Regional Vegetable Gardening

How to grow your own food in the Heartland! There is nothing more regionally specific than vegetable gardening-what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are decisions based on climate, weather, and first frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Midwest, by regional expert Michael VanderBrug, focuses on the unique eccentricities of the Midwest gardening calendar. The month-by-month format makes it perfect for beginners-gardeners can start gardening the month they pick it up. This must-have book is for home gardeners in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. This Timber Press Guide features an A–Z section that profiles the 50 vegetables, fruits, and herbs that grow best in the Midwest and provides basic care and maintenance for each. Michael VanderBrug began vegetable farming in 2001 on 50 acres of his grandfather's farm in Jenison, Michigan. The farm started with 30 members in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, and quickly expanded into other markets, including local grocery stores. Michael has also worked with several restaurants to design and install chef's gardens, and he consulted with Blandford Nature Center to help them start their own farm. He is also the owner of the popular farm-to-table restaurant Trillium Haven Restaurant in Grand Rapids.  Preface By gardening in the Midwest-land of vast plains, rolling hills, rivers, and lakes-you are participating in a long and complex agricultural history. This region's fertile soils make it second only to California in terms of the diversity of plants that you can grow. Cool-season crops such as lettuce, peas, asparagus, potatoes, and cauliflower flourish in our chilly, damp springs. With the long, hot summers in most areas, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, corn, and other warm-season crops are possible. In fact, you can grow virtually any vegetable, from arugula to zucchini. Even winter, tough as it may be, is a boon to the gardener. The cold temperatures have a sanitizing effect on our gardens, helping to minimize the inevitable pests and diseases. And it gives us some time to reflect, regroup, and start planning for an even better season next year. This is the good news. Gardening in the Midwest has its challenges too, in the form of harsh winters, summer droughts, unpredictable storms, and weeds, which love our rich soils as much as the vegetables do. This book will show you how to mitigate many challenges through preparation and patience. Of course, sometimes there is nothing to do when a windstorm blows down your tomato trellis, or a torrential downpour floods the entire garden. But for me, this is part of the excitement. Time outside of our normal routines-and just plain outside-exposes us to the elements and heightens awareness of our surroundings. Although the seasons are relatively predictable, what happens within each one is not. On more than one occasion I have harvested crops in a hailstorm, transplanted in mud, and pulled leeks out of frozen soil. Gardening requires dedicated observation as every year brings new trials, surprises, and successes. I grew up in New England and now reside in lower west Michigan, roughly the middle of the Midwest region, on what was once my grandfather's farm. I often consider the fact that both places I have lived are on the same latitude, meaning the seasons I experienced as a child are similar to what I experience now, if you substitute tornado warnings for hurricanes and add lake-effect snow to regular snowstorms. It might be the same latitude, but the Midwest is full of unique microclimates, each with its own peculiarities. As I thought about the word latitude, I considered how it applies to gardening. One definition of latitude is "to be given the space to act and decide for oneself." The word is not only used to describe the distance of those imagina

How to grow your own food in the Pacific Northwest! There is nothing more regionally specific than vegetable gardening. What to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are unique decisions based on climate, weather, and first and last frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening: Pacific Northwest is a growing guide that truly understands the unique eccentricities of the Northwest growing calendar. The month-by-month format makes it perfect for beginners and accessible to everyone-you can start gardening the month you pick it up. Starting in January? The guide will show you how to make a seed order, plan crop rotations and succession plantings, and plant a crop of microgreens. No time to start until July? You can start planting beets, carrots, chard, kale, parsnips, and spinach for an early fall harvest.   This must-have book is for gardeners in Oregon, Washington, southeastern Alaska, and British Columbia. This Timber Press Guide features an A–Z section that profiles the 50 vegetables, fruits, and herbs that grow best in the Pacific Northwest and provides basic care and maintenance for each.  Lorene Edwards Forkner is the author of several gardening books, including Hortus Miscellaneous, Growing Your Own Vegetables, and Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest. Her writing has appeared in several national and regional publications including Organic Gardening, MaryJane's Farm, Northwest Garden News, and Edible Seattle. Supported by a degree in fine art and years of experience owning and operating Fremont Gardens, a specialty retail nursery in Seattle, Washington, Lorene is a popular speaker, eager to weigh in on horticultural mysteries, offer direction for design conundrums, and teach DIY gardeners. Preface Growing fruits and vegetables is a crazy good thing. I love it. From that chilly spring day when I bundle up and venture outside to briskly poke pea seeds into the wet soil to hot summer afternoons spent staking tomatoes, their sticky foliage enveloping me in a slightly bitter herbal aroma and staining my fingers olive-I find the entire process endlessly appealing. But all that pales next to the sheer pleasure of going into the backyard and harvesting crops in their prime. It's all about the food people!      Several years ago while driving along with NPR on the radio, I caught an interview with Greg Atkinson, Northwest chef extraordinaire, recounting a conversation he'd had with esteemed food writer Ruth Reichl. Her assessment of our region's many resources struck me so strongly I immediately pulled to the curb to write it down. To paraphrase Reichl: the Pacific Northwest has a climate and a geography that makes human beings feel very welcome on the planet.      Indeed, ours is a land of plenty, ripe with potential. Ample rainfall (ahem), good soil, and moderate temperatures grant a long and hospitable growing season. But we grow things a little differently in the PNW (defined in this book as Western Washington, Western Oregon, and Southern British Columbia) All gardening is local and especially so if you happen to reside in a region embraced by mountains, bordered by salt water, or run through by rivers. Cool-season crops (like kale, carrots, and cabbages) yield generously, demanding little from us aside from the care of the soil and attention. But if you want your harvest to also include tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, and peppers it pays to approach the growing season with a definite plan and a few simple tricks to maximize summer heat. This book will take you through every month and the many eccentricities of the PNW gardening year. You'll find tips and techniques as well as suggestions of plants and specific varieties proven to excel in our region. No matter what you're looking to harvest-a windowsill crop of midwinter microgreens, fresh salads spring through fall, a bumper crop of tomatoes, or a few savory herbs to enliven your dinner-thi

Grow your own food in the Golden State! There is nothing more regionally specific than vegetable gardening-what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are decisions based on climate, weather, and first frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in Southern California, by regional expert Geri Miller, focuses on the unique eccentricities of California's gardening calendar, which include extreme temperatures and low rainfall. The month-by-month format makes it perfect for beginners and accessible to everyone-gardeners can start gardening the month they pick it up. This Timber Press Guide features an A–Z section that profiles the 50 vegetables, fruits, and herbs that grow best in Southern California and provides basic care and maintenance for each. Certified master gardener and horticulturist Geri Galian Miller is the founder of Home Grown Edible Landscapes. She is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and author of her own blog, GroEdibles. Preface If you're reading this book, you've been blessed to live in the southern part of the Golden State. As diverse a map of topography as it is a map of humanity, Southern California provides vastly different gardening experiences for all 16.5 million of us (that's 43% of the population of the entire state). From the beautiful inland valleys, with their blistering summer heat and potential winter frosts, to the glorious coastal plains, where temperatures rarely reach the extremes of the thermometer, we relish gardening here in USDA zones 9 to 11, and all the a's and b's in between. This book will cover our territory and its various growing regions, starting with the Pacific Coast north of Santa Barbara, at San Luis Obispo, east to just south of Bakersfield, then along the San Gabriel Mountains to San Bernardino and south into San Diego. Yes, SoCal has it all. Sun and surf, heat and freezes, wind, snow and-well, just a little rain thrown in here and there. Most wonderful of all, though, is that most of us can grow something edible in our gardens 365 glorious days a year! This isn't to say that this near gardening nirvana isn't without its challenges, however. We gardeners still need to develop skills beyond composting. We need to learn how to take our cues from the increasingly unpredictable seasonal shifts that occur here, and be ready to anticipate and deal with the impact of drought and periodic heavy rain on the way we grow food. And what food it is! Our cultural diversity allows us each to share the uniquely personal experience of growing what was familiar to us and our parents and grandparents with our neighbors or fellow community gardeners, and vice versa. It is no surprise then that edible gardens bring people together around food. Whether you are brand new to gardening or just in need of a refresher, the format of this book makes it easy for you to learn about our unique SoCal growing region, and how climate zones, topography, and changing weather patterns affect our gardening experiences. Included are a primer on the basic tenets of organic gardening, with tips and tricks about planning and planting; a month-to-month guide that delivers practical advice about what you can expect-and do-each month; and, the heart of the matter, Edibles A to Z. A seasoned gardener's mantra is "know what you grow." The Edibles A to Z section gives you everything you'll need to know to successfully grow your tried-and-true favorites and a few new ones that will surprise you! Agretti, dragonfruit, or fenugreek, anyone? Food security, economic pressures, self-sufficiency, healthier eating, tastier eating, reducing your carbon footprint, family togetherness, community spirit, exercise, stress relief, a landscape that is both beautiful and productive-whatever your reason for choosing to begin your edible gardening adventure, you've joined an incredible group of like-minded folks! Natural nurturers, we ed

Grow your own food in the Northeast! Growing vegetables requires regionally specific information-what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are based on climate, weather, and first frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast tackles this need head on, with regionally specific growing information written by local gardening expert, Marie Iannotti. Monthly planting guides show exactly what you can do in the garden from January through December. The skill sets go beyond the basics with tutorials on seed saving, worm bins, and more. This must-have book is for gardeners in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The southernmost parts of Ontario, New Brunswick, Novia Scotia, and Quebec are also included.   This Timber Press Guide features an A–Z section that profiles the 50 vegetables, fruits, and herbs that grow best in the Northeast and provides basic care and maintenance for each. Marie Iannotti was an avid gardener, Master Gardener Emeritus, as well as a former Cornell Cooperative Extension Horticulture Educator. She was the gardening expert at About.com for over a decade, and her writing was featured in outlets nationwide.  Preface I can't look through a seed catalog without choosing enough varieties to plant a football field–sized garden, with an appetite for more. Just thinking about vegetable gardening makes me hungry. Few things in this world can compete with biting into a freshly picked fruit or vegetable. The scents, the vibrancy, and the anticipation of that eruption of flavor make growing food an all-sensory delight. Very few edible plants can't be grown in the Northeast, especially if you are willing to push the seasonal envelope. Leafy greens, earthy root crops, luscious berries, and hearty winter squash are all ours for the growing. Our climate provides gardeners a warm, sunny summer and plenty of chill days for those exacting plants like rhubarb that need a rest between seasons (kind of like us gardeners). We take a brief pause to celebrate the holidays, and then we reach for our seed catalogs and the gardening season is back underway. Vegetable gardening allows us to be part of the seasons and their changes. Although some people mark spring by the whims of a mercurial groundhog, there is no denying that spring has begun when we see the first green shoots of spinach, asparagus, or rhubarb. It's not summer until we can bite into a beefy, glowing tomato, and just when the garden is overflowing with abundance in early fall, the shortening days remind us that it is time to slow down. The Northeast vegetable garden may go under cover for the winter-under mulch, under plastic, or underground-but the process never ends; it just keeps re-creating itself in a most comforting, and often frustrating, way. This book offers information for gardeners in several states and Canadian provinces: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Our part of the world is the perfect place to enjoy the change of seasons, and each season brings its own reward. The information offered here will help you make sure you do not miss out on any of the gardening enjoyments the region has to offer, whether it is filling your winter home with sprouting greens and luscious fruits or the succession of harvests from the first spring thaw through the closing curtain of frost in the fall. The Northeast may be thought of as urban and industrial, but it is also home to some of the best farmers' markets, locavore restaurants, and resilient gardeners who can turn any abandoned lot or alleyway into a feast for the soul. Having four true seasons gives us the down time we need to plan and prepare our garden year, and getting the most from a vegetable garden does re

How to grow your own food in the Heartland! There is nothing more regionally specific than vegetable gardening-what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are decisions based on climate, weather, and first frost The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast tackles this need head on, with regionally specific growing information written by local gardening expert, Ira Wallace. Monthly planting guides show exactly what you can do in the garden from January through December. The skill sets go beyond the basics with tutorials on seed saving, worm bins, and more. This must-have book is for gardeners in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This Timber Press Guide features an A—Z section that profiles the 50 vegetables, fruits, and herbs that grow best in the Southeast and provides basic care and maintenance for each.