One Magic Square Vegetable Gardening

Book excerpt: This 2nd edition of the classic gardening guide features more than 40 small garden designs for everything from stir-fry vegetables to anti-cancer foods. For decades, Lolo Houbein has cultivated her own organic fruits, vegetables and herbs from small gardens of no more than 3 feet square. Now she shows readers how to reap an abundant harvest from a tiny plot of land. One Magic Square features plot designs geared toward specific themes, like soups, salads, and starchy staples, as well as plots of edible flowers, and antioxidant-rich foods—with encyclopedic information about every crop in every plot. With wisdom and humor, Lolo shares sustainable, cost-effective techniques for using compost, saving water, troubleshooting weeds and pests and more. She also offers tips on drying, freezing, pickling, and other ways to get more value and enjoyment from your homegrown produce. Ever encouraging, often charming, and always practical, this expanded second edition of One Magic Square Vegetable Gardening will help first-time gardeners get started—and help veteran gardeners get results—on a small, easy-to-maintain plot.