Growing Vegetables & Herbs    edited by Ruth Lively Order:  USA  Can Taunton Press, 2011 (2011) Softcover      Reviewed by Bob Walch Even if you have not had much luck in the past, this might be the year you wish to try again growing your own veggies and herbs. If you aren't sure you wish to take the plunge, get a copy of Growing Vegetables & Herbs and read a few chapters. I think you'll find that with this book at your side you'll be able to make a success of the next vegetable garden you plant. Lively walks the novice through the process from selecting and designing a garden to planting and maintaining the vegetables until harvest time arrives. You'll also find an extensive gallery of vegetables and herbs that offers information on varieties of a given veggie, planting essentials, pest concerns, and harvesting advice. For example, the varieties of carrots range from Minicor (a small, stub-nosed, sweet carrot to Nantes and Chantenay, two types that produce favorable, medium-size roots, six to eight inches in length. Carrot seeds should be placed in rows five to seven inches apart. They germinate slowly (8 to 17 days) and should be thinned so the carrots can reach their maximum size. Don't use a high-nitrogen type fertilizer with the plants. In fact, probably little or no fertilizer is necessary. Since garden pests can often ravage a healthy garden, you'll find information on dealing with the pesky little critters. Pay close attention to the advice proffered here and you won't have to donate half your crop to the creepies and crawlies who might invade your yard. Completely illustrated with plenty of photos, design plans, graphs, and informative sidebars, this is a very easy book to use and it should provide all the material you need to make this year's garden a smashing success. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews