Square Metre Gardening High-Value Vegetables


Book Description

Which vegetables should you plant in your garden? The answer really comes down to maths. It doesn't matter where you garden - in an allotment, in containers, in raised beds or straw bales, or in a Square Metre Garden - deciding which vegetables to plant is perhaps the biggest factor in whether or not your garden succeeds. While success means many things to many gardeners, there's no avoiding the issue of cost versus payback. Does it make sense to spend £3 and use up almost a metre of garden space to grow one cabbage when you can buy a beautiful one at the farmers market for £1? Author Mel Bartholomew has been a gardener and engineer for many years and he has learned this: Even in the garden, maths is your friend. In Square Metre Gardening: High-Value Vegetables, Bartholomew describes how to apply basic maths (and a little economics) to any vegetable garden and get some objective answers about which vegetables give you the best return on investment. In this latest book in the Square Metre Gardening family, Bartholomew ranks the vegetables that are most common for home-growing and concludes which ones give you the most value for your investment. He looks at many factors and makes hundreds of calculations, and the answers all become clear. And in the process he finds some surprises (tomato lovers will be pleased, but if you grow potatoes, you're in for a shock). In the end, though, there are so many things to think about when you're choosing plants - whether or not they are edible - but the truth is, you'd be a bit foolish not to think about ROI. With Bartholomew's new book, you can do it without ever taking out a calculator. You'll find the information incredibly valuable when it's time to plan your own vegetable garden. Plus, you'll find plenty of great tips along the way for maximizing the value you get from each and every crop you plant.




Square Foot Gardening


Book Description

A new edition of the classic gardening handbook details a simple yet highly effective gardening system, based on a grid of one-foot by one-foot squares, that produces big yields with less space and with less work than with conventional row gardens. Reissue. 30,000 first printing.




Square Metre Gardening


Book Description

Adapted from the U.S. bestseller All New Square Foot Gardening, this new edition applies the proven principles of square foot gardening to the European growing environment. The entire book has been converted to the metric system, but the adaptations go much deeper than that. We consulted the finest gardening editors in Great Britain for the conversion of author Mel Bartholomew’s classic guide, and they made sure that all of the inputs and outputs described in this book are sensible for the European market. Plant selections have been adjusted for British and Northern European climates and growing seasons; even the language has been Anglicized to communicate in a precise and natural way with European gardeners. This is the world’s most fail-safe method for growing produce at home, and now it is finally available for consumption outside of the United States. Vegetables, cutting flowers, and landscape plants can all be grown with amazing results (and virtually no weeding) using the square metre approach. There is a reason that the U.S. editions of this book have sold more than two million copies: metre or foot, the method works.




Square Foot Gardening: Growing Perfect Vegetables


Book Description

A visual guide to vegetable ripeness helps readers decide the perfect time to pick or buy produce, along with information on storage and ripening.




High-Yield Vegetable Gardening


Book Description

You won’t believe your eyes when you see the size of your harvest! In High-Yield Vegetable Gardening, authors Colin McCrate and Brad Halm show how you can make your food garden much more productive, no matter how big or small it is. You’ll learn their secrets for preparing the soil, selecting and rotating your crops, and mapping out a specific customized plan to make the most of your space and your growing season. Packed with the charts, tables, schedules, and worksheets you need — as well as record-keeping pages so you can repeat your successes next year — this book is an essential tool for the serious gardener.




The Urban Farmer


Book Description

There are twenty million acres of lawns in North America. In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost. However, viewed through a different lens, they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity. Access to land is a major barrier for many people who want to enter the agricultural sector, and urban and suburban yards have huge potential for would-be farmers wanting to become part of this growing movement. The Urban Farmer is a comprehensive, hands-on, practical manual to help you learn the techniques and business strategies you need to make a good living growing high-yield, high-value crops right in your own backyard (or someone else's). Major benefits include: Low capital investment and overhead costs Reduced need for expensive infrastructure Easy access to markets Growing food in the city means that fresh crops may travel only a few blocks from field to table, making this innovative approach the next logical step in the local food movement. Based on a scalable, easily reproduced business model, The Urban Farmer is your complete guide to minimizing risk and maximizing profit by using intensive production in small leased or borrowed spaces. Curtis Stone is the owner/operator of Green City Acres, a commercial urban farm growing vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants, and retail outlets. During his slower months, Curtis works as a public speaker, teacher, and consultant, sharing his story to inspire a new generation of farmers.




Sustainable Market Farming


Book Description

Growing for 100 - the complete year-round guide for the small-scale market grower. Across North America, an agricultural renaissance is unfolding. A growing number of market gardeners are emerging to feed our appetite for organic, regional produce. But most of the available resources on food production are aimed at the backyard or hobby gardener who wants to supplement their family's diet with a few homegrown fruits and vegetables. Targeted at serious growers in every climate zone, Sustainable Market Farming is a comprehensive manual for small-scale farmers raising organic crops sustainably on a few acres. Informed by the author's extensive experience growing a wide variety of fresh, organic vegetables and fruit to feed the approximately one hundred members of Twin Oaks Community in central Virginia, this practical guide provides: Detailed profiles of a full range of crops, addressing sowing, cultivation, rotation, succession, common pests and diseases, and harvest and storage Information about new, efficient techniques, season extension, and disease resistant varieties Farm-specific business skills to help ensure a successful, profitable enterprise Whether you are a beginning market grower or an established enterprise seeking to improve your skills, Sustainable Market Farming is an invaluable resource and a timely book for the maturing local agriculture movement.




A Way to Garden


Book Description

“A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.




No Dig


Book Description

Work in partnership with nature to nurture your soil for healthy plants and bumper crops - without back-breaking effort! Have you ever wondered how to transform a weedy plot into a thriving vegetable garden? Well now you can! By following the simple steps set out in No Dig, in just a few short hours you can revolutionize your vegetable patch with plants already in the ground from day one! Charles Dowding is on a mission to teach that there is no need to dig over the soil, but by minimizing intervention you are actively boosting soil productivity. In fact, The less you dig, the more you preserve soil structure and nurture the fungal mycelium vital to the health of all plants. This is the essence of the No Dig system that Charles Dowding has perfected over a lifetime growing vegetables. So put your gardening gloves on and get ready to discover: - Guides and calendars of when to sow, grow, and harvest. - Inspiring information and first-hand guidance from the author - “Delve deeper” features look in-depth at the No Dig system and the facts and research that back it up. - The essential role of compost and how to make your own at home. - The importance of soil management, soil ecology, and soil health. Now one of the hottest topics in environmental science, this "wood-wide web" has informed Charles's practice for decades, and he's proven it isn't just trees that benefit - every gardener can harness the power of the wood-wide web. Featuring newly- commissioned step-by-step photography of all stages of growing vegetables and herbs, and all elements of No Dig growing, shot at Charles’s beautiful market garden in Somerset, you too will be able to grow more veg with less time and effort, and in harmony with nature - so join the No Dig revolution today! A must-have volume for followers of Charles Dowding who fervently believe in his approach to low input, high yield gardening, as well as gardeners who want to garden more lightly on the earth, with environmentally friendly techniques like organic and No Dig.




How to Grow More Vegetables, Ninth Edition


Book Description

The world's leading resource on biointensive, sustainable, high-yield organic gardening is thoroughly updated throughout, with new sections on using 12 percent less water and increasing compost power. Long before it was a trend, How to Grow More Vegetables brought backyard ecosystems to life for the home gardener by demonstrating sustainable growing methods for spectacular organic produce on a small but intensive scale. How to Grow More Vegetables has become the go-to reference for food growers at every level, whether home gardeners dedicated to nurturing backyard edibles with minimal water in maximum harmony with nature's cycles, or a small-scale commercial producer interested in optimizing soil fertility and increasing plant productivity. In the ninth edition, author John Jeavons has revised and updated each chapter, including new sections on using less water and increasing compost power.