Book Review: The Vegetable Gardeners' Bible by Ed Smith

This book is all about Ed Smith's system for growing high yield organic vegetable gardens. He calls it the WORD system which stands for Wide rows, Organic methods, Raised beds and Deep soil. Ed explains the how's, why's and when's of this gardening strategy that he's been developing and using for over 30 years.

The book also provides an A to Z index of vegetables and herbs with detailed info on soil preferences, sowing, growing, harvesting and storing each plant type. The index even includes seed longevity info.

The book is divided into three sections and I'll cover each further down...

This section covers why gardeners should use wide, deep rows and how it will help you grow more delicious vegetables in less space. Hint: It's all about the roots.

Ed explains how to choose the site for your garden beds, how to build a raised bed garden and how to plan your garden. The garden planning chapter guides you on picking your seeds, positioning the plants and how to rotate your crops. There are sample garden plan diagrams to get you started with ideas.

Another chapter discusses how to get your plants started early with seedlings and using a cold frame. If you have space for a greenhouse, Ed talks about winter gardening here and other ways to use greenhouses in several places throughout the book. Getting your garden's soil to the right temperatures for sowing seeds and germination is also covered.

The last chapter in this part covers how to water and feed your garden and keep the weeds under control.

Ed's a big believer in the folk wisdom that "a very good gardener grows soil." He devotes an entire chapter to improving your garden's soil. Much of that focuses on soil tests and what to do based on the results. This section inspired me to do a soil test on my garden. He also talks about the importance of earthworms to build your soil's structure.

Compost is a key ingredient to Ed's garden. He explains why it's so important and how to make your own compost.

This part closes with how to recognize and naturally control many garden pests. Bugs, disease and four legged critters are all covered. For bugs, Ed's emphasis is on creating a healthy balance between the bad bugs that eat your plants and the predators (good bugs and animals) that gobble them up.

This part of the book contains a wealth of information on many types of vegetable and herb plants. For each plant there's info on sowing, growing, harvesting and storing that plant. The sowing and growing part has details on soil temperature, pH preference, nutrient requirements and much more.

Ed also lists the seed longevity for each plant. This is key info for me since I have a small garden and end up with a lot of seeds left over to use in future seasons. This is the first place I've found seed longevity info so I'm excited about it.

Soon after I got this book I was on the phone with my dad when he mentioned that someone gave him a horseradish plant but he had no idea how to plant it. I said, "Hold on a sec", grabbed The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, flipped through it and found the page on horseradish with all the info my dad needed!

meghan's old garden used under Creative Commons from feather.
Earthworms At Work In My Garden used under Creative Commons from Will Merydith.
Garden Fresh Vegetables used under Creative Commons from sbocaj.