The Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A Backyard Guide to Healthy Soil and Higher Yields

by John Jeavons, Carol Cox

From the author of our best-selling and widely beloved HOW TO GROW MORE VEGETABLES comes this "quick and dirty" introduction to biointensive gardening that shows it is not only possible but easy to grow astonishing crops of healthful organic vegetables and fruits, while conserving resources and actually helping the soil. A revolutionary approach to feeding ourselves and nurturing the land, this book
- Step-by-step illustrations and instructions that make these techniques simple for even the novice gardener.
- Everything you need to know about planning crops, composting, harvesting, and more.
- Complete resources for seeds, tools, and other garden supplies.Feed a family of four on the bounty of your backyard, or just get more out of your garden with less effort with this wonderful resource.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Food, Sustainability, Reference, Health, Green

118 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Mira · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good basic reader about bio-diverse sustainable gardens but the authors are math nazis and I found it unhelpful for those of us who don't carry a calculator in our pockets along with various measuring devices, complicated charts and other such things. It's a garden, not quantum physics. That said, for a basic understanding of how to grow more food in a smaller space and how to create a compost garden to enrich the soil, it was good. My one other criticism is that the book encourages tilling which, now we know, isn't really necessary if you use the Japanese method of cardboard, good compost/soil mix and hay on top after planting. One, two, three and there you go. No need to dig. Just prepare the plot a few months before and you're golden. Happy Spring.

[gadabout · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sustainable Vegetable Garden was written as an introductory supplement for Jeavons' other book, "How to Grow More Vegetables." With that purpose in mind, it does its job well, introducing basic concepts and laying out the general rules of a biointensive garden. It focuses rather intensely on dates and maths and assumes the reader has at least a bit of gardening knowledge to them, which means it might not be easy reading for some, but it is a good little booklet with a good pool of general information.

[Anna Bushi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good gardening book for someone who has been growing their own vegetables for a few years and is looking to increase yield and incorporate sustainable practices. A beginner might be intimidated by this book and this is definitely not for someone who is growing some herbs in pots.

This is for a serious gardener with space for garden beds in their yard. I have never grown a cover crop before and I am interested in trying it out.

Recommend for gardeners looking to grow most of the vegetables they eat.

[Rachel Haas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite gardening references, interesting perspective helpful in calculating amount of seeds needed to generate yields based on your own consumption. It easy to grow whatever looks pretty or sounds good at the time. I found I needed less tomato seeds and more lettuce , Brussels, carrots, onion, peas, potatoes and green bean plants in order to produce based based on our family's consumption. Nice to calculate and get the most out of your growing season and preserve enough to last for the year and cut money spent on produce at the grocery store.

[Jacqueline M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a decent introduction to intensive gardening. This was not it. It didn't really make much sense as relevant background information in the main book is missing. And it's extremely dated. Many references to all the terrible things that would happen by the year 2000. i mean did they happen? I don't know. Needs an update. For this reason, I did decide to give the author another try by reading the most recent edition of the full text. Only 1 chapter into that one and it's already far better.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special

[Chris Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for beginners, highly recommend.


Great book, very informative for those who are wanting to try grow biointensive but don't know where to start. Highly recommended.

[Ruhm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for

[Donna Dieckmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guide to healthy soil.

[Paolo Benvenutto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente tratado para comenzar un huerto urbano. Se lo recomiendo a todos...

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated but otherwise useful information without unnecessary fluff. It's definitely a brief primer to high yield backyard agriculture, but makes for a nice, quick reference.

[Alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first gardening books that fundamentally changed how I thought about growing food and gave me some guidance toward more productivity than ever before.

[Tricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

If your goal is to over complicate and suck the joy right out of it, this is the book for you

[Jenn. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed book borrowed from DC Library.

Useful charts and lots of information. Not sure that it will work well with my current garden layout.

[Lydia Rufus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch. If you want to learn how to rebuild your soil in a simple way, read this book. It explains the steps well and has illustrations. Keen to get into spring planting!! 🤠

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Sustainable Vegetable Garden" ia a small, thin and fact packed gardening book that takes you from bed preparation, through a chart to use for the planning of the use of growing seasons, space needed, numbers of seeds per crop, etc. that is important for most crops that one would plan in a home garden. There was information about what plants grow well together and what you need to plant separately. Soil composition and the building of new beds were all covered and in a very concise manner. This book was more than I needed in some ways but offered important information that many of the other books I am reading did not include. It is a good resource for someone who is concerned with the improvement of the soil and maximizing the yields in their gardens.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would rate it 3 1/2 stars if possible.

This book has some really good information but I felt like it was often generalized. It's a short book so the authors tried to include as much info as possible but don't go into a lot of detail. I do like their ideas of compost crops, and description of seed starting and transplanting. Worth reading but I think there are better resources out there.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably a better place for most people to start than How to Grow More Vegetables. It introduces the concepts outlined in great detail there and provides a place to start for a method that is probably unfamiliar especially for raised bed gardeners. A method at least worth considering for those interested in economical and space efficient gardening, and as a contrast with permaculture.

[Sage · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great intro to Jeavons other book How to Grow More Vegetables.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had some good information, but its really complicated and restrictive in the advice given. It would be a much better book if you were just starting out with gardening and didn't already have beds built all over your backyard and overflowing boxes of seeds.

[Kayce · Rating 2 out of 5]

My issue with this book was much more about timing than information. It was just a little more intense than what I can imagine doing right now. In the future when I'm ready to start my own compost pile I'm sure I'll come back to this book for a reference.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly, this simplified book geared towards beginning gardeners was still over my head in many ways. Tons of valuable information in here, so I will need to purchase it for my non-existent garden section of our library as we try our hand at real gardening.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I need time to do this - maybe with a new backyard : )

[Jesse]

Going to try to grow my own food this year to reduce my carbon footprint. I'm starting here with this "engineer's guide to gardening".

[claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY HELPFUL! I'm an intermediate gardener and I found some great tips. It doesn't assume you already know anything so the details are helpful. perfect for a beginner.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good place to start, condensed info, but not a lot of details. A good companion/quick reference to John Jeavons, 'How to Grow more vegetables" book.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A guide for gardeners who want to preserve the fertility of their soil without the use of chemical fertilizers. Discusses composting and crop rotation among other ideas.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great how-to for composting and garden planning. Short and concise, easy to read, covers most common vegetables and introduces cover crops for the winter.

[Laura Kiesel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good all inclusive but not too in depth on starting a sustainable biointensive garden in a small space.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great source if you want to become a serious vegetable gardener.