Best west region gardening books according to redditors

Yeah it’s great! You want this particular book though. https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gate-Gardening-3rd-Year-Round/dp/1570616175

I'm from southern California and gardening here is a bit different from gardening in the rest of the US. My two favorite books are California specific:
52 Weeks in the California Garden
and
Pat Welsh's Southern California Organic Gardening

This may be a useful resource:

https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gate-Gardening-3rd-Year-Round/dp/1570616175

All The Rain Promises and More

Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest

Mushrooms Demystified This is an old book, while still useful it definitely needs updating.

The New Savory Wild Mushroom Also dated but made for the PNW

Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California

California Mushrooms: The Comprehensive Identification Guide

Far more important than books are internet sources. There is a list in the sidebar and Here. Keys to PNW fungi is by far the best location oriented source.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Western-Garden-Book-Sunset/dp/0376038896/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1480631348&sr=8-13&keywords=western+garden+book

This older edition is better than the newer ones. The newer ones have less information and more glossy full color images.

> Is there a good resource for finding out where the fog is in San Francisco?

Look out the window?

Sorry for the snarky joke. :)

Besides weather forecasts, the prevailing weather patterns in San Francisco are actually pretty interesting.

There is no coincidence that the ancient location of the main Indian village (in what is now San Francisco) is in the Mission District, which is the warmest and sunniest part of the City.

Pam Pierce wrote an interesting book about the microclimates of SF.

The bottom line is that fog is cool air, and cool air likes to sink. Therefore the fog zones all are the lowest pathways for air flow. The Golden Gate is the biggest of these. Also, the low point in the ridgeline near Daly City tends to collect the fog. The converse is that areas protected by high points tend not to be foggy, so therefore the areas with airflow blocked by Twin Peaks tend to be sunny.

I haven't had luck with onions in Alameda, for what that's worth. I got some nice green onions out of it, but not much else. Onions are so cheap at the store that it seems more worthwhile to grow something more expensive, like squash or kale. I've had good results with peppers, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, radishes, eggplant and cauliflower.

What helped for me the first year of gardening was growing everything I thought I'd want, keeping track of seed varieties, sprouting dates and weighing my yield, and then using that information to figure out what I wanted to plant the following year. It's by no means foolproof, but better than going in blind for the second year in a row. I also recommend the book Golden Gate Gardening for more information about vegetables in the bay area.

It may seem "mainstream" but I have learned so much from my Western Garden book. It is not only an encyclopedia of plants but a guide to growing, pruning, pests/pest control, and even bed design. As a beginner, it will give you plenty of info on what you want to plant and probably inspiration to plant a few things you didn't even know existed! (amazon not necessary, you can find it at any bookstore/nursery)

For mushrooms in general (not specifically psychedelic ones) I recommend All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora. If you like that then check out Mushrooms Demystified which is his famous tome. Two newer books with beautiful color photographs are Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast by Noah Siegel and Christian Schwarz, and California Mushrooms by Desjardin, Wood, and Stevens.

The best way though is to go foraging with someone who knows what they're doing. Check out MSSF or one of the other clubs in the area. If you join MSSF now, you can still get a spot on the Mendocino Woodlands camping trip, which is an absolute blast.