One square away from a great garden

One Magic Square: Grow Your Own Food On One Square Metre
by Lolo Houbein, AWA Press, $45
I own many books on growing fruit and vegetables, and I'm about to use them as weed mats. One Magic Square is the definitive book for the new gardener who wants a supply of fresh salad greens, herbs, vegetables and fruit trees in their own backyard, or for someone like me who is hooked already on a vege garden.
One Magic Square won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best Innovative Cookbook and was shortlisted for a Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards.
A bestseller in Australia, it was adapted for New Zealand by Awa Press editor Mary Varnham and organic gardener Johanne McComish.
Lolo Houbein simplifies the task of growing good produce cheaply, organically and spray-free. She begins with a 1sq m plot and expands it gradually, plot by plot, to include vegetables for curries, pizza and pasta and for winter stir-fries and summer salads. All with delicious recipes, too.
You'll be amazed by what you can pick off and stir-fry before your plants mature. Houbein has convinced me that no vegetable needs to be perfect. Taste and nutritional value are more important than looks. Soldier-straight rows are out and weeds are acceptable.
A glossary lists beneficial companion plants that keep pests at bay, and details of plants that are incompatible when grown side by side.
Everything you need to know to take the "too hard" out of gardening is here.