Disclaimer: No book, apart from the Holy Scriptures of God, is wholly pure. I have personally read each of the books listed here and found them to be chiefly wholesome, uplifting, and doctrinally sound. If I have reservations about a specific book I have included them in bold type.

Would you like to recommend your own favorite gardening or farming books?  Please email me.

craft

The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing Sixteenth-Century Dress, Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies

This is the book I’ll be giving to the Wardrobe Director when I produce my play about Lady Jane Grey. (First, I have to write the script!) [160 p] Visit the book’s supporting website at <http://www.tudortailor.com>

Wild Color: The Complete Guide to Making and Using Natural Dyes, Jenny Dean

gardening

An Agricultural Testament, Sir Albert Howard

Sir Howard, called the father of modern organic agriculture, maintained that "the health of soil, plant, animal, and man is indivisible." In his monumental book An Agricultural Testament, Sir Howard noticed and explored the connection between healthy soil and healthy crops, livestock, and people. As a result, he went on to write many books, pamphlets, and speeches promoting organic cultivation with an emphasis on soil quality. He warned that if we continued to ignore the health of the soil, we would experience a famine of quality. The nutrition of our food is only as healthy as the soil in which it is grown.

Some vegetables, fruits and herbs are just as breathtaking as their floral counterparts.  In the true cottage garden tradition, combine your plants in a colorful, beautiful—and tasty—jumble of plants.  The photographs offer handsome ideas for choreographing cabbages, marigolds, nasturtiums, crab apple trees, chives and much more.

This books is full of stunning photography and charming ink drawings. Mr. Lloyd, who grew up in an English village, explores the history and creation of the cottage garden with its beautiful turbulence of blooms. It is not a sentimental book about flowers only, but a practical look at growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, herbs, and even livestock. It embraces the entire cottager’s lifestyle. Out of print. [183 p and index]

Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation, Lynn Coulter

The selection of some of the tastiest, most beautiful, and most reliable heirloom varieties are catalogued here. Illustrated with beautiful photographs celebrating the vibrant diversity of heirloom varieties. [300 p and bibliography, resources, and index]

The Lavender Garden: Beautiful Varieties to Grow and Gather, Robert Kourik

“Here’s your sweet lavender, sixteen sprigs a penny, that you’ll find, my ladies, will smell as sweet as any,” (Lavender seller’s cry, 1900).  Lavender is a special passion of mine, so I was glad to find this book at the library.  The text is very informative and the photographs excellent.  This book includes toilette and culinary recipes and cultivating advice.

[115 p]

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, Suzanne Ashworth

Square Foot Garden: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work, Mel Bartholomew

husbandry

The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, Juliette de Baïracli-Levy

An intriguing resource of traditional herbal remedies for sheep, goats, cows, horses, poultry, and sheep dogs. It also includes a chapter on natural bee-keeping. A helpful Materia Medica Botanica is included. [453 p and indexes]

Raising Small Livestock: A Practical Handbook, Jerome D. Belanger