One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square

by Lolo Houbein

A Hands-On Guide to Growing Organic Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs―Starting with Just One Square Yard!

Lolo Houbein has been growing food for more than 30 years―and now, drawing on her wide learning and hard-earned experience, she offers a wealth of information on how to turn small plots of land into sources of nourishing, inexpensive, organic food. Amateur gardeners wondering how to get started and veteran gardeners looking for new ideas will be inspired by Houbein’s practical, often charming, and always optimistic advice. One Magic Square

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference, Food, How To, Cooking, Cookbooks

347 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Born in Holland, Lolo Houbein came to Australia at 24 with her husband and children after growing up in an atmosphere of war. She studied the University of Adelaide, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Australian Literature, Anthropology and Classics in 1975. She later studied at the University of Papua New Guinea, and gained a Graduate Diploma in Teaching from the Adelaide College of Advanced Education in 1978.

Reviews

[Boxofdelights · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love compost. I dislike spending money and fossil fuel. This book's instructions for starting a bed are to pick up:
- a bag of mushroom or other compost
- a bag of organic potting soil
- a bale or pack of straw
- a bag of animal manure
- a small bag of gypsum for clay soil
- a tiny bag of lime for acidic soil
- organic fertilizer pellets or liquid seaweed fertilizer.
Maybe I'm just not the right audience for this book? But who is? Who likes spending money and fossil fuel they don't have to, in order to grow their own food organically?

The chapter on composting is just a ragbag assembly of possible methods. There is no information about when or why you might want to use on of them instead of another. And several are just bad: the old circle of chicken wire trick is in here, with no advice on how to handle chicken wire without stabbing yourself. Houbein suggests making compost in "two plastic laundry baskets lined with wet newspaper and covered with doormats held down by a brick". You'd be picking bits of laundry basket and doormat out of your compost forever. I think the worst advice in this section is "Using a Riding Lawnmower to Make Compost." Don't do this. Don't burn fuel and clog your mower driving over piles "prunings from the ornamental garden; weeds, except bad ones likely to regrow from pieces; leaves; very thin bark; a bag of animal manure; a small bag of lime (you only need handfuls); other organic material, like spoiled hay; fallen branches no thicker than your finger." Disassembling and mixing those materials is what composting does.

There is a three-page chapter called "Easy-Care Fruit Trees" which contains no information on how to care for fruit trees easily. Houbein describes a Shaker method, which requires immense amounts of material and physical labor before you begin. Then there's a page on espaliering. Then a page on netting. That's it! That's the whole chapter! That's where I gave up.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank goodness I checked this out from the library. This hasn't been the greatest year for gardening, and this book reminded me that I don't have to give everything up--I can plant now and still get good food for autumn.

This book combines a sort of backyard permaculture theory with the Square Foot Gardening concept, although she uses many things planted in a square yard, rather than one thing planted in a square feet. The author lives in Australia, so some of the plants are called by names we wouldn't use, but this ease into things guide would be a great start for someone just beginning gardening.

There are a couple of great ideas I will use from the book. For instance, plant your starts in toilet paper rolls. The roots can grow a long way down the tube before you put them in the ground. When you do, the roll disintegrates over time as the plant grows. Also, cut a three-inch diameter PVC pipe into sections to place over your newly planted seedlings. She then puts screen over the top to protect the seedling from birds, which I've never had a problem with, but this will be perfect to keep the cats away from the newly planted seedlings. They labor under the mistake notions that all of my vegetable beds are their best litter box and I lose seedlings to their scraping every year.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

One Magic Square provides a starting point for creating a small home garden. By starting with just a 3 foot square, a sustainable garden can be created and then slowly expanded upon over time. The book is comprehensive and easy to follow, with all the information needed to start a small plot. Note that there aren't many pictures or illustrations, so this is a do-by-reading experience. But Houbein is friendly, encouraging, and doesn't mince words and the layout is clean and friendly. At 350+ pages, this is a comprehensive one-stop resource.

The book breaks down as follows: Part 1: Towards Sustainable and Self-Sufficient Food Growing (The terrifying importance of growing food, How to get started, how to find time to grow food, Gardening with attitude, Ten green rules); Part 2: Growing and Enjoying Your Magic Square (Starting and maintaining, Soil secrets, Compost compositions, Seeds and seedlings, Easy-care fruit trees, Companion planting and intercropping, Water and watering, Plant food and soil food, The Message of mulch, Pruning, Pinching, and thinning, Crop rotation and green crops, Problem solving, What to do about weeds, Pests and predators, An A-Z of pests and problems, Livestock, birds, bees, and frogs, Hardware in the food garden, Thinking outside the magic square, The seasons, Climate, weather and micro climates, Permaculture, Saving seed, From garden to table, Essential utensils, Cupboard self sufficiency); Part 3: The Magic Square Plots (Salad plots, Fava bean plot, Omega-3 plot, Antioxidants plot, Beans plot, Stir-fry plots, Root crop plot, Pasta/pizza plots, Wild greens plot, Aztec plot, Pea plot, Melon plot, Herb plot, Soup plot, Pick and come again plot, Starchy staples plot, Rotating mono-crops plot, Onion and garlic plot, Anti-cancer plots, Barry plots and hedges, The spice companions); Part 4: Descriptions of Food Plants (An A-Z of vegetable groups, Summer, winter and all season vegetables, common vegetables how to grow and use them, List of common herbs, Easy care fruit trees and berries, List of easy care fruit trees and berries. Notes, References and further reading, useful addresses, acknowledgements, Index.

As can be seen above, the book is thorough. There is a strong emphasis on sustainability and organic methods - especially dealing with fertilizing and pest control. Most useful are all the different types of plots - created and designed for synergy in mind. Like salads? There are some great choices. Rather have an herb plot for cooking? Covered here. Those plots take up a large chunk of the book and provide endless inspiration for different gardens.

One magic Square provides everything the novice gardener needs to get started. Of note is that the book draws upon the author's experience of decades of making gardens in Australia; as such, there isn't as much about Winterizing, snow, or growing in extremely short seasons (e.g., North America or Europe/England). But in all, there is a lot here to love. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Andi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books you can crack open at any place within the pages and find something great. Lolo Houbein is very practical, knows how to make the best out of a square yard of growing space, and how to create a thriving permaculture in your own backyard. Having survived a horrific famine during World War II as a child living in Holland, Houbein has very personal reasons for learning to garden efficiently.

She doesn't mince words, and at times you may feel like you are standing in the garden with her as she points out tips and ideas. There are many great recipes, too...but I will warn you, she doesn't appear to believe in writing out actual directions and measurements...it's 'chop up some of this...throw in that." Which is great when you are an experienced cook, but newbies may like some more direction.

In all, a wonderful book that is loaded with tips, ideas for small-but-loaded plots, and some personal stories to make you understand why growing your own food is well worth the effort.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most useful and most beautiful book of last year: for experienced gardeners it is full of practical tips, but for people aspiring to grow their own vegetables, like me, it is a godsend! Houbein takes you step by step from planning your vegetable garden on a square metre to a successful harvest with minimum effort. She convinces that growing your own vegetables does not need to be time consuming and you only need limited space. She shows you how important it is to reconnect with the soil and to reduce your carbon-footprint.
‘To start growing your own food without delay, put down this book, go out in the garden and select a spot in the sun’, is her first advice. From salad plots to curry plots: each chapter has its own design and the book is full of basic recipes.

Houbein grew up in Holland during the war and since surviving the hunger winter of 1944 she realised the importance of food self-sufficiency.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a great deal of information in this book. However, since much of the book is dedicated to plot details most of this information is too terse for me. The author seems to know her stuff, but I'd rather have a more detailed book as a resource

[Julie]

I'm going to grow a tiny vegetable garden!

[Wendy Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of basic information about organic gardening, but so very encouraging that it made me want to run out and plant something right away! Also contains a lot of great recipe ideas.

[Hess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where this book bosses it is plot layouts. I have the one square metre version and was looking for something to complement The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden: Grow Tons of Organic Vegetables in Tiny Spaces and Containers without all the US-metrics. This works.

I particularly appreciated her sequencing of the broad bean plot (which are frost-hardy to -10C) after the salad plot. This is a combo that wouldn't have occurred to me at all.

There are, as others have noted, also some criticisms:

- Houbein frequently intersperses her personal experiences with her gardening advice. So for example, we get a discussion of curry recipes and her travels in India while she's covering "curry plot" layouts. Similarly, the "soup plot" section is more recipe than gardening.
- Binomial names are frequently (but not always) given - so for example, in the perennial section Houbein discusses the "artichoke" and because there's a picture of a Globe Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) on the next page, she gets away with it. However, in reality, the term "perennial artichoke" could just as easily refer to a Jerusalem (Helianthus tuberosus) or a Chinese (Stachys affinis) artichoke - so without that picture the reader wouldn't have the first clue which of these three plants she was referring to.
- Part Two is a manifesto for self-sufficiency. While I happen to agree with the message, there really isn't a need to include it in the middle of a how-to book. It's the equivalent of writing a recipe for Mediterranean pizza and then putting a 2-page rant in between steps 3 and 4. A good editor would have moved this section into the epilogue and cut it in half.

Other topics:

Watering - this has been covered better elsewhere. TL;DR: if your plants are getting too much sun, consider giving them some extra shade, adding mulch, and watering them deeply but infrequently. You can test the soil by sticking your fingers 5-7cm deep. If it soil feels dry, water thoroughly. It it is wet, re-test later. Watering in the mornings is usually best, but on very hot days you may need to do so more frequently. For DIY recycling and automated drip systems, look into permaculture or The Vertical Veg Guide to Container Gardening: How to Grow an Abundance of Herbs, Vegetables and Fruit in Small Spaces. In the latter, Mark offers a design for DIY self-watering containers. These can also be found on YouTube.

Compost and Soil Preparation - I found Hobein's discussion of soil very useful. Her experiences gardening in very different climates and contexts gives her an unusual level of detachment. I particularly appreciated her pragmatic approach to starting a new garden. One reviewer highlights this section as being particularly "gas guzzly" and lazy. I disagree. Unless you are blessed with a pre-existing means to generate compost (because your plot is large enough to sustain it) OR you are willing to let the garden lie dormant while your no-dig cardboard / green manure takes effect, I don't think there's anything wrong with kickstarting a system with externally purchased ingredients. Could we argue over what ingredients to purchase? And for how long? Yes. Could she have spent more time elucidating decent composting techniques? Yes.

Plant Food we are still learning a lot about soil health and plant nutrition. Houbein (and many, many other authors) list mineral soil improvers as a key aid in soil health. In her words:

Mineral soil improvers like gypsum break up clay, dolomite adds calcium, granite adds minerals and volcanic rock dust has it all

But here is the kicker, in 2015 researchers published a paper entitled: Addition of a volcanic rockdust to soils has no observable effects on plant yield and nutrient status or on soil microbial activity. So is Houbein's advice completely off-base? No, it appears that Dolomite does in fact, reduce soil acidity: impact of dolomite rock waste on soil acidity and absorption of Ca and Mg by barley and wheat - but again, we're dealing with a preliminary study. So like companion planting, research on these additives is a WIP.

Mulch - again, really enjoyed this chapter. Houbein cycles through a wide range of options (plastic, bracken, cardboard, clothes) and does a good job of exploring each. One thing I missed was a caveat on clothes obviously many clothes contain plastic, so you'd want to stick to your 100% organic fibres if you were going this route.

Crop Rotation - Houbein offers one of the most detailed looks at crop rotation I have come across so far. I thought her 4-year plan was particularly interesting. She also touches on green manure, like oats and red clover - but if you want a detailed look at these I would actually recommend Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden instead.

Seed Saving - a concise, but much more detailed discussion than what you'd normally see in books of this type. For a masterclass, use The Seed Savers' Handbook instead.

Hardware in the Food Garden - your mileage may vary with this section. Houbein reports that "blinking night lights" kept out her foxes. If you are anywhere urban, I highly doubt that will work. Still, it's a section worth reading and pulling ideas from.

Pruning - brief but mighty. You'll usually find this info listed along with the variety you are trying to grow, but I very much liked how Houbein summarises her take across entire vegetable families.

Fruit Trees and Lifestock - both sections are better covered in other books.

Part 4 - plant descriptions. These were reminiscent of Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening - informative, but not especially well organised. If you are a UK grower, the RHS Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Bible is probably a better and more detailed source of information.

Overall - I would call this book a must-read for UK growers wanting to start an allotment or new 1m vegetable patch. Houbein's plot layouts will save you hours of planning. For everyone else, it's a nice-to-have.

[Kate D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too verbose. The content lacked focus, and I was alienated by the tone.

[Diane C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Houbein provides us with a way to start out simply, and carry on over time to as elaborate (or not) as we want to be. With advice for every step, tips on eco friendly gardening, what grows best with what, actual plots for 1 yard squares of all kinds. Based on her experience of growing up during WWII in Holland, when much of the time you grew your own food or starved. It's her personal way of growing, she's not a teacher, but has so many valuable things to share. This is an essential book to have on hand, and you likely won't use all of it, but you'll find important guides and info to become a veggie gardener. Excellent!

[Scott Lupo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am trying square foot gardening this year and wanted to see what this book had to say. A ton of useful information about organic gardening. I liked the author's style of just giving one 3 foot square plot a try. Just plant and see what happens. Basically just trying to get people started. Gardening can be addictive and just getting somebody started is a way to spread that addiction. Good job! The section on themed plots was interesting. With enough room I could imagine themed plots over time would be helpful keeping your garden organized and easy for crop rotation. Good read.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not nearly as helpful as I'd hoped. The writing is rambling but colorful, the "translation" from Australian to American audiences is deficient, and the book isn't well organized. Nonetheless, I read it all the way through, hoping for redemption at the end... The first half of the book is composed of essays on gardening, some helpful, some spacey. The last third of the book, what I was really looking forward to, was on individual herbs and veggies but the info was incomplete. I wished for more photos, fewer author-drawn illustrations. There are better books on intensive home gardening.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty comprehensive instructions and advice on how to get started on growing your own produce in your back garden in a metre square of ground. Lots of alternative growing schemes, plus what to actually make out of the herbs, veg and fruit that you grow. A focus on organic gardening and making your own fertilisers, some discussion on companion planting and plenty to satisfy the amateur through to the more experienced gardener. I got this as an ebook from the library but it's the kind of book I'd consider buying to keep as a reference guide and something dip into and to inspire me.

[Kristie J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciated the author's personal story about fighting famine during World War II in Europe, however I just couldn't finish this book. I was looking more for a beginner's step-by-step guide to growing vegetables in a 3'x3' square in my backyard. This book has a lot of details in seemingly random order, e.g. the section on making your own compost was in the front of the book, before the author presented how to build your own square. There were lots of suggested plots of various kinds of vegetables to help inspire gardeners, but I was looking for more basic instructions.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned some things from this garden book, but I had to remind myself many times that the writer lives in Australia where there is no snow. The seasons for growing were geared toward their climate and if I had never gardened before, I would be very confused and mislead. I do like her concept of just digging a 3 foot square at a time, and it's creative to theme each plot. I also like her organic viewpoint and low cost ways to start seedlings.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absolutely bonkers, manic read, with a spunky attitude and buckets of tiny wisdoms for tending to all manner of plants, as well as absurdities and ramblings in equal measure. I don’t know if this is a great starting point for a would-be gardener, but it’s certainly something to ponder. If anything, this book should inspire anyone to just get out and start stuffing seeds into small patches of dirt.

[Valerie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borrowed this book from the library and thought it would be a good book on growing in small spaces. In reality the first half was just repetitive basic facts about gardening that would only be helpful if you've never touched a spade in your life. The second half only really offered impractical themed garden plans along the lines of "a salsa garden" which which don't really work.

[Sami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book if you are looking for in depth tips for setting up a "square foot" style garden. Houbein's method takes the best parts of the concept of square foot gardening, discards the overwrought elements and creates a beautiful garden book packed full of relevant information, planting suggestions and diagrams. It is one I will buy for my garden reference library.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a peculiar garden book! It was a delight in that it contained some practical info I hadn’t read in the many other garden books I’ve read, and the Australian author clearly knows a TON. But it also left me amused and somewhat bewildered with suggestions like (**spoiler alert**) using diluted urine to build soil nutrients and asking for elephant poop when the circus comes to town. Good times.

[Seldear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for starting out gardening...or for experienced gardeners looking for more inspiration in different ways. Lots of simple advice for starting small, but all the ideas can be added together for a larger, more productive garden.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

great how to on very organic gardening - with ideas on garden plot plans and simple tips.
One to come back to as a resource. Although it did not feel completely suited to the climate that I live in.

[Katey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information. Has soapbox moments that I could do without. LOTS of typos and this is coming from someone who is terrible at grammar and spelling. (Read on Libby.) Was expecting more images. I wanted to see the chair for vines that was mentioned so many times.

[Christi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, lots of reading to get to the plot ideas. Several plot ideas, could definitely use a few more, and regional would be great. I loved that it includes which directions the plants should be on laced in the plots.

[Autumn Tiedgen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and inspiring. Already started some new plants!

[Jennette · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of the book was the plot drawings and specific themed lists toward the end. Excellent for beginners!

[Mary Doss · Rating 5 out of 5]

a simplified square foot system with many helps

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a sprawling book. I learned a lot of tips but am still unclear on the "magic square" method. That seemed to be the least detailed section.

[Deborah Makarios · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slew of useful information but also some oddities, e.g. calendula flowers being "endowed with magic health qualities. Pick an uneven number as magic never works with even numbers."

[Kirsty Hollow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. Inspiring and informative.