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Organic Vegetable Books
Books about cooking and preparing organic vegetables.
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The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions
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Wouldn't it be lovely to have a patch of corn, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and beans just steps from your kitchen door? Would you like to learn how to control your zucchini plant? Ed Smith, an experienced vegetable gardener from Vermont, has put together this amazingly comprehensive and commonsensical manual, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. Basically, Ed and his family have been growing a wide variety of vegetables for years and he's figured out what works. This book, filled with step-by-step info and color photos, breaks it all down for you. Ed's system is based on W-O-R-D: Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds, Deep soil. With deep, raised beds, vegetable roots have more room to grow and expand. In traditional narrow-row beds, over half the soil is compacted into walkways while a garden with wide, deep, raised beds, plants get to use most of the soil. In Ed's plan, growing space gets about three-quarters of the garden plot and only about a quarter is used for the walkway. Ed teaches you how to create raised beds both in a larger garden or in separate planked beds. One of the most important--and most often overlooked--aspects of successful vegetable gardening is crop rotation. Leaving a crop in the same place for years can deplete nutrients in that area and makes the crop more likely to be attacked by insects. Rotate at least every two years and your vegetables will be healthier and bug-free. There's also a good section on insect and blight control. Before choosing what to grow, go through the last third of the book, where Ed takes a look at the individual growing, harvesting, and best varieties of a large number of both common and more exotic vegetables and herbs. Whether you are a putterer or a serious gardener, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is an excellent resource to have handy. --Dana Van Nest
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Burpee : The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically
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Burpee has created a truly encyclopedic, but non-intimidating, guide to organic vegetable gardening that can be used and appreciated by anyone, whether or not they've ever stuck a seed in the ground. All the essential information is here--how to condition the soil, how and where to plant, sprouting schedules, what kind of yield to expect from each plant variety, and harvesting tips--in beautiful, bountiful, illustrated detail; the book's largest section, "Plant Portraits," contains explanations of the many cultivars of each vegetable and herb. If you're a novice vegetable gardener or new to organic gardening and can only afford one gardening guide, this may be your best value.
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How to Grow More Vegetables: Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops
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Now in its fifth edition and printed in seven different languages, Jeavon's book is considered a classic in the field (literally) and has brought about a kind of green revolution in food production around the world. This book is based on Alan Chadwick's biointensive gardening techniques. It will show you how to raise enough fresh, healthy, organic vegetables for a family of four on a parcel of land as small as 800 square feet! Nothing could be more fundamental to the needs of an increasingly crowded world than food. Jeavons and the group he heads, Ecology Action, are making a quiet but earth-shaking revolution in how people raise nutritious food. If you have a small, flat rooftop, access to a bit of open space between your house and your neighbor's, or any small patch of land, here's the ultimate how-to manual for making the most of it to raise your own food, including ways to enhance soil fertility and productivity, non-chemical pest controls, where and when to plant what in your climate or location, the tools you'll need, and the problem-solving skills essential to success. This "ground-breaking" book is used by gardeners around the globe and is as hopeful, inspiring, and motivating a gardening book as has ever been written. --Mark Hetts
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The Organic Gardener's Home Reference: A Plant-By-Plant Guide to Growing Fresh, Healthy Food
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This is truly a one-stop comprehensive guide to organic gardening: it is a big book filled with techniques, definitions, solutions to gardening problems, and a huge listing of organic gardening resources. It's one of the most thorough guides I have seen for organic gardeners--it is well indexed and annotated, and covers all climate zones and growing conditions. If this book doesn't get your motor running about the garden, well, maybe you'll want to try a different hobby. I think it should be a part of any true gardener's library, covered with notes, muddy fingerprints, and with the well-worn pages.
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