Rating: 
Summary: From the Back Cover
Review: Discover Ed Smith's Total Gardening System. It's the Last W-O-R-D in Vegetable Gardening! WIDE ROWS are easier to tend and provide a bigger yield per square foot. You'll get up to four times more delicious vegetables. ORGANIC METHODS are better for you, your garden, and the earth. They really work, so you'll have fewer pests and diseases. RAISED BEDS mean soil that drains better and warms up faster in the spring. The result is bigger, healthier, and better vegetables. DEEP SOIL provides a reservoir of nutrients and moisture that encourages root growth while producing the best harvest ever. "The Vegetable Gardener's Bible is an impressive accomplishment by a seasoned expert. It is destined to end up dog-eared in the potting shed." --James A. Baggett, Executive Editor, Country Living Gardener Author Ed Smith says that if he can grow vegetables like these in the tough conditions of northern Vermont, gardeners everywhere--no matter where they live or how much space they have--can grow great gardens, too! Ed, with his wife, Sylvia, and their children, Lindsey and Nathaniel, tend a garden with nearly 100 varieties of vegetables.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for a beginner!
Review: An excellent book for a beginner... no "technical" gardening terms... very easy to understand! A book to be recommended for sure!
Rating:
Summary: Get this book before you plan your veggie garden!
Review: As a novice gardener I am constantly on the look-out for advice and information about vegetable gardening. This title kept popping up in all the seed catalogues as THE book to have -- so naturally I had to get it. I haven't been able to put it down! It's informative, calling attention to things you should do (companion planting, etc.) that make so much sense but that you may not have realized before reading this book. I have a feeling my garden will have a tremendous boost just because of what I've learned from the book! It's not a book you'd stick on the shelf and forget about. . . It's a hands-on roll-up-your-sleeves dig-in-the-dirt and have-right-beside-you-at-all-times book. . . a definite can't-live-without garden companion who will keep you from making silly veggie gardening mistakes and assist you with making great veggie gardening decisions.
Rating:
Summary: Get this book before you plan your veggie garden!
Review: As a novice gardener I am constantly on the look-out for advice and information about vegetable gardening. This title kept popping up in all the seed catalogues as THE book to have -- so naturally I had to get it. I haven't been able to put it down! It's informative, calling attention to things you should do (companion planting, etc.) that make so much sense but that you may not have realized before reading this book. I have a feeling my garden will have a tremendous boost just because of what I've learned from the book! It's not a book you'd stick on the shelf and forget about. . . It's a hands-on roll-up-your-sleeves dig-in-the-dirt and have-right-beside-you-at-all-times book. . . a definite can't-live-without garden companion who will keep you from making silly veggie gardening mistakes and assist you with making great veggie gardening decisions.
Rating:
Summary: Better than advertised
Review: Ed Smith is a serious gardener. His approach to vegetable growing is best suited to half acre gardens in the northern areas of the United States. Smith lives and gardens in Vermont and judging by the contents (great photos as well as text) of his book, THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE, I suggest his gardening effort constitutes year-round full-time employment for him. I am a dedicated urban gardener, but one with a less than one-eighth (<1/8) acre plot of land, much of which is covered by a house and driveway. I cannot begin to use most of the material in Smith's book, however, even for urban gardeners like me, Smith provides much useful information. 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Serious gardening.......
Review: Ed Smith is a serious gardener. His approach to vegetable growing is best suited to half acre gardens in the northern areas of the United States. Smith lives and gardens in Vermont and judging by the contents (great photos as well as text) of his book, THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE, I suggest his gardening effort constitutes year-round full-time employment for him. I am a dedicated urban gardener, but one with a less than one-eighth (<1/8) acre plot of land, much of which is covered by a house and driveway. I cannot begin to use most of the material in Smith's book, however, even for urban gardeners like me, Smith provides much useful information. 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.
Rating:
Summary: A+: it really is THE bible for vegetable gardeners
Review: I absolutely love this book. The gardening system is sound and organic, and it is presented in clear, simple language in a lovely, easy-to-grasp design. So often gardening books are long on written advice but short on visuals. Or they are ONLY visuals, with the text nothing more than captions. This book has it all.
Rating:
Summary: excellent source
Review: I am buying this book because when I saw it and checked it out of the local library I instantly knew this is the book my husband will LOVE for christmas. It has a comfortable reading format, excellent pictures and very helpful charts. My husband is NOT a book person, but he will absolutely, no question in my mind, appreciate and USE this book. He is an experienced gardener and has wanted to try to "fix" things or try new things and this is it. The useful charts, excellent pictures and easy format make it a great reference source for all readers.
Rating:
Summary: Very Informative
Review: I am by no stretch of the imagination an "expert" gardner, but I thought I at least knew the basics pretty well. Nope!!! Even if I did, this book gives you great ideas for trying new things! There is information on just about everything. Amateur or Expert, this book has great tips!! I know I am going to try some of them! Definitely worth the investment if you are a gardner!
Rating:
Summary: If you like to garden for vegtables this is a great book
Review: I bought this book for my husband. He has been spell bound. We are trying the wide row method this year and we have been able to get SO MANY more plants in teh same amount of space. It is amazing! It's very easy to read and follow.
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