Grow your first strawberries, herbs and tomatoes in three pots by the back door. Nora's Three-Pot Kitchen Garden tells a complete beginner exactly what to buy, how to plant it, when to water, and what to do the morning something looks wrong. It starts with three pots, then grows with you: an A to Z of forty more plants, a page for every month, and forty recipes.
Three pots by the back door. That's the whole garden, and it's plenty.
Nora CallaghanA whole book of plants is how beginners get overwhelmed. This guide gives you one fruit, one pot of herbs and one vegetable, chosen because they forgive mistakes and you'll want to eat them. Start this weekend with a trip to the garden centre.
Exact pot sizes. The right mix. Seven planting steps. The finger test. Where a strawberry crown sits. Where to cut basil. Which tomato to buy. A feeding schedule. Seventeen problems and their fixes.
The friendliest fruit to start with. They turn red all over when they're ready, so they tell you when to pick.
Basil, parsley and chives share a pot because all three like their mix kept moist.
A bush tomato stays compact and needs no pruning. You'll learn which words to look for on the label.
Nobody kills a plant on purpose. It's nearly always one of these six things, and each one has a plain fix with its own chapter in the guide.
You are a plant person. Nobody told you the three or four things that matter, that's all.
Four parts, in the order you'll need them. Part one gets your three pots planted. Part two keeps them going. Part three is an A to Z of forty more plants. Part four takes you through the year and into the kitchen.
This is the level of detail on every page: what to do, in what order, and how to tell you've done it right.
A tomato that wilts on a scorching afternoon and perks up by evening is only having a lie-down. Check the mix before you reach for the can.
The crown is the knuckle where the leaves meet the roots. It must sit exactly level with the surface of the mix.
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Drooping, and the mix is wet | Stop watering. Clear the drainage holes and empty the saucer. |
| Tall, thin, pale and floppy | Not enough light. Move the pot somewhere sunnier. |
| Dark patch on the bottom of a tomato | Uneven watering. Remove those fruits and water steadily. |
Fourteen more rows like these, for all three pots.
Hello, pet. This is the bit of the garden I'd show you first if you called round: three pots by the back door. One of strawberries, one of herbs, one tomato.
On Nora Callaghan TV I show one small garden lesson at a time. This guide is those lessons put in order, for the person who has killed a supermarket basil and decided they're not a plant person. The growing advice follows the Royal Horticultural Society and university extension services, and every source is listed at the back.
It is not a book about fifty plants. It is three pots, done properly.
A PDF you can read on any phone, tablet or computer. Print it for the kitchen table if you'd rather, and print the notebook pages as often as you like.
Instant download. The link is emailed to you straight after checkout.
Yes. The whole guide is written for pots, and three of them fit on most balconies. Chapter 1 covers the two things to check first: how much sun you get, and what's underneath when the pots drain.
With four to six hours you can grow the strawberries and most of the herbs, and swap the tomato for salad leaves. With less than four, start with a single pot of mint or parsley. The sun check in chapter 1 tells you which you have.
You're exactly who it was written for. It assumes you know nothing, and it covers the handful of mistakes that finish off most first gardens.
Strawberries can go in during spring, late summer or early autumn. The tomato and basil wait until the frosts are over where you live. You can plant one pot now and add the others later.
No. The guide starts you with young plants from a garden centre, which gives you a much better chance of a harvest in your first year.
Nobody can promise that. Weather, variety and timing all have a say, and the guide says so plainly. What it does is remove the common beginner mistakes.
A PDF you can read on a phone, tablet or computer, and print at home.
$15 once. A shopping list, an hour of planting, and a minute each morning after.
Get the guide · $15 →