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Grow More Food: A Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Getting the Biggest Harvest Possible from a Space of Any Size
Just how productive can one small vegetable garden be? More productive than one might think! Colin McCrate and Brad Halm, former CSA growers and current owners of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, help readers boost their garden productivity by teaching them how to plan carefully, maximize production in every bed, get the most out of every plant, scale up systems to maximize efficiency, and expand the harvest season with succession planting, intercropping, and season extension.
Along with chapters devoted to the Five Tenets of a Productive Gardener (Plan Well to Get the Most from Your Garden; Maximize Production in Each Bed; Get the Most out of Every Plant; Scale up Tools and Systems for Efficiency; and Expand and Extend the Harvest), the book contains interactive tools that home gardeners can use to assist them in determining how, when, and what to plant; evaluating crop health; and planning and storing the harvest. For today's vegetable gardeners who want to grow as much of their own food as possible, this guide offers expert advice and strategies for cultivating a garden that supplies what they need.
Along with chapters devoted to the Five Tenets of a Productive Gardener (Plan Well to Get the Most from Your Garden; Maximize Production in Each Bed; Get the Most out of Every Plant; Scale up Tools and Systems for Efficiency; and Expand and Extend the Harvest), the book contains interactive tools that home gardeners can use to assist them in determining how, when, and what to plant; evaluating crop health; and planning and storing the harvest. For today's vegetable gardeners who want to grow as much of their own food as possible, this guide offers expert advice and strategies for cultivating a garden that supplies what they need.
302 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 1, 2022
24 people are currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Colin McCrate
3 books5 followersColin has been growing food organically for the past 15 years. He worked on a variety of small farms in the Midwest before moving to the west coast in 2003 to teach garden-based environmental education. He founded the Seattle Urban Farm Company in January of 2007 with the goal of applying years of horticultural and agricultural expertise to help aspiring growers get projects off the ground or more accurately; in the ground: so he bought a truck, grabbed a shovel and got to work.
Over the past seven years, he has helped guide hundreds of urban farmers through the design, construction and management of their own edible landscape. He works with clients through the entire design/build process because he believes that cohesion and attention to detail are what make each project unique and successful. He prides himself on creating environmentally responsible and long-lasting garden elements. Sourcing quality materials and locally adapted plants ensures the long-term health and beauty of these landscapes. The author of two books; Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard(Mountaineers Books, 2012) and The High-Yield Garden Planner (Storey Publishing, 2015); Colin believes that there will always be more to learn and share of his experiences.
Colin thrives on pioneering new ideas and empowering city dwellers to reap the rewards of local food production. He believes that sustainable urban agriculture can promote healthy diets, environmental stewardship, stronger communities and improved quality of life. He hopes that developing economically sound, city-based farming ventures will increase public awareness of agricultural issues and foster a greater appreciation of farmers everywhere.
Over the past seven years, he has helped guide hundreds of urban farmers through the design, construction and management of their own edible landscape. He works with clients through the entire design/build process because he believes that cohesion and attention to detail are what make each project unique and successful. He prides himself on creating environmentally responsible and long-lasting garden elements. Sourcing quality materials and locally adapted plants ensures the long-term health and beauty of these landscapes. The author of two books; Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard(Mountaineers Books, 2012) and The High-Yield Garden Planner (Storey Publishing, 2015); Colin believes that there will always be more to learn and share of his experiences.
Colin thrives on pioneering new ideas and empowering city dwellers to reap the rewards of local food production. He believes that sustainable urban agriculture can promote healthy diets, environmental stewardship, stronger communities and improved quality of life. He hopes that developing economically sound, city-based farming ventures will increase public awareness of agricultural issues and foster a greater appreciation of farmers everywhere.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
September 5, 2021
This is an incredibly thorough and helpful gardening book that covers everything you can think of to make the most out of your home garden. It's borderline overwhelming but in the best way. Full color photos and charts are in abundance. Definitely recommended.
Thanks to Net Galley for a temporary digital ARC for review purposes.
Thanks to Net Galley for a temporary digital ARC for review purposes.
May 17, 2022
This book, Grow More Food, is an updated version of the authors’ 2015 book, High Yield Vegetable Gardening. I have been a big fan of that book since it was published. This book has much the same content but is a larger format with color photos and a larger print size.
Some of the content has been rearranged into a different, more logical, order, (athough a good index does make all topics findable). Some of the more technical or professional terms have been changed from the earlier book. “High yield” has become “productive”. The real or fictional example gardeners have almost disappeared, although drawings of their gardens live on.
If you have High Yield Vegetable Gardening and like it a lot, as I do, you probably don’t need to buy Grow More Food, unless as a gift for a friend, or if you are going to relegate the old version to the greenhouse or shed as a quick reference work. You may like to have the bigger print and the more informative and inspiring color photos in your house for periods of longer contemplation and planning. The new one, however, does not have the lay-flat spiral binding of the old one. The book is definitely a good one to keep on hand, in one version or the other.
The authors founded Seattle Urban Farm Company in 2007, and have been running it since, helping more people grow food. Their focus is to ‘find joy in the simple pleasure of doing a little better each season.” Here they are bringing proven professional techniques for bigger harvests to vegetable gardeners on any scale. The information is presented very clearly, without jargon, so that home gardeners will easily benefit. As I said in my review of High Yield Vegetable Gardening, this also provides newbie professional growers with solid information on techniques that work, without the need to understand everything at once.
These are gardeners after my own heart. Here are details you will benefit from knowing and putting into practice, which are not found in many gardening books: interpreting and using soil tests, choosing onion varieties that work at your latitude, succession planting for continuous harvests, flame-weeding, making soil block mix of the right consistency, dealing with salt build-up in greenhouse soils, minimizing nitrate accumulation in winter greens under cover. There are lots of useful charts.
This edition has more emphasis on building and maintaining good soil, and includes sidebars that dig deep into particular topics such as providing onion flavors all year, making space dedicated to perennial vegetables, converting farm-scale soil amendment rates to garden-scale ones, setting transplants at different depths, hand pollination of cucurbits, and the role of ethylene in crop storage.
The sequence of topics starts with clarifying your garden priorities, planning and record keeping: “It’s no exaggeration to say that a detailed garden plan alone can double or triple the productivity of a garden.” There’s help in choosing the right size of garden for your needs, experience and available time. Next, create a map or drawing of the garden site, including buildings, paving and trees, and consider which crops to grow. The chart of annual crops includes days to harvest and whether to direct sow or transplant. This enables gardeners to compare short-season crops, long-season crops and those in between, to plan food for the whole season; and sequential follow-on crops to make best use of all your space.
Once you’ve figured which crops to grow, how much of each to plant, when (and how often) to plant them, you can create your planting calendar. There are options for format, and a real-life example with arugula. This is followed with a sample section of a planting calendar with harvest tracker and room for notes for next year.
The next big question is “Where?” Make a map of your garden and think about a crop rotation to help you get the best yields by avoiding planting the same crop in the same place each year. A two-year rotation simply has two groups of crops and two beds or plots that flip each year. A three-year rotation can consider which crops need heavy feeding and follow two years of heavy feeders with one of light feeders. Also, if you don’t have soil-borne diseases, consider the counter-intuitive idea of following brassicas with brassicas in the spring and fall of a year, and avoiding brassicas in that bed for the next two or three years. For gardeners like me who grow a lot of brassicas, this makes planning a rotation easier. As well as an overall map of the whole garden, make a planting schedule for each bed, with space to write things down.
A pest and disease management log is another useful piece of record-keeping. It will remind you when to be on the lookout for particular problems, and what strategies worked for you previously. A garden log or diary with entries each day you garden can end with a To-Do list, including things to buy, and watch for.
And that’s just the first part of five. The second is about building healthy soil, providing a diverse ecosystem, high nutrient-level crops and big harvests. There’s information on making boxed beds, if you want to go in that direction, or lasagna beds, where organic materials are piled in layers, and tilled beds incorporating amendments. Tarping (covering soil with tarps to smother weeds) is also discussed. Mulches for pathways are compared. There is a very clear description of taking, submitting and understanding results from soil tests, accompanied by an annotated soil report.
There are clear instructions on making quality compost, buying compost, improving soil with cover crops, and mulching over winter. This chapter includes a manageable chart of “beginner” cover crops (buckwheat, four clovers, peas, vetch, mustard, oats and winter rye). Then comes the weed-reduction chapter. Strategies include dealing with weeds while they are small and seed-free, hoeing (photos of various types, with pros and cons), flaming (good safety tips here!), tarping and mulch.
Part 3 is Get to Know Your Plants – “Grow More Food by Planting the Right Varieties at the Right Time with the Best Care.” Smart gardening, with no wasted effort. Choose suitable varieties (open pollinated ones and hybrids) to match your climate and your goals. Order sensible quantities, store leftovers carefully (cool, dry, dark, airtight, mouse-proof) for use next year. There’s a two-page chart of Seed Lifespan, including parsnips and peanuts, something for every climate. Seed treatments to improve yields are covered, including soaking, scarification and inoculation.
The chapter on transplanting and direct seeding advises on which technique works for which crops. There’s information about supporting plants, from hilling up with soil, to making trellises. Supplemental fertilizers (during the growing season) are useful for some crops, not needed for others (the lists are in the book). The general theme is that heavy feeders and fast-growing crops will benefit. There’s an interesting section on pruning for production, including for good air circulation; for delaying bolting; for encouraging earlier harvests (by root pruning); and removing late flowers to focus energy on maturing fruits already formed.
The goal of managing pests and diseases is not to eliminate them all, but to control levels by cooperating with and stimulating natural processes that restore balance. This process starts with preventing problems, and ramps up if this does not succeed well enough. Develop good soil; attract beneficial insects; use rowcover or netting to keep expected insect pests from vulnerable crops; use deterrent sprays such a baking soda, hot pepper, garlic, kaolin clay for various problems; bring in beneficial organisms.
To nip any problems in the bud, it is important to monitor or scout your gardens at least once a week, looking for problems. Distinguish problems caused by extreme temperatures and water shortage from those caused by pests and diseases. Find good ID resources. You may be able to hand pick or trap enough pests to make the difference between a damaging outbreak and a trivial level. The authors explain why it is unwise to rush for the sprayer. Sprays are a last resort, even organic ones, because they may kill unintended insects, and they leave some of the pests alive to develop resistance, making that spray ineffective in the long run. There’s a two-page chart for pest and disease management strategies.
Part 4 is entitled Create Efficient Systems. It describes how to use your resources well, so time, money and space are not wasted, and you get the best from your efforts. Set up a home nursery to grow your own transplants, and plant the varieties you want in the quantities you want, to fit your schedule. Here are details on light intensity and where on the color spectrum the light should fall. You may be surprised just how much light plants need. For overall plant growth, general full-spectrum lights are just fine for a nursery, where the plants are headed outdoors to the natural source. Growing plants to maturity indoors is another (costly) matter.
The photos on making soil blocks are very helpful, and it’s a topic not covered in many places. Various types of plant container are covered. Making your own seed-starting schedule is explained. There’s info on propagating from cuttings, grafting with silicone clips, and watering or misting tiny plants. The next chapter covers irrigation of more kinds: drip systems (good description and photos for newbies) and sprinklers (including oscillating lawn-type sprinklers, wobblers, impact sprinklers and microsprinklers). This section will clear up a lot of confusion. Whichever you choose, make yourself an irrigation map, helping ensure you run pipelines and hoses along the best route, and set up sensible zones. Designs that minimize the need to move equipment around during the growing season will preserve your sanity and sense of well-being.
Part 5 is Extend and Expand the Harvest. This includes storage. Good techniques and timely harvesting let you get the most food from your crops, and eat them at peak quality and flavor. Extending the growing season includes starting as early as possible, finishing as late as possible, helping crops get through hot weather as well as cold, and planting successions to give you a seamless harvest through the growing season. Try crops you have not grown before.
The section on choosing protective structures will help you think about the pros and cons, costs and benefits of low tunnels (with rowcover or clear plastic), cold frames, greenhouses, high tunnels (also called hoophouses), and combinations of low tunnels inside high tunnels. If you are undecided on this topic, Grow More Food could save you from buying the wrong thing and wasting many times its cover price. And it could save you the big disappointment of not getting the harvests you hoped for. Consider not just cost but also ease of use (let’s enjoy our gardening!), suitability for your climate, and gained productivity. Glass greenhouses and greenhouse heating are often not cost-effective, and heating brings environmental costs too.
When weighing up design features, do the math for your own situation. I dislike the “comb” greenhouse bed design because it doesn’t work so well with drip tape. The authors say it maximizes usable space. But the difference is very small and the disadvantages are several. You lose the staging area of the lengthwise beds design. Many gardening books neglect methods of summer cooling, but the climate emergency is upon us. Here you will find good ideas about shade cloth and using overhead irrigation for cooling.
The next chapter is about timely harvesting and successful storage. Remember when planning your garden to think about how much food you can use, including not just how much your household can eat, but also how much time you have each week for harvesting and storage. There is a good discussion about becoming a skilled harvester. For each likely crop there is a short description of which part to harvest, and how to recognize maturity.
Next is a section on harvesting “hidden” crops – extra harvests form your garden: weeds, less usual parts of crop plants, such as flowers, garlic scapes, carrot leaves, pea shoots and tendrils, and sweet potato leaves. You can harvest more food from the same plants by choosing varieties that provide multiple harvests (loose leaf crops, broccoli side shoots, turnip and beet greens and roots).
There’s a bit on washing crops, and food safety. Then harvesting for maximum freshness and quality, and storage, short and long term. Not everything should be refrigerated! Onions, garlic, winter squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes need to be cured before long-term storage. Be sure to get the details right, or you could have big losses. There is a 4-page chart of storage conditions for various crops. Although I agree with the authors on almost everything they write, I wouldn’t wipe down winter squash with bleach. I’ve never found it necessary.
At the end of the book are worksheets you can photocopy and use. Or you can download them from Seattle Urban Farm. They include a Crop Amount Worksheet, Planting Calendar Worksheet, Planting Dates Worksheet, and Garden Planning Chart. The website also has sample log pages for a specific bed, for the garden as a whole, a pest and disease management log, harvest log, and planting calendar with harvest tracking.
There is a resource section and I was particularly happy to find two resources for non-toxic wood preservatives for garden use. The index looks very thorough – 21 columns for 300 pages.
The Seattle Urban Farm Company has a blog and a podcast, and their Projects page will give you lots of ideas on garden layout and design. Their shop sells training sessions, webinars, and individual coaching.
Some of the content has been rearranged into a different, more logical, order, (athough a good index does make all topics findable). Some of the more technical or professional terms have been changed from the earlier book. “High yield” has become “productive”. The real or fictional example gardeners have almost disappeared, although drawings of their gardens live on.
If you have High Yield Vegetable Gardening and like it a lot, as I do, you probably don’t need to buy Grow More Food, unless as a gift for a friend, or if you are going to relegate the old version to the greenhouse or shed as a quick reference work. You may like to have the bigger print and the more informative and inspiring color photos in your house for periods of longer contemplation and planning. The new one, however, does not have the lay-flat spiral binding of the old one. The book is definitely a good one to keep on hand, in one version or the other.
The authors founded Seattle Urban Farm Company in 2007, and have been running it since, helping more people grow food. Their focus is to ‘find joy in the simple pleasure of doing a little better each season.” Here they are bringing proven professional techniques for bigger harvests to vegetable gardeners on any scale. The information is presented very clearly, without jargon, so that home gardeners will easily benefit. As I said in my review of High Yield Vegetable Gardening, this also provides newbie professional growers with solid information on techniques that work, without the need to understand everything at once.
These are gardeners after my own heart. Here are details you will benefit from knowing and putting into practice, which are not found in many gardening books: interpreting and using soil tests, choosing onion varieties that work at your latitude, succession planting for continuous harvests, flame-weeding, making soil block mix of the right consistency, dealing with salt build-up in greenhouse soils, minimizing nitrate accumulation in winter greens under cover. There are lots of useful charts.
This edition has more emphasis on building and maintaining good soil, and includes sidebars that dig deep into particular topics such as providing onion flavors all year, making space dedicated to perennial vegetables, converting farm-scale soil amendment rates to garden-scale ones, setting transplants at different depths, hand pollination of cucurbits, and the role of ethylene in crop storage.
The sequence of topics starts with clarifying your garden priorities, planning and record keeping: “It’s no exaggeration to say that a detailed garden plan alone can double or triple the productivity of a garden.” There’s help in choosing the right size of garden for your needs, experience and available time. Next, create a map or drawing of the garden site, including buildings, paving and trees, and consider which crops to grow. The chart of annual crops includes days to harvest and whether to direct sow or transplant. This enables gardeners to compare short-season crops, long-season crops and those in between, to plan food for the whole season; and sequential follow-on crops to make best use of all your space.
Once you’ve figured which crops to grow, how much of each to plant, when (and how often) to plant them, you can create your planting calendar. There are options for format, and a real-life example with arugula. This is followed with a sample section of a planting calendar with harvest tracker and room for notes for next year.
The next big question is “Where?” Make a map of your garden and think about a crop rotation to help you get the best yields by avoiding planting the same crop in the same place each year. A two-year rotation simply has two groups of crops and two beds or plots that flip each year. A three-year rotation can consider which crops need heavy feeding and follow two years of heavy feeders with one of light feeders. Also, if you don’t have soil-borne diseases, consider the counter-intuitive idea of following brassicas with brassicas in the spring and fall of a year, and avoiding brassicas in that bed for the next two or three years. For gardeners like me who grow a lot of brassicas, this makes planning a rotation easier. As well as an overall map of the whole garden, make a planting schedule for each bed, with space to write things down.
A pest and disease management log is another useful piece of record-keeping. It will remind you when to be on the lookout for particular problems, and what strategies worked for you previously. A garden log or diary with entries each day you garden can end with a To-Do list, including things to buy, and watch for.
And that’s just the first part of five. The second is about building healthy soil, providing a diverse ecosystem, high nutrient-level crops and big harvests. There’s information on making boxed beds, if you want to go in that direction, or lasagna beds, where organic materials are piled in layers, and tilled beds incorporating amendments. Tarping (covering soil with tarps to smother weeds) is also discussed. Mulches for pathways are compared. There is a very clear description of taking, submitting and understanding results from soil tests, accompanied by an annotated soil report.
There are clear instructions on making quality compost, buying compost, improving soil with cover crops, and mulching over winter. This chapter includes a manageable chart of “beginner” cover crops (buckwheat, four clovers, peas, vetch, mustard, oats and winter rye). Then comes the weed-reduction chapter. Strategies include dealing with weeds while they are small and seed-free, hoeing (photos of various types, with pros and cons), flaming (good safety tips here!), tarping and mulch.
Part 3 is Get to Know Your Plants – “Grow More Food by Planting the Right Varieties at the Right Time with the Best Care.” Smart gardening, with no wasted effort. Choose suitable varieties (open pollinated ones and hybrids) to match your climate and your goals. Order sensible quantities, store leftovers carefully (cool, dry, dark, airtight, mouse-proof) for use next year. There’s a two-page chart of Seed Lifespan, including parsnips and peanuts, something for every climate. Seed treatments to improve yields are covered, including soaking, scarification and inoculation.
The chapter on transplanting and direct seeding advises on which technique works for which crops. There’s information about supporting plants, from hilling up with soil, to making trellises. Supplemental fertilizers (during the growing season) are useful for some crops, not needed for others (the lists are in the book). The general theme is that heavy feeders and fast-growing crops will benefit. There’s an interesting section on pruning for production, including for good air circulation; for delaying bolting; for encouraging earlier harvests (by root pruning); and removing late flowers to focus energy on maturing fruits already formed.
The goal of managing pests and diseases is not to eliminate them all, but to control levels by cooperating with and stimulating natural processes that restore balance. This process starts with preventing problems, and ramps up if this does not succeed well enough. Develop good soil; attract beneficial insects; use rowcover or netting to keep expected insect pests from vulnerable crops; use deterrent sprays such a baking soda, hot pepper, garlic, kaolin clay for various problems; bring in beneficial organisms.
To nip any problems in the bud, it is important to monitor or scout your gardens at least once a week, looking for problems. Distinguish problems caused by extreme temperatures and water shortage from those caused by pests and diseases. Find good ID resources. You may be able to hand pick or trap enough pests to make the difference between a damaging outbreak and a trivial level. The authors explain why it is unwise to rush for the sprayer. Sprays are a last resort, even organic ones, because they may kill unintended insects, and they leave some of the pests alive to develop resistance, making that spray ineffective in the long run. There’s a two-page chart for pest and disease management strategies.
Part 4 is entitled Create Efficient Systems. It describes how to use your resources well, so time, money and space are not wasted, and you get the best from your efforts. Set up a home nursery to grow your own transplants, and plant the varieties you want in the quantities you want, to fit your schedule. Here are details on light intensity and where on the color spectrum the light should fall. You may be surprised just how much light plants need. For overall plant growth, general full-spectrum lights are just fine for a nursery, where the plants are headed outdoors to the natural source. Growing plants to maturity indoors is another (costly) matter.
The photos on making soil blocks are very helpful, and it’s a topic not covered in many places. Various types of plant container are covered. Making your own seed-starting schedule is explained. There’s info on propagating from cuttings, grafting with silicone clips, and watering or misting tiny plants. The next chapter covers irrigation of more kinds: drip systems (good description and photos for newbies) and sprinklers (including oscillating lawn-type sprinklers, wobblers, impact sprinklers and microsprinklers). This section will clear up a lot of confusion. Whichever you choose, make yourself an irrigation map, helping ensure you run pipelines and hoses along the best route, and set up sensible zones. Designs that minimize the need to move equipment around during the growing season will preserve your sanity and sense of well-being.
Part 5 is Extend and Expand the Harvest. This includes storage. Good techniques and timely harvesting let you get the most food from your crops, and eat them at peak quality and flavor. Extending the growing season includes starting as early as possible, finishing as late as possible, helping crops get through hot weather as well as cold, and planting successions to give you a seamless harvest through the growing season. Try crops you have not grown before.
The section on choosing protective structures will help you think about the pros and cons, costs and benefits of low tunnels (with rowcover or clear plastic), cold frames, greenhouses, high tunnels (also called hoophouses), and combinations of low tunnels inside high tunnels. If you are undecided on this topic, Grow More Food could save you from buying the wrong thing and wasting many times its cover price. And it could save you the big disappointment of not getting the harvests you hoped for. Consider not just cost but also ease of use (let’s enjoy our gardening!), suitability for your climate, and gained productivity. Glass greenhouses and greenhouse heating are often not cost-effective, and heating brings environmental costs too.
When weighing up design features, do the math for your own situation. I dislike the “comb” greenhouse bed design because it doesn’t work so well with drip tape. The authors say it maximizes usable space. But the difference is very small and the disadvantages are several. You lose the staging area of the lengthwise beds design. Many gardening books neglect methods of summer cooling, but the climate emergency is upon us. Here you will find good ideas about shade cloth and using overhead irrigation for cooling.
The next chapter is about timely harvesting and successful storage. Remember when planning your garden to think about how much food you can use, including not just how much your household can eat, but also how much time you have each week for harvesting and storage. There is a good discussion about becoming a skilled harvester. For each likely crop there is a short description of which part to harvest, and how to recognize maturity.
Next is a section on harvesting “hidden” crops – extra harvests form your garden: weeds, less usual parts of crop plants, such as flowers, garlic scapes, carrot leaves, pea shoots and tendrils, and sweet potato leaves. You can harvest more food from the same plants by choosing varieties that provide multiple harvests (loose leaf crops, broccoli side shoots, turnip and beet greens and roots).
There’s a bit on washing crops, and food safety. Then harvesting for maximum freshness and quality, and storage, short and long term. Not everything should be refrigerated! Onions, garlic, winter squash, potatoes and sweet potatoes need to be cured before long-term storage. Be sure to get the details right, or you could have big losses. There is a 4-page chart of storage conditions for various crops. Although I agree with the authors on almost everything they write, I wouldn’t wipe down winter squash with bleach. I’ve never found it necessary.
At the end of the book are worksheets you can photocopy and use. Or you can download them from Seattle Urban Farm. They include a Crop Amount Worksheet, Planting Calendar Worksheet, Planting Dates Worksheet, and Garden Planning Chart. The website also has sample log pages for a specific bed, for the garden as a whole, a pest and disease management log, harvest log, and planting calendar with harvest tracking.
There is a resource section and I was particularly happy to find two resources for non-toxic wood preservatives for garden use. The index looks very thorough – 21 columns for 300 pages.
The Seattle Urban Farm Company has a blog and a podcast, and their Projects page will give you lots of ideas on garden layout and design. Their shop sells training sessions, webinars, and individual coaching.
February 18, 2024
Even a seasoned gardner is always looking for ways to make their efforts more productive. This book actually taught this old dog a couple of tricks. It's well worth your time to read and investigate the methods implemented by these successful gardeners.
September 8, 2021
Tons of great ideas and lots of useful info in here - I bookmarked a bunch of pages and plan to refer to them when preparing my seeds, soil and garden plans for next year.
August 18, 2024
.5 for writing quality
1 star for premise
1 star for research
1 star for impact
1 star for liking it
This is really useful and just right for my gardening skill level!
1 star for premise
1 star for research
1 star for impact
1 star for liking it
This is really useful and just right for my gardening skill level!
August 18, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC. Review is my own.
Grow More Food is a fantastic gardening book. But first, I want to address something I hope is just the previews/ARC: the Netgalley app version looks great! But the kindle version has some weird layout issues. I hope that's fixed, but I know kindle layouts can be...unique.
That said, I want to own this book. I garden currently, and I have recently moved into a house. My garden is currently smallish, but in time, I would love to expand it and grow even more. Vegetables are my favored plant, so this book is perfect. It's everything I wish I'd had starting out in one place when beginning my gardening adventure back at my old apartments. Grow More Food advises on seed selection, scaling up your garden size, how to create healthy soil, deal with pests, when to start crops, and how to rotate them. Everything has useful charts, tables, and pictures. It's great for beginners, and very thorough without being overwhelming. It's also got a variety of things I haven't tried to delve into - more "advanced" gardening techniques - like drip irritation, mini-green house propagation, and so on.
I'm very excited for this to come out - in time for spring 2022 gardening!
Grow More Food is a fantastic gardening book. But first, I want to address something I hope is just the previews/ARC: the Netgalley app version looks great! But the kindle version has some weird layout issues. I hope that's fixed, but I know kindle layouts can be...unique.
That said, I want to own this book. I garden currently, and I have recently moved into a house. My garden is currently smallish, but in time, I would love to expand it and grow even more. Vegetables are my favored plant, so this book is perfect. It's everything I wish I'd had starting out in one place when beginning my gardening adventure back at my old apartments. Grow More Food advises on seed selection, scaling up your garden size, how to create healthy soil, deal with pests, when to start crops, and how to rotate them. Everything has useful charts, tables, and pictures. It's great for beginners, and very thorough without being overwhelming. It's also got a variety of things I haven't tried to delve into - more "advanced" gardening techniques - like drip irritation, mini-green house propagation, and so on.
I'm very excited for this to come out - in time for spring 2022 gardening!
August 4, 2021
Read this review and more on my blog, uncovered-books.
I received a free copy of Grow More Food from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.
A lot more people are starting to get interested in how to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Having a one-stop-book for how to get started, or to improve your current setup, is a great way to improve your knowledge and improve your garden.
Grow More Food is separated into 5 seperate sections, as well as a handy garden planning worksheets and charts. Each chapter actually does give you tips and ides depending on the size of your own fruit and vegetable garden, what size is best to start at, and also how to scale up your garden if you would like to in the future.
The first section is around planning ahead and keeping records. You are walked through how to map out your garden from your current setup, and how to plan to rotate your crops.
The second section is all about building healthy soil. How to best prepare your soil for planting, as well as how to maintain the quality of your soil are very important aspects of gardening that are easily explained in this section.
The third section is about getting to know your plants. How to select seedlings, which seedling are better as to be transplanted or can be directly seeded into your garden give you the best chance at having an amazing growing season. Also you get to know the basics of how to manage pests and diseases here.
The fourth section is about creating efficient systems. This is the only section that I would say is more for the avid gardener. How to set up a home nursery and how to start your own transplants are more for the experienced gardeners, so once you get the experience at least you will know how to continue growing your garden.
The fifth section is about extending and expanding your harvest. Since crops grow seasonly, how to extend your growing season, as well as the best time to harvest, and more importantly, how to correctly store your harvest will have your crops lasting longer for you.
Finally, the included garden planning worksheets and charts are just super handy. A great quick reference if you are wanting to double check when to plant a certain crop, or how long they take to grow.
This is a one-stop book for all of your gardening knowledge, but it does not also overload you with too much information.
I received a free copy of Grow More Food from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.
A lot more people are starting to get interested in how to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Having a one-stop-book for how to get started, or to improve your current setup, is a great way to improve your knowledge and improve your garden.
Grow More Food is separated into 5 seperate sections, as well as a handy garden planning worksheets and charts. Each chapter actually does give you tips and ides depending on the size of your own fruit and vegetable garden, what size is best to start at, and also how to scale up your garden if you would like to in the future.
The first section is around planning ahead and keeping records. You are walked through how to map out your garden from your current setup, and how to plan to rotate your crops.
The second section is all about building healthy soil. How to best prepare your soil for planting, as well as how to maintain the quality of your soil are very important aspects of gardening that are easily explained in this section.
The third section is about getting to know your plants. How to select seedlings, which seedling are better as to be transplanted or can be directly seeded into your garden give you the best chance at having an amazing growing season. Also you get to know the basics of how to manage pests and diseases here.
The fourth section is about creating efficient systems. This is the only section that I would say is more for the avid gardener. How to set up a home nursery and how to start your own transplants are more for the experienced gardeners, so once you get the experience at least you will know how to continue growing your garden.
The fifth section is about extending and expanding your harvest. Since crops grow seasonly, how to extend your growing season, as well as the best time to harvest, and more importantly, how to correctly store your harvest will have your crops lasting longer for you.
Finally, the included garden planning worksheets and charts are just super handy. A great quick reference if you are wanting to double check when to plant a certain crop, or how long they take to grow.
This is a one-stop book for all of your gardening knowledge, but it does not also overload you with too much information.
January 11, 2022
Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Grow More Food is a tutorial and technique guide to maximizing yields for vegetable gardeners no matter what size garden they have. Due out 1st Feb 2022 from Storey, it's 304 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is such a well written and understandable guide to choosing the right varieties, planning for the seasons, succession plantings, and most of all maximizing production. The layout is logical and easy to follow and so much of what the authors say is so sensible. The chapters cover planning and record keeping, soil building, choosing the right varieties for the intended purpose (including a good subsection on hand pollination for max yields), setup propagation & irrigation, season extenders & storage.
The authors write knowledgeably and authoritatively. The chapters flow well into one another and I found it unnecessary to constantly flip back and forth, which was appreciated. The book is beautifully illustrated and photographed throughout. This book is full of lists, charts, worksheets, and notes for readers to customize and use in their unique situations. The authors do a good job of giving general advice which readers can pick and adjust. They've included a brief but useful resource list (aimed at readers in the USA/North America, but also usable by readers outside NA), as well as a short metric conversion chart and cross referenced index (not available in the pre-release ARC provided for review).
Five stars. This is a solidly reliable and beautiful guide which will certainly become a classic. I would recommend this one for public and school library acquisition, gardening and maker's groups, community garden/allotment libraries, or possibly as a nice gift for a young gardener bundled with some seeds and supplies and the promise of a few hours of help/mentoring. Many of the worksheets and charts will also be useful for smallholders and self-sufficiency gardeners.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Grow More Food is a tutorial and technique guide to maximizing yields for vegetable gardeners no matter what size garden they have. Due out 1st Feb 2022 from Storey, it's 304 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is such a well written and understandable guide to choosing the right varieties, planning for the seasons, succession plantings, and most of all maximizing production. The layout is logical and easy to follow and so much of what the authors say is so sensible. The chapters cover planning and record keeping, soil building, choosing the right varieties for the intended purpose (including a good subsection on hand pollination for max yields), setup propagation & irrigation, season extenders & storage.
The authors write knowledgeably and authoritatively. The chapters flow well into one another and I found it unnecessary to constantly flip back and forth, which was appreciated. The book is beautifully illustrated and photographed throughout. This book is full of lists, charts, worksheets, and notes for readers to customize and use in their unique situations. The authors do a good job of giving general advice which readers can pick and adjust. They've included a brief but useful resource list (aimed at readers in the USA/North America, but also usable by readers outside NA), as well as a short metric conversion chart and cross referenced index (not available in the pre-release ARC provided for review).
Five stars. This is a solidly reliable and beautiful guide which will certainly become a classic. I would recommend this one for public and school library acquisition, gardening and maker's groups, community garden/allotment libraries, or possibly as a nice gift for a young gardener bundled with some seeds and supplies and the promise of a few hours of help/mentoring. Many of the worksheets and charts will also be useful for smallholders and self-sufficiency gardeners.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
June 30, 2021
Wow… I hope we get this book a lot earlier than 2022! Wealth of information for any gardener to yield more from the crops they grow! Love the cover and blurb was very attractive.
What did I like? I was trapped in an apartment at the start of COVID but ended up buying myself an acre of land and a home. So I’m trying my first year of gardening right now. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be! This book was an absolute delight! The book entails where I would like to be in five years. This year I just threw seeds in the ground to get an idea of what would grow. I wish I would of had this book before that idea bloomed. Pumpkin plant alone took up half my garden and they are huge! The book helps with pretty much every aspect of gardening. I really love the plant beds and the drip irrigation. Also some really good information on yields of crop.
Would I recommend or buy? This guide is really for all types of gardening from novice to expert. I really enjoyed the information and I loved the diary pages. You really have your work cut out for you to be an excellent gardener. It’s definitely worth the effort! I can’t wait to buy a paper copy, I’m positive that it will be money well spent!
I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review! Five stars!
What did I like? I was trapped in an apartment at the start of COVID but ended up buying myself an acre of land and a home. So I’m trying my first year of gardening right now. It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be! This book was an absolute delight! The book entails where I would like to be in five years. This year I just threw seeds in the ground to get an idea of what would grow. I wish I would of had this book before that idea bloomed. Pumpkin plant alone took up half my garden and they are huge! The book helps with pretty much every aspect of gardening. I really love the plant beds and the drip irrigation. Also some really good information on yields of crop.
Would I recommend or buy? This guide is really for all types of gardening from novice to expert. I really enjoyed the information and I loved the diary pages. You really have your work cut out for you to be an excellent gardener. It’s definitely worth the effort! I can’t wait to buy a paper copy, I’m positive that it will be money well spent!
I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review! Five stars!
August 10, 2021
This was just what I needed as a failed vegetable gardener who moved on to herbs and wildflowers and want to try my hand again at vegetables. But there is so much to learn about picky vegetable plants that it seems intimidating. Indeed, I sometimes joke that I am a Gardner only in name.
This Gardening 101 book breaks down what you need to know, do, and have to grow edible plants at home. I learned so much and am eager to try out what I learned! From soil types, transplanting, watering, and when to harvest- this book covers it, and covers how to do it organically.
The focus of the book is maximizing the output of a home or small scale commercial garden. I found it helpful as a basic guide to get started with gardening for food. A few parts were not that helpful to me yet, like setting up a greenhouse or what irrigation system to use.
I appreciated the beautiful illustrations, many useful charts, and especially the authors' quirky humor.
I haven't read many gardening books (so can't compare this book with others) but I found it a good, helpful and easy read.
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This Gardening 101 book breaks down what you need to know, do, and have to grow edible plants at home. I learned so much and am eager to try out what I learned! From soil types, transplanting, watering, and when to harvest- this book covers it, and covers how to do it organically.
The focus of the book is maximizing the output of a home or small scale commercial garden. I found it helpful as a basic guide to get started with gardening for food. A few parts were not that helpful to me yet, like setting up a greenhouse or what irrigation system to use.
I appreciated the beautiful illustrations, many useful charts, and especially the authors' quirky humor.
I haven't read many gardening books (so can't compare this book with others) but I found it a good, helpful and easy read.
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
January 24, 2022
I am a gardener who normally grows ornamental plants. Last year my partner and I took on an allotment and although my background has helped me in planting and caring for the plot, I was feeling that I needed a bit of guidance in how to get more from it.
This book is brilliant for that, though written for the U.S market it gives good ideas on how to record your crops and work out windows when you might be able to squeeze in something extra. I’m slightly embarrassed to confess to being a bit of a spreadsheet geek and this book is definitely geared towards that. If available to the U.k market as a physical copy (which would make skipping through to find the information I was looking for easier) I would buy it.
The only negative I would say is that there is not enough about companion planting with flowering plants and herbs, organic methods and no-dig-all of which we are trying to employ and are becoming increasingly popular with gardeners worldwide. However this is not what the book is advertised as.
This book is brilliant for that, though written for the U.S market it gives good ideas on how to record your crops and work out windows when you might be able to squeeze in something extra. I’m slightly embarrassed to confess to being a bit of a spreadsheet geek and this book is definitely geared towards that. If available to the U.k market as a physical copy (which would make skipping through to find the information I was looking for easier) I would buy it.
The only negative I would say is that there is not enough about companion planting with flowering plants and herbs, organic methods and no-dig-all of which we are trying to employ and are becoming increasingly popular with gardeners worldwide. However this is not what the book is advertised as.
February 3, 2022
This is the absolute best gardening book that I have come across yet. The gardening advice is clearly written and supported by useful diagrams, pictures, and charts where needed. The information is well organized, making it easy to find specific information when wanting to refer to it again. Most important of all, the guidance is practical for the backyard gardener. There is a lot to take in though, so depending on the reader's gardening skills and knowledge, it may be best to apply a little at a time versus becoming overwhelmed and giving up. I am sure that I will be learning something new from this book each year. I am excited to start planning and am really looking forward to the upcoming growing season with this book at my fingertips. (Previously published under the title High Yield Vegetable Gardening.)
I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy from Storey Publishing via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.
I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy from Storey Publishing via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.
February 7, 2022
Grow More Food is written for serious gardeners. If you are an intermediate gardener and want to level up production, this book will help you do it. However, you should have at least two to three years of home gardening under your belt first. Alternatively, you can start here if you have the time and money to invest.
Grow More Food has advice for all types of edible gardening questions. There are worksheets for everything from planning to production notes. There are chapters on soil, irrigation, and propagation. It even explains how to graft two different vegetables together to improve production and/or pest tolerance. I learned a lot that isn’t in other gardening books. However, I did miss the page per vegetable format most of those books use. If you want to grow just a few, you will have to flip through the charts in various chapters. 4 stars!
Thanks to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
Grow More Food has advice for all types of edible gardening questions. There are worksheets for everything from planning to production notes. There are chapters on soil, irrigation, and propagation. It even explains how to graft two different vegetables together to improve production and/or pest tolerance. I learned a lot that isn’t in other gardening books. However, I did miss the page per vegetable format most of those books use. If you want to grow just a few, you will have to flip through the charts in various chapters. 4 stars!
Thanks to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.
March 2, 2023
One of the best, most complete and up-to-date books on growing a garden intensively, with plenty of helpful charts and suggestions for everything from planning for a year-long season harvest, choosing seeds, irrigation, season extension and soil improvement. As a teacher of gardening classes for my local community college, and having lived and gardened for nearly 50 years in an extremely challenging climate, I was pleased to add this book to my suggested reading list of my students. Despite the fact that the authors live in a climate zone almost as far-removed from mine as can be imagined, I found this book to be super useful, with adaptation, to gardening anywhere. Highly recommended for veteran gardeners and newbies alike!
August 15, 2021
This is by far the best gardening book I've read yet.
It covers everything you could need, and is explained the perfect amount. The information is also laid out simply.
Many gardening books have very little information given (random methods or terminology thrown out but not explained) or way too much info (useless junk put in to fill out the book). This book was neither of those. It was literally the perfect amount of info, the exact info you would need, and explained in a perfectly simply way.
Really, you could watch hours of gardening videos (like I did) or just read this book. It's literally the perfect gardening book.
It covers everything you could need, and is explained the perfect amount. The information is also laid out simply.
Many gardening books have very little information given (random methods or terminology thrown out but not explained) or way too much info (useless junk put in to fill out the book). This book was neither of those. It was literally the perfect amount of info, the exact info you would need, and explained in a perfectly simply way.
Really, you could watch hours of gardening videos (like I did) or just read this book. It's literally the perfect gardening book.
August 19, 2021
So far the best gardening book I have read. It's easy to follow and there's so much information but everything is well organized. I have added it to my to-buy list on Amazon so I can get it when it gets released. I have tried to grow my own food several times but I'm not that good at it so I'm hoping this book will help me out. It even explains how to harvest properly, which I haven't seen in other books. I definitely recommend this one. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review
May 14, 2023
I saw some reviews that said it's just a new edition of High-Yield Vegetable Garden. It's been a few years since I've read that book (I think I did review it here, and I have used it as a reference book), but I'd say that this book has a good introduction to some of the more efficient and and season-extending tools that growers are using these days.
I'll be looking for a used print edition for reference, since I read this one as an e-book. It's a great toofor figuring out your first and last planting dates.
I'll be looking for a used print edition for reference, since I read this one as an e-book. It's a great toofor figuring out your first and last planting dates.
September 21, 2021
Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me a chance to review this book! I have two small raised beds and am always trying to figure out how to fit more in them. This book gave me the opportunity to understand how to space out my vegetables so that I can have a continual crop throughout the summer and fall! If you have smaller containers for your vegetables this may be the book for you. Check it out!
January 11, 2022
This is a thorough and easily understood guide to growing your own food. I've been growing a bit of food every year for about 6 years, but curious as to why I wasn't getting the yields I did a few years ago. It turns out I was making a lot of mistakes and now I will be able to put the knowledge I learned while reading this book to use! A great resource - I will probably buy this book in a couple years when I feel like I can devote more time to growing food. A must buy for anyone wanting to put together a working food garden. I took 8 pages of notes while reading. It's wonderful.
Thank you to Netgalley!
Thank you to Netgalley!
February 9, 2022
This is a very good gardening book. The author covers all the different aspects of gardening from planning right through the harvest. There are many good tips and seeds to plant.
The author also gives a template for planting calendar and all the many places that sell seeds and gardening equipment. I found this book to be very helpful in the garden and I recommend it for those who are into gardening and want a very complete look on gardening.
I received this book NetGalley for a unbiased review.
The author also gives a template for planting calendar and all the many places that sell seeds and gardening equipment. I found this book to be very helpful in the garden and I recommend it for those who are into gardening and want a very complete look on gardening.
I received this book NetGalley for a unbiased review.
April 11, 2022
This is an in-depth book for how to optimize crop production in your garden. While I did enjoy the information I don't believe I will be using soon. I have only just gotten into gardening and with only a year under my belt crop rotation isn't a key to my garden yet. I think those who want to improve their garden will enjoy this book.
October 2, 2022
I also have read the authors' previous book "High-Yield Vegetable Gardening: Grow More of What You Want in the Space You Have" and would say their previous book was a little more helpful to me personally. It had so many helpful tables and a nice numbers focus. This updated book contains a lot of similar info/approach, but is more accessible to beginning and intermediate gardeners.
September 8, 2021
Thank you for the advanced copy of this.
What a fantastic book, I have really got into using my trugs this year and now have an allotment. I have book marked lots of this to go back over to help me plan and sort for next year
Highly recommend
What a fantastic book, I have really got into using my trugs this year and now have an allotment. I have book marked lots of this to go back over to help me plan and sort for next year
Highly recommend
October 7, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This is such a useful resource with great charts and suggestions on how to improve your growing. It’s well worth a read for anyone interested in this area! Highly recommended.
January 30, 2022
Grow more food is a great resource for anyone that is new to gardening. It is very thorough, but also easy to understand. As someone that has been hoping to start their own vegetable garden for years now, I would highly recommend this book to others.
March 12, 2022
I borrowed this book from the library but I need to buy it. There is so much information in this book on starting seeds, proper harvesting and storage, pruning and lots of other things. It includes lots of charts so I can see at a glance what I need to do for a particular plant.
February 7, 2023
Absolutely love this book. I had it out from the library for months and know I'll need to get it again or just buy it because it is packed full of information I need. Very helpful step-by-step stuff on growing food, more of it and quality as well.
January 4, 2024
I read the previous edition of this book several years ago, called High Yield Vegetable Gardening. I liked that version better. This new book lacks all the interesting individual garden setups that the old book covered.
June 5, 2024
This book was fantastic! I read almost every word, even about things I’ll probably never do, like drip irrigation. (I did skip over some of the vegetables that I won’t plant.) This book and Square Foot Gardening laid the foundation for my productive urban garden.
March 3, 2022
So much information in this book.
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