You see
A big, green plant with few flowers, or none.
It's too much nitrogen. Do this: stop the high-nitrogen feeding and change to a balanced fertilizer made for vegetables.
Nana korobi ya oki: fall down seven times, get up eight.
You did everything right. It still gave you three tomatoes.
Free Food for Life shows you what your plant is telling you and what to do that same day. Then it takes you through 46 plants, from the windowsill to a fruit tree in a pot, each with what goes wrong and how to fix it.
$71$47 today. 486 pages that open on your phone in 30 seconds. 30-day money-back guarantee.
From Chapter 14 · Reading the Signs
Your plant is telling you what's wrong.
Most problems in a small garden come from four things: water, food, heat and light. Here are six of the signs the book teaches you to read, and what it tells you to do about each one.
You see
Tomato flowers that open, then drop.
It's usually the weather: chilly nights or fierce heat stop pollination, and so does dry soil. Do this: keep the water steady, and shake the plants at midday to help the pollen fall.
You see
A black, leathery bottom on the tomato.
It's blossom end rot, and it isn't a disease: uneven watering keeps calcium from reaching the fruit. Do this: water on a steady schedule. Eggshells won't help, and Epsom salt has no calcium in it and can make it worse.
You see
Squash and cucumber flowers, but no squash.
It's only male flowers so far, or no bees about. Do this: wait a week for the female flowers, the ones with a tiny fruit behind the petals, and if none set, pollinate them by hand.
You see
Yellow leaves and drooping, while the soil is still wet.
It's too much water, and the roots are short of air. Do this: let the top inch dry before you water again, check the drainage holes and empty the saucer.
You see
The lower leaves turning pale, then yellow.
It's the plant running out of nitrogen, which a pot loses every time water drains through it. Do this: feed it at the label rate, and add compost when you replant.
That's one chapter. Part V has four, on the signs, pests, diseases and critters, and a symptom index at the back lets you find your problem by what you see.
Send me the book, $47Three things people try. Only one tells you why.
What the store sells
The fertilizer aisle
One more bottle
every season
- One balanced vegetable feed is worth having
- Each bottle promises bigger tomatoes than the last
- Too much nitrogen gives you a big plant and no fruit
- Can't tell you why your flowers are dropping
The one that tells you why
The whole garden, in order
Free Food for Life
$71$47
34% off
about $1 a plant
opens on your phone in 30 seconds
- Find your problem by what you see: 4 chapters and a symptom index
- 46 plants, each with what goes wrong and what to do
- Feed your pots from the kitchen and the curb
- The honest list: which tricks work and which don't
- 30-day money-back guarantee
What most people do
Guess, and wait
One summer
you don't get back
- Water more, feed more, and hope
- More often makes it worse: too much water, too much nitrogen
- By the time you find out why, the season is over
What's inside
The whole garden, part by part.
65 chapters in seven parts, 486 pages, with large, clear type made for a phone. Every plant chapter shows where it fits, when to start, how long until you eat and what to do when it goes wrong. Pick the plants that fit your window and your yard: you don't have to grow all 46.
Start here — 3 chapters
From an empty windowsill to your first five pots.
- 01Imagine one year
- 02Your space, your sun and what fits it
- 03Soil and your first pots
Part I · The Kitchen — 3 chapters
The food that's already in your house.
- 04What grows again from scraps
- 05Seeds hiding in the pantry
- 06What the kitchen feeds back to the soil
Part II · The Curb — 2 chapters
Free soil, and free food for it.
- 07Soil from fallen leaves
- 08Feeding your pots without the store
Part III · The Plant Itself — 4 chapters
One plant that keeps making the next.
- 09Seeds or young plants: which to start with
- 10One plant makes the next
- 11Saving your own seed
- 12Keeping the harvest
Part IV · Each Other — 1 chapter
Gardening with the people around you.
- 13Give, trade, share: neighbors and seed libraries
Part V · When Something Goes Wrong — 4 chapters
Read what your plant is telling you, and save the harvest before it's lost.
- 14Reading the signs
- 15Pests
- 16Diseases
- 17Critters and pets
Part VI · The Plants — 46 chapters
One chapter for every plant: where it fits, sun, season, harvest, what goes wrong and how to keep it going free.
Herbs Ch. 18–27
Mint, basil, chives, parsley, cilantro, shiso, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage
Leafy greens Ch. 28–39
Pea shoots, celery, lettuce, arugula, spinach, collards, bok choy, mustard greens, kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, broccoli
Roots and bulbs Ch. 40–49
Green onions, ginger, radishes, garlic, carrots, beets, daikon, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes
Fruiting vegetables Ch. 50–55
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash
Beans and peas Ch. 56–58
Peas, beans, edamame
Fruits Ch. 59–63
Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, melons, fruit trees in pots
Part VII · The Circle — 2 chapters
A garden for the years ahead.
- 64Closing the season, your garden notebook
- 65A last word
Plus, at the back of the book
Everything you'll look up again.
- +More than 40 recipes, with a recipe index
- +A symptom index for the bad weeks
- +4 step-by-step drawings
- +A plain-English glossary
It starts with what's already in your kitchen.
Twelve of the 46 plants and methods in the book.
From the cutting boardCh. 40
Green Onion Roots
Cut it again in about a week: your first harvest, from the end you used to throw out.
From one store bunchCh. 19
Basil Stems
One store bunch, rooted in water, becomes a summer of plants.
From the vegetable binCh. 49
Sweet Potato Slips
One potato, a jar and a dozen new plants.
From the vegetable binCh. 41
Ginger
A small harvest at four months, all of it by ten.
From the recycling binCh. 9
The Milk Jug
Becomes a small greenhouse for sowing in late winter.
From the recycling binCh. 9
Paper Tubes
Pots that go into the ground with the seedling.
From the coffee filterCh. 6
Coffee Grounds
A good compost ingredient, and why not to tip them on the bed.
From the recycling binCh. 50
The Tomato in a Bottle
A micro-dwarf tomato on the balcony, the Japanese way.
From the pantryCh. 28
Pea Shoots
A cup of dried peas, a tray of greens in two to three weeks.
From the curbCh. 7
Leaf Mold
The free soil builder your street puts out at the curb.
From the kitchen scrapsCh. 6
Bokashi
Kitchen scraps fermented with bran, even meat and cooked food.
From the fireplaceCh. 8
Wood Ash
The dose, and the plants that must never get it.
The real pages
Nothing here is a mock-up. These are pages from the book, exactly as they open on your phone.
What the first readers did with it.
★★★★★
Finally, a gardening book that doesn’t lie to you
I’ve watched too many videos promising a whole head of lettuce from a stump. This book tells you straight out that it won’t happen, and then tells you what actually works. My green onions have been regrowing in a glass on the kitchen sill for three weeks now. Small thing, but it made my morning every day.
★★★★★
Written for people whose knees aren’t what they used to be
I had a bad back and assumed my gardening days were over. The chapter on the body changed my mind. Fill the bucket where it’s going to stay, put it on wheels, work standing at a table. I’ve now got basil, a cherry tomato and lettuce on my patio, all at waist height. My wife says I’m happier than I’ve been in years.
★★★★★
Thoughtful about health, which I appreciated
I’m on a blood thinner, and I was surprised and grateful that the book flags it on the kale and collard pages. Most gardening books never think about who’s actually reading them. It also says to cook pea shoots for older adults, which I didn’t know. It feels like it was written by someone who cares.
★★★★★
My grandson and I grew pea shoots from a bag of soup peas
Two weeks, a baking tray and a cup of dried peas from the back of the cupboard. He couldn’t believe they came from “the soup bag.” We’re doing beans next. The writing is calm and easy to follow, and the print is large enough that I don’t need my reading glasses for most of it.
Just imagine next July.
You go out with your coffee, push a finger into each pot and pick what's ready: basil from the railing, a handful of cherry tomatoes, lettuce that grows back after every cut. In the refrigerator there's a jar of envelopes, your own seed, labeled with the year. Next spring's garden is already in it.
Get the book
One book, 486 pages, for phone, tablet or computer. It opens the moment you check out.
Everything in one book
The whole garden, in order
Free Food for Life
$71$47
34% off
about $1 a plant
opens on your phone in 30 seconds
- What your plant is telling you: 4 chapters on the signs, pests, diseases and critters, and a symptom index to find your problem by what you see
- 46 plants, one chapter each: where it fits, sun, season, harvest, what goes wrong and how to keep it going free
- Your first harvest in about a week, the 5 forgiving pots and the first 30 days, a week at a time
- Make your own soil and save your own seed for next year
- More than 40 recipes and 4 step-by-step drawings
- 30-day money-back guarantee
30-day money-back guarantee, because if it doesn't earn its place in your kitchen, you shouldn't pay for it.
- You pay securely through Gumroad.
- The book opens on the next screen, ready to read.
- A copy goes to your email, to keep forever. No account, nothing ships.
From Masao Kobayashi. The reason I wrote this book: the most useful things in a garden are the ones people throw away, and nobody had put them in order, step by step. Watch the channel
Questions
My plants grow, but give me almost nothing. Is this for me?
Yes, that's where the book helps most. Chapter 14 goes through the usual causes in order, water, food, heat and light, with what each looks like and what to do. A big plant with no flowers, tomato flowers that drop and squash that only makes male flowers are all in it.
I already watch the videos. What's in the book?
The videos give you one trick at a time. The book puts all 46 plants in order, from your first glass of water to your second year, with what to do when something goes wrong, so you can keep it open by the window while you work.
I kill every plant I touch. Is this for me?
Yes. It starts with the five plants that forgive every mistake, and your first harvest is a glass of green onions on the windowsill, which is very hard to get wrong.
Do I need a yard?
No. Every plant shows where it fits: windowsill, pot, big container or yard. A sunny windowsill alone grows green onions, pea shoots, mint, chives, parsley and lettuce.
My back and knees aren't what they were.
The book shows how to garden standing up: pots on a bench, a waist-high bed, fewer and bigger pots that need less watering, and tools that are easy on stiff hands.
What format is it?
A PDF that opens right after checkout, with large, clear type for a phone. It also reads on a tablet or computer, and you can print any page. Nothing to install, nothing ships.
What if it isn't for me?
Worst case, write to contactmasaokobayashi@gmail.com within 30 days and get every cent back. Fair enough?
