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

Gianfrancesco, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1554078067 ISBN 13: 9781554078066

Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

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

About this title

Review

[Review of hardcover edition] Filled with rich illustrations and photographs, this book will appeal to a wide range of gardeners, making this a useful book for all types of public libraries.--Shannon Graff Hysell"American Reference Books Annual 2012" (04/03/2012)

[Review of hardcover edition] Richard Gianfrancesco, plant scientist, has written a complete book on growing food. With a scientific attention to facts, he has produced a book that covers every aspect of growing fruits and vegetables. The book has four parts: site selection, a growing directory, core information on basic techniques of growing, and preserving your crop. The growing directory, the main portion of the book, rates each beautifully photographed plant on its monetary value, maintenance, and freeze/store capability. A summary of sowing details, and the author's crop ratings are accessible in easy form. The book includes, with appetizing pictures, recipes for chutney, pickles, plum jam, and tarragon and orange jelly.--Adele Kleine"Chicago Botanic Garden" (06/30/2011)

[Review of hardcover edition] Thorough is the word to describe this user-friendly guide... How to Grow Food combines eminent practicality with great visual appeal.--Helen Chesnut"Victoria Times-Colonist" (03/12/2011)

[Review of hardcover edition] This is a gorgeous book, full of photos and drawings both pretty and useful, and Gianfrancesco packs in a lot of textual information as well.--Erica H. Smith"Washington Gardener" (06/01/2011)

By Richard Gianfrancesco, who is a plant scientist who has co-ordinated hundreds of garden plant tests and trials, which have been published in magazines and online... Here he appeals to those who want to "eat local," whether from their window box or from a large backyard (maybe as much as one-third of the North American population?). He has some good principles about organic gardening, soil management, composting, weeds and pests, pruning, growing from seed, buying plants, and growing in containers. In fact, his title should really be "How to Grow Real Food." The main section is a plant-by-plant analysis for growing. He begins with veggies and salads (potato, sweet potato, onion, lettuces, herbs, etc. -- about 64 in all), continuing with 22 fruits and three nuts. At the end are some ideas on preserving the crop (jams, jellies, pickles, chutneys, drying, and freezing). There's also a sowing summary, a crop selection summary, and a list of hardiness zones. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements... and there is a good explanation on how to use the book, at the front.--Dean Tudor"Gothic Epicures" (05/18/2014)

About the Author

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1554078067
• ISBN 13: 9781554078066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256