Rosalind Creasy’s Edible Salad Garden was the first in the Edible Garden Series that began in 1999. In a little over 100 pages, Creasy lays out everything you need to know about putting in a salad garden by your kitchen door. It’s a handy little book, divided into three sections: The Edible Art of Salad Gardens, The Encyclopedia of Salad Greens, and Favorite Salad Recipes. She also includes two appendices: Planting & Maintenance and Pests & Disease Control.  Through it all are stunning photographs of her own garden, close ups of various salad greens, and pictures of salad at the table.

An organic gardener, Creasy shows you how to raise these succulent greens without chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Since most lettuces and other salad edibles have few pests and are easy to grow, going organic won’t be hard. However, if you are a novice gardener, you might want to get some additional advice from your local country extension office or a gardening friend, since some of Creasy’s instructions assume you know your way around the dirt.

Still, Edible SaladGarden is a great handbook for the home gardener.