How to Grow Food: A Step-by-Step Guide to Growing All Kinds of Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs, Salads and More

Despite the beautiful, possibly intimidating, photographs of delicately germinating peas, richly-colored plums, and general bucolic abundance, this book offers thorough, practical, and accessible instruction even for those whose crops will be limited to a few hopeful pots on the stoop. While clearly intended for folks with a little land, enough time, and steady patience, Gianfrancesco makes growing real food seem plausible and appealing. Climate ranges, "value for money," and degrees of difficulty in maintenance, harvesting, and storage are all clearly charted. Advice for where to put what in the garden and what to do with the goods once you’re back in the kitchen are also crystal clear. City dwellers will be heartened by the range of what’s possible for them, too: lettuces, Swiss chard, beats, and cucumbers—at least according to this advice—can easily accompany the basil and rosemary already growing on the fire escape. Illus. (Feb.)