Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Gardening: Plant, Grow, and Harvest the Best Edibles - Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., & West Virginia (Fruit & Vegetable Gardening Guides)

Useful for us as we recently moved to the area and have a plot in our community garden.

I'm a first time gardener this year, and have wanted to start a vegetable garden for a while now. I knew this season would be the first time I had all the resources to finally have one, so in preparation I began reading online as well as getting books from the library in the fall of last year. I read both general information as well as regional information whenever I could find it. The biggest problem I had was understanding the planting schedule - when to plant what and why. Most of the information on the internet and in general gardening books have the information organized by type of vegetable or fruit, not by growing conditions making it more difficult to sift through and understand which vegetables are best for planting when and where. This book is organized into warm and cool season vegetables and not only did that help me to understand what determines the planting schedule, but helped me to put all the other information I'd been reading into perspective. And I finally understood why some vegetables can be planted twice or continuously produce throughout the season and why others can't; why some have to be planted earlier in the spring or later, why some can weather the winter and others can't. It seems obvious to me now, but none of the other books or sites I had read organized the information in such a way that made it easy for me to "get it". Additionally, there are other tips and information given for each plant (like whether it is easier to sow seeds indoors and then transplant or sow directly outside, info for maintenance, pest problems and harvesting) that are helpful in planning your garden and understanding what needs to be done when throughout the season. Finally, the author summarizes the different climates of the different regions found within the mid-atlantic and gives information for each plant accordingly as well as suggestions for which variety of vegetable or fruit can be successfully grown in the region.I highly recommend this book for any beginner gardener in the mid-atlantic who might find it intimidating to sift through all the information out there just to get started. I wouldn't say it's comprehensive, but is organized and written so well that it makes it easy to put all other information gleaned from other sources into perspective. It's a great book to start off your gardening library. As badly as I wanted to have my own vegetable garden, trying to plan one was overwhelming until I read this book. Thanks so much to Ms. Elzer-Peters for understanding the need for a gardening book that organizes plants based on growing needs and putting it out there!

Good gardening tips. A staple in my gardening library. Gave a copy to myD-I-L, a beginning gardener in VA.

This book is exactly what I excepted it to be! Fantastic!!

This is a great book for anyone who wants to know what will and will not grown in our area. There is nothing more annoying than putting in lots of money and time on a plant that isn't thriving only to discover it was never meant to grow in our area in the first place.

Pretty basic garden book, if your a first time gardener it is good. Shows all different kinds of vegetables and fruits when to plant etc. Nothing you can not find on the internet but I personally like to have a book to look at rather then going to my saved online pages. The only reason I did not give 5 stars is because she did not mention compatible planting.

Clear comprehensiveWritten so you get the important points easilyTailored to “hobby farmers “Learned why some of my crops don’t do well and what I can do about it

I love this book! I have grown no veggies yet, because I felt overwhelmed. Now that I have read this book, I feel more able to tackle some vegetables in my garden. The division between warm and cool season veggies makes sense. There is a sensible discussion of each veggie she discusses in the book. Thank you, Katie, for putting this information within my reach!