Mother Earth News

Mother Earth News knows best how to grow fruits and vegetables.

The editors of Mother Earth News have curated their best advice for growing vegetables and fruits into one must-have volume. The book starts with how to plan a garden focused on edibles, including plans for kitchen gardens, strategies for small space gardening, and extensive information on installing and maintaining permanent beds. Vertical gardening and season extension are also covered. Then readers learn how to build the ideal garden foundation with chapters on maintaining soil health and making and using compost. Building fertile soil, soil pH, and crop rotation are fully explained. Readers will learn about homemade liquid fertilizers, making biochar, and vermicompost.

The rest of the book â?? more than half - is devoted to gardening by season, with chapters for late winter/early spring, spring/early summer, summer, and fall/winter. For some of these chapters, vegetable- and fruit-specific guides are the main draw. For example, early spring runs through more than a dozen vegetables, from Asian greens and lettuces to raspberries, strawberries, and even fruit trees. While spring/summer is also filled with growing guides, summer and fall/winter focus more on other seasonal considerations. For example, summer covers wise watering practices, top vegetables to grow in the shade, and how to keep crops cool during hot weather.

With more than 270 pages packed of time-tested information, photographs, and Mother Earth News’s charming illustrations, gardeners are sure to find everything they want to know about edible gardening in this new masterclass on the topic.