This gardening book has a logical layout and excellent photographs and diagrams.  I've been vegetable gardening for only a couple of years and greatly enjoyed the confirmation of what I've been doing right interspersed with new ideas and suggestions.  If you choose to use this book to plan, plant, and harvest you will feel like a friend is supporting you and explaining each step throughout the process.

Very informative book. Full of a lot of useful information. This book will also be very useful for future reference

This book is great for the new gardener (and I know there are a lot of them lately!). It has comprehensive steps for years 1 to 2 in bginninggardens, whether they are just backyard border gardens or full family food gardens. It helps you quickly and easily decide what to start with based on your climate and work from there. Many will go beyond the suggestions in this book, but to start I think this is a wonderful starting resource while you get used to your garden.

Barbara has some great advice for planting food gardens that aren’t labor intensive and that can fit in any kind of space. This is a great foundational text for learning about soil, what to grow and how to deal with all the challenges gardening brings as well as successes.

This book is an awesome resource for beginner gardeners with a variety of space to work with and appeals to different gardening styles at the same time. I think it’s also great for the experience gardener looking for something new to try out. I love that it gives you guides that help you take your time and scaffold your gardening plans over 3 years so that you don’t overdue it the first year. The variety of plans is amazing and ranges from design styles to food themes/purposes. Any gardener will find inspiration.

The images, garden plan sketches and the frequent tips on growing certain foods and other gardening techniques are extremely helpful to a beginning gardener. Even an experienced gardener will find something new to try or learn. The different options for garden styles are very creative and gives a gardener ideas on what works best for their garden. This is a great option for the home gardener.

This book is a great introduction to gardening.  I think it contains a lot of useful information and is a staple for a gardening collection.

*4.5 stars*

A book for the newbie and the old pro gardener…

Have you ever wanted your hand held when you are trying something new for the first time? This author took my hand and expertly walked me through growing my first vegetable garden! From shopping lists to planning the patch, she never assumed I could become a pro the first time around. Instead, she encouraged me to take it slow, start small and you know what? I’m planning a move which includes a flower and vegetable patch and I feel, after reading this book, I can do it. Starting small of course…

But there’s more! This book offers something for everyone, not just for the new gardener. Helpful hints for all gardeners are offered here…

Whether a beginner or an expert, I think everyone will find something here!

This books is a well of information. If you have the space, but have no idea where to start when it comes to creating a garden, this is perfect for you. I found it very interesting and thought the way it was laid out very beginniner friendly.

It’s hard to believe but it is already time to be thinking of starting your kitchen garden. What you say? You have never had a garden before but are intrigued by the ease and environmental pluses of having your own small household garden? Look no further than Starter Vegetable Gardens.

Most garden books are intimidating with their talk of soil PH and bug controls. This book opens up the world of gardening to the laziest gardener. From picking seedlings at the local home center (or big box store) to using bags of soil as the planters, this book starts with the least amount of work possible. However, the author anticipates that you will soon have the gardening bug and scales up slowly each year until you are running a small family food factory in your yard by year 4, if you want. It is all very unintimidating.

While starting a first garden is the largest hurdle addressed here, all the other basics are also touched on in later chapters. In addition, there is a large selection of suggested plant varieties, based on your region’s weather, listed at the end of the book.

Starter Vegetable Gardens could be the answer to eating as close to farm to plate as possible. It could also save you some money, provide you with healthier food, and be fun all in one. I’m starting my own first food garden next month. Wish me luck! 4 stars for this easily accessibly gardening handbook!

Thanks to Storey Publishing and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This book provides a simple guide with clear steps to start and grow your vegetable garden over 3 years. It presents a very simple way to proceed and I will be putting it into practice this spring.

This is definitely a book for the serious gardener with a lot of yard space. As a novice gardener I learned a lot about what goes into planning a successful vegetable garden. I also really liked that the book covers not just starting a garden but maintaining and expanding it as well. The guides for when to plant different crops is also very helpful. This will definitely be a book I continue to refer to as I work on my own garden. My only wish for this book is that it had included more on using a raised bed and/or creating a garden in different types of yards. For example, the house I moved in to has an completely hardscaped backyard and I would have loved some advice on how to turn that type of area into a space capable of growing a variety of vegetables and flowers.

I think I’m in the minority on this one so far. I think this is a good book with lots of great information for someone just getting started with vegetable gardens but I didn’t really like the way the phases are laid out. Maybe because I have a very “all in” style? I’m sure there’s are lots of people this would work for but I think I grew more on my deck when I first started vegetables than is shown in the year one garden. Like I said, it’s got a lot of information that’s useful it just wasn’t my all time favorite gardening book. I’d recommend it for someone who’s never grown anything before (which is probably who it’s marketed to anyway). 

***I received an advanced review copy from Netgalley.

This is the book I wish I had when I started my first garden. It lays out 3 year plans for starter gardens. It is filled with beautiful illustrations that accompany clear, precise instructions to grow the garden of your dreams. It includes advice and how to on everything from maintaining gardening tools to how to pound a post.  I cannot wait to recommend this book at my library.

This is like a garden cookbook! I love that she sets it up like a recipe with ingredients and then instructions accompanied with plenty pictures. She has 24 plans for a small scale organic garden and then tips for honing and troubleshooting based on what you want and need. I can’t believe I had never thought about gardening right out of the potting soil bags. Genius! She also organizes a progression of year one, two, and three for first four plans, which gives a great visual to the development, attainability, and sustainability you can achieve if you stick with it. Definitely recommend for anyone interested in gardening, food security, etc.

Thank you, NetGalley!

For a while now, I have thought that I really want to start growing some veggies in my garden and I have always been so so intimidated by the whole science around it. Starter Vegetable Gardens was exactly what it promised to be and exactly what I needed. First and foremost, it took some of the apprehension away and now I absolutely can't wait to try these tips out and hopefully grow some delicious veggies of my own!

This book was great, it had different sections based on the space you might have available and skill level, a thorough and informative book!

This is a good beginning gardner book for someone who is a first time gardener and lives in an average climate. It does tell you how much soil to purchase, for example, for a small garden plot and which plants to begin with planting. What it doesn't explain is how much physical labor goes into starting a garden plot, especially raised bed gardens.  You will need about ten or more 40 lb bags of gardening soil to begin a small garden plot, and then if your vehicle is a distance from your gardening area you will need to carry all this stuff to your garden. It can be very daunting work for someone not used to physical labor or that has a bad back. 

I would hire someone to help you get started on building a garden, and then just enjoy the garden once its planted. Also they recommend starting from seedlings, and most gardeners buy plants already growing rather than try to grow seedlings. Its more expensive but you will be more successful with the plants. 

I live in a very hot area that has a long intense summer, so it is challening finding plants that will survive this climate and your water bill may be detrimental to you continuing gardening. These issues are not addressed in the book.

This book is excellent! It is a thorough and easy to follow guide for both the beginner and the experienced gardener. It provides step by step instructions and helpful images/illustrations. This is the book I wish I had 2 summers ago when I started my backyard vegetable garden during the Covid lockdown. I actually read this book earlier this year, however I waited to write this review until now as I wanted to see how helpful it would be for me for this years' growing season. It turns out it was extremely helpful. I ended up consulting this book fairly frequently throughout the summer. I highly recommend this book for all prospective backyard gardeners.

Buy Book !!!!  Read, pick a plan, prepare soil, plant, water and harvest.  What a great book.  
I have been trying to build the confidence to start a garden at my house.  This book does a great job of giving you options for a garden.  Then provides you details in preparing the soil and setting up your garden.  The book even gives you a diagram with dimensions and tells your what and where to plant.  
The timing of reading this book should set me up to have a garden next spring.  How exciting!  The book even tells you what types of each vegetable to plant.  Also talks about starting from seeds or small plants.

I really enjoyed this updated edition! I'm not sure if this will be a purchase for our library, but I'll definitely be ordering a personal copy to inspire and educate in my gardening efforts. These garden plans are simple, easy to understand, and beautiful. I think that this is a great resource for beginning gardeners as well as those who have a little bit more experience, but want some more direction or inspiration. There's just a ton of great info in here, and the pictures and illustrations add to the experience. A great addition to a gardening collection!