Big Yields, Little Pots: Container Gardening for Creative Gardeners: The Hungry Garden, #1

By Rosefiend Cordell

Would you like a complete guide on container gardening? Well, you've found it.

If you are short on space, or if you have the soil from hell, or if you have a hard time stooping and bending, then growing vegetables in containers is the solution for you. Now, it's not going to yield enough to raise a family on (unless you really, really, really go to town on this), but if you want to talk about improving the quality of your life, the fresh herbs and tomatoes and strawberries ripening on your balcony will do the job.Your container vegetable garden will take a small investment of time and effort, but anything good does. Patience and practice in gardening will yield the best results.

This book covers:

Choosing the right container

How to start seeds (and combat damping-off disease)

Soilless mixes and their elements

Fertilizer, watering, climate, trellising

And this book will dig into the different kinds of vegetables that grow best in pots – best methods for each crop – best varieties for containers.This book is the essentials guide to container gardening for beginners and also for seasoned gardeners who have been around the block a few times.

Click "buy now" to start your gardening fun!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rosefiend Publishing
• Release date: Jan 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781953196514

Rosefiend Cordell

This is the gardening pen name for Melinda R. Cordell. Former city horticulturist, rose garden potentate, greenhouse manager, perennials factotum, landscape designer, and small-time naturalist. I've been working in horticulture in one way or another since 1989. These days I write gardening books because my body makes cartoon noises when I move, and I really like air-conditioning. Good times!

Book preview

BIG YIELDS, LITTLE POTS

BIG YIELDS, LITTLE POTS

Container Gardening

for the Creative Gardener

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The Hungry Garden series #1

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Rosefiend Cordell

Rosefiend Publishing.

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BIG YIELDS, LITTLE POTS

Copyright © 2020 by Rosefiend Cordell, aka Melinda R. Cordell

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Rosefiend Publishing. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, alien transfer, ESP, or other – without written permission from the publisher. And she already knows you’ve tried the ESP thing, so watch it.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge at proof time. Although the author has made every effort to ensure that the information in the book was correct at press time, the author does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any part for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from a FREAKING WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC, toilet paper hoarding, intensified introverting, panic shopping, still not calling your mom even though you probably should, the fact that you’ve drunk all the good tea and can’t make it out to Simply Tea for a while, excessive microwave mug cake baking, unfriending conspiracy theorists, climbing the walls, or other causes.

P.S. Wear a mask! Wash your hands! <3

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Ordering information: For details, contact the publisher at [e-mail]

Cover design by Melinda R. Cordell

Book formatting by Melinda R. Cordell

ISBN: 978-1-953196-29-3

D2D ebook: 978-1-953196-51-4

First Edition: July 2020

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 blast off!

For more information (and books!), visit my website at https://melindacordell.com/

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The Hungry Garden Series

Big Yields, Little Pots – Container Gardening for the Creative Gardener

Book 1

Edible Landscaping – Foodscaping and Permaculture for Urban Gardeners

Book 2

Beneficial and Pest Insects – The Good, the Bad, and the Hungry

Book 3

Indoor Gardening – Growing Herbs, Greens, & Vegetables Under Lights

Book 4

FORTHCOMING BOOKS!

Growing a Food Forest – Trees, Shrubs, & Perennials That’ll Feed Ya!

Book 5

Wildscaping – Using Native Food Plants to Create an Ecologically-Friendly Garden

Book 6

Survival Rations! – Foraging in Wild Spaces for Greens, Berries, & Nuts

Book 7

Victory Gardens – We Can Grow It!

Book 8

Do you have a gardening story you’d like to share? Tell me your experience with container gardening (or any other gardening stories) at [e-mail]! If it fits the topic, I might use it (with your permission and correct attribution, of course) in one of my future books.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART I

GET STARTED WITH CONTAINER GARDENING

Go Organic

ALL ABOUT CONTAINERS

Choosing the Right Pot

A Primer of Container Materials

PART II

CONTAINER GROWING BASICS

STARTING SEEDS IN CONTAINERS

How to Plant Seeds

Damping-Off Disease

Hardening Off Seedlings

Soilless Mixes

Elements of Potting Medium

Fertilizer

Your Plant’s Support System

Climate Considerations

Watering

Drip Watering System

Does Companion Planting Really Work?

Do Carrots Really Love Tomatoes?

PART III

GROWING VEGETABLES IN CONTAINERS

Cool-Season Crops

Peas

Leafy Greens

Broccoli

Beets & Turnips

Carrots

Radishes

Onions and Allies

Warm-Season Crops

Pole Beans

Bush Beans

Eggplant

Peppers

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Summer Squash and Zucchini

Cucumbers

Muskmelons & Cantaloupe

Watermelon

Berries

Herbs

A PREVIEW OF THE EASY-GROWING GARDENING SERIES

Save Time and Trouble With Garden Journals

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Container Gardening for the Rest of Us

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THIS BOOK IS ABOUT GROWING vegetables, berries, herbs, and edible flowers in a variety of containers, and will cover all the details you need to know to succeed in this endeavor. Now, I have to tell you that container gardening is not going to support a whole family (unless you really, really, really go to town with these pots) but container garden can supplement your diet in all the best ways.

If you have come to this book looking for pretty design ideas, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. My landscaping style, if you’re generous, could be considered shabby chic – but to this country girl, it’s probably a lot closer to redneck lite, which means it’s a little rough around the edges but perfectly serviceable. (If my landscaping job were full-on redneck, then there’d be an old car parked in the middle of my garden.)

However! If your main objective in picking up this book is to grow a truckload of vegetables in a bunch of pots, then you’re in the right place.

I’ve worked in horticulture for half of my life – longer if you count when I was young. I started learning how to identify wildflowers when I was in fifth grade. When I was a freshman in high school, I’d sit in the library reading Steyermark’s Flora of Missouri, not for any class assignments, but for FUN. When I was a high school senior in 1989, I got my first plant-related job at a small-town garden center. (I also worked as a newspaper carrier and church pianist.)

Since then, I’ve worked in retail and commercial greenhouses, as a landscape laborer and designer, as a perennials manager, and as a municipal horticulturist and public rose garden potentate. When I was city horticulturist, I took care of 36 gardens and a bunch of trees, shrubs, roses, over I don’t know how many square miles of city. I had a schedule that I really had to try and stick to, because if I didn’t, I ended up with a train wreck of unfinished chores and as a result, all the gardens suffered.

These days, I work as a gardening author – which is much easier on the back and joints. After all these years of working in 95-degree summer heat, I really, really, really love air conditioning.

My books are written out of three decades’ experience with the plant world. I write out of a deep understanding of plants and how to grow them, and I do my best to keep updating my knowledge, so I can pass on the best information I can, while making it fun.

Me in my horticulturing days, lying in front of the fan