The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions

What's the formula for a productive vegetable garden?
* Plant the crops you want to eat or can give away. No more.
* Start with easy-to-grow crops and let experience take you to more difficult varieties.
* Use compost to build the soil from Day 1: compost is the key to a healthy, productive garden.
* Plant the right crops in the right season: warm season vegetables in warm weather and cool-season vegetables in cool weather.
* Plant in wide beds--but no wider than your arm can reach to the center.
* Mulch to keep weeds down and save soil water.
* Visit the garden every day or two; that way no pest or disease or warm weather will ever get the best of your garden.
* Harvest your crops just as they ripen. Taste to make sure!
* When in doubt: always add more compost.

These vegetable garden maxims have been around for generations and generations. They're the same rules your great-great-grandmother followed in her kitchen garden. And they are the same maxims found in THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE by Edward C. Smith. Is there room on the shelf for another good book about vegetable gardening? You bet! No doubt, Ed Smith learned at the feet of his grandmamma because this book is brimming with sage time-tested wisdom for the beginning vegetable gardener. Not too wordy, right to the point, this book will get you to the promised garden in easy steps and with how-to pictures close at hand.

I will begin my first garden next spring and I wanted to know everything right away. I'm thrilled with this book because it includes sections on soil, companion planting, garden design and more. Very good for me since it's the only gardening book I own.

This is a must-have book if you garden; it is easy to find information, very well organized, and the explanations and directions are clear. The second half of the book has detailed information on most vegetables including what plants are best to plant before and next to this plant as well as common problems, depth of soil etc ... This book is wonderful because it is helpful if you already have a garden or if you are starting a new one. I appreciate that he talks about beneficial insects and organic gardening techniques. I would recommend this book to everyone.
Other great books to use with this book:
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)Crocketts Victory Garden

Excellent book - I checked it out at a local bookstore so I knew it was what I wanted. Next year will be our first year with a garden so we're excited to read this book over the winter to prepare. GREAT book for new gardeners.

Excellent book to read through and then keep as reference.
There are MANY nice color pictures (especially at the end there is a vegetable reference guide for planting/care/info).
This book gives you step-by-step instructions to designing and cultivating a high-yield WORD garden.
If you are clueless about gardening, get this book.
If you think you know everything, then get this book (even if you have memorized the companion planting reference matrix).
From small planter box gardens to acre sized garden plots..
If you want to learn how to grow vegetables, then this is the book!