In Nature's Hands: An Organic Gardening Potpourri, from Armadillos to Zucchini

by Louise Riotte

Answers questions on organic and earth-friendly gardening, from aphids to zoysia grass

228 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Beloved Storey author and life-long gardener Louise Riotte passed away in 1998 at the age of 89. She wrote 12 books on gardening, companion planting, and garden lore, among them the ever-popular Carrots Love Tomatoes, which has sold approximately 515,000 copies. Her father taught her to believe in and practice astrology, while her mother was a practicing herbalist. Together they inevitably influenced her life and her books, Roses Love Garlic, Astrological Gardening, Sleeping with a Sunflower, Catfish Ponds & Lily Pads, and her most recent book, Raising Animals by the Moon. Her own line drawings are included in all her books. Before authoring books, Riotte was a ghost writer for Simon & Schuster and for Jerry Baker's radio gardening show, and she also wrote a number of articles for Organic Gardening. Riotte took pride in her garden near her home in Ardmore, Oklahoma, which her son Eugene helped care for in her later years.

- from Amazon

Reviews

[Suzanne Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of an encyclopedia than a book per se. It literally goes through the alphabet with the first entry being a short entry on A-frames. Has some interesting, anecdotal type entries and learned a few things I didn't know. However, to call this organic is a stretch. For example, under legumes, the author advocates getting seeds treated with captan to avoid rotting. I don't know about other people's organic gardens, but in mine we don't put pesticides on our food.