Small edible garden book for beginners

A gardening book graces my home this time!

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden by Karen Newcomb is a good beginner’s vegetable garden book.  It was originally published in 1975, but the copy I have is a revised edition from this year.  There are sections in it that I really like: the plants per person suggestions, the 11 sample garden layouts, a section on container gardening, explanations on soil mix (like what is bone meal, blood meal, or fish emulsion), and introductory explanation about crop rotation (there’s a handy soil nutrient deficiency chart.

Most handy is the list of vegetables and herbs with symbols indicating if they are a cool/warm season crop, and how well they grow in small gardens.

The only downside is that since this book was originally written in 1975, the variety of vegetables and herbs is somewhat conservative.  I was surprised that there is a page dedicated to Asian Mustard Greens, but then again you’re not going to find any mention of shiso (which is an Asian herb that’s pretty easy to grow).  I was also a bit puzzled that celery listed in the section about companion vegetables, but there is no page dedicated to growing celery.

I guess another downside is in the pest section.  There’s a lot of handy information, but this is the one section where I feel that pictures would be really useful.  (There are no pictures in the book outside of the 11 sample garden layouts.)

On the bright side, there’s a great section on composting that I think is fantastic.  The author gives a few different methods:  anaerobic bacteria using a garbage can, garbage can using the more customary method of dried materials and wet materials, using a barrel, using a plain old pile, a quicker method using shredding, and lastly the familiar compost bin.

For the next month, I’ll probably be referring to this book regularly while I try to determine what I want to grow in my container garden this year.  It’s a pretty solid starting point.

Reference Link:

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/237484/the-postage-stamp-vegetable-garden-by-karen-newcomb

Disclaimer:  I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  I am not getting compensated in any way outside of getting a book for free.