Apartment Gardening: Plants, Projects, and Recipes for Growing Food in Your Urban Home

by Amy Pennington

Forget the 100-mile eat-local diet; try the 300-square-foot-diet and grow squash on the windowsill, flowers in the planter box, or corn in a parking strip. "Apartment Gardening" details how to start a garden in the heart of the city. From building a window box to planting seeds in jars on the counter, every space is plantable and this book reveals that the DIY future is now by providing hands-on, accessible advice. Amy Pennington's friendly voice paired with Kate Bingham-Burt's crafty illustrations make greener living an accessible reality, even if readers have only a few hundred square feet and two windowsills. Save money by planting the same things available at the grocery store and create an eccentric garden right in the heart of any living space.

• ISBN10: 1570616884
• ISBN13: 9781570616884
• Publish Date: 8 March 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 26 August 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Sasquatch Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 176
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781570616884

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Tiny Space Gardening is a tutorial and planning guide to gardening in small spaces by Amy Pennington. Due out 1st March 2022 from Sasquatch Books, it's 208 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This book is full of creative ideas for maximizing space and light access along with highlighting creative ways to grow food, flowers, and herbs in very small (urban) spaces. The book's presentation is full of fun and serious at the same time in an honest intention to help readers become even a little more self sufficient and food secure.

The layout is accessible and easy to read. The introduction and basic info chapters presuppose zero forehand knowledge and concepts, containers, planning, what to grow, and how to grow it, are all covered well and understandably. The book is not abundantly illustrated (for example, in the seed starting and propagation chapter there are no photos except for the chapter facing). The photos which are included are in color and clear, however.

The author has also included a useful abbreviated resource list for more info, a short gardener's glossary, as well as an index. There are a number of recipes included which are tasty and utilize the harvest from readers' gardens. I feel that the book suffers a bit by trying to be everything-in-one, with recipes, basic gardening advice, troubleshooting tips, container gardening, vegetable herbs & flower advice, etc etc. It doesn't manage to cover much in depth, but it is very broad in scope. That being said, the thyme roasted chicken with charred onions was absolutely delicious and worth a try.

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.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.