The Vegetable Gardener's Bible

I gotta tell ya... I have no idea what I'm doing. Let me start by saying how I came to find this book; I am a mother of two little boys and lost my mother to breast cancer at a young age. The food I buy at the grocery store, no matter how thoroughly I read the label I know will always have something I don't want in it. I put an exhausting amount of effort into thinking about the food my family eats but sometimes it's just so overwhelming, I give up and just order a pizza. Sounds off topic but that is how I landed on this book, I was exhausted and feeling like nothing I could ever buy would truly be a healthy option to feed my family and steer away from harmful cancer-causing chemicals in our food. So, I went to the internet to search for something to help my black-thumb and figure out how to provide the healthiest food for my family, without breaking the bank. Like I mentioned before I have no idea what I'm doing. I come from the school of thought that if I kill my flowers, I just run down to the store and buy new pretty flowers and throw away the old ones I killed and replace with new said flowers. Happy day. Well, that doesn't really work when you're trying to actually produce a harvest of some kind...I have been reading this book for months and I started by dog-earing pages that were helpful... Don't do it. I soon realized I was dog-earing every single page. This book has helped me to understand every aspect of starting and maintaining a garden. My dad, who actually grew up on a farm, read some of my book when he came to visit and even he was very impressed. I mention this because I don't think this book is only for idiot-gardeners like myself. He read a lot of the recommendations and theories for wide-row and organic methods and he even learned from this book. I would highly recommend purchasing this book. Great photos, diagrams, illustrations, bullet-points, what to buy, what to reuse & recycle, incredible in-depth bios of vegetable plants (encyclopedia-style, more than you could ever want to know about a plant). The list really goes on and on. The pictures are so helpful!This book showed me how to start with a 3x3 raised bed, non-permanent, producing vegetable & herb garden (which is great for me because we are in Southern California so any amount of land is tough to come by & we rent). It helped me to not feel overwhelmed or take on too much too soon in my first major gardening endeavor and now I am able to start feeding my family more and more healthy organic vegetables that I grow from seed. I don't even have to go to Whole Foods and spend 50% of our income on our veggie budget each month. I learned how to plan everything out, start my seeds indoors with soilless seed-starting mix, transplanting, soil temp, vertical gardening, composting and how to save my plants organically and relatively simply when something (be it bug, bird or disease) is trying to eat or kill all of my efforts.In summation, I learned how to grow a self-sufficient garden for my family with this book and it will be my most trusted garden companion for years to come. So well written.

I recently had the pleasure of reading "The Vegetable Gardner's Bible" by Edward Smith, and I must say it exceeded my expectations. This book is a comprehensive and well-organized resource for gardeners of all levels. Smith's writing style is engaging and easy to understand, making even the more complex topics accessible to beginners.The book covers a wide range of gardening topics, including soil preparation, plant selection, pest control, and garden design. What I particularly appreciated were the detailed sections on organic gardening methods and sustainable practices, which are becoming increasingly important in today's world.One of the standout features of the book is the beautiful illustrations and photographs that accompany the text. They not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of the book but also provide valuable visual references for readers.Overall, "The Vegetable Gardner's Bible" is a must-have for anyone passionate about gardening. Whether you're just starting out or have years of experience, this book offers a wealth of knowledge and practical advice that will undoubtedly help you improve and enjoy your gardening endeavors. Highly recommended!

This book is a wealth of knowledge. It has so many gardening ideas/techniques from A to Z. Truly! I've been gardening for a couple of years now but didn't feel that I was really getting the hang of it as much as I could. I already had put in raised beds. But I like how this book has provided information on how much I could plant in one area (like bunched all together and such) and different schemes of planting. Sure, it says how to plant on the back of the seed packaging, but there is more planning into it than you would think. I will also regularly forget what plants like others and which ones don't. Not anymore! This book has the full list. Watering plants. No brainer right? Wrong! At least if you want your garden to be growing at it's very best. Of course, that's even included in this book. I really like that this book also involves soil and how important it is and how to check it. Moving from another state where some vegetables grew so well to this state where those same plants struggle has been difficult. I'm going to have really invest into the soil this year and I'm grateful that this book explains the steps on what I need to do. There really is so much more about this book but unfortunately I don't have time to write a novel. My favorite part of this book though is the glossary of information about each vegetable you'd ever even think about planting. Each page includes: the name of the vegetable, information about it, where they like to been sown and grown, seed depth, germination soil temperature, days to germination, when to sow indoors (or not to), when to sow outdoors (or not to), growing pH, growing soil temperature, spacing in beds, watering, light needed, nutrient requirements, rotation considerations, and seed longevity. Seriously helpful no matter how short or long you have been gardening.My only dislikes about this book is that certain parts didn't get more information. Like greenhouse growing. I was hoping there would be more information given on growing and continuing in the greenhouse should I not want to plant outside. If bee's needed to get inside, how that would all work.I was super happy to see the section on vertical gardening. I have tried it once before but was eager for more information. Sadly, even though it showed 3 examples of vertical gardening (tepees, A-frames, homemade trellises), it only showed how to make a typical trellis. I was hoping to see how to make the A-frame one in particular.Still love this book though. Highly recommend.