Customer Reviews

The Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook: Make the Most of Your Growing Season

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I liked this book, I really did. I read through it and thought it sounded like a neat idea and that its checklists would help me keep on top of my garden chores week by week. So I happily filled in my frost date and dates thereafter on the weekly schedules in the book, then flipped to the page for the current date to check on my garden progress. That's when I realized that the dates had no bearing on reality at all.

My average frost date is April 15. This book lists "Early fall" as 12-14 weeks after the average date of frost. That's in July. One of the hottest parts of my season. Huh? Fall doesn't even start until September. And this is where the book could be dangerous for beginners. It makes fertilizer recommendations based on dates that may be completely inappropriate for your area. If I had followed the instructions here, based on the weekly dates, I would have completely eradicated my harvest.

Clearly it needed to switch from "after frost" to "before frost" midway through the schedule.

The only saving grace is that the sections are marked as "early Summer" "mid Summer" etc, so you could use it as a loose schedule, but not a specific weekly schedule.

Maybe the book deserves slightly more than one star, because there is some good info, but I think any book that could totally destroy a new gardener's experience and lead them down the path of utter failure is undeserving of a high rating.

At last a book which will help me remember what to plant when. Every year I forget something until it's too late to plant it. This handy guide will help keep me on track. It will be especially useful for planting for fall crops. Lots of helpful information stuck in here and there for beginners and experienced gardeners. The format allows anyone to use this book in any zone and I like the space for entering my own notes for the next 4 years. I'm sure I will be referring to it often.

A very affordable book for gardeners. I like the week by week format. I always start too late trying to grow seedlings missing out on some early crops. I made a bookmark with my area's frost dates and weekly dates corresponding to the book. I feel organized for the first time since I started veggie gardening. The book has reminders for maintenance such as when to start looking for certain insects and diseases like blight. It has timely information in each section!

I bought extras for my dad and friends.

Since the book claims, "works for every gardening zone", I thought this might be a good resource for my beginning vegetable garden clients. However, it became very clear after writing in the dates based on my city's frost times, that this book is useless for California's Mediterranean climate, and is really based on the experiences of people who garden on the East Coast, then aimed toward gardeners living in regions with similar climate patterns. My first "Whuh?" happened when October 30 to December 1 fell in to their "late winter" category. The garlic planting times based on the book's formula are completely wrong for my area. The book does not provide a calendar or information for areas that have warm winters.

I should have known better than to buy a one-size-fits-all book like this. The continent is huge, with so many climate variations that it is absurd to think that one book could address all of them well. Knowledgeable gardening neighbors are ultimately the best resource, followed by books on local gardening.

Like all gardening books, there are some good tips. Weak, corny humor which I'm surprised an editor would let pass is sprinkled throughout. It has nice illustrations and graphics. The spiral binding is nice so that it will lie flat. But too bad I've already marked it up, or I would return it!

Great information, especially for newbie gardeners. But the system of weekly tasks set according to where the week is versus your local average last frost date doesn't work the later you go into the season.

For instance, in my area, Maryland, the 18th Week After Average Last Frost is listed as a Late Fall week, and one of the things it has me do is "Empty and Clean window boxes, patio boxes, and other containers." Well my 18th week would be August 20th! That's Mid to Late Summer here! I'd be pulling out productive plants from my containers if I did what they wanted!

However, the book seems great for earlier dates. I think what I'll have to do is adjust the later weekly chores according to my area's needs regardless of how long it actually is after my last average frost date. For instance, for the above 18th week chore, I may do that in Late September or October. Once I determine the correct date, I'll write THAT on the top of the "18th week" page.

I think my having to adjust some of the task dates is worth it however, because the info, tasks, discussions, and instructions really are excellent. I'm happy I got this book. Now if the authors could only figure out how to fix this problem it would be a masterpiece. Perhaps by somehow incorporating the readers Average FIRST frost date as well, to help determine later season tasks?

I was so excited to get Ron and Jennifer Kujawski's book, week-by-week vegetable gardener's handbook, and have never been so disappointed in a book. The concept is great but the cover and blurbs are deceptive. It suggests a book that can help you organize your gardening year by inserting your last frost date. Nowhere does it suggest that this book only applies to somewhere far north of where I live, and does nothing to help organize the fall and late summer planting here in Alabama. I started in right away, writing in my frost date, looking for when it would switch to dates that would be based on the first frost of the year. I was not reading closely, but finally I realized I had a lemon when it said that I should "harvest sprouts (brussels sprouts) after frost" on "19 weeks after average date of last frost", which is, in my area, August 8!!!

Do you know anyone in the north who could use a very slightly used copy?

What a great concept - start from the frost date... works just about anywhere
Easy to read
Well organized & therefore, helps the gardener to be organized
Funny
Informative
Plenty of room for one's own notes
spiral bound & plastic cover
Will buy more copies for my fellow gardeners

I love the idea of this book, namely that you can plug in your date of average last frost and work from there to create a detailed map of your gardening season. I really like that it's both a great source of information and a workbook that's intended for you to write in and personalize. The illustrations are detailed and very cool, and I find the writing style to be personal, easy to read, and augmented with just the right amount of humor.

That being said, I am concerned that this one-size-fits-all approach to a gardening schedule is ultimately going to disappoint some people. Looking at a few of the one-star reviews, I see that this is in fact the case. This book simply cannot be a viable companion for all gardeners from Phoenix to Fairbanks, which is the implication. There are just too many different climate variations in this country to be accounted for by such a book.

However, THAT being said, I am actually strongly considering purchasing the book (yes, I always use my local library to preview books before buying!). Seeing that the authors garden in an area of the country (western Mass.) that has a very similar frost-free date to my own, I feel like this will be a great resource for me to have. I would say that this is a five-star book for those with an average last frost date of roughly late April, and all others should proceed with caution!

This book is a must reference guide for both beginners and experienced gardeners. In a fun way It captures in one handy place all the things necessay to have a successful and bountiful garden. Love the very informative side notes which contain a wealth of knowledge. You might want to buy two, one for the field and one for your arm chair.

I was thrilled when I got "Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook" I will tell you that at first I was a little bit intimidated because its so full of information and I actually put off reading it for a few days because I felt overwhelmed. Once I did start reading it I nearly kicked myself for not cracking this book open right away. It is so well written and so well organized , seriously, all you have to do is follow the directions, they have done the gardening leg work. This isn't a book that will tell you which plant is compatible with which and what shouldn't be planted with what, but it does have tons of other information such as pests, fertilizing, starting sprouts etc. I also love that in the back of the book it gives you an idea of the last frost date in cities around the country to help guesstimate yours.


I really enjoy how the book is set up. At the top of the page it will say how many weeks before or after average frost date. For example "10-15 weeks before average frost date" and then it will state the tasks that you need to do. All you have to do is read through the rest of the chapter as they elaborate on the things that were listed.


I wish that they had put a bit more information about container gardening in the book but over all I really did love this book, I wish I had gotten it in the fall rather than in the late winter to allow myself to plan a bit more (but the book wasn't published until Jan 2011 lol). I will definitely be keeping this book as a reference for many many years to come.