My girlfriend has a couple of smallish planters on the back porch of her duplex, where she’s growing herbs, tomatoes, chilies, and other similarly contained plants. She’s doing this without experience or reference material; she went to the garden center and asked for “easy” plants she could handle with minimal maintenance. Even so, she’s having trouble with some of them; her tomatoes are fruiting, but inconsistently, and her basil just died, with the shiso apparently next.
I’d like to give her a simple gardening guide for her birthday. I’ve looked at what’s available at my own garden center, but they primarily have the giant encyclopedic volumes that cover a whole lot of topics without much depth. Since all my girlfriend is doing is growing herbs and small veggies, she doesn’t need a book that also explains how to transplant maple trees or install a waterfall or protect koi from raccoons. Aside from the fact that something like this isn’t a specialized guide, it’s big and unwieldy and would probably never be used. I need something focused and specific to the topic.
I’ve tried looking on Amazon. Some of the titles seem promising; for example, this looks good, but it’s out of print. A lot of the books appear oriented to the “pea patch” gardener, which isn’t exactly right; she has no yard at all, and is doing everything in containers.
Suggestions please?