Vertical Vegatables and Fruit : Creative Gardening Techniques for Growing Up In Small Spaces by Rhonda Massingham Hart is a nice addition to a gardening library for people who are considering growing a lot more of their own food in limited space.
This is best for people who have at least a small yard, however there are some ideas for people who only have a balcony or a sunny window as well.
It starts with good reasons to think vertically for your garden. How it helps plants take advantage of sunlight better to create more food, it cuts down on weeding since your plants have a smaller footprint, and allows a lot more to be planted.
Then the author explains the best materials to use for building supports and trellises, and how to build some popular structures like trellises, cages and teepees. She gives some suggestions for good container plants with minimum depth and spacing suggestions and a chart about how much soils and soil mixes weigh for hanging planters.
The rest of the chapters are on different types of plants. Each plant has planting and seed recommendations. These helped me a lot with planning my garden. I live in a Zone 3 area, which means that my options are pretty limited. Recommendations for varieties include zone hardiness.
My favorite chapters are the one about sweet potatoes which explains how to make your own slips to plant in following years, strawberries, raspberries and espalier trees. I grow strawberries and raspberries already. Using the methods explained in this book will make it easier to really help them grow more abundantly, and get enough extra to pass some on to friends. My family loves sweet potatoes, and making slips and training the plants will be good practice for my son.
The ideas are shown with lovely full color illustrations that are clear and easy to understand.
If you want to make the most of a small growing area to have the joy and thriftiness of growing some of your own food, you may really enjoy this book.
Published by Storey Publishing.
I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.
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