What's Wrong With My Vegetable Garden?: 100% Organic Solutions for All Your Vegetables, from Artichokes to Zucchini

by David Deardorff, Kathryn Wadsworth

Overview

Calling all vegetable gardeners! This book will become one of your most essential garden tools.

Are your tomatoes plagued by blossom end rot? Are your carrots coming up clumpy? You can find the solution to these problems and many more in What's Wrong with My Vegetable Garden. This useful handbook will first teach you how to garden successfully with plant portraits of popular vegetables including details on growing season, planting techniques, and soil, light, and water requirements. Then, you’ll find details on how to identify specific problems common to each plant and how to combat the problem with 100% organic solutions.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604691849
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/29/2011
Series:	What's Wrong Series
Pages:	252
Sales rank:	243,817
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

David Deardorff is an author and photographer with a PhD in botany and years of experience as a plant pathologist. He taught at University of Hawaii and Washington State University where he served as faculty advisor to the Master Gardener Program. Deardorff has appeared with Kathryn Wadsworth on numerous radio shows including Martha Stewart Living Radio, Growing a Greener World, Real Dirt, and Gardening with Ciscoe. Join them at kathrynanddavid.com, on Twitter at @KBWandDD, or on Facebook at @david.deardorff.108.

Kathryn Wadsworth’s skill as an author and naturalist illuminates the connection between gardens and nature. She has led eco-tours to wilderness areas around the world and served as executive editor of research journals. She has appeared with David Deardorff on numerous radio shows including Martha Stewart Living Radio, Growing a Greener World, Real Dirt, and Gardening with Ciscoe. Join them at kathrynanddavid.com, on Twitter at @KBWandDD, or on Facebook at @david.deardorff.108.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction. Prepare for Success
This book is all about growing healthy, organic vegetables at home, something that more and more of us are doing these days. We seek the satisfaction of nurturing amazing plants that become our platter of gourmet vegetables. We crave that moment when the flavor of a freshly picked tomato explodes in our mouths. Above all, by growing our own food, we know it is safe, clean, and chemical-free.

But we don’t wish to waste time, energy, and money getting our “locally grown” vegetables. Here’s the simple truth—the most effective way to grow healthy food in our own yards is to create gardens that replicate nature. By gardening in concert with the natural world, we garner many rewards. We profit from mutually beneficial transactions with the other creatures on earth. From the earthworm that enriches the soil to the bee that pollinates our crops, wild creatures work hard for our benefit. In return, let’s provide them with a safe and healthy habitat. Creating an intact, albeit artificial, ecosystem that functions the way a natural ecosystem does just makes sense. Nature is the silent partner who makes your garden work. And this book will help you to enjoy the bounty.
    
Following this Introduction, we present plant portraits of popular vegetables in alphabetical order. Each plant portrait gives you all the information you need to grow that beautiful, sumptuous vegetable and its kin: a description, including growth habit; information on the plant’s season; temperature, soil, light, and water requirements; and best garden uses and planting techniques. This part of the book helps you decide which plants you can grow, and how to plant them, as well as guiding you in their proper care. Finetune your choice of cultivar by having a look at the Appendix.
    
In each portrait, we stress the polyculture approach, where each plant’s nearest neighbor is different from itself. This is one of the most important things you can do to keep your plants pest- and disease-free. In the polyculture garden, pests have a difficult time finding their vegetable of choice, and diseases have trouble spreading from plant to plant.

If pests or diseases are already visiting your favorite vegetable, consult the Family Problem-Solving Guides. Each vegetable portrait directs you to the proper one. These visual guides will help you identify and eliminate pests and diseases in the garden. We supply you with a photograph of the problem, symptom descriptions, diagnoses, and page numbers to find solutions.
    
The final part of the book, “Organic Solutions to Common Problems,” presents in detail every solution listed in the problem-solving guides. Here you will learn how to change growing conditions to solve problems, and be introduced to organic techniques and remedies for garden pests and diseases, from deer to fungi. We urge you to use organic solutions and remedies for growing condition, pest, and disease challenges for three reasons. First, organic remedies are just as effective as synthetic ones. Second, we want everyone to have access to healthy, affordable, chemical-free food. And third, we want to protect and enhance the natural ecosystems that surround us. What works in nature will work for you.

Editorial Reviews

An authoritative guide to organic vegetable growing. . . . With this attractive book, organic gardeners will find it easy to grow vegetables and diagnose problems. Recommended.” —Library Journal

“Lavishly illustrated guidelines offer nearly infallible means of diagnosing and treating setbacks through easy-to-follow, cross-referenced charts. As foolproof as they come, this guide presents clear, straightforward advice augmented by precisely illustrative photographs that will help insure growing success.” —Booklist

“Those looking for a well-illustrated, well-organized resource will not be disappointed.” —Publishers Weekly

“An ideal read for gardeners looking to grow the healthiest, most problem-free plants and vegetables.” —American Reference Books Annual 

“This colorful guide to troubleshooting organic gardens provides detailed information on the treatment of diseases and elimination of pests for specific fruits and vegetables, and promotes a holistic approach to garden health.” —Book News

“Illustrated problem-solving guides that help you to spot trouble and deal with it organically. The plant doctor is in!” —The Los Angeles Daily News

“A comprehensive index and chapter by chapter discussions of individual vegetables avoid the frustration of wading through generalized advice.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Full of useful photographs, charts for diagnosing problems, numerous organic solutions, and hints for avoiding problems in the first place.” —American Gardener

“Hooray! Something to figure out what’s bugging your vegetables.” —Garden Gate

“A thorough description of various organic solutions to vegetable problems offers a range of options.” —Globe Gazette

“Provide[s] a thorough method of diagnosing what’s wrong with the various crops of a vegetable garden.” —Halifax Chronicle Herald

“It’s the kind of book that you can take with you out into the garden, sit down beside a troubled plant, and flip through the photos and descriptions to diagnose the problem. Very, very helpful.” —New Life on the Homestead

From the Publisher

"Keep this reference handy, especially if you're a novice gardener who's longing for success with veggies."

The Chronicle Herald

"An ideal read for gardeners looking to grow the healthiest, most problem-free plants and vegetables."

Juneau Empire

"It’s the kind of book that you can take with you out into the garden, sit down beside a troubled plant, and flip through the photos and descriptions to diagnose the problem. Very, very helpful.

American Reference Books Annual

"Here's help to keep your garden plants healthy, recognize when they're not and apply the right organic solution."

New Life on a Homestead

"It's full of useful photographs, charts for diagnosing problems, numerous organic solutions, and hints for avoiding problems in the first place."

Green Bay Press Gazette.com

"This colorful guide to troubleshooting organic gardens provides detailed information on the treatment of diseases and elimination of pests for specific fruits and vegetables, and promotes a holistic approach to garden health."

American Gardener

"Hooray! Something to figure out what's bugging your vegetables."

Book News

“ Those looking for a well-illustrated, well-organized resource will not be disappointed.

Garden Gate

"A thorough description of various organic solutions."

San Francisco Chronicle

“An authoritative guide to organic vegetable growing…organic gardeners will find it easy to grow vegetables and diagnose and organically treat common problems.

Midwest Gardening

“Lavishly illustrated guidelines offer nearly infallible means of diagnosing and treating setbacks through easy-to-follow, cross-referenced charts. As foolproof as they come.

Los Angeles Daily News - Viveka Neveln

"A thorough description of various organic solutions."

Midwest Gardening - Jan Riggenbach

Illustrated problem solving guides that help you to spot trouble and deal with it organically.

Los Angeles Daily News

Lavishly illustrated guidelines offer nearly infallible means of diagnosing and treating setbacks through easy-to-follow, cross-referenced charts. As foolproof as they come.

Booklist