The Edible Container Garden : Growing Fresh Food in Small Spaces

Rating:
Summary: Not enough practical information
Review: As a beginning gardener, I was looking for a book that would spell out, in a simple, organized fashion, exactly what I needed to do to start a vegetable garden on my rooftop patio. So, I went on Amazon and purchased this book, as well as "McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers". Having read both, I would strongly recommend "Bountiful Container" over "Edible Container". "Edible Container" may seem more appealing because it is full of color photographs, but "Bountiful Container" is far more practical and a true reference book. "Edible Container" is largely anecdotal and may inspire you, but is frustrating if you're looking to have basic questions answered such as "what dirt should I use", "how often should I water", "what varieties should I plant and when", "should I use fertilizer", etc. "Bountiful Container" is so well-organized and clearly and concisely written that you can literally read it cover to cover (I did) and then you will find yourself coming back to it time and time again as your garden begins to grow. Swearing by the "Bountiful Container", I now how a flourishing garden full of lettuce, beans, squash, tomatoes, and strawberries.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough practical information
Review: As a beginning gardener, I was looking for a book that would spell out, in a simple, organized fashion, exactly what I needed to do to start a vegetable garden on my rooftop patio. So, I went on Amazon and purchased this book, as well as "McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: A Container Garden of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers". Having read both, I would strongly recommend "Bountiful Container" over "Edible Container". "Edible Container" may seem more appealing because it is full of color photographs, but "Bountiful Container" is far more practical and a true reference book. "Edible Container" is largely anecdotal and may inspire you, but is frustrating if you're looking to have basic questions answered such as "what dirt should I use", "how often should I water", "what varieties should I plant and when", "should I use fertilizer", etc. "Bountiful Container" is so well-organized and clearly and concisely written that you can literally read it cover to cover (I did) and then you will find yourself coming back to it time and time again as your garden begins to grow. Swearing by the "Bountiful Container", I now how a flourishing garden full of lettuce, beans, squash, tomatoes, and strawberries.

Rating:
Summary: Utilitarian gardening with beauty
Review: Inspired by the Moosewood Collective's use of fresh produce in their cooking and their environmentally conscientious attitude, I've become a member of the 'if you're going to plant something, plant it with a purpose' school of gardening. So of course, I found this book wonderful, full of practical and inspirational ideas for creating a beautiful, functional, useable garden when you have very little space/time.

The deck outside our front door is now inhabited by a very good herb garden, pots of courgettes with broad dark green leaves and beautiful yellow flowers, japanese greens and a tomato vine, making cooking with fresh produce as easy as stepping out the kitchen door for a moment. But I have visions of formal kitchen gardens full of the reds of rhubarb and maple leaves, glossy purple eggplants, large concrete tubs overflowing with strawberries. The photos in this book taken of the authors' and their friends' gardens are incredible. That something so beautiful could also be so useful is wonderfully appealing. I can't imagine myself growing anything that couldn't be eaten or used in some way these days. Even more relevant... as a young person who moves house regularly, planting in containers is ideal, because I can just pick my garden up and take it with me.

A very useful book.

Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: It was a very good book for gardening in small spaces. Very creative ideas of utilizing spaces. I also like the nice list of plants that is listed in the book with details on when, how, where to grow them.

Made my plant shopping easier.

Rating:
Summary: Planting in tight places.....
Review: Michael Guerra's EDIBLE CONTAINER GARDEN - "Growing Fresh Food in Small Spaces" is filled with unique insights and original photographs. Although I don't own a spread exactly like the gorgeous places shown on several pages in this book, I am moving in that direction, so the composition of the beautiful and practical gardens of others is of interest to me. Each garden depicted in this book can be decomposed into elements that can be transported to almost any location and arranged in almost any way.

A fact of life in an urban area is compacted soil. The typical urban homesteader is unlikely to own a rototiller that can be used to plow the yard and create a friendly habitat for a few fennel plants (although these tools are becoming smaller every day). Guerra's photographs and text describe projects that finesse hard surfaces. I especially like the partitioned timber container filled with many herbs standing above a graveled path. He also shows a raised bed with a most interesting set of joined corners using eyelet screws. The hardest surface of all to "farm" is a rooftop, but several photos show just what can be done with containers on top of a building. The corn and beans growing at the edge of one roof with a street full of cars below make me wonder how any insects could ever find and destroy this produce.

Guerra suggests gardeners can recycle materials and employ permaculture principles in urban settings. One permaculture trick involves stacking and arranging plants in a canopied effect. Guerra includes a number of photos showing various structures one might build to grow plants vertically thereby maximizing the use of space while conserving water. At the back of his book he includes photos of his own urban lot where he uses every square inch above and below to grow food-bearing as well as flowering plants.

Guerra's book is a great place to start if you've been thinking about creating your own little Victory Garden and wondered what might be possible. You will need more information than this book provides, since he does not include much about plants so check out KITCHEN GARDENS IN CONTAINERS by Antony Atha.

Rating:
Summary: You taste first with your eyes
Review: The best thing about this book is that it presents gardens that are not only small and practical, but are also beautiful to look at - it has many color photographs. Lush, "wild", yet organized and productive.

It's a rather thin book, I use it more for leisure browsing and idea-fishing, than as encyclopedia. Nevertheless I think it covers everything what beginning gardeners need to start a successful garden - it does have descriptions of all common vegetables, herbs and even fruits suitable for container growing.

Rating:
Summary: Not all containers
Review: This book has less to do with containers, and more about gardening in small spaces. Infact many of the examples are of small plots of land. If you don't have any land then much of this book is useless to you (but interesting none the less).

Otherwise a good book - very readable and full of practical information.

Rating:
Summary: Great for folks with limited space
Review: Wonderful insight, information, and photographs to help a beginning gardener with limited space start to paint her thumb green. Recycling suggestions and the use of the principles of perm culture principles in are included for those environmentally-concerned growers, and who among us isn't? At the end of this book are photos of the author's own urban lot, every inch burgeoning with plants to eat and those just for the sake of beauty.
This book deals more with space and soil, however, rather than the actual plants themselves. But for what it offers, it's great.