Beginner's Guide to Growing Great Vegetables

by Lorene Edwards Forkner

Your Backyard Bounty Awaits!

You can grow beautiful, healthy, delicious veggies and herbs right from the start - just follow the trustworthy advice found in The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Great Vegetables. Expert gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner shares all the information you need to create a thriving garden, from facts about soil and sun to tips on fertilising, mulching, and watering. Regional planting charts show what to plant when, and a month-by-month planner takes you from January through December. Profiles of popular edibles explain exactly how to plant, care for, and harvest your bounty. Whether your garden grows in the ground, on a balcony, or in containers on a sunny patio, this is your guide to grow-your-own success.

• ISBN10: 1643260855
• ISBN13: 9781643260853
• Publish Date: 16 March 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Timber Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 252
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Great Vegetables is a new tutorial gardening guide by Lorene Edwards Forkner. Released 16th March 2021 by Workman Publishing on their Timber Press imprint, it's 224 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a comprehensive and well written guide full of easy to understand advice for getting started and succeeding with vegetable gardening. It's slanted toward readers in North America and USDA regional maps and zones are those used in the USA. The first section is a good intro to the concepts and first steps to get started (and succeed) with a garden. The author does a good job explaining the basics and the first chapters are full of clear tables and illustrations as well as a short glossary of terms. The author gives a good overview over soil, water, siting, light conditions, local climate zones, garden planning, and more.

The following chapters are set up chronologically with garden tasks for each month Jan-Dec. There is also an abbreviated herbal listing of edibles from A - Z including all the usual garden favorites as well as some surprises. Each of the listings includes the name (common names only), culture info, planting info for each of the regions, growing and harvesting info, and some varieties to try out.

The appendices include resources and suppliers links, some often overlooked vegetables to seek out and try, an abbreviated bibliography, metric conversion chart, and a cross-referenced index.

The photography throughout the book is lush, clear, and abundant. It's very inspiring to see healthy vegetables and plants, well displayed and appealing.

Four stars. A good beginner's guide. I would recommend it for garden groups, library acquisition, or for the home gardener's library.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.