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Grow Great Vegetables in North Carolina
Get the Inside Dirt, North Carolina!
This ultimate local guide to growing vegetables and other edibles provides you with insider advice on climate zones, average frost dates, and growing season details across North Carolina. Information includes details on sun, soil, fertilizer, mulch, water, and the best varieties for your region. A garden planning section helps with design and crop rotation, and monthly lists explain what to do from January through December. In-depth profiles of nearly 50 edibles round out the information and help ensure a can’t-miss harvest.
This ultimate local guide to growing vegetables and other edibles provides you with insider advice on climate zones, average frost dates, and growing season details across North Carolina. Information includes details on sun, soil, fertilizer, mulch, water, and the best varieties for your region. A garden planning section helps with design and crop rotation, and monthly lists explain what to do from January through December. In-depth profiles of nearly 50 edibles round out the information and help ensure a can’t-miss harvest.
- GenresGardening
252 pages, Paperback
Published March 31, 2020
29 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 28, 2020
I received this ARC from #NetGalley just in time to use it as a reference to start my 2020 garden! We're following the helpful, concise planting calendar right now (late January) to plot out plans for germinating seedlings. I live in the piedmont, so I'm consulting that section; the book contains great info for the three different climate regions of the state--mountains, piedmont, and coastal plain.
There's also great advice on choosing crops, building various structures and landscaping layouts to enjoy garden-fresh produce year round. The photography is gorgeous and the illustrations/diagrams/charts are informative and helpful. I'll be recommending this book to all my NC gardening pals!
There's also great advice on choosing crops, building various structures and landscaping layouts to enjoy garden-fresh produce year round. The photography is gorgeous and the illustrations/diagrams/charts are informative and helpful. I'll be recommending this book to all my NC gardening pals!
August 29, 2020
Logically organized, gorgeously illustrated, and well explained throughout. You can tell the author really knows his stuff.
This would make a great gift.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.
This would make a great gift.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.
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April 8, 2025I learned some things and got some great recommendations for more reading
August 18, 2022
I found this book helpful with month by month tasks and steps to take to set up my garden. I will be referencing this book as each month goes to start preparing for next year's garden. Trying to figure out what I can get to grow in certain parts of my yard.
June 3, 2023
When we initially bought a house and moved to North Carolina with the US Army, I knew I wanted to try out gardening. We had the space at our new house, and we owned it, so there were really no limits to what we could and couldn't do.
The problem, however, is that southern soil isn't soil: it's either clay or sand. I grew up in upstate New York, where if you threw something in the ground, it just grew, and as long as you planted it before the first frost, you were golden. With this, I started doing research on the internet, but immediately got overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, the potential cost of gardening, all the contradictions between gardening blogs/articles/etc., and my own ignorance. So I started plugging away with what I had and what I knew from past experience, and that was that.
And then! I made a friend who's been gardening in North Carolina, in my same neighborhood, for at least the last seven years, and she handed me this book, saying that this is her go-to book for all things gardening. Huzzah!
Now, to the book itself.
This was a pretty easy read. I didn't feel like I was asking too many questions or feeling too confused about anything, which is a good sign it's written for novice gardeners. The science of gardening, however, did scare me a bit (balancing soil pH, etc.), but not enough to deter me from reading the rest of the book and trying to apply what I learned. It is designed for backyard gardening, as opposed to professional gardening, but does offer resources in its indexes that could be useful for professional purposes.
There are lots of methods for improving your soil and making it ready for planting, which was the most helpful thing I learned. There are also insightful charts about what plants you can actually grow in North Carolina, and what plants you should just avoid. Thus far, all of the things I've applied from the book have worked, especially, as mentioned before, the improving of your soil and preparing it to cultivate life.
I had two critiques of the book:
The first one is that, while it does say things like "even if you have a little space, you can still do x, y, z," the methods of gardening described are rigid and less flexible than I was hoping for. For example, all of the plants I have in my garden or in pots inside right now are grown from produce I bought from the grocery store. Nowhere in the book was that mentioned as a possibility. I think in addition to a book for novice gardeners, my hope and expectation for the book was that it would help me also pursue resourceful, economical gardening. Granted, it does encourage and give instructions on composting, building rain barrels, etc., but a lot of things it labels as "resourceful and economical" are still expensive and time-consuming.
The second critique is that the charts were difficult for me to understand. I still stand by what I said above with not having to ask too many questions or being overly-confused, the main exception to that being the charts. Some of the charts were crystal clear, easy to understand and use as references, whereas others I felt like I was back in biology or my college botany class (both of which I maneuvered miserably) and tried deciphering them based on the chapter context, but still felt lost.
Overall, this was an insightful and informative read, a God-send, really, because I had been wanting a reliable, physical source from which to learn, instead of doing trial-and-error with everything I was reading on the internet.
The problem, however, is that southern soil isn't soil: it's either clay or sand. I grew up in upstate New York, where if you threw something in the ground, it just grew, and as long as you planted it before the first frost, you were golden. With this, I started doing research on the internet, but immediately got overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, the potential cost of gardening, all the contradictions between gardening blogs/articles/etc., and my own ignorance. So I started plugging away with what I had and what I knew from past experience, and that was that.
And then! I made a friend who's been gardening in North Carolina, in my same neighborhood, for at least the last seven years, and she handed me this book, saying that this is her go-to book for all things gardening. Huzzah!
Now, to the book itself.
This was a pretty easy read. I didn't feel like I was asking too many questions or feeling too confused about anything, which is a good sign it's written for novice gardeners. The science of gardening, however, did scare me a bit (balancing soil pH, etc.), but not enough to deter me from reading the rest of the book and trying to apply what I learned. It is designed for backyard gardening, as opposed to professional gardening, but does offer resources in its indexes that could be useful for professional purposes.
There are lots of methods for improving your soil and making it ready for planting, which was the most helpful thing I learned. There are also insightful charts about what plants you can actually grow in North Carolina, and what plants you should just avoid. Thus far, all of the things I've applied from the book have worked, especially, as mentioned before, the improving of your soil and preparing it to cultivate life.
I had two critiques of the book:
The first one is that, while it does say things like "even if you have a little space, you can still do x, y, z," the methods of gardening described are rigid and less flexible than I was hoping for. For example, all of the plants I have in my garden or in pots inside right now are grown from produce I bought from the grocery store. Nowhere in the book was that mentioned as a possibility. I think in addition to a book for novice gardeners, my hope and expectation for the book was that it would help me also pursue resourceful, economical gardening. Granted, it does encourage and give instructions on composting, building rain barrels, etc., but a lot of things it labels as "resourceful and economical" are still expensive and time-consuming.
The second critique is that the charts were difficult for me to understand. I still stand by what I said above with not having to ask too many questions or being overly-confused, the main exception to that being the charts. Some of the charts were crystal clear, easy to understand and use as references, whereas others I felt like I was back in biology or my college botany class (both of which I maneuvered miserably) and tried deciphering them based on the chapter context, but still felt lost.
Overall, this was an insightful and informative read, a God-send, really, because I had been wanting a reliable, physical source from which to learn, instead of doing trial-and-error with everything I was reading on the internet.
March 10, 2020
Originally published on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Grow Great Vegetables in North Carolina 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 released by Timber press. Written by Ira Wallace, it's 252 pages and will be 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 North Carolina, 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's a resource list (slanted to readers in the southeast 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.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Grow Great Vegetables in North Carolina 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 released by Timber press. Written by Ira Wallace, it's 252 pages and will be 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 North Carolina, 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's a resource list (slanted to readers in the southeast 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.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
August 8, 2025
I have been reading about and practicing gardening in North Carolina for 30 years. I learned a lot reading this book. It was particularly valuable to hear from a gardener who knows the Southeast.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews