Vertical Vegetable Gardening- A book by Chris McLaughlin

We have gardened for many years.  Some years with great success and a bumper crop of vegetables for our family and also for friends and neighbors.  And then there are the not so great years.
Take last year for example.  Beautiful spring weather began in March.  We planed early and the plants were off to a strong start.  We had lettuce, spinach, and all the other cool weather crops ready to eat in late April.  Yum.  We hoped we were on our way to a better year.  The previous year had been plagued by too much rain, mold, and mud.  Most crop yields were disappointing.

We had a great idea.  Enlarge the size of the garden area!  That would certainly lead to a great harvest.  So we set out to create more garden space.  We planted a lot of seeds and seedlings.with high hopes.  Mother Nature had a different plan.  The end of June brought a serious wind storm to our area.  It occurred overnight and when we surveyed the damage we found a large tree had flattened the garden area.  Most plants were lost.  The weather continued to deteriorate throughout the summer and we had a bumper crop of eggplant and not much else.  

Recently, I was given the opportunity to review a new gardening book.  Verticle Vegetable Gardening by Chris Mclaughlin.  I was familiar with Chris's work, having read her guide on raising rabbits.  While reading Chris's new work, I realized that we had our thinking all wrong.  It wasn't necessary to keep increasing our square footage of ground space to receive more produce.  We instead, needed to grow UP!  Vertical gardening had the answer to many of our gardening dilemmas.

From where to plant, what soils to use, how to compost, what to plant, and the scoop on garden pests, Chris has recommendations for it all.  Did you know that Vertical Vegetable Gardening can save you time, effort and money.  Personally I am a fan of saving on all three.  I have already begun salvaging containers that I will use this spring for our garden.  I plan to use the approach of container gardening and some raised beds that incorporate various trellis forms.  Instead of tomatoes growing along the ground and getting moldy, my tomatoes, this year, will be growing up towards the sun, happily climbing up up up.  

Which containers should I use?  Chris has a large selection of ideas and how to incorporate them into your planting plans.  Everything from old water troughs, bushel baskets, closet organizers with bins, kiddie swimming pools, the list goes on.  My mind is swimming with creative garden containers.

Think you have to use higher math skills and massive calculations to come up with the right compost formula?  Chris shows you in her book how easy it is to create compost right in your backyard with  little or no expense.   She dispels the seven biggest myths surrounding compost.

If you had something called an Assassin Bug in your garden, you may be tempted to run for the nearest can of insecticide.  You really should reach for this book instead.  The Assassin Bug actually is a beneficial insect that seeks out damaging beetles, cabbage worms and tomato hornworms in your garden.

With an in depth section on which variety to plant in each situation, this is certainly a comprehensive guide that will assist the gardener whether  you intend to grow vertical or stick with conventional garden methods.  I know that my well read copy of Vertical Vegetable Gardening will become even more loved as we enter the growing season.

My brain is churning with inspiration and garden planning after reading Chris McLaughlin's Vertical Vegetable Gardening.  Here's to a year of vegetables besides eggplant!   So what are you waiting for?  Here's the specifics so you can go and order your own copy!



Vertical Vegetable Gardening is available thru Amazon and all other major book sellers.    For more from  Chris McLaughlin visit her website www.ASuburbanFarmer.com, on Farm Chick Chit Chat, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter