Product Review

It's time for home gardeners to rethink the traditional garden and explore the wide variety of options for growing edibles in "anywhere" gardens--from decorative pots and raised beds to unusual growing bags, hanging pouches, and tomato rings. These contained gardens are more manageable than long rows or plots and require much less work--yet yield just as much bounty.

Featuring dozens of preplanned planting recipes, based on space or container sizes, Edible Spots and Pots allows readers to mix and match vegetables, herbs, small fruits, and edible flowers to create a plant-style patchwork based on the "thriller" (dramatic, focal-point plants), "filler" (midheight, bushy plants), and "spiller" (vines and twining plants) formula for creating interesting and botanically sound gardens. Plot-free gardening offers practical solutions for any circumstance a gardener may encounter (challenging spaces, soils, or weather), while also taking into account budget, time, and aesthetic goals.

Author Stacey Hirvela shares many other interesting concepts, like One-Minute Veggies (foods that go from patio to plate in less than a minute) Doubly Delicious Crops that give two flavors from one plant, and space/yield ratios (vegetables worth their footprint). Gardeners will also find an enticing array of 60 edibles that grow well in a defined space for productivity and beauty.