Fresh from the Garden: An Organic Guide to Growing Vegetables, Berries, and Herbs in Cold Climates (Posthumanities)

Incredibly complete, this book can answer so many questions for a gardener, including those they didn’t know to ask! Information is provided on how and where to plant a big variety of fruits and vegetables, including Container info. Watering, fertilizing, thinning, extending the season, which is so important. How to deal with problems such as insects or disease.Propagation and harvesting, storage and culinary uses as well as what to expect from different varieties.That is all in addition to the basics of gardening and understanding which vegetables are very hardy, hardy, and tender! Don’t expect to sit down and read it covered cover as another reviewer believed! Get the basics down in the beginning of the book and then look at the vegetables/herbs etc. you want to plant. Have fun!

I've been wanting a complete reference book on home vegetable gardening. The problem was that there are so many books on this topic and many are highly rated by readers. To figure what to buy I took the time to check most of the Amazon top-rated vegetable gardening books out of our local library over a period of a couple of months to try to determine the best one. Most of them were just lists of vegetables with a few basic facts, not very insightful. Fresh from the Garden was the only one I found that dug way into the subject (pun intended). It was my top choice by a long ways. It has a no-nonsense, hands-on approach and the author's writing style is simple and clear. It's a big book with complete coverage of all the general topics from PH to companion planting to organic pest control. It also has a thorough treatment of each vegetable and herb and how to succeed in growing it. I highly recommend this book. I think it's far superior to the Square Foot Gardening that is so popular. If you can, check it out of your library and compare it to others. It's a winner!

I first saw this book at the library and had to have it for our New England climate. It tells you the soil type, sun requirements, drainage needed, and flowering period. The great challenge of gardening is to create a succession of flowering plants, so there is always something interesting in the garden. It's a 4-dimensional challenge. Because our garden has a lot of old lead-based house paint, we created a new raised bed and filed it with new soil and good drainage. Plus an automatic drip system. The book also gives many varieties of each perennial, and tells how to care for them:weeding, fertilizing, mulching, deadheading, and winter protection. It tells how to propagate them, whether by basal or stem cuttings or division, when and how to transplant them. It gives names of specialist nurseries.

I'm not a natural gardener and I have very little experience with vegetable gardening. This is my 3rd year of growing fruits and vegetables and I have to say that good knowledge makes the difference. What I like about this book is the author is aware that gardening is not an exact science and allows that people do things differently then he does. He is also realistic about the chances of success with certain plants grown in cold climates. This book by far is the best book I have read that addresses cold climate gardening in detail. Each crop has its own layout with just about everything a person could hope to learn on how to have success growing it. If I could I'd give this book 10 thumbs up.

This is the Bible of growing anything and everything possible in cooler zone climates.

This was a gift to a gifted gardener friend. She loves it!

I checked this out from the library to take a good peek before committing to purchase... 514 full-color pages laid out in an easy-to-read format. Each crop topic includes: how it grows, where to plant (site, light, soil, moisture, containers), planting (seed, transplants, spacing, when, mail order sources, support), care (water, mulch, fertilizing, weeding, thinning, pruning, extending the season, winter protection, special considerations), problems (insects, disease, marauders, physiological), propagation, harvesting, storing, culinary uses, and varieties. The only areas that seem cold-climate specific are "extending the season" and "winter protection." Published by the University of Minnesota Press, this tome is so comprehensive; given it's amazing breadth of crops--369 pages dedicated to a breadth of vegetables, berries, and herbs, this book is perfect for anyone interested in hands-on gardening. Highly recommend.

Great book!

We use this book, and like it, I'm grateful for the person who put it together. However they did get lazy in sections and it's noticeable when doing some online research. I wish they would have included more info on crops and pot sizes for example Esther than just saying people dot do it or plants don't like it, it's a cop out.Its a great place to start and a nice book to have but I wish that the book was written with more detail and some other general advice as well as technical advice. I want to go deep down the rabbit hole and that's why I got this book but it's more for a get you started and comfy then double check on your phone type of book to get more details.All around it's great and since I bought it a couple months ago it lives on our couch so we can open it up weekly.