The best and cheapest food is the food you grow in your own piece of dirt. 'One Magic Square' shows how, with a ten-minute effort, you can start your own productive food garden on a single square metre.

Most food-gardening failures occur through starting too big. By following these plot designs you can extend by one square metre each season to keep your labour pleasurable as your self-sufficiency increases. This timely guide will assist both first-time and experienced gardeners to take control of their own food supply at a time of water restrictions and increasing fuel and food prices. Food gardening is one of the most intelligent adult endeavours on earth - Lolo Houbein shows you how to do it, and why you should.

Plots include: salad, bean, anti-oxidant, stir-fry, curry, Aztec, pea, anti-cancer, soup, herb and spices. There's even a chapter on 'gardening with attitude', as well as advice on taking produce from garden to table, cooking suggestions, correcting poor soils and dealing with pests and predators. Tips, tricks and explanations of exactly what to do, diagrams and vivid illustrations make growing your own not only achievable but fun.