Books: Gardening & Vegetable Garden

In recent years, Quebecers have rediscovered the joys of gardening and are increasingly willing to invest time and money in this activity. The book "Seedlings" will therefore become the perfect resource for starting your seedlings!

Get your seedlings off to a great start, whether you're a complete beginner or a seasoned gardener. Calendars, indoor and outdoor sowing, methods, equipment, and seed-starting guides are all covered in this book, which will quickly become essential for all horticulture enthusiasts! Inside, you'll find a sowing calendar organized by date and 165 seed-starting guides for fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

You can read an excerpt by clicking here: Excerpt from the book Sowing .

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Author: Collective
Edition: Practical Practices
Dimensions: 20 x 25.5 cm (8 x 10 in)
Page: 208, color
Publication date: February 2022
ISBN: 9782896589333

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This book gives you simple and precise advice on growing vegetables and indicates all the associations to favour or avoid, for a healthy garden.

Spinach is more tender when planted near strawberries, but onions don't grow well next to potatoes. Dill repels carrot flies, and marigolds deter nematodes... Plants help each other thrive. Their neighbors can modify their flavor, influence their growth, repel pests, or trap them. This book offers simple and precise advice on growing vegetables and indicates all the companion plants to favor or avoid for a healthy garden.

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Author: Noemie Vialard
Publication date: April 2007
Publisher: Rustica
ISBN: 9782840387268

Acting daily according to one's convictions? This is the choice that Marie-Thérèse Thévard (Marie-Thé, for close friends) made about thirty years ago by successfully developing her food self-sufficiency in no-till farming in Saguenay, her adopted region in Quebec.

The Kitchen Garden is the story of her practices, convictions, and research to embody an ecological lifestyle based on independence from fossil fuels, resilience, healthy eating, permaculture, agroecology, and community living. Designed to follow each step month by month to create a thriving organic vegetable garden, this manual details the principles and techniques for growing vegetables, fruits, legumes, and even grains. One guiding principle underpins her approach: no-till farming. Faced with the soil depletion that plagues industrial agriculture, Marie-Thé champions "the genius of the soil," avoiding plowing while enriching it with mulch. All this in a boreal climate, in a context considered challenging for market gardening.

Marie-Thé's many years of experience will teach you:

• The principles of permaculture, agroecology and no-till farming;
• Crop associations to create a living and resilient ecosystem;
• Techniques for protecting crops against the cold;
• Biological methods of getting rid of major pests;
• A toolbox to organize your garden (storage, tools, sowing, planting and harvesting calendars);
• Methods for preserving vegetables and seasonal recipes;
• The essentials you need to know about poultry farming.

Marie Thévard grew up on her mother Marie-Thé's farm. She wrote this essential guide to successfully growing your own food using no-till methods and gradually achieving food self-sufficiency. Richly illustrated with diagrams and photos, this book is a must-have for ecological gardening.
Marie Thévard participated, with her mother, in the development of the Nordic no-till food gardening technique which she shares in Le jardin vivrier.

Browse online via Écosociété

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Author: Marie Thévard
Preface by: Benoît Thévard
Edition: Ecosociété
Publication date: May 2021 (Canada)
Pages: 384
Collection: Know-how
Theme(s): nature, animals & ecology
Subject(s): ecology / environment
ISBN: 9782897196653

Starting seeds is both a pleasure and a challenge for the amateur gardener. When should I start my seedlings? What care will they need? What materials should I use?

This seemingly simple task can quickly become a maze of complications. But not anymore. In this straightforward and concise book, the Lazy Gardener, Larry Hodgson, reveals all his secrets for successful sowing, whether it's annuals, perennials, or vegetables. You'll instantly know if spinach needs darkness to germinate, if alyssum can be sown directly in the ground, how deep to plant sunflower seeds, and much more.

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In the first part of the book, the author explains how to sow seeds, both indoors and outdoors. Each step is clearly indicated: sowing seeds has never been so easy.

The second part of the book presents the secrets of success for more than 300 popular plants: their requirements, their preferences, and even their little peculiarities.

With all this information to guide you, you'll soon have a green thumb!
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Author: Larry Hodgson
Edition: Broquet
Publication date: 2020
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9782896546503

Knowledge is the driving force behind success. This bible of ecological gardening is aimed at the gardener or aspiring amateur gardener seeking advice on choosing the best cultivation method according to their needs and how to optimize it.

Whether you garden in containers, pots, or directly in the ground, it's important to understand what each growing method entails. The aim of this book is not to promote one gardening method over another, but rather to help you develop a greater understanding of the plants you grow, enabling you to achieve greater food self-sufficiency and easier, more cost-effective cultivation.

Why is container gardening suddenly attracting so much interest? Is it a revolution in the way we grow plants? What will happen to gardens in the ground? Written in clear, accessible language, this book will guide you toward understanding. It will help you better assess your needs and meet your gardening expectations. You will also benefit from a wealth of new tips for dealing with the various situations that inevitably arise when exploring the complex world of nature and plants, and for achieving great results.

The content of this book proves useful to all kinds of gardening, whether you enjoy growing flowers, vegetables, your lawn, or want to rethink your landscaping!

You can read an excerpt by clicking here: Excerpt from Gardening in Containers .

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Author: Serge Fortier
Publisher: PRATICO-PRATIQUES EDITIONS
Dimensions: 20 x 25.5 cm (8 x 10 in)
Page: 208, color
Publication date: March 2022
ISBN: 9782896589340

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This presentation on biochar details its production, uses, and benefits for soil fertility and maintenance. Instructions are also provided for creating and using your own activated charcoal.

Author: Jeff Cox
Publisher: Ed. de Terran
Publication date: January 2021
Pages: 112
ISBN: 9782359811445
Size: 12 x 24 cm
Language: French

Why grow them? They're healthy, eco-friendly, economical, and so enjoyable! Treat yourself to the appetizing microgreens of broccoli, radish, or sunflower. Discover those of sorrel or amaranth. Add delicious alfalfa sprouts to your menu.

In this unique reference work, Lili Michaud draws on her expertise, acquired through 40 years of experience, to make this very particular cultivation accessible. This book covers everything you need to know about germination and sprouting:

The choice of seeds, their acquisition and their storage;
The necessary equipment;
The methods, step by step;
A detailed directory of 51 seeds;
The harvest;
Conservation.

Whether you are starting out in this activity or looking to enhance your knowledge, this is the ideal book to maximize your harvests and make the most of these small greens with high nutritional value and incomparable flavors.

Browse

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Author: Lili Michaud
Edition: Multimondes
Dimensions: 16.51 x 20.32 cm (6.5 x 8 in)
Page: 200
Publication date: October 12, 2022
ISBN: 9782897733063

Jean-Martin Fortier shares his tried-and-tested techniques and practical advice for a productive and healthy vegetable garden. This accessible book invites you to reconnect with the land, cultivate self-sufficiency, and join a movement toward a more sustainable lifestyle. Grow, nourish, transform!

Who hasn't dreamed of having their own vegetable garden, growing and harvesting an abundance of vegetables, even with a busy schedule and little space? After mainly addressing professionals, Jean-Martin Fortier, master market gardener and pioneer of ecological agriculture, offers us Dans mon jardin, his very first book for the general public.

In addition to proven techniques and all of Jean-Martin's secrets, this book offers avenues for reflection for those who wish to reconnect with the land and cultivate their future.

In this book, you will find:

• Practical and accessible advice for starting and maintaining your vegetable garden.
• An expertise-driven approach: Jean-Martin presents proven techniques and tools to help you cultivate a productive and healthy garden.
• An invitation to join a movement: by growing your own vegetable garden, you not only feed your family, but you also become part of an awakened community, ready to transform its habits to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

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Preface by Marilou
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Photo credit: Cardinal Editions
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Author: Jean-Martin Fortier
Publisher: Cardinal
Publication date: March 25, 2025
Pages: 392
ISBN: 9782925354437

An original, easy-to-use instruction manual that fits perfectly into the major global trend of urban agriculture!

Crop rotation and companion planting are the two pillars of an ecological vegetable garden. Generally used in large gardens, these principles allow for healthier vegetable harvests and can be perfectly applied to very small urban spaces.

Productive Vegetable Garden: Easily Combine Your Vegetables explains how to plan and maintain a small garden. It shows us why it's important to use herbs and flowers, edible or not, as companion plants, while highlighting the benefits of this practice.

The role each plant plays in relation to its companions is precisely described. The author also identifies the pests it repels and the beneficial insects it attracts! This guide also presents the steps to follow for practicing companion planting and crop rotation in raised beds, vertical gardens, in-ground gardens, or in pots.

In addition, the author introduces a completely new concept of vegetable garden which he suggests to avant-garde urban gardeners.

You can read an excerpt by clicking here: Excerpt from the book "My Productive Vegetable Garden"

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Author: Bertrand Dumont
Publisher: MultiMondes Publishing
Dimensions: 22.8 cm x 19.5 cm (x in)
Page: 220, color
Publication date: 2017-04-06
ISBN: 978-2-89773-023-9
Language: French

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Prepare your family vegetable garden! Create unforgettable memories together, hands in the soil! The Family Vegetable Garden Notebook is a perfect introduction to local and sustainable agriculture. It allows you to transform your vegetable garden into a shared, enriching, rewarding, and fun project for children. Involve children at every stage, from ideation to harvest, by giving them a notebook where they can write, draw, and/or paste the information needed to plan, create, and maintain the vegetable garden.

The family vegetable garden is a source of pride for all families, and above all, an annual tradition for many of us. Even if we do it year after year, it's not uncommon to forget what we tried and accomplished in previous summers. Our family garden journal will be the perfect project to collect all our notes about the garden, track its progress throughout the season, and then remember our successes—and the little mistakes—for the following summer!

The different sections of our gardening journal are:

Our vegetable garden | Our team | Our wishes | Our seedlings | Our friends | Our great plan | Let's get to work! | The weather station | The harvest calendar | Story of (x14 for your different plants) | Our colors | Our recipes | Our memories

The gardening journal will surely be a beautiful keepsake of all the wonderful moments you will spend as a family working together for a great harvest!

Printed in Quebec (Sorel-Tracy)

Illustrations: Aurélie Grand

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Materials : 35 pages // Thick kraft cardboard cover and recycled paper inner sheets.
Dimensions : Height: 11 inches, Width: 8.5 inches

Notebook in French

Already considered "the little bible of ecological vegetable cultivation" by several gardeners since its first publication in 2010, it is a reference work that is aimed at both apprentice gardeners and those who want to improve their practices, whether in the suburbs, the countryside or the city.

Growing your own vegetables in an environmentally friendly way is a wonderful way to protect your health and the environment.

Thanks to My Healthy Vegetable Garden, you:

• will understand what the "health" links are that unite all living organisms and why growing your own vegetables in an ecological way helps to protect the environment;
• you will learn why growing and consuming your own vegetables has a positive effect on your physical and mental health and that of your loved ones;
• you will discover tips and tricks to maintain your health potential while gardening;
• You will learn how to plan and carry out your vegetable garden project in all conditions: in your yard, in a community garden, on your balcony...
• You will learn all about the ecological cultivation of around forty vegetables, from sowing to harvest;
• you will be informed about the various health benefits of vegetables;
• You will benefit from a complete chart on vegetable preservation in order to enjoy their value for as long as possible;
• learn how to make a self-watering container to easily grow your tomatoes and other vegetables on your balcony;
• will be informed of natural methods of prevention and control of damage caused to vegetables by pests (insects and others) and diseases.

You can read an excerpt by clicking here: Excerpt from the book "My Healthy Vegetable Garden"

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Author: Lili Michaud
Publisher: MultiMondes Publishing
Dimensions: x cm (x in)
Page: 328, color
Publication date: March 2017
ISBN: 9782897730338
Language: French

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Growing your own vegetables in winter in a northern climate is possible!

What you will learn:

Try something extraordinary in your vegetable garden by growing unusual fruits and vegetables! From choosing seedlings from 50 unusual plants to cooking tips that will spice up your dishes, this book explains everything!

Try something extraordinary in your vegetable garden by growing unusual fruits and vegetables! From choosing seeds from 50 unique plants to cooking tips that will spice up your dishes, this book explains everything! Discover the cucamelon, the earth chestnut, the yacón, strawberry spinach, and even turmeric, and master all the steps to cultivate them. As surprising as it may seem, these seeds, tubers, and plants are available in many garden centers in Quebec, and the varieties described in this original book can easily be grown in pots or in a garden. Enjoy gardening and treat yourself to some truly unique flavors!

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Author: Matthew Biggs
Publication date: March 2020
Publisher: Multimondes
ISBN: 9782897731885

For millennia, saffron has been one of the world's most prized spices. It is derived from the red stigmas of a plant called Crocus sativus , it has been at the heart of wars, laws, religious rituals, and above all, iconic dishes.

This 64-page book presents the history of saffron, in addition to gathering all the necessary advice for growing, harvesting, processing and cooking it at home, with the collaboration of Micheline Sylvestre, one of the pioneers of saffron cultivation in Quebec.

With this book, Bernard Lavallée wants to show, once again, that knowing a food inside and out is one of the best ways to maximize the pleasures associated with food.

Author: The Urban Nutritionist - Bernard Lavallée
Publication date: 2023
Publisher: The Urban Nutritionist
ISBN: 9782982166714

Who hasn't dreamed of growing their own fruit at home: apples, pears, plums, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, hardy kiwis, etc., and thus having fresh fruit on hand all summer long?

Here is a manual of high-level applied permaculture agricultural techniques and design to create and cultivate a human-scale farm that is profitable but above all resilient (robust, adaptive, autonomous) and productive.

** New book with slight wear due to shipping.

Being able to be self-reliant in the face of life's challenges is a constant concern for Ben Falk, and it's one of the reasons for his current renown. Another reason stems from his methods and results in regenerating the previously damaged soils of his farm.

Directly applicable to the colder temperate regions of the globe, such as France or Canada, Ben Falk's farm has already garnered attention across the United States. Located in Vermont, it serves as a productive and functional model, proving that it is possible to live a modern, resilient, and regenerative rural life on just 4 hectares. Situated on a terraced slope that conventional farmers in the area consider worthless, Ben Falk's farm is teeming with life, including fruit trees, vegetables, mushrooms, ducks, sheep, hedgerows for firewood, eco-friendly buildings, ponds, and productive rice paddies. And yes, rice is possible thanks to Ben Falk's innovations!

This book will provide you with the many strategies tested by Ben Falk and his team at the Whole Systems Research Farm, as well as experiences from sites designed and developed by Ben Falk's design office. Illustrated with numerous color photographs and detailed design diagrams, this book will shed light on:

• site selection and the design process
• adapting to changes
• gravity-fed water management systems
• the use of compost made from urine, “human manure” and biochar
• the production and storage of firewood
• human health and strategies for producing nutrient-rich foods
• the integration of perennial crops and herbivorous animals

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Author: Ben Falk
Edition: Imagine a Hummingbird
Size: 21 cm x 29.7 cm
Pages: 290 color pages
Publication date: 03/2017
ISBN: 979-10-95250-02-9

The author presents his ecological vegetable gardening technique, the result of over 30 years of experimentation. It is a precise and easy-to-understand method for growing vegetables in companion planting.

The author presents his ecological vegetable gardening technique, the result of over 30 years of experimentation. It is a precise and easy-to-understand method for growing vegetables in companion planting. The planting diagrams are clear and easily reproducible in the garden.

This technique will be particularly suitable for those who cannot cultivate on mounds or wish to maintain a linear vegetable garden structure, while wanting to stop tilling, work with cover crops (surface composting), associate crops with each other, fertilize naturally... Furthermore, the author's overall "all ecological" approach will also interest those looking for a coherent cultivation technique for a permaculture approach to the vegetable garden.

Aromatic and medicinal plants play a vital role in this farming system. The author believes they are also essential for human health, enabling a healthy diet. Therefore, she dedicates a significant portion of her book to describing their uses for health and cooking, including numerous recipes. Each plant description is accompanied by a photograph to help identify the plant.

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Author: Gertrud Franck
Publisher: Imagine a Hummingbird Publishing
Pages: 256 pages
Date: July 2013
ISBN: 978-2953734447

It's the queen of our vegetable gardens! The favorite plant of gardeners, amateur or experienced.

The tomato!

It's the queen of our vegetable gardens! The favorite plant of gardeners, amateur or experienced! Red, yellow, green, and even black, or small, fleshy, round, oval, and juicy, tomatoes come in more than 15,000 varieties. And each one offers different flavors and aromas.

While paying tribute to this fruit-vegetable so beneficial to health, Lili Michaud tells us which varieties are best suited to our soils and climates. She offers us a vegetable gardening adventure that begins the moment the seeds are sown in pots and continues all the way to the table. The book includes valuable advice for:

• choose the varieties that best suit our tastes using a unique chart displaying more than 200 varieties;
• starting a crop, in pots or in the ground, and knowing how to maintain it;
• protect plants from diseases and harmful insects;
• recognize the right time to harvest;
• consider the best ways to cook our tomatoes;
• knowing how to preserve, dehydrate or freeze them.

The most daring gardeners will even find tricks to successfully graft and create their own new and exclusive variety.

As a bonus, around twenty healthy and delicious recipes.

For the enjoyment of gardeners, cooks and gourmets!

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Author: Lili Michaud
Publisher: MultiMondes Publishing
Dimensions: x cm (x in)
Page: 291, color
Publication date: April 2018
ISBN: 9782897730819
Language: French

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Key method of the permaculture vegetable garden

Raised bed gardening is an innovative method. Permaculture specialist Richard Wallner guides you step by step in creating, planting, and maintaining your raised beds, using detailed planting diagrams. Raised bed gardening offers numerous advantages: no tilling, no pesticides, no herbicides, no fertilizers, no back pain... and delicious, healthy, organic vegetables. Choose the vegetable garden of the future: sustainable, organic, and easy to maintain! Developed through a permaculture approach, a holistic and ecological method, raised bed gardening is also a solution for those who wish to implement sustainable development in their daily lives.

Author: Richard Wallner
Publisher: Rustica European Book
Publication date: 2019/06/26
Number of pages: 224
ISBN : 9782815314121

How to kill several birds with one stone while gardening?
This bible offers a guide to how to have an abundant garden that requires less physical and financial investment!

This book unveils a gardening approach called "The Respect Nature Approach," which allows you to live in perfect harmony with your environment. Just as everything in nature is interconnected, the Respect Nature Approach enables zero-waste gardening by intelligently using the resources of our environment to meet our gardening needs.
When properly understood and applied, everyone can garden as they please and have beautiful harvests of healthy fruits and vegetables without having to buy any expensive products, without any cost, with less effort, while managing at the source the organic matter available at home and around their home.
This book reveals at least eight eco-friendly ways, other than traditional composting, to make the most of organic matter. Kitchen scraps, tree leaves, grass clippings, crop residues, old foliage, weeds, aquatic plants, wood chips, ramial chipped wood (RCW), and more are all materials that can be easily used in your garden. While composting isn't suitable for everyone, the other methods of managing these materials revealed in this book will surprise you with their simplicity, their logical approach, and how much they will improve your gardening!

You can read an excerpt by clicking here: Excerpt from Vegetable Garden: doing more with less .

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Author: Serge Fortier
Publisher: PRATICO-PRATIQUES EDITIONS
Dimensions: 20 x 25.5 cm (8 x 10 in)
Page: 192, color
Publication date: February 2023
ISBN: 9782896588435

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