Check out current classes here.

I also recently started a class at Livingscape Nursery called What to Do in the Garden Each Month with Master Gardener Tim Lanfri. This class has been perfect for me. It meets for a few hours once a month and you discuss what you should be doing in your vegetable garden that month! Perfect! Tim is great and very open to troubleshooting your particular problems/questions. The nursery seems to have a number of good classes that are very inexpensive or free to the public.