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Garden Like a Pro
Enjoy bigger harvests without more space or more work! Professional growers Colin McCrate and Brad Halm show you how to plan carefully, get the most from every plant, scale up systems for maximum efficiency, and extend your harvest season with succession planting and intercropping. With these proven techniques, you'll get more of the vegetables you love with less time and energy.
List of contents
Contents
Introduction: Become a More Productive Vegetable Gardener
1 Plan Ahead & Keep Records
Increase yields by using space efficiently, planting at the right time & planting more often.
Chapter One: Evaluating Your Current Garden Setup 16
Chapter Two: Crop Scheduling & Record Keeping 26
Chapter Three: Garden Mapping & Crop Rotation 46
2 Build Healthy Soil
Maximize harvests by providing soil with high nutrient levels & a diverse ecosystem.
Chapter Four: Prepping Soil for Production 62
Chapter Five: Building & Maintaining Soil Quality 79
Chapter Six: Suppressing the Competition 96
3 Get to Know Your Plants
Grow more food by planting the right varieties at the right time with the best care.
Chapter Seven: Selecting Seeds 104
Chapter Eight: Transplanting & Direct Seeding in the Garden 118
Chapter Nine: Fertilizing, Pruning & Hand Pollinating to Boost Production 137
Chapter Ten: Managing Pests & Diseases 150
4 Create Efficient Systems
Plant more of the crops you want & water them efficiently.
Chapter Eleven: Setting Up a Home Nursery 166
Chapter Twelve: Starting Your Own Transplants 181
Chapter Thirteen: Irrigating Consistently & Evenly 204
5 Extend & Expand the Harvest
Harvest longer & more often & store crops properly.
Chapter Fourteen: Extending the Growing Season 226
Chapter Fifteen: Timely Harvesting & Successful Storage 243
Appendix: Garden-Planning Worksheets & Charts
Resources
Metric Conversion Charts
Index
About the author
Colin McCrate and Brad Halm are experienced CSA farmers and co-founders of The Seattle Urban Farm Company, a business that designs, builds, and maintains edible gardens. Their work has won awards at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and has been profiled in GQ, Sunset, Newsweek, Outside magazine, Grist.org, Slate.com, and more. They both live and teach near Seattle.
Summary
Just how productive can one small vegetable garden be? More productive than one might think! Colin McCrate and Brad Halm, former CSA growers and current owners of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, help readers boost their garden productivity by teaching them how to plan carefully, maximize production in every bed, get the most out of every plant, scale up systems to maximize efficiency, and expand the harvest season with succession planting, intercropping, and season extension.
Along with chapters devoted to the Five Tenets of a Productive Gardener (Plan Well to Get the Most from Your Garden; Maximize Production in Each Bed; Get the Most out of Every Plant; Scale up Tools and Systems for Efficiency; and Expand and Extend the Harvest), the book contains interactive tools that home gardeners can use to assist them in determining how, when, and what to plant; evaluating crop health; and planning and storing the harvest. For today’s vegetable gardeners who want to grow as much of their own food as possible, this guide offers expert advice and strategies for cultivating a garden that supplies what they need.
Foreword
Home vegetable gardeners learn how to boost productivity of small garden spaces and expand the harvest season using strategies developed by two urban farming experts.
Additional text
“Essential reading for all vegetable gardeners. ” — Niki Jabbour, Growing Under Cover
“Any home gardener will love the professional tricks of the trade.” — Jean-Martin Fortier, The Market Gardener
