How to Grow Food : A Step-by-Step Guide to Growing All Kinds of Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs, Salads and More

A comprehensive, no-nonsense guide to kitchen gardening on any scale.

How to Grow Food is a complete illustrated guide to the hundreds of plants that are easy to grow in the home garden. The author emphasizes gardening techniques that can be applied to any size of garden, from a window box to a side yard to the biggest backyard.

This practical book features a comprehensive directory of recommended plants to suit all growing conditions in all regions. Thorough instructions and a month-by-month calendar of tasks describe how to cultivate more than 125 crops, from traditional choices to more unusual varieties. Gardeners can choose from roots and tubers; leafy crops; seed and fruit crops; grains; peppers and chilies; stem and flower crops; tree fruits; soft, bush and cane fruits; tender fruits; nuts; herbs; and edible flowers.

How to Grow Food's clear instructions and reliable advice includes the use of organic and biodynamic gardening methods. Some of the topics covered are:

• Types of gardens and choosing the best site
• Designing, preparing and planting a productive garden
• Maximizing the use of space, such as vertical planting and fruit cages
• Harvesting, storing and preserving
• Training and pruning plants for maximum yield
• Tools, pests, weeds and growing from seed
• Helpful dos and don'ts
• Plant ratings related to variety, value, maintenance and season
• The author's special selection of star plants

Richard Gianfrancesco is a plant scientist and gardening book author. He has coordinated hundreds of garden plant tests and trials, which have been published internationally.