book suggestions?

[chi_mama]

I am looking for suggestions about books that address garden planning and food budgeting.
We have a new place with a large garden area and 5 fruit trees. We're pretty new to the whole gardening thing so I am looking for a book that will help us plan what to plant (that we'll actually eat) and preserve extra harvest. It would be especially great if the book also included some plans for food budgeting.
Any ideas? Thanks!

[lmonter]

I'm not sure that many gardening books will have food budgeting in there. But something like Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman may get you going with planning the garden, and something like Preserving the Harvest or the Ball Complete Book will have recipes and how-to type info... I basically just hit the online library catalog with search words and a list of books via Amazon that looked promising and requested the daylights out of everything. Some books hooked me, others I didn't care for. Another neat one was Gardening When it Counts by Steve Solomon, but I don't know where you live (he was west of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and that's the kind of advice he's got).

And really, no matter how much you plan and plan and get things in the ground at a certain time and all that, you're never going to get things exactly how/where/how much you want. Just one of those things - like this year I planted 3 times as many pole beans than previously, and it was a lousy year for them in my yard so we hit the u-pick bean place a few times. Or like berries did fabulous this year, but fruit trees, not so much. It's always an adventure.

[Denvergirlie]

Originally Posted by lmonter

.... Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman may get you going with planning the garden, and something like Preserving the Harvest or the Ball Complete Book will have recipes and how-to type info...

This is what I was going to post. Another book we like is "square foot gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. It will cover things like companion planting, how far apart to plant things as well as when you should start seeds/ plant the garden.

One last book to consider would be the "Have More Plan" which can help you deceide how to lay out your land best, planning where you put the fruit trees, vs. the garden , vs the barn/ shed vs chickens, etc, etc.
ETA: Apparetnly Amazon does now carry it as well: http://www.amazon.com/Have-More-Plan.../dp/0882660241
I don't think I personally would buy this book(although it's only $10 and wasn't aware that it was still in print) but I've found it online in a PDF form (can search thru my links for it again if requested) or try at the library. If nothing else it's fun to read as it was written in the 50's, sometimes that old logic never goes out of style/ relevance.