Seeking book (or website) recommendation for starting a back patio vegetable garden
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Hristo Botev
- Posts: 1743
- Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:42 am
Seeking book (or website) recommendation for starting a back patio vegetable garden
For a beginner. I'm in the U.S. Southeast, if that makes a difference.
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George the original one
- Posts: 5406
- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
- Location: Wettest corner of Orygun
Re: Seeking book (or website) recommendation for starting a back patio vegetable garden
Location makes a difference when it comes to available sunshine and water and growing season and soil and pests/weeds. Otherwise, you just need to match up your veggies to your climate and make sure they're fed properly. Hotter season things, like tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers are going to do well. Cool season crops, like peas and lettuce will struggle. Don't forget the permanent crops like berries.
Patio garden implies you'll be using containers and bagged soil, likely with liquid fertilizers. Check around commercial operations like mushroom or marijuana growers for cheaper high quality container soil.
Most of the gardening books will not mention that you can successfully grow root crops in containers. Potatoes and carrots will definitely work in containers, it's just that they need to be somewhat deeper containers. Ginger root might be possible, but I've not looked into it.
So... what I'm getting at is to just grab the local favorite gardening book that includes information on the plants needs and go for it. Tomato & pepper plants will need a 5-gallon bucket for a planter. Potatoes work in those large tubs or a 5-gallon bucket. Carrots in the conventional 1-gallon nursery container that potted plants always come in; don't mix fertilizer into the soil for carrots, just apply from above to avoid forked carrots.
If you still need a book, I'm going to suggest John Jeavon's "How to Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine". Also look on Youtube for container gardening.
Patio garden implies you'll be using containers and bagged soil, likely with liquid fertilizers. Check around commercial operations like mushroom or marijuana growers for cheaper high quality container soil.
Most of the gardening books will not mention that you can successfully grow root crops in containers. Potatoes and carrots will definitely work in containers, it's just that they need to be somewhat deeper containers. Ginger root might be possible, but I've not looked into it.
So... what I'm getting at is to just grab the local favorite gardening book that includes information on the plants needs and go for it. Tomato & pepper plants will need a 5-gallon bucket for a planter. Potatoes work in those large tubs or a 5-gallon bucket. Carrots in the conventional 1-gallon nursery container that potted plants always come in; don't mix fertilizer into the soil for carrots, just apply from above to avoid forked carrots.
If you still need a book, I'm going to suggest John Jeavon's "How to Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine". Also look on Youtube for container gardening.