The backyard Vegetable Factory: Super Yields from Small Spaces by Duane Newcomb
It's a little outdated, but very helpful. Newcomb goes through the entire process of creating a 25 square foot garden with helpful tips, scientific findings, and concise writing. He does not focus on the aesthetics of gardening, unlike many other sources I've seen.
Obviously, I'm not gardening on a plot of land. He has a small section on container planting, but the book is more useful for its explanation of how to garden. It's quite hard to explain.
The first 130 pages or so are about starting seeds, pests, planning, etc etc etc. The other half of the book is basically straight up facts. He profiles types of vegetables and describes their particular needs. There is also information on freeze dates, vegetable time range, and vegetable companion suggestions. It also has bibliography that I haven't gone into yet.
The book also has some very nice diagrams and illustrations, which really helps me out. The only section that the pictures didn't help out was for the pests. Even that wasn't because they were poor illustrations. Rather it was that the drawings weren't the same size as the actual creatures nor were they colored. So it's a bit of a mystery.
Newcomb also considers the gardener's environmental footprint AND her pocketbook. He supports the re-purposing of objects and wholly supports organic growing. His compost section is excellent.
There is a lot to say about the Vegetable Factory, but you really can't learn much from it if you don't read it yourself. It really is good.
Pick it up at Half.com for $1.13 (hardcover) at the time of this posting.
Enjoy
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