The Biggle garden book

the long version

When "The Biggle Garden Book" was first published in 1908, most people were in the habit of raising their own food and flowers. Jacob Biggle felt that a gardener's success had to do with willpower and passion rather than acreage. "The man, woman or youngster who really wants a garden, will somehow manage to have a good one regardless of soil conditions, bad weather, measles in the family, or whether the area of ground at hand is a square acre or a square rod," he wrote encouragingly at the start of the book. That passion for gardening continues today in fields, backyards, and urban community plots across the United States. According to a poll taken in 2009 by the National Gardening Association, more than forty-three million households in the United States grow some of their own food.