Lorene Edwards Forkner tackled a huge task. She took the 900 plus pages of the late Carla Emery’s “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” and distilled out of this sometimes wandering magnum opus (in 10 editions over 35 years) the essentials of vegetable gardening.
The resulting “Growing Your Own Vegetables” is a well organized and very readable work (at a comparatively slim 179 pages) that still captures the enthusiasm and down-to-earth charm of the original. While the authors both have Pacific Northwest roots, this book is written for a general audience, and so the section on okra is best skipped in planning your Seattle P-patch.
That said, there are still lots of useful and practical cultural tips. But I found it most charming in the somewhat quirky side boxes, such as that on Draft Horses and Power Tools: “Pat the animal and let it know you appreciate it after a good hard pull.”
Excerpted from the Fall 2009 Arboretum Bulletin.