Vegetable Gardening
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
- Chapter 2: The Popularity and Benefits of Vegetable Gardening
- Chapter 3: Planning Your Veggie Garden
- Deciding Where to Put Your Vegetable Garden
- Understanding Veggie Varieties
- Timing Your Planting Wisely
- Designing Your Garden
- 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
- 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
- Growing Peppers and Eggplants
- Chapter 6: Growing Underground Crops: Carrots, Onions, and Potatoes
- A Rabbit's (and Gardener's) Favorite Root: Carrots
- Onions: The Bulbs with Layers of Sweet and Pungent Goodness
- Potatoes: No Longer a Boring Spud
- Growing and Gathering Root Crops
- 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!
- Get 'Em in the Ground: Growing Beans and Peas
- Chapter 8: Vigorous Vines: Cucumbers, Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash
- Checking Out Cool Cukes
- Melons: The Sweet, Juicy Vining Plant
- Unearthing the Humble Squash
- Great Pumpkins: Counting the Uses for This Versatile Squash
- Growing Those Vines
- 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
- Chapter 10: A Salad for All Seasons: Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Specialty Greens
- Lettuce Get Together
- Popeye's Pal: Spinach
- The Attractive and Hardy Swiss Chard
- Going Wild with Specialty Greens
- Growing Great Greens
- Chapter 11: Sweet Corn and an A to T of Other Worthy Veggies
- Chapter 12: Growing Berries and Herbs for an Edible Landscape
- Sweetening Your Landscape with Berries and Fruits
- Spicing Up Your Landscape with Herbs
- 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
- Sowing Seeds Directly in Your Garden
- Chapter 14: Workin' the Dirt
- Razing Your Garden Spot
- 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
- 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
- Determining Important Nutrients Your Soil Needs
- Fertilizing Your Vegetable Garden
- Give 'Em Something to Lean On: Supporting Your Vegetables
- Fighting Weed Wars
- Chapter 16: Surveying Some Cool Farmer Techniques
- Adding Nutrients and Stability with Cover Crops and Green Manures
- 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
- Gardening to Eliminate Diseases
- Keeping the Animal Kingdom at Bay
- Chapter 18: Containing Your Veggies
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