I moved to Southern California a year ago, and bought a house on a hill in San Diego's East County area. For those of you that don't know, that means HOT summers and very poor soil. As I was telling my new neighbors about my enthusiastic plans for planting a vegetable garden, I was met with nothing but skepticism. "You'll never grow vegetables in this lousy soil." and "I tried for several years - the gophers got most of it and nothing ever grew anyway." and "The soil here is so bad even the cactuses have a hard time."

They didn't know what I knew. I had purchased a copy of this book a few years earlier. I dug out a small area, lined it with 1/2 inch hardware cloth to keep out the gophers, and followed the instructions in this book for preparing the soil and planting. I now have a small garden (total of 32 square feet) that produces more vegetables than I can eat, and still has room for some colorful flowers to break the green monotony. (I wish Amazon would let us post photos in these reviews!) My neighbors are now believers, as I shower them with the excess produce.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow a vegetable garden! --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reviewer: A reader from El Cajon, CA   -