Publisher's Synopsis
Vegetable gardening is a rewarding activity that can provide fresh, flavorful produce. It offers many of the same benefits as other gardening activities, including exercise, fresh air, landscape beautification and enjoyment. In addition, it promotes a varied and nutritious diet at a lower cost by reducing food expenditures more than the costs associated with growing the vegetables. Moreover, many gardeners find that their homegrown produce tastes better than what they can buy at a supermarket, thanks to freshness and more choice of varieties.Vegetables are defined as "any herbaceous plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves or flower parts are used as food." Herbaceous is a key word here. Vegetables are generally annual plants, whereas fruit crops are produced from perennial plants, such as trees (apples), vines (grapes), bushes (blueberries), canes (raspberries) or crowns (strawberries). If it is produced by an annual, it is most likely a vegetable. There are two perennial vegetables - asparagus and rhubarb - but we eat the stalks of both, not the fruit. Understanding why a plant, such as a watermelon, is considered a vegetable and not a fruit can sometimes seem archaic, but it can be useful to help determine where they will be found in plant and gardening references.
