I've never been to the Northeast and I can't afford to travel, so I like to look at books about what life is like in the Northeast. I love gardening and I am totally unfamiliar with the climate of the Northeast (apparently they have real winters there?? Thank God the Pacific Northwest avoids those things...) so I checked out Timber Press's whole series from Marie Iannotti, Growing Great Vegetables in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.

Funny story, each of these books contain the same information with only a few variations. Still, lots of great info about gardening in the Northeast, I place I will probably never visit. Some great tips about vegetable gardening in general, regardless of where you are (especially if you need help maintaining your garden during the winter). So if you live in the region, these books will be very useful. If you're just an armchair traveler / gardener, then you'll find some great info.

Also no way am I ever living in any of those states. First frost in September? SEPTEMBER??!?! No thank you. I'll stay in the West, where by September most of the west is still on fire.

Grow Great Vegetables in Massachusetts is a regionally tailored home gardening guide for producing vegetables for taste and nutrition and to increase self-reliance and food security. This is one of a series of regionally specific guides (MA, NY, NJ and PA) released by Timber press. Written by Marie Iannotti, it's 244 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

This guide is arranged by seasons with a chapter for each month. The introductory chapter (~13% of the page content) covers garden planning, climates and subzones in Massachusetts, as well as a very general gardening introduction.

The monthly sections include tasks for each month, potential problems and troubleshooting, planning and placement of the garden plot, harvesting and more.

The third section of the book is a regional guide to choosing vegetables and varieties which will thrive in your area. There are 50 included fruits and vegetable varieties listed in alphabetical order with some culture info for each.

There's also resource list (slanted to readers in the NE region), a bibliography and further reading list, USDA based hardiness zonal map, and an index. The photography is crisp, clear, and abundant. This is a well crafted book which will provide gardeners with hours of blissful dreaming as well as serving as a valuable troubleshooting guide.

Five stars. Very well done.