Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardener's Guide — by R.J. Ruppenthal

Books on container gardening have been wildly popular with urban and suburban readers, but until now, there has been no comprehensive “how-to” guide for growing fresh food in the absence of open land. Knowing where your food comes from and how it's grown can also be key to an enriched diet and healthier lifestyle.

Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardener's Guide to Growing, Fermenting and Sprouting definitely fills the gap as a practical, comprehensive, and downright fun guide to growing food in small spaces. Not only does it provide readers with the knowledge and skills necessary to produce their own fresh vegetables, mushrooms, sprouts, and fermented foods, it delves into raising of bees and chickens—all without reliance on energy-intensive systems like indoor lighting and hydroponics.

Readers will learn how to transform their balconies and windowsills into productive vegetable gardens, their countertops and storage lockers into commercial-quality sprout and mushroom farms, and their outside nooks and crannies into whatever they can imagine, including sustainable nurseries for honeybees and chickens.

Free space for the city gardener might be no more than a cramped patio, balcony, rooftop, windowsill, hanging rafter, dark cabinet, garage, or storage area, but no space is too small or too dark to raise food.

With Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardener's Guide to Growing, Fermenting and Sprouting as a guide, people living in apartments, condominiums, townhouses, and single-family homes will be able to grow up to 20 percent of their own fresh food using a combination of traditional gardening methods and space-saving techniques such as reflected lighting and container “terracing.” Those with access to yards can produce even more.

In an era of declining resources and environmental disruption, Ruppenthal shows that even urban dwellers can contribute to a rebirth of local, fresh foods.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Format: New, Softcover

Published:  November 5, 2008

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

ISBN:  9781603580281

Pages: 192 pages

Dimensions:  10"inches H x .5" inch D x 7" inches W

 Weight: 16 oz, before shipping

Rating: ✭✭✭✭

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R.J Ruppenthal is a licensed attorney and college professor that has never given up on his gardening passion, even when his day jobs led him to a more urban life. He currently teaches at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, and lives and gardens in the San Francisco Bay area. 

Ruppenthal worked on an organic vegetable farm in his youth, but his expertise in urban and indoor gardening has been hard-won through years of trial-and-error experience. In the small city homes where he has lived, often with no more than a balcony, windowsill, and countertop for gardening, Ruppenthal and his family have been able to eat at least some homegrown food 365 days per year.