The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible

The Vegetable Gardeners Bible contains everything a gardener needs to know! Join Ed Smith and hundreds of thousands of happy gardeners who are using the W-O-R-D system to grow their own delicious, abundant, organic vegetables.

Title: The Vegetable Gardeners Bible
Author: Edward C. Smith
ISBN:978-1-60342-475-2
Genre: Gardening
Publisher: Storey Publishing
Pages:336 (paperback)

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About The Vegetable Gardeners Bible

Already loved for its friendly advice, vegetable-specific information, and unwavering commitment to organic methods, America’s best-selling vegetable gardening book now covers more plants and offers smart new solutions for small space and extended season gardening.

The Vegetable Gardeners Bible Review

The W-O-R-D system stands for Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds, and Deep soil. This book contains everything a gardener needs to know. Over half the book is on all the different aspects of planning your garden.

There is extensive information on building raised beds and planning the garden layout. You will also learn how to compost, the details of crop rotation, and more. There is even a small section on how to do a worm census in your garden.

I had truly never thought about counting the worms in a section of the garden to determine its health but it makes sense! Worms like healthy, moist, organic gardens with lots of stuff for them to break down. If your soil isn’t healthy, they LEAVE!

What’s good for the worms is good for the plants, right? And the more worms you have, the more material they break down and the more they aerate the soil which is also important for your garden to grow! So maybe I need to go count worms if my plants aren’t doing well!

Other Gardening Books You Might Enjoy

• Gardening for Geeks is the Perfect Gardening Book for Science Lovers
• Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast
• Natural Pest and Disease Control

The one thing I really loved about The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible was the extensive chapters on PESTS. There are color pictures of all the most common bugs that will destroy your garden. In addition, you will find pictures of the egg and/or larval stage so if you see one in your garden you can get rid of it.

The author makes the note that for as long as plants have been around, so have the pests. As he states, it is only when they become detrimental to the health of the plant do we need to worry about them.

As he mentions in the book, you will NEVER be rid of every one of them! In addition to the bug problems, the author discusses bacterial and viral diseases and larger problems like raccoons, deer, and rabbits.

The last half of the book is dedicated to the plants you will grow in your garden. The section is arranged alphabetically. For each plant, there is information on that plant’s particular growing conditions (soil acidity, nutrient requirements, etc), how to sow the seeds, available varieties, how and when to harvest, best storage conditions, and a ton of other information.

The selection of plants that are included ranges from the common tomato to odd things like Salsify (which, to be honest, I have NO idea what it is!). If you want to grow it, I am pretty sure you will find it in this book!

All in all, this is a GREAT book for any gardener (or wanna be gardener!).