Table of Contents

• Introduction
• About This Book
• Conventions Used in This Book
• What You're Not to Read
• Foolish Assumptions
• How This Book Is Organized
• Part I: Digging Into the Basics of Vegetable Gardening
• Part II: Vegging Out
• Part III: Getting Down and Dirty in Your Vegetable Garden
• Part IV: The Part of Tens
• Icons Used in This Book
• Where to Go from Here
• Part I
• Chapter 1: Vegetable Gardening 101
• Why Have Your Own Vegetable Garden?
• The Basics of Planning a Veggie Garden
• A Cornucopia of Vegetables to Grow
• Tomatoes
• Peppers and eggplants
• Carrots, onions, and potatoes
• Peas and beans
• Cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and squash
• Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower
• Lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and specialty greens
• An assortment of other great veggies
• Non-vegetable edibles
• Getting Down to Growing
• Choosing between seeds and transplants
• Working the soil
• Keeping your garden growing and enjoying the rewards
• Trying tips for an even bigger bounty
• Chapter 2: The Popularity and Benefits of Vegetable Gardening
• Food Gardening: It's Popping Up Everywhere
• A Few Good Reasons to Grow Your Own Food
• Improve your health
• Save some cash
• Help the environment
• Increase your quality of life
• Chapter 3: Planning Your Veggie Garden
• Deciding Where to Put Your Vegetable Garden
• Considering different sites
• Letting the sun shine on your plot
• Checking your soil's drainage
• Understanding Veggie Varieties
• Timing Your Planting Wisely
• Some like it cool, some like it hot
• Frost dates and the length of the growing season
• Designing Your Garden
• Deciding on hills, rows, or raised beds
• Spacing your plantings properly
• Following the paths
• Sketching it out
• Part II
• Chapter 4: Tomatoes: The King of Veggies
• Checking Out Tomato Varieties
• Enjoying classic red, round tomatoes
• Surveying all the other colors of tomatoes
• Sweetening the pot with cherry, grape, and pear tomatoes
• Studying some saucy tomatoes
• Introducing the tomato's relatives
• Growing Tomatoes with Ease
• Jump-starting tomatoes
• Planting, trellising, and pruning
• Fertilizing and maintaining your plants
• Eliminating pests and other problems
• Harvesting tomatoes
• Chapter 5: Meeting the Tomato's Cousins: Peppers and Eggplants
• Producing Plenty of Peppers
• Those sweet bells
• Long and round sweet peppers
• Peppers that turn on the heat
• Pretty peppers: The ornamentals
• Distinguishing Eggplants by Shape
• Large and oval
• Cylindrical
• Small and round
• Growing Peppers and Eggplants
• A few guidelines for starting and planting
• Fertilizing and watering tips
• Pest patrol
• Harvesting tips
• Chapter 6: Growing Underground Crops: Carrots, Onions, and Potatoes
• A Rabbit's (and Gardener's) Favorite Root: Carrots
• Classifying carrots by type
• Examining some carrot varieties
• Onions: The Bulbs with Layers of Sweet and Pungent Goodness
• Choosing your onion varieties
• Looking at scallions and perennial onions
• Potatoes: No Longer a Boring Spud
• Potatoes classified
• Selecting a few potato varieties
• Growing and Gathering Root Crops
• General guidelines for all your root crops
• Cultivating carrots
• Growing onions
• Producing potatoes
• Keeping Your Root Crops Healthy and Pest-Free
• Chapter 7: Sweet and Simple: Beans and Peas
• A Bevy of Beans: Filling Your Rows with Bean Family Plants
• Bushels of bush beans
• Pole beans: The long and tall crop
• The versatile shell and dried beans
• Miscellaneous beans not to be forgotten
• More Peas, Please!
• English peas: The reliable standby
• Sweet and tender snap peas
• An earlier harvest: Snow peas
• Get 'Em in the Ground: Growing Beans and Peas
• Planting legumes for an ample harvest
• Thwarting pests and diseases
• Keep on pickin': Harvesting your crop
• Chapter 8: Vigorous Vines: Cucumbers, Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash
• Checking Out Cool Cukes
• Before you choose: Brushing up on some cucumber vocabulary
• Surveying common cucumber varieties
• Melons: The Sweet, Juicy Vining Plant
• Distinguishing different types of melons
• Perusing popular melon varieties
• Unearthing the Humble Squash
• Different squash types
• Popular squash varieties
• Great Pumpkins: Counting the Uses for This Versatile Squash
• Growing Those Vines
• Planting and feeding
• Water, water, water!
• Ensuring proper pollination
• Controlling pests and diseases
• Harvesting your vining crop
• Chapter 9: Cool Weather Staples: Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, and Cauliflower
• Paying Attention to the Often-Overlooked Cole Crops
• Easing into cole crops with broccoli
• Brussels sprouts: The little cabbages
• Choosing cabbage: The age-old and dependable cole crop
• Considering cauliflower in a rainbow of colors
• Growing Your Own Cole Crops
• Giving cole crops what they want
• Nurturing cole crops
• Putting a stop to pesky pest problems
• Harvesting cole crops
• Chapter 10: A Salad for All Seasons: Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Specialty Greens
• Lettuce Get Together
• Crisphead lettuce
• Romaine lettuce
• Loose-head lettuce
• Loose-leaf lettuce
• Popeye's Pal: Spinach
• Savoy spinach
• Smooth spinach and some spinachlike friends
• The Attractive and Hardy Swiss Chard
• Going Wild with Specialty Greens
• Growing Great Greens
• Timing is everything: Determining when to plant your greens
• Putting your greens to bed
• Adding nitrogen-rich fishy fertilizer
• Thin and bare it: Thinning your greens
• Watering to win the war against wilt
• Working out the bugs (and other common ailments)
• Your bowl runneth over: Harvesting greens
• Chapter 11: Sweet Corn and an A to T of Other Worthy Veggies
• Sweet Corn and Its Relatives
• Sweet corn
• Popcorn
• A Variety of Other Great Vegetables
• Arugula
• Asparagus
• Beets
• Broccoli raab
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Chinese cabbage
• Collards
• Endive
• Escarole
• Florence fennel
• Garlic
• Globe artichokes
• Gourds
• Horseradish
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leeks
• Mizuna
• Okra
• Pac choi
• Parsnips
• Peanuts
• Radicchio
• Radishes
• Rhubarb
• Rutabagas
• Shallots
• Sunflowers
• Turnips
• Chapter 12: Growing Berries and Herbs for an Edible Landscape
• Sweetening Your Landscape with Berries and Fruits
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries and raspberries
• Unusual fruits
• Spicing Up Your Landscape with Herbs
• Basil
• Chives
• Cilantro
• Dill
• French tarragon
• Mint
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Thyme
• Making Your Landscape Blossom with Edible Flowers
• Part III
• Chapter 13: On Your Mark, Get Set . . . Grow!
• Choosing Seeds or Transplants
• Deciding on Your Seeding Method and Decoding a Seed Packet
• Starting Seeds Indoors
• Picking a pot to plant in
• Using a mix that doesn't include soil
• Sowing your seeds
• Providing the right amount of light and heat
• Watering your seedlings
• Thinning and transplanting indoors
• Feeding your seedlings
• Transplanting Indoor Seedlings and Starter Plants
• Buying starter plants
• Toughening up all types of transplants
• Making the big move to the ground
• Sowing Seeds Directly in Your Garden
• Deciding on a seed-planting method
• Thinning seedlings in your garden
• Chapter 14: Workin' the Dirt
• Razing Your Garden Spot
• Killing weeds and aggressive grasses
• Stripping sod
• Analyzing and Improving Your Soil
• Distinguishing different types of soil
• Testing your soil
• Adjusting soil pH
• Adding organic matter (aka the dead stuff)
• Turning Your Soil
• Making Your Own Compost
• Building a compost pile
• Avoiding materials that don't belong in a compost pile
• Moistening and turning your compost pile
• Chapter 15: Maintaining Your Vegetable Garden
• Introducing Your Inner Gardener to the Watering Basics
• Knowing when your veggies need a drink
• Discovering ways to water your vegetable garden
• Conserving water with a few handy tips
• Keeping Your Plants Cozy and Weed Free with Mulch
• Spreading organic mulch
• Laying inorganic mulch
• Deciding which mulch to use
• Determining Important Nutrients Your Soil Needs
• Macronutrients
• Secondary nutrients and micronutrients
• Fertilizing Your Vegetable Garden
• Examining a fertilizer label
• Choosing a fertilizer
• Side-dressing
• Give 'Em Something to Lean On: Supporting Your Vegetables
• Beans and peas
• Melons and cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Fighting Weed Wars
• Making a preemptive strike on weeds
• Battling weeds after planting
• Chapter 16: Surveying Some Cool Farmer Techniques
• Adding Nutrients and Stability with Cover Crops and Green Manures
• Choosing cover crops
• Planting cover crops
• Giving Your Plants Some Friends: Companion Planting
• Making Your Garden Work Double Time with Intercropping
• Succession Planting for an Extended Harvest
• Rotating Crops to Preserve Soil Nutrients and Maintain a Pest-Free Bed
• Planting by the Phases of the Moon
• Chapter 17: Keeping Your Plants Healthy
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Controlling Pests
• In with the good bugs
• The bad-bug roundup
• Methods of attack
• Gardening to Eliminate Diseases
• Avoiding diseases with good habits
• Watching out for common diseases
• Keeping the Animal Kingdom at Bay
• Chapter 18: Containing Your Veggies
• Considering a Few Container Characteristics
• Filling Up Your Container: Potting Soil Made Simple
• Knowing Which Vegetables Grow Well in Pots
• Some common container veggies
• Some bee-u-tee-ful vegetable combos
• Planting Your Veggies in Pots
• Caring for Container Veggies
• Experimenting with Greenhouses, Hoop Houses, and Hydroponics
• Chapter 19: Harvesting, Storing, and Preserving Vegetables
• Knowing When to Harvest
• Putting Away Your Vegetables
• Freezing, Drying, and Canning Veggies
• Saving Vegetable Seeds
• Part IV
• Chapter 20: Ten Tools of the Trade
• Watering Hoses and Cans
• Hand Trowels
• Hand Cultivators
• Garden Hoes
• Spades and Shovels
• Garden Forks
• Garden Rakes
• Buckets, Wagons, and Baskets
• Wheelbarrows and Garden Carts
• Power Tillers
• Chapter 21: Nearly Ten Ways to Extend Your Growing Season
• Choose Clever Planting Locations
• Time Your Planting Wisely
• Protect Plants with Hot Caps
• Add Elegance to Your Garden with Glass Cloches
• Buy or Build Cold Frames
• Drape Row Covers over Veggies
• Place Wall O' Waters around Plants
• Try Portable Greenhouses and Hoop Houses
• Appendix: Planning Guidelines and Other Resources
• Guidelines for Planting
• Frost Dates and the Length of the Growing Season
• Hardiness Zones in North America
• Where to Find Seeds and Other Resources
• Vegetables, herbs, and flowers
• Seed savers
• Fruits and berries
• Tools and supplies
• U.S. and Canadian Master Gardeners
• Web Sites about Vegetables
• State sites
• Cyber veggies