I Haven't Bought a Plant
in Forty Years.

My grandmother fed seven children from a garden smaller than most modern patios. She never once visited a garden center. There were no garden centers.

Everything the garden needed, the household already had. Plants came from cuttings and saved seed. Feed came from the compost heap and the kitchen. Pests were managed with planting order and a few pantry staples — nothing that would hurt a bee, a robin, or a grandchild's hands.

Helen's Garden Almanac is that knowledge written down: seventy methods across eleven sections — each one with what it gives you, what you need, what it costs, and how to do it, plus a note on the part you only learn by getting your hands dirty. Updated for the gardens people actually have now. A patio. A balcony. A few buckets by the back door. It is enough. It was always enough.

This is not a book that sends you shopping. It is a book that stops you shopping.

Two gardeners in May. Look at their receipts.

Nothing here is complicated. It was all common knowledge once. The book gives it back.

• I
  Beat the Pests & Critters9 methods — the old ways to keep what you grow, without the sprays.
• II
  Grow It, Don't Buy It7 methods — the crops that pay the book back, then keep paying.
• III
  Multiply for Free7 methods — one plant into a dozen without spending a cent.
• IV
  Grow More8 high-yield methods — 100 lb of potatoes from four square feet.
• V
  Fix the Common Mistakes6 methods — the quiet errors that cost you a harvest.
• VI
  Feed the Soil for Free6 methods — compost, weed tea, and the honest truth about eggshells.
• VII
  Small Spaces7 methods — for balconies, patios, and one sunny corner.
• VIII
  Keep the Harvest7 methods — the bucket root cellar, drying, a crock of sauerkraut, winter storage.
• IX
  Plant by the Season6 methods — what to do and when, all year round.
• X
  Perennials & the Long Game5 methods — plant once, harvest for years.
• XI
  From the Garden to the KitchenThe old remedies and everyday uses, shared as tradition.