Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens

I have many gardening books, and I'm not a brand spanking new vegetable gardener but this book delivered on ALL it's promises. It's an excellent, easy to read, easy to understand, well laid book that gets to the point without the quaint but long winded ramblings that one often finds in gardening books. The charts and illustrations are so helpful. It's the perfect book to learn AND teach from! When I help my neighbors with their gardens this year this book will be my reference and recommendation to buy if one can only have one basic gardening book. Thanks Barbara Pleasant.

After borrowing this book from the library 3 times in one year, I think it's time to buy. I love the pictures, the suggested varieties for each vegetable, and the plans. What is really helpful for me is learning how to make the most of my growing season (zone 7) by seeing how to rotate through 2-3 crops in one bed. I love it. I am a square foot gardener with 3 years under my belt, and many more to look forward to - especially with this book.

This book is a good place to start. I am adding to my garden beds and I was reminded today why Ms. Pleasant develops the gardens in this book in 3 years. It would be so much work to try and put in one of the year 3 gardens in 1 year. It would also be a huge investment. By spreading it out over 3 years, each garden is much more manageable.

This book has some wonderful information in it. I especially like the first garden (the bag garden) because it avoids all the work of building raised beds from the beginning. You make use of the dirt in the bags and develop your garden over a 3 year period. The other plans are fun to look through and give lots of helpful information. Each plan comes with a list of what you need (super helpful) and directions of how to build it. The pictures of how to put in a tomato cage are very helpful! This book is not as overwhelming as The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. I also love the section on storing seeds.

This book is really a place to start from though. What you actually do in your garden may not look exactly like any of these gardens. You can use part of a plan that works with your yard. You may not want to use all of the plants, but substitute a few that you prefer. You could follow one of these plans exactly (everything is explained and listed out very clearly), but gardening is different for everyone. Our yards are different shapes and we prefer different vegetables and flowers. If you do substitute and not follow part of Ms. Pleasant's ideas though look up companion planting and how much sun what your substituting needs. Even though I'm not using one of her plans, the information that Ms. Pleasant weaves in with the plans is great basic information and it has helped me in my gardening this year.

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Storey Publishing.

Starter Vegetable Gardens should be on every gardeners bookshelf. Wonderful plans and references during the growing season or good reading in the winter when we are only dreaming of gardening.

No only is the book visually stunning, but it's darn useful too.

Based on the theory that with a good plan you can't fail, Barbara Pleasant shows you the three year plan for multiple garden layouts with year by year guilds to make this a fun no fail hobby. What Pleasant does, is gives you not only a shopping list, but a step by step plan for easy gardens from first time gardener to "beyond" beginner. I guess it's up to you how you want to rank yourself. Using planting guides and crop rotations, you too can have the garden that you have always wanted, but have only been able to see in magazines.

Definitely a must have and a must keep on your shelf for years to come with insight and experience from a master gardener.

I am a novice/newbie gardener. My family and I are starting our first vegetable garden this summer (2015). For this price, this book is a fantastic find! First, it's gorgeous. The pages are beautiful. It's a joy to read and glance at. I'm a planner and an organizer and this book helps me with exactly that! I love, love, love how the author takes the garden plans and breaks them down into 3 year task lists and tells you specifically WHAT to do for each plant and at which time. I would definitely buy this again and I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone just starting out or for anyone wanting a new, beautiful book, full color, photos, high quality papers, tips, FYIs, that's well-written. I would even give this book as a gift! What a gem.

This is a very helpful book. I always wanted a garden but I do not have a green thumb. I followed the directions for the black bag with my first garden and everything I planted blossomed. My husband thought I was crazy but it worked! The following year I bought a rotter tiller and expanded my garden and my tomato plants were 5 feet high!!! You will not be disappointed with this book. This year I plan to try canning my tomatoes.

Originally checked this book out from the library and renewed it twice it was so helpful to me as a brand new gardener. Lots of pictures and tips and stays away from becoming droll. My family can probably blame this book for turning me into the garden nerd I am now.

Quite a book. This book covers it all. This is excellent for a new gardener. It is also a good read for those with experience. I wanted to point out that this book also contains information about cold frames and starting 6 weeks earlier in the garden. It gives information on how to make your own cold frame with pictures.

It is one of those refreshing fun to read garden books. I am going through my garden books and doing away with the 'black and white page' ones. With books like these its difficult to even open the others. Great illustrations for garden ideas. It also has colored pictures of garden plans.

If you are looking for a very detailed book with a wide range of garden topics this is the one for you.

Although I didn't need a book that went into such precise detail, any beginner can pick this book up and start gardening right away! This book offers step by step instructions on what to do and lays out very detailed, and easy, garden plans that anyone could stick to! I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gardening, but has no clue where to start!