Product Description

No space is too small to grow delicious and healthy food.

Enjoying tasty and fresh produce no longer requires a trip to the local farm stand or gourmet grocery. With The Edible Container Garden as your guide, everything from salad greens and savory herbs to luscious fruits and vegetables can be as close as your patio, balcony, or rooftop.

The Edible Container Garden explains how to plant, grow, and harvest vegetables, edible flowers, fruits, and herbs, even when time and space are limited. Discussing the wide variety of planting options, from simple window boxes and raised garden beds to trellises and other vertical structures, The Edible Container Garden shows you how to

Decide what kinds of plants you want to grow and which soil to use to keep them healthy and vibrant
Select the right containers and tools to design a beautiful and fertile garden
Discover which seasons are best for certain plants so you can design a practical and productive growing space
Feed, tie, prune, and clip your plants to fit almost anywhere, whether they're in containers, over arches, or even along footpaths

Illustrated with beautiful color photographs and packed with helpful and creative tips, The Edible Container Garden provides all the information you'll need to transform your outdoor space into a bountiful paradise.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #496477 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From Amazon.com
It wouldn't matter whether or not a single strawberry or tomato raised in the pots pictured in this book ever made it to the table--they are beautiful ornamental plantings, worth growing just for their looks. But author and British permaculture expert Michael Guerra promises fresh-tasting, pesticide-free produce, and the chance to grow a luscious array of fruits and vegetables not available at the supermarket, all in small raised beds, pots, or window boxes. Whether you garden on the balcony of a condominium, the deck of a houseboat, or just choose to pack your garden with ornamentals rather than edibles, this book brings hope that you can easily harvest homegrown food, including herbs and edible flowers.

"Gardening is like learning to cook," writes Guerra. "Start with the basics and with practice your menu will increase." He starts out with clear instructions about the basics of raised bed construction, soil enrichment, and maintenance of edibles. The most useful and unique parts of the book are the chapters entitled "What Shall I Grow?" that suggest the best varieties of salad greens, berries, peas, and peppers, as well as a great many more, for smaller gardens. Enlivened by color photographs and featuring detailed lists to aid in plant choices, this is a fine introduction to urban food gardening on even the smallest property. --Valerie Easton

Customer Reviews

You taste first with your eyes
The best thing about this book is that it presents gardens that are not only small and practical, but are also beautiful to look at - it has many color photographs. Lush, "wild", yet organized and productive.

It's a rather thin book, I use it more for leisure browsing and idea-fishing, than as encyclopedia. Nevertheless I think it covers everything what beginning gardeners need to start a successful garden - it does have descriptions of all common vegetables, herbs and even fruits suitable for container growing.

Not enough practical information
As a beginning gardener, I was looking for a book that would spell out, in a simple, organized fashion, exactly what I needed to do to start a vegetable garden on my rooftop patio. So, I went on Amazon and purchased this book, as well as "McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers". Having read both, I would strongly recommend "Bountiful Container" over "Edible Container". "Edible Container" may seem more appealing because it is full of color photographs, but "Bountiful Container" is far more practical and a true reference book. "Edible Container" is largely anecdotal and may inspire you, but is frustrating if you're looking to have basic questions answered such as "what dirt should I use", "how often should I water", "what varieties should I plant and when", "should I use fertilizer", etc. "Bountiful Container" is so well-organized and clearly and concisely written that you can literally read it cover to cover (I did) and then you will find yourself coming back to it time and time again as your garden begins to grow. Swearing by the "Bountiful Container", I now how a flourishing garden full of lettuce, beans, squash, tomatoes, and strawberries.

Great for folks with limited space
Wonderful insight, information, and photographs to help a beginning gardener with limited space start to paint her thumb green. Recycling suggestions and the use of the principles of perm culture principles in are included for those environmentally-concerned growers, and who among us isn't? At the end of this book are photos of the author's own urban lot, every inch burgeoning with plants to eat and those just for the sake of beauty.
This book deals more with space and soil, however, rather than the actual plants themselves. But for what it offers, it's great.