The Edible Container Garden: Fresh Food from Tiny Spaces - Michael Guerra

The Edible Container Garden is written for people who want to grow their own healthy fruit and vegetables, but only have a small space in which to do so. It's written by a man, Michael Guerra, who has done just that - and you can see exactly how because the author has included photos of his suburban garden, a plan and a description of how the garden evolved over the first few years.

This is a book about organic gardening. Chapter 1 takes you through the basics of looking at the possibilities of your space and making a proper design for the garden. Next there is everything you need to know about soil and compost, water and containers. Hard landscaping is also covered and there's advice on keeping your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Chapter 2 is more eclectic, with sections on tools, pruning and supporting structures, but also on techniques like catch cropping and rotation. Various types of garden are examined (roofs, windowsills, patios, balconies) along with weeds and pests.

Chapter 3 gets down to the plants, with detailed growing instructions for a wide range of vegetables, fruits and herbs that will grow well in containers or in small spaces and be productive. It's not an exhaustive list, but it's a good place to start and all of the familiar kitchen garden crops as well as some more unusual salad plants.

This is a very thorough and detailed book that will allow you to plan, build and maintain a kitchen garden in a small space that provides an amazing amount of food throughout the year. It follows permaculture principles, meaning that the end result is as low maintenance and environmentally friendly as possible.

There are beautiful and inspiring colour photos throughout (the author's garden is only one of many gardens featured) and although this book is detailed enough for a beginner, there's enough here to keep an expert kitchen gardener dipping in as well.