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Small gardens are important I think because that's what nearly everyone has these days
and we need to learn to make the most efficient use of whatever space
we do have available.
I wrote Fabulous Food from Every Small Garden for a number of reasons.
One was that I've grown my own food for a very long time
and know all the benefits of homegrown food,
both on the personal and environmental level.
When I was writing my previous book, Creating your Eco Friendly Garden,
I could see that there was a lot I could be saying about growing food
that didn't fit neatly within the theme of that book
so even before it was finished,
I was mentally preparing to write a book about food growing.
And I suppose another reason is
that I've learnt a lot about food growing,
both from hands-on experience, from other books,
and through my work as editor of Grass Roots magazine.
And I think that when you know a lot about a subject,
knowledge should be passed on.
Most of my gardening experience has been on a larger scale
when we had 16 hectare property where we had a large vege garden,
an orchard,
wind breaks, re-vegetatian areas, all of that.
At the same time I was working at Grass Roots magazine and I was introduced to a lot of people
who were growing impressive amounts of food in very small areas.
So I began to form some ideas
about how that could be done in a very productive way.
Moving to this block
about seven years ago, gave me the opportunity to put a lot of those ideas
into practice.
There's quite a big section in the book dealing with bush foods.
And there are many fruiting plants
that are small to medium sized,
that are very suitable for small gardens.
My philosophy of pest and weed control is that I think there's far too much
chemicals used in home gardens. The amount...
I seen some figures about the amount and it's really stupendous.
And most of the time it's totally unnecessary.
There are a lot of simple methods you can use such a simple soap sprays,
simple sprays made from bicarbonate of soda or from cooking oils.
Lots of different simple home grown methods
that you can use to keep your own garden safe.
I hopes that anyone with a small garden, even a balcony or courtyard,
can find things of benefit to them in this book that they'll be able to use
and things they'll be able to adapt to their own situation.
I hope people will get from the book knowledge,
confidence,
and empowerment to take some control of their food supply.
And I would really love it if it brought enjoyment and better health
to thousands of people.
Wouldn't that be wonderful.