Preface: From Catawba tribal citizen, Delessin George Warren Part 1: Planning and Growing Your Garden Chapter 1: Three Gardeners Walk into a Bar * The Farce of the "One Right Way" * Why Gardening Matters * Who we are and Where we are Coming From * Introduction to Permaculture and Vegetable Gardening * Permaculture Principles Applied to Annual Vegetable Gardening * Regional Appropriateness of This Book * How to Use This Material: Getting Started Chapter 2: Designing and Planning your Garden * Holistic Inquiry Exercise: Why Do You Really Want to Garden * The Distinction Between Garden Planning and Garden Design * What a Garden Needs * Garden Location and Layout * Beds vs. Rows * Styles of Garden Beds: Flat, Raised, Sunken * Raised Bed Options * Terraces and Terracing * Container Gardening * What Vegetables to Plant * Step-by-Step Guide: How Much to Plant and Where Chapter 3: Tools and How to Use Them * Tool Quality, Maintenance, and Care * Bare Bones Tools * Tools to Tend the Gardener * Small Hand Tools * Tools for Moving Things Around * The Magical World of Hoes * Big Digging Tools Chapter 4: Starting a Garden From Grass * Different Ways to Transform Grass into a Growing Space * Plop Down a Raised Bed or Container Garden with All Imported Materials * Double Digging (and Single Digging Option) * Tilling with Tractor or Tiller * Sheet Mulching/ Lasagna Gardening * Solarization and Occultation - Basic * Solarizing and Occultation - Supreme * Solarization and Occultation - Supreme into Raised Beds * Bogwalker''s Badass Topsoil Technique * Getting Soil Ready for Seeds and Plants Chapter 5: Soil, Fertility, and Compost * Soil 101 * How to Take a Soil Test and Why * Fertility Overview * Vegetable Fertility Needs * Managing Fertility - What and When to Add? * Compost and Worm Castings * Manure * Biochar * Wood Ash * Using Urine as a Fertilizer * Store Bought Fertilizers and Amendments * Cover Crops * Making Compost * Growing Mediums for Containers Chapter 6: How to Plant a Seed and Get it to Grow * The Magic of Seeds * Germination and Seed Viability * Ordering Seeds and How to Organize Them * Overview of Planting Methods * Setting Up a System for Growing Transplants * Growing your Own Transplants * Transplanting Baby Plants Into Bigger Pots and Into a Garden * How to Buy Strong Transplants if You Don''t Want to or Can''t Grow Them Yourself * Direct Sowing * What Crops Do Well with Direct Sowing? * Advantages of Direct Sowing * Challenges of Direct Sowing * Steps of direct sowing Chapter 7: Caring for Plants When They are Growing * Water and Irrigation * Thinning * Weeds and Weeding * Mulch * Trellises and Trellising * Holistic Overview of Pests and Disease and How to Keep Plants Healthy * Organic Pesticides and How to Use Them * Feeding Growing Plants Chapter 8: Harvesting and the End of the Growing Season * Harvesting Overview * Harvesting Methods: Leafs, Fruits, Roots, Seeds * Post Harvest Processing * Annual Vegetables Have a Lifespan Part 2: The Vegetables Arugula Basil Beans Beets and Chard Broccoli and Cauliflower Cabbage Carrots Cilantro Corn Cucumbers Daikon and Radishes Dill Eggplant Garlic Kale & Collards Lettuce Melons Okra Onions Parsnips Peas Peppers and Chilis Potatoes Spinach Sweet Potatoes Tomatoes Turnips and Rutabagas Winter Squash and Pumpkins Zucchini and Summer Squash Appendix * Soil Temperature Germination and Planting Chart * Plant and Seed Spacing Chart * Average Yields of Common Vegetables * Our Favorite Varieties for Homestead Use * Sources for Tools and Supplies * Our Favorite Books and Other Resources * List of Small Bioregional Seed Companies.