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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 19 customer reviews )
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26 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 Great Vegetable Reference Guide! Dec 04, 2008
By Rebecca Burad
"Becky from SF"
I have to give THE KITCHEN GARDEN GROWERS' GUIDE by Stephen Albert a 5-star rating! I was delighted to get my copy of this thorough and knowledgeable vegetable and herb gardening guide (400 jam-packed pages, but not so big I can't actually take it into the garden with me). I have to admit there are a few gardening questions I can't answer. But when it comes to the vegetable garden, this book has brought all of the answers together in one place. Here's what I've found in this book:
* Planting, growing, harvesting, storing, and preparation details for 80 different vegetables and herbs. There are more plants listed here than any other vegetable gardening book I own. Seriously, it's all in this book. Things like each plant's form, height, breadth, root depth, bloom time, season and climate requirements, and soil requirements. Details on seed and transplant planting depth, germination and growing soil temperatures, days to germination and maturity, sowing time, transplanting time, plant spacing, water and light requirements, how to feed and fertilize, crop rotation, propagation, greenhouse growing, and container growing. All of that before you even get to harvest, storage, and kitchen preparation suggestions.
* Each plant is listed alphabetically by common name, but there is a second table of contents which lists each plant alphabetically by its botanical names. (Not to mention, the name of each plant is also listed in Spanish, French, German and several other languages.) In the index, I could find plants cross-referenced by common and scientific names. Now, I can finally understand exactly what I'm getting from the seed catalogs and talk to that lady at the garden center who always uses horticultural names.
* There's a beautiful identifying photograph and description to go with each plant. You could frame these photographs. Now I can finally identify salsify and sorrel at the market.
* Harvest and storage details and suggestions for using each plant in the kitchen.
* All of the measurements in this book are given in both standard and metric conversion. I can actually send this book as a gift to friends living outside of the United States.
* An appendix with a chart of first and last frost dates and the number of days in the growing season for 228 cities in the United States and Canada, and growing charts for the rest of the world.
* A glossary of plant and gardening terms, an index, and a bibliography of other helpful books. The glossary is one of the most complete I've ever seen: very useful!
This isn't a big coffee table book; it's a book I can actually carry with me into the garden.
The author is Stephen Albert and he has gardened all around the country, in Massachusetts, Florida, Iowa, and now in California. He's actually grown all of these plants in real gardens. At the end of the book he even gives his email address so I can ask questions about my first attempt at salsify. I give THE KITCHEN GARDEN GROWERS' GUIDE 5-stars and a golden garden trowel salute.
13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Very Helpful Vegetable Garden Book Dec 15, 2008
By Sophia D.
I'm a city vegetable gardener and have just a small garden along with several containers on a porch. I grow all the vegetables I can for eating fresh--what this book calls a kitchen garden. This book surveys so many plants and gives so much detail. It's easy to find your way around--very organized. Beyond the information and suggestions, this book is pretty--the photos are very interesting and not what I expected. I am preparing my porch containers for planting soon and am having fun using this book to decide on some new vegetables and herbs. I would recommend this as an excellent reference source for beginners and also experienced gardeners.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Everything you always wanted to know... Jan 11, 2009
By Paul Buttenwieser
Wow!! Just picked this book up and it's got to be THE book on vegetable gardening. The author offers detailed material on the most popular types of vegetables and herbs. It answers every growing question in an easy-to-use way. Each entry is divided into sections: Basics, Planting, Growing, Care, Harvest, and a number of others, all with incredible detail. If you've ever had to search the library or internet to find hard-to-find growing details such as germination soil temperature, soil pH, crop rotation suggestions, companion crops, etc., they're all here, for each of the 80 or so vegetables and herbs included.
One of the great advantages of this book is that it's set up for both beginners and experts. There's a Basics section, and then a whole lot of stuff for the advanced gardener. Albert should have called it "The Vegetable Gardening Answer Book." I've kept a garden near Boston for nearly 40 years. It would have been great to have found this book years ago, but I'm really glad to have it now. There's always something new to be learned.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Excellent Gardening Book Dec 03, 2008
By David F. A.
THANK YOU Stephen Albert for writing this book! THE KITCHEN GARDEN GROWERS GUIDE is an easy-to-use vegetable and herb garden guide by a serious gardener. I'm starting to plan my garden for next season and thought this book would help. I was right! There are dozens and dozens of vegetables and herbs detailed in this book. The book is set up alphabetically by each plant's common name, and there is a second table of contents with each plant's botanical name. Then each plant's garden growing characteristics are given: height, root depth, bloom time and edible parts are detailed along with the season and site requirements, seed sowing and planting details, as well as, water, light and nutrition requirements. There are cropping and rotation suggestions for each plant and propagation and greenhouse and container growing suggestions. (The section on how to grow tomatoes was 10 pages by itself.) Then each plant's harvest and storage specifics are given. There is a fantastic photo with each entry for easy identification--in case you don't know what a carrot looks like (but the sunchoke was new to me). At the back of the book is a complete glossary of garden terms, charts on growing seasons for every state and several countries, and a detailed index. I spend maybe 5 hours a week in my garden during the season. I would consider myself an advanced-beginner or intermediate-experienced vegetable gardener. I could have used this book when I was brand new to gardening and now plan to use it for many years to come. If you are new to vegetable gardening--like my daughter who I just sent a copy of this book to-- or been around for awhile, I think you are going to use and value this book.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
One root at a time Jan 20, 2009
By Hermendina
I grew up in the stix of South Texas---where in spite of the rocky, dry and fairly inhospitable land, most of the food on the table came from what my grandparents grew. They were ranchers, with the cattle stomping down and eating everything green in sight but the food on the table came from small patches of land (or yard) far from the herd. What I love about this book is that it brings me back to the 'land' outside my kitchen door. I no longer live in South Texas---I live in Austin, where gardens thrive everywhere you look intimidating beginners like myself who feel like they've missed the bus but so much want to go home---again. Short of having the author here, by my side, holding my hand and designing my garden for me---this book makes it possible to tutor yourself from seed to harvest. I've been amazed at how fast the littlest bit of effort has resulted in miraculous, sprouting vegetation! I've known how to ready the soil, how to chose the vegetable/herbs most friendly to the climate and season---and have jumped right in. As the failing economy is sending even the anti-survivalists into the root cellar, I have empowered myself knowing I can maintain myself (little by little) if I absolutely had to AND grow alongside every herb!! Its now a teaching, unfolding process this kitchen garden of mine. If you want to change your life---then change the backyard first. And here, step by step---is the way to begin.
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