Edward C. Smith - The Vegetable Gardeners Bible, 2nd Edition

SECOND EDITION

Discover Eds High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions

Edward C. Smith

DEDICATION

To my darling Sylvia,
with whom I have gardened joyously
for more than thirty years.

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Carleen Madigan and Gwen Steege
Art direction and book design by Jessica Armstrong

Front cover photography by Storey Publishing/Giles Prett (author) and Walter Chandoha (background)
Back cover photography by Sylvia Ferry Smith (author, carrots, cauliflower, radishes), and Storey Publishing/Giles Prett (squash and tomatoes)
Interior photography credits appear on page 340
Illustrations by Beverly Duncan, except for: Brigita Fuhrmann 166, 167, 178 (leaf miner, mite, snail); Kurt Musfeldt 175177, 178 (Mexican bean beetle, slug), 179; Elayne Sears 83

Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications

2009, 2000 by Edward C. Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or Storey Publishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the use of this information.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Smith, Edward C. (Edward Clarke), 1941

The vegetable gardeners bible / Edward C. Smith. 2nd ed.

p. cm.

First ed. published in 2000.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60342-475-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-60342-476-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Vegetable gardening. 2. Organic gardening. I. Title.

SB324.3.S62 2010
635dc22

2009023862

This book is a revised and expanded version of the 2000 edition of The Vegetable Gardeners Bible; it exists in large part because of the help I received creating that earlier edition. Thank you again, Maggie Lydic, Deborah E. Burns, Gwen W. Steege, Giles Prett, Charles W. G. Smith, Lindsey and Nathaniel, and, most important, Sylvia Ferry Smith. This time around, Ive had the help of a fine editor, Carleen Madigan, and art director Jessica Armstrong. Once again, Sylvia Ferry Smith has created the garden and recreated it in photographic images; this book would not exist were it not for her gardening skill and artists eye. Thanks, too, to gardening friends who shared ideas and/or let us photograph their gardens: Susan Carpenter, David Carpenter, Lee Blackwell, Ruth Richards, Ann Miller, Richard Wiswall, Henry Homeyer, Shane Smith, and Christy Aucoin.

Many years ago, when Sylvia and I began our life together, we decided to heed the sound of a different drummer. We wanted to live close to the earth, building our home from wood that was locally harvested and milled, heating it with wood from our own land, heating water and producing electricity with solar power, and most important growing as much of our own food as we could from our own garden. The Vegetable Gardeners Bible is in many ways a report on the evolution of that garden.

Sylvia and I have had a garden every year of our marriage, over 30 gardens now. The first one was small, about 120 square feet. Each year since then, the garden has become bigger (now its about 1,500 square feet) as weve grown more and more of our own food. As the garden grew, so did the amount of work and time it required. There was and still is, though, the rest of life to deal with children, work, a house to finish, and other buildings to keep up with (a garage, a shed, a couple of greenhouses, a woodworking shop). So we had to figure out how to garden with less work and do it in ways that gave us good, nutritious food; depended very little on fossil-fueled machines or fossil-fuel-derived fertilizers; and left the soil in better condition than it was when we started. Gardening organically, maintaining soil fertility, and nurturing soil life ensures not only that we will have a bountiful and healthful harvest but also that our children and their children will, too. Thats what The Vegetable Gardeners Bible is all about.

Over the ten years since the first printing of The Vegetable Gardeners Bible, Ive continued to learn about how to make my vegetable garden more productive. (Folk wisdom notwithstanding, old dogs and old gardeners can learn new tricks. They can also abandon old ones that no longer work.) Ive figured out or learned from other gardeners better ways to do things. Ive questioned how Ive done things and sometimes learned that such doings were either not really effective or not worth the time and effort for the effect they had. Ive heard from readers who had good suggestions or questions I hadnt thought to ask. Ive also experimented with growing new vegetables and growing old standbys using different methods. All of this new knowledge and more, Id like to share with you, in hopes that your garden will become a slice of paradise in your backyard.

After all, Eden was a garden. For Sylvia and me, the garden is a place to go for quiet contemplation, a source not only of food but also of spiritual renewal and intimate contact with lifes most basic processes. In the garden, we are participants in life. As Masanobu Fukuoka wrote in The One-Straw Revolution, The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.

Ed Smith

MY FIRST VEGETABLE GARDEN, when I was eight, was very traditional: the vegetables were arranged in narrow rows separated by wide paths. That was the way my parents gardened, and every year we gathered what looked like a pretty good harvest. When I moved to Vermont, my address changed, but the way I gardened stayed the same. It hadnt yet occurred to me that gardening could be, or needed to be, improved.