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Gardening adventures in a small space
Balcony Gardening Book Reviews
- Authors: Eric Franks and Jasmine Richardson
- Publisher: Gibbs Smith, 2009
- 192 pages
- ISBN-10: 1423603648
- ISBN-13: 978-1423603641
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When I first picked up this book and flipped through it I wasn't that impressed. It was rather big and heavy, full of full page colour photos that had great appeal but didn't always convey information. There seemed to be lots of whitespace around the margins, and being in full colour meant it was rather expensive. It looked to me like something someone had just thrown together to fill a niche. But once I started reading it I quickly found it to be a pretty good. I love books that are filled with the authors personal experiences.
It is loaded with information. That is, more than you'd ever need to know about growing microgreens. I feel the book could have conveyed as much information in half as many pages. But that doesn't mean the content was lacking in any way. The authors are truly passionate about the subject matter and have the necessary experience to back up the knowledge. They grow microgreens in a small section of their property to sell to local chefs and restaurateurs. So the book does touch on large-scale production. But the methods employed are easily scalable to family, window sill production levels. I could do without the recipes section, especially those recipes that only used the microgreen as a topping to some other salad. For those who enjoy reference book with recipes in them, I apologize. But for me these sections are just filler. The book was very nicely organized and the section regarding individual crops was well put together, presenting lots of detail and colour photos of each microgreen.
There is a certain amount of balcony appeal in this book. With the amount of space and sunlight I get on my balcony I think I could turn out a pretty good microgreen crop. It doesn't take much space and growing outdoors is much more desirable than growing inside.
- Authors: Dave DeWitt and Paul W. Bosland
- Publisher: Timber Press, 2009
- 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 0881929204
- ISBN-13: 978-0881929201
The authors of this book are truely authorities when it come to chile peppers and they put together a book that goes into great detail to explain everything you would ever need to know about chiles. The book begins with a summary of their favorite 100 chiless. But you won't find tabular data or anything that resembles a database listing of varieties. Chiles are discussed in broad categoies over just under 20 pages. Think of it as a summary of the chile pepper world. This is followed up by an excellent section about chile cultivation and another short section about processing and preserving.
What really impressed me was the last part of the book providing a rich array of chile pepper recepies. I don't usually think much of gardening books filled with recepies but in this case I though they were well presented and worked well to showcase the chiles covered in the book. The last section filled the last third of the book.
The was a fantastic reference for chile pepper growers and lovers.
- Author: Charles Dowding
- Publisher: Green Books, 2008
- 234 pages
- ISBN-10: 190032220X
- ISBN-13: 978-1900322201
There is so much information in this book. It has everything you ever wanted to know about how to successfully grow salad leaves and nothing more. It covers everything from preparing your soil to harvesting leaves. A large section providing detailed descriptions of suitable salad leaf plants is also included. And I was impressed with the brief chapter about the effects of the moon on seed germination. This book covers every angle.
You won't find flashy colour photos on every other page here. There are a number of colour pages with photos of plants. But no photos of children playing in the garden or sunsets on the country side. The focus of this book from cover to cover is growing salad leaves.
You can find more information about the authors farm and books on his website
- Author: Larry Hodgson
- Publisher: Rodale Books, 2005
- 380 pages
- ISBN-10: 1579549675
- ISBN-13: 978-1579549671
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Over half of this book is dedicated to a plant database featuring over 300 plants species, with each getting a two page spread and just enough information to be useful. The scientific names were all spelled out phonetically. And there was no shortage of color photos of beautiful shade gardens. The sections about general plant care and maintenance were very informative and included sections specific to shade gardens like how to deal with root competition or what trees provide the best kind of shade and what the differences are between wet and dry shade. The book succeeds at narrowing in on the specific details of how to plan and maintain shade loving plants.
As great as it is, this book lacks one thing that I wanted the most: information about growing shade plants on the balcony. There is only a brief mention about growing plants in containers. It would have been great to see a picture or two of a shady balcony filled with some of the shade loving plants featured in the book. Oh well...
- Author: Edward C Smith
- Publisher: Storey Publishing LLC, 2006
- 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 1580175562
- ISBN-13: 978-1580175562
With over 40 years of organic gardening experience, Ed Smith is a highly respected gardener and author. His "Vegetable Gardeners Bible" was a best seller and is an excellent gardening resource. There are lots of colour photos and diagrams which sort of gives this book a more coffee table feel. One problem I had with it was a section on constructing your own self watering container. It's a single page that has a photo of Ed using a cachepot and some sort of root retainer thing that has holes drilled in the legs to construct what is suppose to be a self watering container. It would have been nice to see a couple of different designs and images of finished working projects but obviously all of the self watering container used in this book were from commercial sources. In his acknowledgement at the back of the book he credits a couple of garden supply companies for providing tools and self watering containers which he used for conducting trials for this book. After reading that, some may wonder how much of the high praise Ed has for self watering containers is genuine.
But this book does have something that other similar container vegetable books don't. A large part of the book is a plant database alphabetically showcasing different vegetables and herbs (and flowers) that can be grown in pots and of those there were two that jumped out at me: winter squash and pumpkins. Most people would just say "no, can't grow it in a container", but not Ed. He actually says 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. Because for me, that's what it's all about - the challenge. That's what keeps it interesting. I also enjoyed the fact he included Dandelion, Mâche, Orach and Mustard as things you can grow in these containers. And he does do an excellent job of explaining how plants use moisture and why using self watering containers is such a good idea.
For the balcony gardener, I would say this book is very relevant. It might look like a coffee table book but it's an entire book dedicated to growing vegetables in containers which is exactly what we do on the balcony. There are certainly better container gardening references but none that cover the use of self-watering containers like this one.
- Author: Amy Goldman and Victor Schrager
- Publisher: Artisan, 2004
- 216 pages
- ISBN-10: 1579652514
- ISBN-13: 978-1579652517
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This is a large book with beautiful photography containing photos of too many squash varieties to count. But these aren't just small identification photos. The squash are carefully arranged and presented as if works of art. For each of the melon varieties documented there is a brief list of descriptive information regarding the variety, including whether it should be considered edible or just decorative. The book breaks down into two dozen pages about growing squash and a few dozen pages at the end for recipes (none of which I tried but some looked quite good) and a list of seed sources and advocacy groups. Everything else is just squash pictures, info and commentary.
The sections on actually growing squash are brief but adequate. This isn't a book about basic gardening techniques, it's a book about squash: summer, winter, pumpkins, zucchini... even a few gourds. There was one photo of Goldmans garden I found particularly interesting: it was a picture showing a number of squash plants growing in a sea of plastic mulch criss crossed by irrigation hoses. She is a squash growing fanatic. The effort she goes through to hand-pollinate each of the squash she produces is a testament to that. This book is also a statement about the importance of bio-diversity. Her squash are all heritage varieties, some grown from very rare seeds.
I have never attempted to grow squash of any variety in a container. Something Goldmans book doesn't provide for each (or any) variety it describes is some general information about the plants themselves, such as size or growing habits. Just an extra bit of info added to the description of each squash variety could provide some assistance to someone planning to grow them. But that's of minor importance really. This a book for people with a passion for squash, but in more general terms it's a book for people with a truly deep passion for growing food.
- Author: Miranda Smith
- Publisher: Rodale Books, 1999
- 160 pages
- ISBN-10: 0875969941
- ISBN-13: 978-0875969947
For me, this was the perfect herb book. It has a no-nonsense approach about it and does an excellent job of covering all aspects of herb gardening but it's more than just a gardening book. It also contains information on culinary and non-culinary uses for your herbs. The book is roughly divided into thirds with a third dedicated to starting, growing and harvesting herbs. Another third to using them. And the last third to describing each herb in detail. Restricting the book to 50 herbs was a wise choice. There are lots of tables and lists giving you quick access to information regarding such matters as moisture and lighting preferences, germination times, propagation methods and pest control. For me, the tables and lists really turn the book into an incredible reference.
As far as balcony appeal goes, this book has it. It contains lots of information relevant to growing herbs in containers and even has a section devoted to growing herbs indoors. This is the only herb growing book you'll ever need to own.
- Author: Amy Goldman and Victor Schrager
- Publisher: Workman Publishing Co, 2003/li>
- 176 pages
- ISBN-10: 1579652131
- ISBN-13: 978-1579652135
The section about growing melons is very light. There are a couple of pages on hand pollination that some may find interesting although I found it to be a little too complicated for my needs. Then there are the photos. The book is a large photo essay of heirloom melons and I was glad to see a large number of watermelons included. The photography is excellent and if you're interested in variety, this book certainly shows it. Each melon is identified by a figure number and at the end are some (very) brief details about each of the melons profiled. If you're looking for a book to tell you how to successfully grow all sorts of award winning melons this probably isn't the book for you.
It was when reading Goldman's afterword at the end of the book that I "got it" and completely understood and was inspired by what she had presented and how she had presented it. Over 90% of the open pollinated melon varieties that existed 100 years no longer exist today. Big seed companies did away with the biodiversity by consolidating varieties and replacing them with hybrids that promised better yield for less cost. When you go to a grocery store and buy a watermelon, you don't tend to see them labeled as anything other than watermelons. Seems rather sad and a little scary. In her own words, the book is "a showcase of the genetic diversity that remains in melons" and I think that pretty much defines her book perfectly.
With only a little information about growing melons (but how much do you really need), you can bet there is absolutely nothing in it about growing them in containers nor on your balcony. But I certainly recommend it to all who are passionate about growing melons.
- Author: Sonia Day
- Publisher: Key Porter Book, 2003
- 144 pages
- ISBN-10: 1552635465
- ISBN-13: 978-1552635469
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There are only a few glossy photos within this books pages and a number of not so great computer generated line drawings which serve little useful purpose except to take up page space. But that doesn't matter. Sonia Day, a Master Gardener and Toronto gardening celebrity, gets right down to business about what you realistically can and can not grow on a balcony. The book is very clearly organized and the sections contain concise do's and don'ts lists that get right to the point. This is an amazing book for beginners and I could have avoided many mistakes on my balcony had I read this years ago.
A lot of ground is covered in this book: Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, Shrubs, Trees and Vegetables. She gives advise on how to over-winter plants, getting rid of pests and even safety. Some sections are a bit light, like the chapter about bugs. But you can easily find information about this topic on the internet or in resources dedicated to the subject. The book even starts with a chapter about what to look for in a balcony if you have a need to garden and are in the market for a high-rise apartment or condo.
As far as vegetable gardening goes, there wasn't much in this book to interest me. Sonia gives some good advice for beginners - 4 pages about herbs and 6 about vegetables. It's the general advice about balcony gardening that won me over. It's a great little book to read through if you're just getting into balcony gardening or need some help planning what to grow next season.
- Authors: Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey
- Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, 2002
- 400 pages
- ISBN-10: 0761116230
- ISBN-13: 978-0761116233
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Packed with information. The sections brake down with a few pages explaining each different plant and contains details on how to plant, grow, harvest, and use each. Very complete with 100 pages describing vegetables and another 100 describing herbs. If you could only own one book about container vegetable gardening, this would be it.
I could raise the odd minor criticism here and there but really it's not worth the effort. For me, it's all about the challenge and for them, it's about growing stuff to eat. But putting this aside, the Bountiful Container is by far the most thorough and informative book available on container vegetable gardening. Period.
- Author: Amy Goldman and Victor Schrager
- Publisher: Bloomsbury US, 2008
- 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 159691291X
- ISBN-13: 978-1596912915
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A word of warning: reading this book during the frigid depths of winter will have you scrambling for seed catalogs and desperately yearning for spring.
This is another amazing book by Goldman and Schrager. It's big and it's all about tomatoes. But don't expect lots of advise on growing that prize winning heirloom. Amy's books are light on tips and advise and in this case she seems to have taken an even lighter approach. In this volume, all we get is half a dozen pages on growing tomatoes which is really just a summary of her growing season, growing 500 different varieties in a single season. But there are plenty of other books and websites out there that will give you all kinds of boring details on how to grow the best tomato.
What this book gives you is page after page of amazing tomato portraits. It's somewhere between an encyclopedia and coffee table art book. The photos are accompanied by detailed descriptions of each tomato variety, right down to brix and tasting notes. This is the one and only tomato book for me. A good part of the book contains tomato recipes but to be honest I haven't looked at them too closely. I spent most of my time drooling over the tomatoes and dreaming about what I was going to plant in the spring.
