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Community Garden - Web Resources Page


The following list of links will point you to some fun and informative web sites.

Especially recommended are those listed under the 'University of California' heading.

The IPM page is your guide to insects (both good and bad), disease, mites, nemetodes, weeds and vertibrate pests.

The 'UCTV' listing takes you to a wealth of gardening and agricultural instructional videos, including topics ranging from home gardening, home fruit trees and weed control to Michael Pollan on the 'Politics of Food' and 'A Food Policy for the next Administration'.

The 'General Gardening Information' section contains links to selected web sites featuring useful gardening information.

I highly recommend you check out the 'Garden Wise Guys' link below. Santa Barbara's Owen Dell and Billy Goodnick present very usable information in an entertaining format, and the link takes you to their collected TV shows. Enjoy their antics and come away with immediately useful ideas to apply in your own yard. Water wise gardening, a look below the soil, sustainable maintenance, fire-safe landscaping, design basics - these are just a few of the topics they cover. (Note: this link works best in Internet Explorer, Safari or Chrome).

 

 

I highly recommend three books. Here is a quick review of all three. Links to reviews are listed under 'books' below.

 

Joe Lampl'l's 'Green Gardener's Guide' explains, in very simple terms, how to save water and eliminate chemicals in your yard and wind up with healtier plants in the process. This book is brand new and I have just finished my copy. With the impending water rationing we are hearing about, this book comes at the right time.

 

 

 

Owen Dell's book, 'Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies' offers you another, deeper, look into more ways to work with, rather than against, nature to promote healthy, low-maintenance, low-water landscaping. I wish this book was out when we built our new house; I would have had implemented almost every idea he has. Owen is from Santa Barbara and this book is right for our locale.

 

 

The 'Master Gardener's Handbook' is published by the Claifornia Department of Natural Resources and the University of California. It is an incredible resource with over 700 pages of thoroughly researched information. This is the reference used in the UCCE Master Gardener training. It covers basic botany, soil science, trees, shrubs, extensive vegetable information for each vegatable in your garden, grapes, avacados, citrus and other fruit trees, planting, pruning, selecting plant materials, and too many topics to cover. I have this book with me most of the time; ask me and I will be happy to show you what it has to offer.

 

 

"A Little Land, a Lot of Living - how to make a small cash income into the best happiest living a family could want"

 

That's the idea behind a wonderful book from the 1940's, "The Have-More Plan", which has been in constant demand since it was first released. I read it back in the hippy days and it made quite an impression. The main premise is grow your own, save the high cost of food at the that new-fangled super-market, and earn the cash you need in a (possibley) part-time day job.

 

The working-in-the-city dad and country-mother-farmer-homemaker model it is based on is rather dated, but the information on their approach to natural living is as valid today as it was when the book was written. Goats, chickens, canning - all are pretty much the same now as back then, and these people had more recent experiences to draw from.

 

I thought this book was long-lost, but here it is, presented as a free readable or downloadable file courtsey of Garden Way Publishing Company. Click the link below to read or download the book.

 

 

 

There are many more useful links - you probably have some saved yourself.
If you'd like to share a favorite, Click here to make a suggestion.