Table of Contents

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