The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible: How to Grow a Bounty of Food in Pots, Tubs, and Other Containers Author: Edward C. Smith | Language: English | ISBN:
B004XJP9J6 | Format: PDF
The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible: How to Grow a Bounty of Food in Pots, Tubs, and Other Containers Description
By growing vegetables in containers, even novice gardeners can reap a bounty of organic food in very small spaces. Anyone can harvest tomatoes on a patio, produce a pumpkin in a planter, or grow broccoli on a balcony — it’s easy! Ed Smith shows you how to choose the right plants, select containers and tools, care for plants throughout the growing season, control pests without chemicals, and much more. He even includes plans for small-space container gardens that are perfect for urban and suburban gardeners.
- File Size: 13787 KB
- Print Length: 264 pages
- Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (February 28, 2011)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004XJP9J6
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,985 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture > Techniques > Container Gardening - #7
in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Landscape Design > By Technique > Container Gardening - #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture > Vegetables
- #2
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture > Techniques > Container Gardening - #7
in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Landscape Design > By Technique > Container Gardening - #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Horticulture > Vegetables
I have been gardening seriously for the past couple of years and really got interested in containers last year. I have been asking myself a lot of questions about container gardening, mainly about the nature of the soil to use for pots and I have always wondered if I could reuse potting soil. I have made my share of mistakes (buying lousy pptting soil, for one, or not fertilizing enough) but I have really been craving a seasoned gardener's advice. I already owned the The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (10th Anniversary Edition) from the same author and McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers. Both were great but the former was really focused on raised beds (which is fine) and the latter lacked pictures and specific guidance. I appreciated that the authors of the Bountiful Container leave it to me to decide whether I want to grow organic or not but sometimes you just need somebody to tell you what works!
I liked the Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible the moment I put my hands on the book. It is abundantly illustrated (a huge help for a novice gardener like me!!), from pictures of containers with mature plants, to pictures of good quality soil (so you know what to look for) and how to make your own potting mix (loved the advice to mix it all in a rain barrow!).
This is my first year with vegetable gardening, and I live in an apartment that has a landlord-maintained backyard. So anything I planted had to be in containers. I'd read Smith's previous book on vegetable gardening and was very impressed with his detailed, practical and comprehensive knowledge. This book is a bit more narrow in focus - less discussion of compost and root structure, which I think would be as helpful here as it was in his previous book, and some unnecessary repetition of factoids, like how much water a tomato needs in the summer. But I think it's still the best container gardening book I've read, and I've referenced it almost daily as I've planned and built my first garden.
He does strongly recommend self-watering containers for pretty much all vegetables, almost sadly admitting that some herbs do better in traditional pots. I would call this bias, but I think he offers convincing arguments for them. To get another perspective, I bought Bountiful Containers as well, which only briefly mentions self-watering containers. But I found its information to be a lot more vague and broad, with no mention of how much water and sunlight some plants will need. Much more of a "plant it and see" approach. Where Bountiful Container is good for inspiring someone to garden, with a light amount of information for a broad variety of plants, Bible is geared to making that garden successful, with deep, detailed information about fewer, more common plants.
I definitely appreciate his section on how to build your own containers, because commercially available ones are mostly too small. However, it does assume a certain level of handyman skills, tools and materials. Some apartment dwellers may have a drill, but how many have a hacksaw, caulking gun, and lengths of PVC tubing?
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