Inspired by GardenPunk’s “Book Week,” I’m going to use the next few posts to catch up with some of the book reviews I’ve been meaning to write. The first book on the list is Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting by R.J. Ruppenthal.

I think that any of us who try to produce food on less than a couple of acres (and some of those lucky acreage owners as well) eventually throw our hands up in disgust. We’ve only managed to scratch the surface in terms of producing the amount of food we want, but we’ve already run out of room. We can get pretty creative. In my own garden, I know I’ve monitored my sun/shade situation closely and made small beds wherever there’s a decent spot of sun. Ditto for plopping a container into a sunny area of an otherwise shady border. I’ve planted salad greens in hanging baskets and planted strawberries in window boxes. And I’ve still run out of room.

What Ruppenthal’s book does (besides totally inspire you to try something new) is make you look at your space in a whole new way. Got a bathtub in a spare bathroom that doesn’t really get used too often? Grow something in it. Enough exterior wall space for a hanging chicken coop? You’re well on your way to fresh eggs. Do you have a spare three square inches of space on your countertop? Sprout something.

Ruppenthal covers common ideas, such as gardening in raised beds and containers, but he also tackles less-common ideas for producing your own food, such as making your own yogurt and kefir, adding nutrients to your diet through sprouting, setting up a beehive in a small urban lot, and growing mushrooms indoors.

I think that those of us who have been gardening for a long time sometimes need a little something to shake us out of our gardening rut. This book does just that. I’ll never look at my exterior walls and fences the same way again. And I’ve already put my countertop to work producing tasty sprouts for sandwiches and salads. There’s something uniquely satisfying about growing something (anything!) fresh and green indoors while winter still reigns outside. I highly recommend Fresh Food from Small Spaces for experienced and new gardeners alike.

More reviews of this book:
About Herb Gardens
Gardenaut