All New Square Foot Gardening

Not for india

I've been really wanting to get into gardening for quite a while now - especially vegetables & fruit. I am by no means green fingered, have little time, and have felt somewhat overwhelmed or bewildered by the gardening books which I've read. This is most definitely the exception. It has inspired me to try this kind of gardening, and I've made a start with it now. so far everything has been simple, quick, and very easy to understand. Of course, it's too soon to see whether I successfully grow things with it :-)I used an online converter to convert the feet and inches to metric, and cubic feet to litres for the soil. Someone commented that they'd found vermiculite (a necessary component of the soil in Mel's system) difficult to find. Here in the UK it is very, very easy to get. Any garden centre has it, and many mail order garden supply companies (eg Thompson & Morgen) stock it also.Just one tip: My husband carefully made the necessary raised beds for me, which I then had to carefully paint, avoiding any area that the soil would touch. And then discovered that we could have made them with link-a-board kits much more easily and cheaply! I'll order these online for any future square foot beds, and just make the grid to go over them.As mother of a 3 year old who loves to 'help' me in the garden, I really liked Mel's suggestion that one or more of the square feet sections be given to a child as their garden, with their name written on the grid, making it managable and exciting for the child.One last point. At the time of writing this review (and when I ordered), Amazon is bundling this book with Cubed Foot Gardening. I ordered the bundle and was very disappointed. The other book is simply an older, much more difficult to follow version of this book. The only difference (apart from ease of understanding and applying) is that this one contains a token reference to flowers, to show that you can grow them also using this system. Save your money - just get this book.

I bought this book a few years ago, when I decided to try and grow my veggies, without any previous experience. It is very clear, very practical, and I have used its method since then with great success. Apart from the general method, the book has good basic information about most common vegetables, and really useful tables about when to plant what, based on your local frost dates. For me, it really did what it promises: teach me to grow plenty of lovely vegetables in a small space and with little work.

This is a terrific book which makes you reconsider your whole approach to gardening. I had to do this because of changed garden circumstances. This is my first season using his method, and I'm very impressed. It reduces to some very simple concepts - raised beds, a specific growing mixture, close planting, demarcated areas for each vegetable. The author is a retired American engineer who likes things to be done to precise specifications and ideally using the cheapest materials. That you can take or leave - but the basic concepts are excellent, and very clearly explained.

I love this book. It's interesting, informative. "Mel says" and penny pinchers are brilliant tips. Well written with good illustrations. As a mobility challenged senior citizen late to gardening it's great to have a way to be able to garden as the years roll on.

I bought this to replace the original version which I loaned out and never got back.There are some new, very well thought out techniques and ideas. The layout/ format has been improved and it makes for very easy reading. Very impressed and very pleased!