About this item

The biggest mistake gardeners make each season is starting out too big and then quickly realizingtheir large plot requires too much weeding, watering, and backbreaking labor. Vertical gardening guarantees a better outcome from the day the trowel hits the soil--by shrinking the amount of floor space needed and focusing on climbing plants that are less prone to insects, diseases, and animal pests.Notable author and gardener Derek Fell has tried and tested thousands of varieties of vegetables,flowers, and fruits and recommends the best plants for space-saving vertical gardening. His grow-up,grow-down system also shows which ground-level plants make good companions underneath and alongside climbing plants. Best of all, many of Fells greatest climbers and mutually beneficial plants are available in seed packets in every local garden center.



About the Author

Derek Fell

DEREK FELL is the author of more than 100 works of non-fiction including books and calendars, dealing mostly with art, travel and gardens. Born and educated in England, he became an American citizen in 1970 and began a series of gardening books. This led to a series of acclaimed works about the gardens of the great Impressionist painters, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh. This led to a biography about Vincent Van Gogh, 'Van Gogh's Women' and a co-authored cookbook, 'Monet's Palate Cookbook.' His most popular garden books include 'Vegetables - How to Select, Grow and Enjoy,' 'Grow This,' 'Vertical Gardening' and 'The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright.'

Derek is winner of more awards from the Garden Writers Association than any other person, and he was a consultant on vegetable gardening to the White House during the Ford Administration. Derek is married, with three children and three grandchildren, and lives at historic Cedaridge Farm, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He also owns a property on frost-free Sanibel Island, Florida where he cultivates a one-acre tropical garden a block from the beach. There he grows mostly tropical fruits such as coconuts, bananas, mangoes, avocados and macadamia nuts.

Derek's mentors include O. D. Gallagher, a World War II war correspondent who taught him to write; Harry Smith, horticultural photographer who taught him to photograph gardens; and David Burpee dean of American seeds-men, who taught him a great deal about gardening in the US when Derek worked six years as Burpee's catalog manager.

Derek has written hundreds of garden articles, illustrated by his own photography for leading publications such as Architectural Digest, the New York Times magazine and Connoisseur. Contact Derek at derekfell@verizon.net.



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