Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southwest (Regional Vegetable Gardening Series)

This review is about the book, "Vegetable Gardening in the Southwest" Paperback – January 7, 2015 by Trisha ShireyThe single thing that stands out most about this book is that it is easy to use. It has many descriptions, diagrams, and charts that are all arranged for easy access. It is easy to read and offers many good tips on gardening techniques. There are many other books that offer more material on specific topics like composting or raised bed, but this book is intended to be an "all-in-one" guide to making your garden work. It is also focused specifically on the SouthWest geographic region of the US.PART 1 - GETTING STARTED includes a chart of frost dates, discussions on soil types, composting and raised bed gardening.PART 2 - GET PLANTING is found in the middle, is the largest section of the book, and is arranged in month by month order, to make an excellent guide for activities. January begins with planning and November wraps up most harvesting. Each month incudes a primary task list and follows up with related topics. Each page is labeled with the month on the top corner making it easy to navigate to the correct month.PART 3 - EDIBLES A TO Z starts with a master planting and harvesting chart, arranged zone by zone and then continues with a dictionary/encyclopedia like section on individual vegetable plants. This section wraps up with resources, a further reading list and an index.The best short summary of this book is that it is very useful and practical.

I love the layout of this book. I am a reasonably seasoned gardener but we've been struggling the last couple years with high heat and drought in our area. Having a book that speaks directly to those issues is invaluable. There are sections with tips for what you should be doing each month in each zone....LOVE that she acknowledges how many zones there are in the southwest and how elevation can change your weather. There is also a section that goes plant by plant (specifically the ones that grow in this region) and in each month there are breakout sections with tips and recommendations on plant varieties that hold up to southwest weather.The ONLY thing that I wish was different are the "tabs". On the front cover it looks like you can flip to each month. Not so. It is just printed on the cover. I had to create my own tabs so I could flip to the month I wanted quickly. Not a deal breaker because the content is so good, but it would make this book even easier to grab if it was actually tabbed the way the cover appears to be.

Have you ever wanted to throw a shovel at your food? That is to say: the food you've been TRYING REALLY HARD to grow.Don't despair! Trisha Shirey's to the rescue with Vegetable Gardening in the Southwest.As Lake Austin Spa Resort's Director of Flora and Fauna, Trisha knows everything about organic growing in frustrating harsh-as-heck conditions. Now, she's put all that knowledge into an easy hands-on guide, whether it's your first garden, first one in the Southwest, or last ditch try to grow your own.Covering USDA Zones 4-10, Trisha takes us step by step from soil prep to harvest. Along with tips for building traditional raised beds and small space gardens, she explores hugelkultur and keyhole gardening.Sprinkled with Skill Set tips, she also covers everything you'll run into, from soil pests and insects to 4-legged bandits. Trisha makes it easy to fertilize organically, set up irrigation, build stakes and protect crops from heat and cold.Month by month, follow along for comprehensive To Do lists from planting times to harvest and pruning and fertilizing. Edibles A-Z present plant profiles to select best varieties and how to grow them.I've got many great vegetable gardening books in my collection, but in this one, Trisha has compiled the latest info with her years of hard-won success in one of hardest places to grow. I know I'll be "eating it up."

This book is VERY thorough! It talks about soils, gives ideas on how to test soil, pH and how to adjust for it, what to do each month in anticipation and throughout spring, what the various needed nutrients are and how the loss of certain ones affect a plant's leaves....and I am only 1/4 through this book! I'm very glad I purchased it and appreciate all the work that must have gone into writing it! Thank you Trisha Shirey!!! As a new Central Texan, who got here as quick as I could from San Diego, CA; I needed to know more about how my plants could best survive here and what others could join them. We're going to create a raised garden and will definitely use your advice on doing that, too!

Five stars for the paperback and four stars for the Kindle version. Perfect for the novice gardener. I saw this book at Barnes & Noble before ordering the Kindle version. This book gives instructions on what to do and plant on a monthly basis according to your location. Very good content but the Kindle formatting is not the same as the physical book. Seems like there's a loss of integrity. Probably should have bought the paperback version.

The book is in a great format and easy to read. It touches alot of topics but not super in depth. I love the breakdown of each month. It is a good starter book but will def need more references to get my garden started!

I am in love with the simplicity of using this book as a manual. It is broken down by month so you can flip exactly to the month you're in and know what you should be doing. I also like that most of the info is in bullet points, very simple to reference, without having to read through dense paragraphs. Very basic info, fantastic for the newbie gardener (me!).

My husband is growing a garden. And this book was a big help.