Favorite gardening book and newbie gardening ideas

We're in a condo. I -can- plant some stuff in the ground but it'd have to fit in with the (older than dirt overgrown and very poorly maintained half dead) landscaping. I plan to put some sunflowers there, around the base of our deck, and some wildflowers near the front door. Both places the runoff from my containers will keep them watered. My main garden is all in containers.

I really love a book I got for Christmas,



It's a basic guide on what you can do in containers, much of it also applies to small areas. I've learned a couple things I was doing wrong from that book, and got a few good ideas to try this year. Mostly planting more than one thing per pot so they can work together, like tall things that don't need soil surface with short things that don't need much vertical space. I have a few combos planned, like a big pot on the front porch, I have lavender sprouting to put in there and I'm looking for creeping thyme to put with it. I have oregano, chocolate mint and sweet potatoes on the front porch, I'll be adding cilantro, parsley and chives when they're a little bigger. It's my herb area since it gets plenty of sun and is close to the kitchen.

The side deck is my veggie area since it's the largest. I'll have tomatoes there, carrots, spinach, mustard greens, radishes, scarlet runner beans on the pergola, bell peppers, zucchini and a couple other odds and ends. I'm taking advantage of vertical space as much as I can. I watch Craigslist and other sources for plant stands, the kind like a metal bookcase, so I can stack plants a few high without compromising too much light. I have a couple hanging planters, some pots on the rail, some on shelves made of wood and cinderblocks. Some will grow on the pergola, some will be staked or caged (tomatoes, beans and squash).

The rear deck is the smallest and it's where we have living space with a table. It has a GIANT strawberry pot, and a dish pot full of radishes. I just got a hanging planter to go out there that I'm going to plant edible flowers in, I have one of those seed starter greenhouse things full of pansies, johnny-jump-ups and violas for it, and I'll put nasturtiums around the edge so they'll hang down and look gorgeous. Radishes grow really fast, so I can do a few batches in that one dish pot, and when I get bored of them I can fill it up with more flowers or some mustard greens. I'd eventually like to get a dwarf lemon or orange tree to put out there, I already have a giant pot I can put it in - a real find on clearance at Kmart for about $5! It's about 2 feet across, bigger than a barrell half and deeper.

The hands down easiest stuff to grow in small spaces:
mustard greens
radishes (seriously. You can grow them anywhere, and they're ready in 1-2 months)
spinach

Anything else takes a little work or know-how, I learn as I go. Decide what you like to eat and look it up to see if it will grow well in the space you have! No matter what I grow, I make room in the summer for tomatoes. Store bought tomatoes taste like nothing, and they're criminally expensive. I don't get much food from that much space, but it's fun and what I do get is a lot better than store bought stuff.

If you're just starting out though or trying to expand your container gardening know how, check out that book! I'm having a lot of fun planning new things to try out with it, I keep checking back. It tells you the minimum pot depth needed for various things too, which is really useful and hard info to find!