Square foot method, garden sizes & basic layouts, tools, sun soil, drainage & location, planning, spacing & planting methods, vertical growing, structures, seeds, transplanting, watering, controlling weeds pests & diseases, harvest

Time Machine
Simply a Great Gardening Book, February 24, 2005

55 Reviewers pretty much say it all, but I just had to add to the applause. I have used this book as a reference for over 20 years, and have used Mel's methods in the sands of Florida, the gumbo of Texas, and now the 'barely there' soil of Northern Virginia. And what have I gotten... production and ease!

Based in part on the French Intensive method of gardening, you pretty much can avoid the inherent soil problems of where you live and grow veggies and flowers with little weeding and grunting.

Ideas in this book include:

How to prepare the soil (fertilizers, conditioners)

How to put together raised beds and other support structures if you want them

A guide for popular vegetables

-- how and when to plant them, including how to start seeds

-- the what-fors of watering

-- common pest and disease problems

In my opinion this easy to read book is a gardening staple good for all levels of experience. ( )

Makes me want to garden NOW! I swear, I'm sitting here plotting this year's gardening.

A plan to grow in a metre square plot, how to go about doing it, how to build a plot and how to get working on it.

I want to use some of the ideas in my tiered garden. ( )

Great instruction to maximize produce while cutting down on time weeding and watering. I definitely want to try this. ( )

Excellent resource for small plot gardening. I never understood why a packet of seeds has the instructions to pour the whole packet into your row and then thin later. It seemed so wasteful! Square foot gardening is EXACTLY the kind of gardening I want to do. The book is loaded with information and diagrams and tables on plants and spacing and growing. I borrowed this from the library; but I will be buying a copy for my permanent library! ( )