Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens Author: Visit Amazon's Barbara Pleasant Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1603425292 | Format: EPUB
Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens Description
From Booklist
Fueled by the localvore movement and a tightened economy, more people are motivated to grow their own vegetables, and yet few aspects of gardening are quite as daunting. Sowing seeds! Combating pests! Harvesting zucchini! It can all be a little overwhelming for the inexperienced gardener. With a clean, crisp, foolproof approach, Pleasant takes the fear out of food gardening in a must-have resource that will appeal to both neophytes and experienced gardeners. From simple bag gardens to bountiful food cornucopias, each garden plan is a symphony in simplicity, laid out with precise lists of materials and plants based on detailed landscape plans suitable for small city gardens as well as larger suburban backyards. Along with year-by-year overviews that allow gardeners to anticipate growth and adapt to changes, Pleasant provides essential cultivation and maintenance techniques, and offers surefire recommendations for top-producing vegetables and herbs. --Carol Haggas
About the Author
Barbara Pleasant has written five books for Storey, including the Garden Writer's Association 2003 Garden Globe Award of Achievement winner, Garden Stone. She lives in Virginia.
- Paperback: 180 pages
- Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; First Edition edition (March 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1603425292
- ISBN-13: 978-1603425292
- Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.3 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
After weeks of digging sod in my backyard, I had a chance to read this book. I nearly fell out of my chair reading the first (and easiest) garden plan. Bag gardening consists of laying down bags of topsoil, newspaper, and cardboard to smother the sod. ***I have posted photos above so you can see the technique ***
The first year, you actually grow the crop inside the bags. At the end of the season, you gather up the bags and dig the contents into your now-ready bed. Will I be following the total garden plan? Actually, no. But it's one of the best parts about these garden plans, you can adjust then to meet your needs! The second year it mentions that a squash plant will break up the soil for you, and you let it do the work! So I will be following this advice (in my first year), and I will let the squash do all the work!
The bountiful border has a wonderful plan for inter spacing plots of vegetable gardens within your flower bed. And the front yard food supply gives wonderful ideas for using that often overlooked area in your front yard without having your neighborhood send around a petition. It starts with only 43 square feet ...
Since both my backyard and frontyard borders are too shady, I will be focusing on the first plan, but adapting techniques from the other two as well. The larger garden plans are well out of my expertise at this point.
The second part of the book contains a wealth of knowledge for new gardeners. Some of the sections (like deciding what to grow) may be old hat to experienced gardeners, but for those who are new (like me), it is a good overview. The one thing it mentions is finding vegetables you love that love your yard. If I were to put it in my own words, don't try to grow anything your family won't eat!
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