Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 1
What You’re Not to Read 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Digging Into the Basics of Vegetable Gardening 3
Part II: Vegging Out 3
Part III: Getting Down and Dirty in Your Vegetable Garden 3
Part IV: The Part of Tens 3
Icons Used in This Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part I: Digging Into the Basics of Vegetable Gardening 5
Chapter 1: Vegetable Gardening 101 7
Why Have Your Own Vegetable Garden? 7
The Basics of Planning a Veggie Garden 8
A Cornucopia of Vegetables to Grow 8
Tomatoes 9
Peppers and eggplants 9
Carrots, onions, and potatoes 9
Peas and beans 10
Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and squash 10
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower 11
Lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and specialty greens 11
An assortment of other great veggies 12
Non-vegetable edibles 12
Getting Down to Growing 12
Choosing between seeds and transplants 12
Working the soil 13
Keeping your garden growing and enjoying the rewards 13
Trying tips for an even bigger bounty 14
Chapter 2: The Popularity and Benefits of Vegetable Gardening 15
Food Gardening: It’s Popping Up Everywhere 15
A Few Good Reasons to Grow Your Own Food 16
Improve your health 17
Save some cash 17
Help the environment 19
Increase your quality of life 20
Chapter 3: Planning Your Veggie Garden 21
Deciding Where to Put Your Vegetable Garden 21
Considering different sites 22
Letting the sun shine on your plot 23
Checking your soil’s drainage 24
Understanding Veggie Varieties 25
Timing Your Planting Wisely 27
Some like it cool, some like it hot 28
Frost dates and the length of the growing season 28
Designing Your Garden 30
Deciding on hills, rows, or raised beds 30
Spacing your plantings properly 33
Following the paths 33
Sketching it out 34
Part II: Vegging Out 39
Chapter 4: Tomatoes: The King of Veggies 41
Checking Out Tomato Varieties 41
Enjoying classic red, round tomatoes 44
Surveying all the other colors of tomatoes 45
Sweetening the pot with cherry, grape, and pear tomatoes 46
Studying some saucy tomatoes 47
Introducing the tomato’s relatives 48
Growing Tomatoes with Ease 49
Jump-starting tomatoes 49
Planting, trellising, and pruning 49
Fertilizing and maintaining your plants 52
Eliminating pests and other problems 53
Harvesting tomatoes 56
Chapter 5: Meeting the Tomato’s Cousins: Peppers and Eggplants 57
Producing Plenty of Peppers 58
Those sweet bells 58
Long and round sweet peppers 60
Peppers that turn on the heat 61
Pretty peppers: The ornamentals 64
Distinguishing Eggplants by Shape 65
Large and oval 65
Cylindrical 65
Small and round 66
Growing Peppers and Eggplants 67
A few guidelines for starting and planting 67
Fertilizing and watering tips 68
Pest patrol 69
Harvesting tips 69
Chapter 6: Growing Underground Crops: Carrots, Onions, and Potatoes 71
A Rabbit’s (and Gardener’s) Favorite Root: Carrots 71
Classifying carrots by type 72
Examining some carrot varieties 73
Onions: The Bulbs with Layers of Sweet and Pungent Goodness 74
Choosing your onion varieties 75
Looking at scallions and perennial onions 76
Potatoes: No Longer a Boring Spud 78
Potatoes classified 78
Selecting a few potato varieties 79
Growing and Gathering Root Crops 80
General guidelines for all your root crops 80
Cultivating carrots 81
Growing onions 82
Producing potatoes 83
Keeping Your Root Crops Healthy and Pest-Free 86
Chapter 7: Sweet and Simple: Beans and Peas 89
A Bevy of Beans: Filling Your Rows with Bean Family Plants 90
Bushels of bush beans 91
Pole beans: The long and tall crop 92
The versatile shell and dried beans 93
Miscellaneous beans not to be forgotten 94
More Peas, Please! 96
English peas: The reliable standby 96
Sweet and tender snap peas 97
An earlier harvest: Snow peas 98
Get ’Em in the Ground: Growing Beans and Peas 98
Planting legumes for an ample harvest 99
Thwarting pests and diseases 102
Keep on pickin’: Harvesting your crop 103
Chapter 8: Vigorous Vines: Cucumbers, Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash 105
Checking Out Cool Cukes 106
Before you choose: Brushing up on some cucumber vocabulary 106
Surveying common cucumber varieties 107
Melons: The Sweet, Juicy Vining Plant 108
Distinguishing different types of melons 109
Perusing popular melon varieties 109
Unearthing the Humble Squash 111
Different squash types 111
Popular squash varieties 113
Great Pumpkins: Counting the Uses for This Versatile Squash 114
Growing Those Vines 116
Planting and feeding 116
Water, water, water! 118
Ensuring proper pollination 118
Controlling pests and diseases 120
Harvesting your vining crop 121
Chapter 9: Cool Weather Staples: Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, and Cauliflower 123
Paying Attention to the Often-Overlooked Cole Crops 123
Easing into cole crops with broccoli 124
Brussels sprouts: The little cabbages 126
Choosing cabbage: The age-old and dependable cole crop 127
Considering cauliflower in a rainbow of colors 129
Growing Your Own Cole Crops 130
Giving cole crops what they want 130
Nurturing cole crops 132
Putting a stop to pesky pest problems 133
Harvesting cole crops 134
Chapter 10: A Salad for All Seasons: Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Specialty Greens 137
Lettuce Get Together 138
Crisphead lettuce 138
Romaine lettuce 140
Loose-head lettuce 140
Loose-leaf lettuce 141
Popeye’s Pal: Spinach 141
Savoy spinach 142
Smooth spinach and some spinachlike friends 142
The Attractive and Hardy Swiss Chard 143
Going Wild with Specialty Greens 144
Growing Great Greens 146
Timing is everything: Determining when to plant your greens 146
Putting your greens to bed 148
Adding nitrogen-rich fi shy fertilizer 148
Thin and bare it: Thinning your greens 148
Watering to win the war against wilt 149
Working out the bugs (and other common ailments) 149
Your bowl runneth over: Harvesting greens 150
Chapter 11: Sweet Corn and an A to T of Other Worthy Veggies 151
Sweet Corn and Its Relatives 151
Sweet corn 152
Popcorn 154
A Variety of Other Great Vegetables 155
Arugula 155
Asparagus 156
Beets 158
Broccoli raab 159
Celeriac 160
Celery 160
Chinese cabbage 161
Collards 162
Endive 162
Escarole 163
Florence fennel 163
Garlic 164
Globe artichokes 166
Gourds 167
Horseradish 168
Kale 168
Kohlrabi 169
Leeks 170
Mizuna 171
Okra 171
Pac choi 172
Parsnips 172
Peanuts 173
Radicchio 174
Radishes 175
Rhubarb 176
Rutabagas 177
Shallots 178
Sunflowers 178
Turnips 179
Chapter 12: Growing Berries and Herbs for an Edible Landscape 181
Sweetening Your Landscape with Berries and Fruits 182
Strawberries 182
Blueberries 183
Blackberries and raspberries 183
Unusual fruits 184
Spicing Up Your Landscape with Herbs 185
Basil 186
Chives 187
Cilantro 188
Dill 189
French tarragon 190
Mint 190
Oregano 192
Parsley 192
Rosemary 193
Sage 194
Thyme 195
Making Your Landscape Blossom with Edible Flowers 196
Part III: Getting Down and Dirty in Your Vegetable Garden 197
Chapter 13: On Your Mark, Get Set Grow! 199
Choosing Seeds or Transplants 200
Deciding on Your Seeding Method and Decoding a Seed Packet 201
Starting Seeds Indoors 202
Picking a pot to plant in 203
Using a mix that doesn’t include soil 204
Sowing your seeds 204
Providing the right amount of light and heat 206
Watering your seedlings 207
Thinning and transplanting indoors 208
Feeding your seedlings 209
Transplanting Indoor Seedlings and Starter Plants 210
Buying starter plants 210
Toughening up all types of transplants 211
Making the big move to the ground 212
Sowing Seeds Directly in Your Garden 214
Deciding on a seed-planting method 214
Thinning seedlings in your garden 218
Chapter 14: Workin’ the Dirt 219
Razing Your Garden Spot 219
Killing weeds and aggressive grasses 220
Stripping sod 222
Analyzing and Improving Your Soil 223
Distinguishing different types of soil 223
Testing your soil 225
Adjusting soil pH 226
Adding organic matter (aka the dead stuff) 228
Turning Your Soil 231
Making Your Own Compost 232
Building a compost pile 233
Avoiding materials that don’t belong in a compost pile 234
Moistening and turning your compost pile 235
Chapter 15: Maintaining Your Vegetable Garden 237
Introducing Your Inner Gardener to the Watering Basics 238
Knowing when your veggies need a drink 239
Discovering ways to water your vegetable garden 240
Conserving water with a few handy tips 246
Keeping Your Plants Cozy and Weed Free with Mulch 247
Spreading organic mulch 247
Laying inorganic mulch 249
Deciding which mulch to use 251
Determining Important Nutrients Your Soil Needs 252
Macronutrients 252
Secondary nutrients and micronutrients 254
Fertilizing Your Vegetable Garden 254
Examining a fertilizer label 255
Choosing a fertilizer 256
Side-dressing 257
Give ’Em Something to Lean On: Supporting Your Vegetables 260
Beans and peas 260
Melons and cucumbers 262
Tomatoes 262
Fighting Weed Wars 263
Making a preemptive strike on weeds 263
Battling weeds after planting 264
Chapter 16: Surveying Some Cool Farmer Techniques 265
Adding Nutrients and Stability with Cover Crops and Green Manures 265
Choosing cover crops 266
Planting cover crops 267
Giving Your Plants Some Friends: Companion Planting 268
Making Your Garden Work Double Time with Intercropping 270
Succession Planting for an Extended Harvest 270
Rotating Crops to Preserve Soil Nutrients
and Maintain a Pest-Free Bed 272
Planting by the Phases of the Moon 273
Chapter 17: Keeping Your Plants Healthy 275
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Controlling Pests 275
In with the good bugs 276
The bad-bug roundup 277
Methods of attack 282
Gardening to Eliminate Diseases 285
Avoiding diseases with good habits 285
Watching out for common diseases 286
Keeping the Animal Kingdom at Bay 287
Chapter 18: Containing Your Veggies 291
Considering a Few Container Characteristics 292
Filling Up Your Container: Potting Soil Made Simple 294
Knowing Which Vegetables Grow Well in Pots 294
Some common container veggies 295
Some bee-u-tee-ful vegetable combos 297
Planting Your Veggies in Pots 297
Caring for Container Veggies 298
Experimenting with Greenhouses, Hoop Houses, and Hydroponics 300
Chapter 19: Harvesting, Storing, and Preserving Vegetables 301
Knowing When to Harvest 301
Putting Away Your Vegetables 304
Freezing, Drying, and Canning Veggies 307
Saving Vegetable Seeds 308
Part IV: The Part of Tens 311
Chapter 20: Ten Tools of the Trade 313
Watering Hoses and Cans 314
Hand Trowels 314
Hand Cultivators 315
Garden Hoes 315
Spades and Shovels 316
Garden Forks 317
Garden Rakes 317
Buckets, Wagons, and Baskets 317
Wheelbarrows and Garden Carts 319
Power Tillers 319
Chapter 21: Nearly Ten Ways to Extend Your Growing Season 321
Choose Clever Planting Locations 321
Time Your Planting Wisely 322
Protect Plants with Hot Caps 322
Add Elegance to Your Garden with Glass Cloches 323
Buy or Build Cold Frames 323
Drape Row Covers over Veggies 325
Place Wall O’ Waters around Plants 325
Try Portable Greenhouses and Hoop Houses 326
Appendix: Planning Guidelines and Other Resources 327
Guidelines for Planting 327
Frost Dates and the Length of the Growing Season 332
Hardiness Zones in North America 335
Where to Find Seeds and Other Resources 336
Vegetables, herbs, and flowers 336
Seed savers 341
Fruits and berries 342
Tools and supplies 343
U.S. and Canadian Master Gardeners 345
Web Sites about Vegetables 348
State sites 349
Cyber veggies 350
Index 351