Although written in 2016, Frankie Flowers book entitled “Food to Grow” continues to be an excellent guide for those planning to grow a vegetable garden. Given the times we are currently in, growing vegetables seems more important than it ever has before. We not only have more time on our hands to plant and look after a garden, we have more time to do some reading about it. This is one book we recommend. Call your local independent book store and ask them to order it for you. They are probably doing curbside pick up at this time. You will be doing two things at once, increasing your knowledge about vegetable gardening and supporting a local business.
Nothing beats the taste and smell of a tomato freshly picked from your own garden. And there’s a certain pride in knowing that the salad you just served—fresh strawberries and all—was harvested entirely from your backyard. But growing your own fruits, vegetables and herbs can be time-consuming and feel overwhelmingly complicated. Your eagerness to get growing in the spring can be rained out by seemingly endless seedlings and seed packs at your garden centre, all with cryptic planting instructions that leave you with withered plants rather than crunchy carrots. But it doesn’t need to be that way! Frankie Flowers has decades of experience helping thumbs of all colours turn barren patches and empty pots into bountiful harvests—and he can help you do the same.
Food to Grow simplifies every growing decision you’ll need to make. Frankie helps you evaluate your space, decide just how much time you want to invest and then make the smartest choices about which plants will give you the best bang for your buck. He guides you through the entire growing season from prepping and planning, to planting, weeding and harvesting (the best part!), and shares not just which veggies, fruits and herbs have become Frankie’s Favourites, but which plants just aren’t worth the effort.
Loaded with gorgeous photography that will have you desperate to get digging, Food to Grow includes a detailed A-Z index of over 50 of North America’s most popular home crops. Whether you have space for a few pots or 40 acres out back, Frankie Flowers will help you make your dream of home-grown treats a fun and tasty reality. (This excerpt is taken from Frankie Flower’s website)
Frankie recommends these high yield, money saving, minimal fuss vegetables.
Green beans and peas, the more you harvest the more they produce.
Choose bush style of these vegetables.
Salad greens like leaf lettuce, arugula, and mesculun mix. These plants mature quickly, you can pick the young side leaves and more will grow back.
Kale a super producer. It can grow in cool weather and even withstand a light frost.
Swiss chard the more you cut the more it grows.
Spinach will start growing early in season as it likes cool nights and warm days of early spring.
Herbs parsley, basil, sage and oregano are all easy to grow. You can snip off just what you need for dinner and plant will continue to grow.
All of the plants listed can be grown in containers.