Homework: New gardening books

The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-Less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden, by Ivette Soler. Timber Press, 216 pp, $19.95

Having a lawn in front of your house is boring, writes garden designer-turned-author Ivette Soler, who advocates ripping out the grass and replacing it with edibles. Her new book provides step-by-step instructions for converting your lawn into a "gorgeously designed oasis of fruits and vegetables that will be the envy of the neighborhood." Judging by the beautiful photos provided, that's not an exaggeration: After learning tips for designing the space and choosing the best plants for your front yard, chances are you'll be running outside with a sod cutter.

The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook, by Ron Kujawski and Jennifer Kujawski. Storey, 200 pp, $14.95

This softcover, wire-ringed manual, subtitled "Perfectly Timed Gardening for Your Most Bountiful Harvest Ever," will come in handy through all the phases of planning and planting your garden. After a primer on site selection, soil prep and seed starting, the book focuses, journal-style, on exactly what needs to be done in the garden every week of the season, starting 20 weeks before the average last frost date and taking readers through 29 weeks after the average last frost. It offers guidance on everything from seed sowing, staking, pinching and maintaining to canning and preserving edibles. The hand-holding is great for those who aren't sure about when peas should be planted, for example, or when asparagus should be cut down. There's even space for readers to add notes specific to their horticultural zone, and each entry has a field for writing in the actual date, found by adding or subtracting weeks from the first and last frosts in the area.

Homegrown Herbs: A Complete Guide to Growing, Using and Enjoying More Than 100 Herbs, by Tammi Hartung. Storey, 256 pp, $19.95

This comprehensive guide from Tammi Hartung, herbalist and co-owner of the U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified Desert Canyon Farm in Colorado, who has spent 30 years studying and working with herbs, teaches readers everything they need to know about growing more than 100 plants. In addition to an in-depth profile of each herb, there's also information about growing, drying and using the plants medicinally, in crafts and skin care preparations. Instructions are illustrated with step-by-step color photos, and several garden plans are included to help readers recreate the author's suggestions easily. Recipes for food as well as elixirs round out the offerings in this super-useful book.

The Food Lover's Garden: Amazing Edibles You Will Love to Grow and Eat, by Mark Diacono. Timber Press, 192 pp, $27.95

Think you can eat only salad, tomato sauce and pesto from crops you grow in your garden? Foodie gardener and author Mark Diacono begs to differ. His gourmet book aims to get you to stop growing ordinary edibles like potatoes and tomatoes and delve into the drool-worthy world of blue honeysuckle pancakes, daylily fritters and double cream cardoon gratin. It's no harder, he contends, to grow unusual delicious food than to grow ordinary rows of what he considers ho-hum vegetables. Recipes using 40 unusual fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices and flowers are included, along with growing advice and color photos of plants and prepared dishes.

Grow Your Own Fruit, by Carol Klein. Mitchell Beazley/Octopus, 224 pp, $19.95

You really don't need any other book if you want to grow fruit; this one hooks you up with everything needed to grow fruit trees, berries, vine fruit and nuts. Presented in a very user-friendly, textbook-type format with plenty of color photos, each fruit's entry includes information about soil and site requirements; recommended varieties; training and pruning instructions (including espalier training); plant care; cultural problems, pests and diseases; and harvesting guidelines. Klein also provides guidance for growing fruit in containers, window boxes, communal plots and raised beds.