Best Container Gardening

He also explains how you can make gardening fun for kids by teaching them the square foot method. "Bartholomew, author of the popular Square Foot Gardening (1981), has refined his original square-foot gardening concept by adding ten improvements, including a new location for the garden that is closer to the house, a special soil mix, and six-inch deep, 4' x 4' above-ground boxes with grids. He clearly explains the square-foot concept, from the rationale behind it (the square-foot garden takes up much less space than traditional row gardening and saves time, money, and aggravation) to how to plan the garden, build the boxes and vertical supports, and employ his planting and cultural techniques.

Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers good news: with nothing more than a cupboard and a windowsill, you can grow all the fresh salad greens you need for the winter months (or throughout the entire year) with no lights, no pumps, and no greenhouse. Longtime gardener Peter Burke was tired of the growing season ending with the first frost, but due to his busy work schedule and family life, didn’t have the time or interest in high-input grow lights or greenhouses. Growing “Soil Sprouts”—Burke’s own descriptive term for sprouted seeds grown in soil as opposed to in jars—employs a method that encourages a long stem without expansive roots, and provides delicious salad greens in just seven to ten days, way earlier than any other method, with much less work. The author promises that the process is fairly forgiving of errors, but he also spends a good deal of the book giving precise details about the tricks, tips, and troubleshooting that has occupied his attention for many years. This obsession has become the basis for workshops and even a small indoor ‘farming' business selling greens to the local school cafeteria food service. Yet something about his enthusiasm makes the average home gardener want to run out and buy a bunch of aluminum foil loaf pans and a bale of vermiculite, and go to town with some pea shoots. Students love to grow soil sprouts because the results are so fast―and delicious!” --Steven Colangeli, Science and Agriculture Teacher at Middlebury Union High School, Vermont. “ Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening is proof that you don’t need a lot of space, time, or resources to produce nutrient-dense food for you and your family. Peter Burke offers new information that will inspire would-be sprouters, who never got started due to lack of space or time, as well as veteran growers of sprouts. Peter Burke makes growing easy and puts eating local, healthy, delicious food within everyone’s reach. Peter Burke’s straightforward instructions are easy to understand and provide clear insight on how to produce an abundance of fresh soil-sprouted greens at any time of year. “ Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers an empowering path to growing food in any season and any living space, no matter the size or location. This is an essential book for deepening our practices of self-reliance for greater quality of life.” --Katrina Blair, author of The Wild Wisdom of Weeds.

Succulents are hot. "In her new book, Succulents Simplified:Growing, Designing, and Crafting with 100 Easy-Care Varieties , Baldwin even tells of a Jade plant that has lasted for more than two decades in her garden with various stages of neglect! "Anyone who knows Debra Lee Baldwin is aware of her extraordinary prowess as an author, writer, photographer, and artist...her book, Succulents Simplified , is a work of art." From quick and easy succulent rosettes for bouquets, to teeny tiny mint-tin gardens, to succulent-topped pumpkins there's a project in this book for even the most craft-challenged." "Debra is nothing if not passionate about succulents...In S ucculents Simplified (Timber Press) she demystifies these popular low-water beauties." When we returned home, my mother described the house to my father: "Big picture windows, but imagine having to clean them. Others were necklaces of blue-gray buttons, rubbery silver-blue roses, and sticks of green chalk with windowed tips. It became something I longed for, along with a saltwater aquarium, a hot air balloon, and an unlimited supply of chocolate marshmallows. In slanted early morning or late afternoon sun, red margins burn neon bright, spines incandesce, fuzzy filaments shimmer, and leaves reveal glowing hues of rose, orange, purple, and blue. It's a guide for novice enthusiasts, a quick reference for anyone seeking an overview, and a vehicle for presenting design ideas I'm excited about.

He also explains how you can make gardening fun for kids by teaching them the square foot method. "Bartholomew, author of the popular Square Foot Gardening (1981), has refined his original square-foot gardening concept by adding ten improvements, including a new location for the garden that is closer to the house, a special soil mix, and six-inch deep, 4' x 4' above-ground boxes with grids. He clearly explains the square-foot concept, from the rationale behind it (the square-foot garden takes up much less space than traditional row gardening and saves time, money, and aggravation) to how to plan the garden, build the boxes and vertical supports, and employ his planting and cultural techniques.

With Aquaponics: The Ultimate Aquaponics Guide - From Beginner To Expert , you’ll learn to create your own aquaponic system in your home or backyards.

Even if you have never been a farmer or a gardener, this book covers everything you need to know to get started: buying and saving seeds, starting seedlings, establishing raised beds, soil fertility practices, composting, dealing with pest and disease problems, crop rotation, farm planning, and much more. �A concept destined to appeal to that intrepid individual whose independent nature finds the idea of abandoning the grocery store alluring.� ---Booklist Brett L. Markham is an engineer, third-generation farmer, and polymath.