Your Small Kitchen Garden

Several garden writers I met on Twitter collaborated to create this book which asked to pose for this photo on the larder in my office. The canned goods are from last year, but the book is fresh. Follow this link to order your own copy.

The best tip I offer to new kitchen gardeners is: find an experienced kitchen gardener and get acquainted. Help out in his or her garden if you can, ask lots of questions, and don’t be shy about sounding ignorant.

I’ve yet to meet a kitchen gardener who can’t turn “Hello” into a 45 minute conversation about vegetable-growing minutia. And, after more than 40 years’ experience growing green things, I learn something new and useful in nearly every one of those conversations.

So, get to know a kitchen gardener.

No Gardeners in Town?

A corollary to my favorite gardening tip is: Get a good book. A book about kitchen gardening can be at least somewhat useful in lieu of an actual experienced gardener. Each book provides its own voice and a unique approach to gardening… usually reflecting the experience of the book’s author.

Here’s where things get really good. What if you could have a great gardening book, and actually interact with the book’s author? With the growing influence of social networking on the Internet, you can do just that.

Many garden book and magazine writers hang out on social networks. Twitter has attracted a particularly large and active network of garden writers, and most are pleased to interact with other gardening enthusiasts. As an even greater bonus, there are many bloggers in the garden writer community; online, you might find an enormous body of work beyond an author’s books and magazine articles.

Meet Some Happening Authors

Recently, two books about kitchen gardening came on the market:

Grocery Gardening by Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley, and Theresa O’Connor.

Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail

Each of the authors who contributed to these books is on Twitter.

Grow Great Grub is the latest book by Gayla Trail. I’ve followed Gayla on Twitter for many months and I particularly enjoyed her reports from a recent trip to Dominica. Follow Gayla on Twitter and follow this link to buy her book.

So here’s my latest tip for beginning kitchen gardeners: Buy these books, get Twitter accounts, follow the books’ authors, and keep learning. I believe you’ll enjoy your interactions online nearly as much as you’d enjoy chatting with other gardeners in your neighborhood.

While I’m recommending you follow people on Twitter, how about following me? I haven’t yet published a book for kitchen gardeners, but I enjoy connecting with them and hearing about their successes and failures just as I shared mine in my blog.

Jean Ann Van Krevelen – @JeanAnnVK

Amanda Thomsen – @kissmyaster

Robin Ripley – @RobinRipley

Theresa O’Connor – @seasonalwisdom

Gayla Trail – @YourGrowGirl

Daniel Gasteiger – @cityslipper

I wrote more about Grocery Gardening and Grow Great Grub at Home Kitchen Garden Store. Please check it out and buy your copies today.

No one paid me to tell you about these books, but it seems right to let you know that if you buy through links on this page, I will earn a token commission from Amazon.com.

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