Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit: An Illustrated Encyclopedia

This book is very comprehensive. I loved it so much I purchased a copy for my brother and sister-in-law. I especially appreciate the details regarding each plant including season to plant, what to plant with, recipes examples and medical explanations. There are sufficient pictures and there is also a brief history of the fruit or vegetable.

Book combines gardening knowledge with a little herbology and provides culinary recipes to bring garden to table. I found the gardening info to be interesting and informative- and I have been gardening for 2 decades! Beautiful pictures were a definite bonus! My copy is now dogeared and well worn from much use.

This book has the most readable practicle information on every vegetable, herb or fruit I would ever grow plus many others. It covers some history of origin, varieties, cultivation, propagation, container and garden growing, harvesting & storage as well as uses both medicinal and culinary and also some recipies. I have not come across a more extensive book. My son & daughter both in their early 20's and just starting vege gardening use this as their bible. Well worth owning.

This book is wonderful! Every section gives you a in-depth overview of the vegetable, herb or fruit; detailing different varieties and how they rank in terms of taste and/or hardiness, how to propagate, grow, maintain, harvest and store. Plus gives tips of typical pests/diseases and how to avoid them. Very helpful are the "companion planting" paragraphs, explaining which plants do best next to each other. And to top it all off, each section includes a "culinary" and "medicinal" section, informing you of the best ways to use your crops once harvested. The pictures are beautiful and the wording is easy to understand and to the point. This is a great book for any gardener's reference shelf. Fun to read cover-to-cover, but set up so that you can dip in and out as you choose.