A Networx summer reading guide

Sure, you can read the hot new books from Stephanie Meyer and Laura Bush, but how will that help you grow vegetables, build a jungle gym or replace your flooring? Here is a more useful summer reading guide for home remodelers, gardeners and tinkerers.

Step-by-step backyard fun

The Black & Decker Complete Guide to Backyard Recreation Projects by Eric Smith

Come for the photos. Stay for the instructions. Though I have had occasional problems with Black & Decker tools, I am a fan of the company's books. They have gotten me through basic electrical and plumbing projects, and helped me build a new flagstone patio. The books always have plenty of useful color photos and step-by-step project advice. The text isn't at "dummies" level, but it also avoids overwhelming professional jargon. The latest entry in the series will help you build a treehouse, install a skate ramp or just dig out a horseshoe pit.

Practically green

GreenSense for the Home: Rating the Real Payoff from 50 Green Home Projects by Eric Corey Freed and Kevin Daum

Yeah, yeah, throw another book on the sustainable remodeling bandwagon. This one actually stands out from the forest worth of books on the subject. It includes small steps such as replacing light bulbs and sealing ducts; and big ideas for new construction, such as insulating concrete forms. But it also fills the often-empty gap in the middle. The book includes 21 "projects you can do tomorrow" - midlevel improvement projects such as building a composite wood deck or installing a solar water heater.

An unlikely gardening story

My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm by Manny Howard

If you're still putting off a vegetable garden until next spring, pick up Manny Howard's funny and fascinating memoir of urban farming. If an untrained city dweller can put this much blood (literally), sweat and tears into growing a month of food for his family in his 800-square-foot Brooklyn backyard, surely you can raise a few tomatoes and peppers.

Howard's gift to reluctant gardeners is his skepticism and naivete rather than his expertise or deep philosophy. Unlike many gardening books, "My Empire of Dirt" doesn't pretend growing your own food is as simple as throwing seeds on the ground and showering them with water. It is hard work, but so worthwhile.

Keep what you grow

The Complete Root Cellar Book by Steve Maxwell and Jennifer MacKenzie

So Manny Howard convinced you to plant some vegetables. Four months later, you're fending off marauding hordes of zucchini. Just in time, the paperback edition of this food storage bible is available.

The book offers five root cellar building plans, including simple basement upgrades, backyard additions and improvisations for apartment dwellers. It also describes specific storage options and conditions for various crops. Finally, the third section of the book is a thick compilation of recipes using all those stored veggies.

There are four new books to get your new gardening and remodeling seasons off to a good start. Let us know what you are reading for inspiration.

Posted by: Steve Graham

Check out these Networx home improvement book reviews: Dare to Repair, Replace & Renovate and Shop Class as Soul Craft.