Vegetable Gardening For Dummies

Yummy food, straight from your patch of dirt!

From asparagus to zucchini, you can grow your own vegetables. For the total beginner and the veggie initiate alike, this new edition of Vegetable Gardening For Dummies is the how-to-grow guide that helps you bring delicious and nutritious food to your table—without ever setting foot in a grocery store! Cultivate soil that veggies will love, choose seeds and starts that are primed to thrive, and harvest when your food is at its best. Plus, this book is full of pro tips that can help you extend your growing season, control pests, make your own compost, and so much more. Dig in!

Inside...

• Cultivate nutrient-rich soil
• Plant veggies in the right spots
• Grow healthier, cheaper food
• Help your vegetables thrive
• Sow and transplant seeds
• Battle weeds, bugs, and more
• Compost and companion plant
• Reap and store your harvest

Vegetables from your own farm to your own table

We all love good food, and the fresher it is, the better! And what could be fresher than farm-to-table terms than vegetables you've grown at home? The new edition of Vegetable Gardening For Dummies puts you in touch with your roots in a thousands of years old farming tradition by demonstrating how easy it is to grow your own. And there's no need to buy a farm: all you need to become a successful cultivator of the land is this book and a small plot of soil in the yard, or a container set aside for some tasty natural edibles. Add water and some care, love, and attention—et voila!

In a friendly, come-relax-in-my-garden style Charlie Nardozzi—leading horticultural writer and guest expert on shows such as Martha Stewart Living Radio—shares the nutritious results of a lifetime of vegetable-growing experience to delve into the nitty-gritty of micro-farming. It's not rocket science—quite the opposite—but you do need a bit of patience before you can reap your first glorious harvest. This book shows you how to master that, as you get down and dirty with the enjoyable work of building soil, starting seeds, controlling pests, and maintaining your garden. And as your early efforts turn to green shoots, you can dig deeper into information on special tips and tricks, as well as hundreds of vegetable varieties—many of which are beautiful to behold as well as tasty to eat!

• Plan out your garden
• Know your veggies, from tomatoes to chard
• Keep your plants happy and healthy
• Harvest, store, and preserve your crops

Whether your thumb is a fertile green or you've never put plant-to-pot before, this book will bring out your inner farmer: you'll find everything required to transform your garden into a self-renewing larder—and complement every meal with a crisp, healthy, home-grown treat.