Enjoyed Jessica's book aimed at first-time gardeners such as myself. It was easy to follow and gave a lot of good tips. Recommended.if you know nothing about growing vegetables and want to learn in simple steps.

The pictures in this book are amazing! The information and tips for growing a garden are well organized, practical, and easy to read. Every chapter has a quote that relates to the subject. I also found the homemade garden spray recipes to be useful. I feel ready to plant a garden!

I would highly recommend this book for beginning gardeners!

Thank you to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group, and Cool Springs Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

This was a super easy-to-read and informative book that all gardeners should have on their shelves. I love how this book broke gardening down into easy-to-understand topics and really sets out to teach you, as the reader, versus just providing information. The photos are beautiful and really add the perfect touch to this book. This book is ideal for the first-time growers out there!!!

The First-time Gardener: Growing Vegetables: All the know-how and encouragement you need to grow and fall in love with yo ur brand new food garden by homesteader Jessica Sowards. The name might sound familiar as she host the popular You Tube’s Root and Refuge Farm.
This book us chock-a-block full of information. While it is informationally dense it does so in and accessible and upbeat way. There is a ton of general garden information. As with all “first-time” things there is a learning curve. Sowards makes it seem within the readers reach to achieve a first time veggie garden. FYI: there is a companion volume with the same layout from the same publisher which specifically focuses on flowers.

The book has a easy layout. There is an introduction to botany and some very good advise about planning and keep notes followed by a step by step sequence of chapters on where, how, what and when to start your garden. There is also information on soil building, seeds and plant material, implementation, seasons, garden management, harvesting and planning for next year.

The author is very upbeat and encouraging. The photography will have you wishing your garden would be as gorgeous. Nearly every page has full color photographs and illustrations.

I would like to thank Ms. Sowards, Quarto Publishing Group – Cool Springs Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Loved this gardening guide!

I haven’t had to look after a vegetable garden since I was a kid. Now that I’m looking to move back into a home with room for a garden I was looking for all the help I could get – and I found it. This book was just what I wanted/needed. Highly readable, with an encouraging tone, the author offered all the basics that I would need to get started. How and where to create my veggie patch – what to include, how to grow and maintain it – while including different options along the way. Full of lots of details, it didn’t overwhelm me as it was laid out in digestible bites. The author didn’t assume anything but laid out options and offered them up as something anyone could accomplish. That I could actually do.

Finishing it, I felt like I know where to start and have all the questions – and the knowledge for the answers – to get started. I read this on kindle but I will be looking for the print edition – I know I will be referring to it often.

*I happily reviewed this book
**Thank you to NetGalley

THE FIRST-TIME GARDENER: GROWING VEGETABLES by Jessica Sowards is filled with beautiful pictures and has chapters that deal with topics like creating your garden, the need for seed, and making the harvest. I was disappointed, though, in that I did not feel that this was aimed at a true "beginner" gardener. Sowards says, "I have confidence that you can grow anything you decide to try as long as you are committed to the process of learning." Sadly, there was much discussion about soil quality, raised beds and container gardens which is important, of course, but there were no real "take-aways" in the form of shopping lists for heading out to the garden shop. The reader was left to plan and decide with limited direction. One nice boxed area: Sowards' favorite varieties that cannot be bought at the grocery story, including "Paul Robeson" tomatoes, "Dragon Tongue" bush beans, and more. Harvesting tips, listed by individual vegetable, were also helpful. Overall, this seemed like a useful supplement -- maybe for someone who had tried a small scale garden and wanted to improve or expand.

I found this book to be so helpful! Homesteading and becoming more self sustaining is a big interest of mine so I'll take what I learned from this book and it'll go a long way!

The First-time Gardener: Growing Vegetables by Jessica Sowards is a great resource for first time or intermediate gardeners. The layout makes it easy to read and understand gardening fundamentals. The pictures are beautiful! It made me look forward to starting my garden this spring.

This is a gorgeous, helpful, encouraging book not just for first time gardeners. It's packed with beautiful photos of the author's own gardens and lots of info.

There were a few areas where I wished there was more info, like Sowards recommends straw and hay (less so) as mulch but she also says she is an organic gardener and I have never been able to find any straw or hale that wasn't treated with Roundup and/or other really problematic herbicides and chemicals (see https://www.the-compost-gardener.com/... and https://simplysmartgardening.com/best...).

There were a few other places where I wish she had included more information (like other ways of creating beds like lasagna gardens and no-till gardening and a little less focus on killing bugs even with organic methods) but those are small things and this is still one of my favorite new gardening books that I've read in a while (and I read a lot of them). Sowards' cheerful attitude, beautiful photos and clear knowledge all create a book that's a real delight.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

The First-time Gardener is a beginner+ guide to vegetable gardening by Jessica Sowards. Due out 2nd March 2021 from Quarto on their Cool Springs Press imprint, it's 176 pages (print edition) and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is an information dense but also upbeat and accessible guide for readers planning and creating their first vegetable gardens. There's a lot of general garden siting/building/planning information, so this is also a valuable resource for readers looking for info on growing flowers, herbs, and other non-veggie crops. There's also a sister volume with the same layout from the same publisher releasing roughly the same time which is flower specific in focus.

The book has a logical layout: a short (easily understandable, not too technical) intro on botany and some good advice about the willingness to learn and keeping notes is followed by step-by-step chapters on siting and planning, soil building, seeds and plant material, implementation, seasons, garden management, harvesting and planning for next year. The author is very upbeat and encouraging and I found myself smiling and nodding along at places reading the text.

The photography is simply gorgeous. Nearly every page has full color photographs and illustrations.

This was a useful resource. It would make a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition, community garden groups, home library, and for homesteaders and home gardeners. Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This is the first 'how-to' guide I have requested on NetGalley and I have enjoyed it. It is short and sweet but with a lot of helpful information. I get the sense that the author has been working on this book from years of experience, I felt the care that went into getting the information together.

I loved this book, it is very informative. I've only had a garden for the last two years and most of the information I've used had been from Jess and her Youtube channel, Roots and Refuge. This book is just an expansion of all of her knowledge from YouTube and I will be buying this when it's released. The pictures in this book are gorgeous and make me very excited for my garden this summer. This book would be great for gardeners new and old because of all the great information.

This book had lots of beautiful pictures and gives a good overview on starting a veggie garden. My only critique is that it focuses more on large space gardening and I wish it had more tips and options for small space gardeners.

This book is very useful for beginner gardeners. Inside there are a lot of answers to beginner questions. And after reading this book, you will know where to start. I would say there's a lot of information even for gardeners that are not complete beginners. You will learn what to grow, growing from seeds, growing in different seasons, harvesting, and more.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

This book has a lot of really great information from when to plant, how much to water, what to dirt to use, etc. A lot of this information is great for gardeners who has been growing their own vegetables for awhile not just new ones. I highly recommend this book!