Sugar Snaps and Strawberries: Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible GardenImagine savoring fresh-picked strawberries on a weekend morning, plucking plump figs from your mini-orchard to quarter and serve at a farm-to-table meal with friends, or harvesting and sautéing the edible stalks of garlic bulbs. If the size of your space is bringing you back to reality, here's the best part: you don't need a big backyard to grow your own food. In fact, you don't need a yard at all. Andrea Bellamy, founder of the acclaimed blog Heavy Petal, gives you the dirt on growing gorgeous organic food with very little square footage. Simple, straightforward, design and growing advice can help you transform just a snippet of space into a stylish and edible oasis. Bellamy goes beyond the surface and shows you how to create and maintain healthy soil, decide what and when to plant, sow seeds and harvest, and most importantly, enjoy the process. So go ahead, picture that tiny nook, corner, strip, porch, alley, balcony, or postage-stamp-sized yard overflowing with fingerling potatoes, fragrant herbs, sugar snap peas, French breakfast radishes, and scarlet runner beans. Armed with luscious photography, encouraging tips, and sophisticated designs, you're sure to be inspired to join the grow-your-own revolution. |
Contents
PREFACE | 6 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 9 |
1 GARDEN STYLE | 10 |
2 ASSESSING YOUR SPACE | 22 |
3 FINDING SPACE | 36 |
4 BUILDING YOUR GARDEN | 48 |
5 PLANNING YOUR GARDEN | 64 |
6 GETTING DIRTY | 82 |
8 KEEPING PLANTS HEALTHY | 114 |
9 MAKING THE MOST OF LIMITED SPACE | 140 |
10 HARVESTING AND PREPARING FOR NEXT YEAR | 150 |
EDIBLES FROM A TO Z | 162 |
GLOSSARY | 212 |
214 | |
216 | |
7 SOWING AND GROWING | 102 |
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alliums Andrea Bellamy Aphids apples areas with mild Arugula attract balcony beans beetles beets brassicas broad beans cabbage cabbage maggot carrots Chinese cabbage climates clubroot cold compact compost container—grown containers at least crop rotation crops cucumbers cucurbits cultivar deep Direct sow disease drainage early spring edibles espalier fall flavor flowers fruit trees full sun green growing season grown growth GUERRILLA GARDENING hardy in zones harvest herbs insects large container last frost late summer layer leaf leaves legumes lettuce manure mild winters moist mulch mushrooms nutrients organic matter outdoors overwinter peas peppers perennial pests Photo by Andrea plastic plastic mulch pollinators potatoes powdery mildew prior to planting produce pruning quinoa radishes raised beds roots row covers salad seedlings shade sheet mulching slugs Space plants spray squash stems temperatures tomatoes transplants types vegetables veggie vines warm weather weeds weeks well—drained soil worms