The Vegetable Gardener's Bible (10th Anniversary Edition)

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

My experience has shown that vegetable growing in the city has one advantage over growing vegetables in the hinterland...most of the pests that plague the countryside have not moved to town...yet! When I grew green beans on a half acre plot in the country, I fought a daily war with bean beatles. I've yet to see a bean beatle in my urban back yard. On the other hand, the larvae of the Monarch Butterfly found my parsley last year. Smith's section on pests includes something I have not seen in other gardening books..a picture of Monarch Butterfly larvae or Parsley Caterpillers as Ed calls them, munching away.

Smith is an organic gardener so he advises pest control methods that deter unwanted visitors without damaging the larger envirnoment. He also advises moving the Parsely Caterpillar out of harms' way when you battle other insects. However, the birds living in my yard consider Parsley Caterpillars a delicacy, much to the horror of my granddaughters who watched the pretty little green and yellow striped caterpillars with interest last summer as they grew bigger and bigger until one day they were discovered to have been eaten by a feathered predator who left only a few body parts in his wake.

Smith includes much that will be of interest to anyone setting out to grow vegetables for the fifteenth or first time. Although most of us don't have a green house for winter gardening, most of us do have a sunny window sill that can be used to germinate seedlings for transplanting. Most of us can compost (check out WormWoman.com on the Internet if you live in an apartment).

Smith advocates growing vegetables in (W)ide rows, (O)rganically, in (R)aised beds with (D)eep soil. Even with my small yard, I can do that. We built raised beds with timbers, and filled them with compost made entirely of yard and kitchen waste and the result is fabulous. He provides a nifty section that shows you how to construct a raised bed on a patio or balcony. You may not have a half-acre spread, but you can use Smith's Bible if you want to grow vegetables.


Excellent Reference   June 1, 2005
Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA)
70 out of 70 found this review helpful

This book is a reference manual for vegetable gardeners, particularly those gardening in northern climates. The book is organized into 3 main parts: From Seed to Harvest (covering planning, preparing beds, starting seeds, maintaining the garden, and harvesting), The Health Garden (covering soil, compost, and pests), and Vegetables & Herbs, A-Z (alphabetical guide to individual vegetables). The book is amply illustrated with color photographs and illustrations. End material includes zone maps, a list of suppliers, a list for further reading, and an index.

Smith sums up his approach to gardening in the acronym "WORD", which signifies Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds, and Deep soil. He's come to this approach after many years of trying many different methods, and found that this method seems to give him the best, most reliable harvest with the least effort. In this book, he explains the parts of the WORD method in detail. For example, he notes that he found rototilling actually to be counterproductive, since it tends to develop a hardpan of packed soil just under the surface. This hardpan limits root growth, which tends to stunt plants. Instead of rototilling, he advocates building deep raised beds, which provide for full root systems and better growth.

The articles in the alphabetical reference section are quite useful. Each includes a brief description of the vegetable, notes on when and where to plant, and notes on harvesting and storing. Instructions are also provided when needed about how to transplant. Each article comes with a quick reference chart that covers sowing (depth, temperature, days to germination, etc.) and growing (temperature, spacing, watering, companions, seed longevity, etc.) Overall, the book is very informative, the text is clear, and the pictures are quite helpful, making the book useful for experienced gardeners as well as beginners.


It's a * * WONDER* * book!   July 24, 2004
Leslie A. Harris (Midlothian, Tx USA)
98 out of 103 found this review helpful

THANK YOU Mr. Smith for writing this book! I couldn't say enough about how helpful it's been to me. Wanting to be careful and do things right, since I'm a beginning gardener, this book tells in simple, everyday language with photos on how to start and keep up a vegetable garden. Here's a list of a few things it covers:

* designing your garden
* insect control
* soil care
* what veges to NOT plant with other veges
* diagrams
* lots of veges and all the info you could want about them
* herb section
* seed companies
* other recommended resources
* and MORE


Will Never Become Dogeared   July 3, 2008
J. Kletsky (San Francisco, CA)
53 out of 58 found this review helpful

The content of this well written book has been covered in other reviews and I agree it is a solid, introductory text at a decent price. However, I find it a little too "coffee table" for my tastes with big type and lots of pretty photos, rather than a lot of breath or depth. If you haven't been introduced to bed gardening and creating a "living" fertile soil, it would be a nice intro, but easy to outgrow (no pun intended).

Notably lacking is content on more than a couple herbs, most salad and Asian greens, as well as some of the less common crops and pest/disease situations that you might encounter. Also, while a prescriptive "how-to" guide, it doesn't educate as to the "why" of things as well as other texts I have read, which let you transfer the techniques to your own specific situations.


I'd recommend picking up a good seed catalog that is at least partially aimed at commercial growers (e.g. Territorial and/or Johnny's) both for cultural and growing suggestions, as well as knowing what cultivars are available (since most of the books are 10-20 years out of date on that), and considering instead:

Golden Gate Gardening: Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California -- Although written for one geography, both the general information on gardening, as well as the extensive sections on vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers make it a "go to" for me.

Grow Your Own Vegetables -- Great general information on gardening as well as tons of specific information on a very wide range of vegetables. A well-respected British author, so you have to get used to some difference in language, like "marrow" and "beetroot". Also be aware that "organic" is different in the UK, so some US practices, like insecticidal soaps, aren't covered.

Oriental Vegetables: The Complete Guide for the Gardening Cook -- If you are interested in "salad greens" or "baby greens" then this covers well a lot of the "fancy" leaves you'll find in mixes or at the market. (I don't recommend Larkcom's "Organic Salad Garden" as it is not much more than an extract from "Grow Your Own Vegetables" on high-end paper with lots of glossy pictures.)

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) (How to Grow More Vegetables: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains,) -- Covers "intensive" bed gardening and has a lot of good reference information on crop timing and yields. Sometimes a little "earthy" or "preachy" in style and content, and perhaps not as well researched and supported as the above (or The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener's Supply Book), for another "second" book) but worth adding to a collection (as I prefer the previous as broader, more balanced texts). Revised and reprinted regularly, so make sure this links to the most recent.




The best vegetable gardening book I've seen   May 2, 2005
audiblemercy (CA)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

I stumbled across this book at my local bookstore and even though I ended up paying the full retail price, it was well worth it. I knew nothing about gardening before I read the book but Ed Smith's detailed instructions and nuggets of wisdom gave me the know-how to grow vegetables that exceeded my expectations. I have an urban garden in CA (zone 9a) so I'm limited on space and have high clay content in my soil, but with three 4x6x12 raised beds I can grow fantastic organic vegetables. I've probably read the book cover to cover now several times over, but I still keep finding myself flipping to the back of the book where Ed has 1-2 pages dedicated to each of the most popular vegetables. Within these sections you can find useful information such as watering conditions, when to grow seedlings, seed longevity, most popular cultivars, and many tips for sowing, growing, and harvesting. The last part of the book alone is worth the price of the book.