First, full disclosure: I serve with author Christy Wilhelmi on the Sustainability Committee of GardenComm, the international garden communicators’ association, but even without that connection, I’d be happy to review High Yield, Small Space Organic Gardening: Practical Tips for Growing Your Own Food. First published in 2013, the book’s been updated to include more recent science – for example using drinking-water safe hoses rather than those that potentially leach chemicals into you (or your kids), the soil, and your veggies.
During Covid, new gardeners, even those with a napkin of space, planted something to eat.
In the book, Wilhelmi, owner of Gardenerd, offers a wide range of potential options for creating a healthy space to grow food. Stuffed with color pictures and experience-and-research-based advice, the book packs a lot into a relatively small space of its own – sidebar tips, chapters on creating your garden ecosystem with attention to the health of the soil, the pollinators, and the plants, plus DIY projects and recipes. She’s a proponent of using repurposed materials, if possible, but includes a caution about potential hazards, like the fly ash in in cinder block that might off-gas heavy metal residue that could leach into ground water. Additionally, she offers a comparison of DIY material cost versus longevity, noting that considering how long you will be garden on that particular property is worthwhile.
While Wilhelmi says balance in the ecosystem is the best way to achieve the healthiest results, she knows it’s rare these days, so offers practical advice on how to work toward it piece by piece. The book also includes several useful lists – 10 best crops for balconies or patios, 10 Best Crops for Seniors, 10 best crops for kids, each with color images and descriptions – that can act as a good starting point for new gardeners or gardeners with new circumstances. Well-organized, succinct, and accessible, the book is a good addition to a food gardener’s shelves.
High Yield, Small Space Organic Gardening:
Practical Tips for Growing Your Own Food by Christy Wilhelmi
I grew up sailing and building boats with my dad, married a tugboat captain, (who I'm still happily married to) and embarked on a life of adventure, challenge and fun. My first book, Woman in the Wheelhouse, told the sometimes harrowing story of working on an old coastal tugboat as cook/deckhand then worked in Mexico in the Campeche oil fields on a supply boat. I was one of the first women in the country to earn a tug operator's license. I'm the author of three other books, Course of the Waterman, which won the Fred Bonnie Prize for the novel, the historical novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, and OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters, which I wrote with longtime RN and hospice nurse, Sue Collins during the time my mother-in-law was moving to the end of her life.
My second, Course of the Waterman, the coming of age novel of a young Eastern Shore waterman, won the Fred Bonnie award in 2004. My third book, second novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, takes readers into the lives of the new nation's strong-willed second First Lady and her stubborn, often-absent and adored husband, John, our second US President. I wrote the book because I'd spent big chunks of time raising children alone while my husband was at sea and felt an affinity for Abigail, but also looked to her life as a MUCH bigger challenge that informed and encouraged my own. My fourth book, OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters (Head to Wind Publishing, 2014) was written in collaboration with Sue Collins, RN and longtime hospice nurse and has received heartwarming feedback on how helpful it's been to many caregivers.
A freelance writer for many years, I've published personal essays, features, maritime reporting and analysis, travel, garden and more for such places as The Washington Post, Yachting, House Beautiful, The Baltimore Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, Southern Living, Sailing, and more. I'm also a University of Maryland Master Gardener who grows and cans the family's fruits and vegetables, and a Bay-Wise program certifier. I write, sail, race sailboats (occasionally), walk the German Shepherd dogs, and cook for friends and family.
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One thought on “Organic Gardening in Small Spaces”
Nancy Taylor Robson 
Nice!!