Product Description

Shiny green cucumbers; firm, juicy tomatoes; baby lettuces handpicked one salad at a timethese are the tasty benefits of the backyard vegetable garden. But earth gardens are a lot of work. They require a plot of plantable land and a significant time commitment to sowing, watering, weeding, and tending each plant. Is there a solution? Self-watering containers allow vegetable gardenersfrom the casual weekender interested in a tomato plant or two to the very dedicated gardener with limited spaceto grow richly producing plants in a controlled, low-maintenance environment. Lifelong gardener Ed Smith became fascinated with the possibilities of self-watering containers and began testing dozens of vegetables in various containers, experimenting with nutrients, soil mixtures, plant varieties, and container positioning. Now Smith is here to tell gardeners that anyone can grow and enjoy wonderful organic vegetables, using pots with continuous- flow watering systems. Smith shares advice on choosing appropriate containers, how to provide balanced nutrition using his secret soil formula, and what additional tools benefit the container gardener. The reader will also find advice on starting from seed versus buying plants, which vegetables thrive in containers and which might be a bit more challenging, along with space-saving tips on pairing plants in single containers. After the last green tomato has been picked and is ripening on the windowsill, Smith wraps everything up with a chapter on fall clean-up and preparing for next spring. Now theres really no excuse for store-bought tomatoes!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #427496 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

About the Author
Edward C. Smith is the author of Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers. He tends a garden of over 1,500 square feet filled with raspberries, blueberries, flowers, herbs, and nearly 100 varieties of vegetables, including some heirlooms, in his home state of Vermont.

Customer Reviews

great resource, even with its faults
Ed Smith is a highly respected gardener and author. His Vegetable Gardener's Bible was a best seller and is an excellent gardening resource. The basic problem with growing vegetables in containers is supplying a continuous supply of moisture and self-watering containers are a simple and effective way to provide plants with this just the right amount of water, as they need it. "Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers" attempts to explain how to best use these containers and what you can grow with them.

There are lots of colour photos and diagrams which sort of gives this book coffee table appeal. You won't find instructions on how to construct your own self-watering containers which I though was rather unfortunate. It's a simple thing to do and in my opinion would have made this book much more complete. All of the self-watering containers used in this book were supplied from commercial sources and Ed acknowledges this fact at the back of his book.

He does an excellent job of explaining how plants use moisture and why using self-watering containers are such a good idea. A large part of the book is a plant database alphabetically showcasing different vegetables and herbs (and flowers) that Ed actually grew in his self-watering containers. Two that impressed me were winter squash and pumpkins. Most people would just say "no, can't grow it in a container", but not Ed. He actually admits he likes the challenge of growing something you'd never think you could grow in a container and for that I have to give credit.

Great book to have
this has lots of great information when you want to start planting your own vegetables. It contains great basic and usefull information.