Starting Your First Patio Garden by E. Hughes

Starting Your First Patio Garden: A Coffee Table Book
E. Hughes
ISBN: 978-0-9852015-5-5

WHERE TO BUY (Available now)

Starting Your First Patio Garden: A Coffee Table Book” is a simple guide to help novice gardeners plant their first container or potted garden. When I started my first garden, I looked at many DIY websites and books and found some of the plans were too sophisticated for my modest little townhouse. The layouts were sunlit, gorgeous, and intimidating. I was a city girl living in a contained, but bustling high-traffic part of town and the area where my garden would be planted was merely a small patio enclosed by a tall wooden fence. How do I start a garden with this? Then I realized, my garden didn’t have to look sophisticated, or fancy like the ones on the DIY websites or books. I could do whatever I wanted, as long as I could get my plants to grow. I discovered my love of gardening more than a decade ago after the impulse purchase of a small tomato plant at a grocery store. I watered it everyday. It sat outside on my partially shaded doorstep for about a month, before it started to bear fruit. I was amazed that I could grow anything, let alone a tomato. I went to the store and purchased another. That year, I grew two tomato plants on my patio. The following year, I grew an entire garden in large $10 container pots. It was small, but effective. Tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro, parsley, basil, and an eggplant (that I had planted in a Topsy Turvey Tomato Planter) had grown beautifully that year. When friends visited, their mouths dropped. I knew I had achieved something, when one day at six in the morning, I looked out my window to find my neighbor, a little ninety year-old lady from Mexico with a blade standing on my patio, cutting cilantro. I never used cilantro, and the stalks had grown taller than I was, and had grown flowers that sprouted seeds. I had invited some of my neighbors to pluck a tomato any time they wanted. I smiled, and closed the curtains as she slowly walked back to her townhouse. I continued to grow a garden every year, adding different varieties of tomatoes while experimenting with the different types of vegetables I could grow in pots. My gardens are never fancy or elaborate. Sometimes my patio or backyard (filled with supplies, dirt or even cracks between the concrete) can look a little beat up, except with large, beautiful green plants that make the entire area look vibrant, gorgeous, and lush. With this book, I didn’t want to go the fancy route. Sometimes, when we see something that looks a bit out of reach, we don’t follow through. It’s a creative process but new gardeners shouldn’t feel pressured to grow a garden that looks like it’s out of the pages of a “Better Homes and Garden” magazine (though you can if you want!) The idea is to add special touches from fountains, rocks, or any landscaping idea that works for you and your home, no matter how large or small your garden area will be. Hope you enjoy the book. – E. Hughes