What is your favorite type of gardening book?

Is this page as big a mess for everyone else as it is for me?

Yep for me, solid bars of red that go on forever. Unwatching thread to save myself aggravation.

Yes, the print got smaller and the red bars....WHEW! I guess we will all be glad when they finish tweaking the final result of their new format.

it gives me a heady ache

Sorry about that folks...we know there's a problem and the tech team should have it straightened out shortly.

I chose "other". I like the gardening books that are about gardeners themselves.

I chose other because I look up gardening information on the internet now. It's so much more up to date.

Other since i like all of the above, below and then some for resources. I thot my eyes had gone blind. wow! thats some red

I voted Other. I read a lot but not gardening books. I come to Dave's Garden for what i would like to know and talk to the gardeners here and i search the internet.

I chose other because I like some of the gardening magazines better than books. After that I come on here.

I'm with GardenSox - I love books by gardeners... like Elizabeth Lawrence. Her books not only teach me about the plants she grew, but a little something about the gardener as well.

Other, because I get almost all of my gardening information online.

I voted Other. What I really enjoy is reading classic historic gardening books, such as anything by Gertrude Jekyl, Bernard McMahon's American Gardeners Calendar,
http://www.amazon.com/The-American-Gardeners-Calendar-Adapted/dp/0548646627/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1
And Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution.

And for gardening sites, other than Dave's Gardening I enjoy PRI (Permaculture Research Institute) of Australia.

This page formatting is STILL MESSED UP

I think we need a new tech team.

Yep...

This message was edited Jul 9, 2013 12:19 PM

I'll vote for that one. Count me in!

Other. I think my very favorite garden book is ALL MY EDENS by Pat Welsh, "A Gardener's Memoir". A fascinating, entertaining story about growing up in England & the United States in the first half of the 20th century, intertwined with practical gardening advice.

I like big red lines. Makes me feel like I'm walking the red carpet in a designer gown. Sorta grandiose, don't ya think?

As for books, I love my big library. I have books on just about everything and I often refer to them. The big picture books/encyclopedias are great as I can remember a flower/plant/etc and then when I'm doing ID, remember which book I saw it in and then find it. Just recently I've delved back into the Encyclopedia of Gardening by the American Horticultural Society which has tons of information on everything. I love little weird info that most people glance at but I study. Despite having easy access to the internet - ya just can't trust everything you find/read on the net (excluding DG). Books are more reliable and they're just a good investment in the long run. I've found it handy to grab a book and walk across the street to the community garden and show someone from a book how to prune a rose/propagate from cuttings/plan a small garden/etc. I could talk about something until I'm blue in the face. "Here ya go! Now go prune your rose bush like the book illustrates." It's a good thing. Besides, it's hard to sit on the john with a laptop. A book works better.

Well said ~ Growin

Odd how I can remember where I saw something and in which book but if it was on the internet, I never can put my 'good eye' on it again.

Fat red bars going vertical instead of skinny ones going horizontal - how interesting. LOL

I voted for field guides because I need more of them.

And it's still not fixed today... Help, techies, so this page can be read properly. Thanks!

I voted general , would of voted all ,, didn't see it if it was there .. My favorite old time Encyclopedia set was :" Our Wonderful World " That was a great set of books ..
Never have seen it anywhere in 40+ years .. kick myself , kick myself ,, well it was ...

I voted other because I still have a need for holding the paper in my hand. Im still learning so many things and like someone said, it is for some reason easier to remember "which book" than which web site. I lean heavily on DG and it is where Ive learned so much. I still read all the plant ID threads to learn the name of plants I dont know. I have all of the above books and I confess, I need them less and less but I do still need them.

Hortus Second and Plant Breeding, both old classics by Liberty Hyde Bailey. Give me Liberty!

They're aware of the issue...hopefully, it won't be much longer.

It won't upload pictures, either.

What happens when you try to upload images? It is working for me.

Here's a pic. Works for me.

Regarding gardening books... does anyone ever go here to look up reviews or give reviews?
http://davesgarden.com/products/gbw/

Somebody must be on vacation. It always happens at work too this time of year.

I have a couple of bookshelves dedicated to plant books and gardening. I have some of every kind mentioned in the poll. I like books about specific gardens. I am currently enjoying one about the gardens at the Smithsonian museums. There are a several great gardens besides the one at the US Botanic Garden that surround the various museums. All worth a visit! I get the guidebook to any botanic garden that I visit and a khaki baseball cap with the garden's logo if they have one.
I am into plant identification through my work at the Boston Flower Show. I have several books on plant names and I like the Western Garden Book about the best. California has just about every plant zone there is and type of climate. This book has come in really handy many times.
I like vintage garden books. I have one on Pelargoniums, The Genus Hosta, and a guidebook to Cuban gardens published by the American Garden Club of Havana.
I have guidebooks to the wildflowers of various regions and to the plants of the Boston Harbor Islands.
I have had a chance to read because it has been too hot or too many thunderstorms here in the past few weeks to safely work out on my hillside, though my daylilies don't seem to mind. Here's a couple.

I chose "Other" because for me it's really "All of the Above" and there's never an option for "All of the Above" on these Voting Booth questions.

I totally agree: ALL OF THE ABOVE... I have bookcases filled with gardening books and still buy them..I save many seed catalogs as reference material, also garden magazines. My favorites for eye candy are the books on English Cottage Gardening, good read(s) too though. Such inspiration can be found in beautiful pictures and the descriptions of flowers, fragrances and how toos. The trials and tribulations of gardeners gone by, it's wonderful to think how they got me started on my passion....Flowers---food for the soul!

I must admit I haven't read them much in the past few years as most of my time is now spent on growing things from seed and amassing enough plant material to acomplish my cottage border in an attempt to recreate such as the masters before us did.. G. Jekyll, L.B. Wilder, Monet and those who are still with us, Lloyd, Hobhouse etc.. A love that will take me to England and France next spring to see some of these creations.

The books will be coming out this winter as I begin to study the gardens I will be visiting, learning to become the master of 'My Own Little World', my garden. Making it as beautiful as I can for no one other than myself, it will be my masterpeice, my painting of colors, textures and fragrances. Truely, Heaven on Earth. So yes, books on gardening are still important, they inspire, teach and allow us to dream in ways a computer never could.

And a big thankyou to sites such as Dave's Garden, where we are allowed to actually think our plants are special. To converse with others that have the same passions though may not express it, but it's a love of plants that keep us coming back. We're here for the beauty that is Nature, and books just seem to convey that better than a computer screen. But to have lived without Dave's Gardens would truely have been a misfortune. I have met so many wonderful people all on screen, and have been soo enriched by trading with fellow gardeners that are truely generous and kind to have shared their love of gardening with me is something you just can't get out of a book. So Melody...thank the staff and Dave for creating this site for us that just can't get enough. But for me personally, I'll continue to buy books that silently inspire and allow me to dream of how I can make mine even more splendid than what it is. And every year I'll hope it's better than the previous, and daydream of what I'll make or what to grow next. Or even to sit back with a book filled with pictures of another's words of accomplishment in pure amazement. Kathy

This spring, to my amazment and 2 years from planting to come to fruition, just a simple Iris patch, but to me it is thrilling. And I got the idea from a book.....'Deer don't bother with Iris'.

My "other" is CATALOGS! Gardening books seem to sit on my shelf ("who has time?"), but I'll pick up a catalog to leaf through whenever I sit down by myself.

I said, "field guides" though I rarely take them in the field with me. Now that I think of it I haven't been in the field much lately. When I see something new particularly I want to know what it is so I can share that information with others. The most worn books on my shelves, and yes there are many (!), would have to be the Audubon guides to birds, to insects, and to wildflowers.

Thanks for the inspiring posts. It's gratifying to hear that books are still appreciated, though you have to admit having all this information at your fingertips is amazing, considering how technology in the real world continues to advance!

Nice poll, Melody, even if the red bars were sort of alarming.

i voted field guides but all of the above would have worked really well for me ..i am old school so my favorite writers go back to the days of Rodale Press and Organic Gardening (70s) Ruth Stout was an inspiration to me ,now I teach a gardening class and in my class there are two ladies that knew Ruth Stout bout were English lit majors and interviewed Ruth at a writers conference way back when ...When I get a new guide if I like a lot then I try and get a second copy so I can keep one in my pickup at all times (OCD?) ya think

OCD? Is THAT what it is? lol

We were at a flea market and I found a second copy of a favorite houseplant reference book. DH asked what I bought and I said a book I already had. Wish you could have seen the look on his face. 8 ))