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

by David Deardorff, Kathryn Wadsworth

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.
 

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference, Green

252 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2011

Reviews

[Harold Citron · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reference guide to various vegetable maladies, both insect and bacterial/fungal related.

The book didn't overwhelm me.

First, there was a section on a number of traditional American vegetables in alphabetic order. The material provided was basic, but repetitive to the point where they could have been grouped by family.

So too were the solutions repetitive, with cut and paste blocks of writing stating how easy these plants are to grow, and solutions regulated to a specific section in the next section. The most beneficial part of this part of the book was that photographs of the various problems were provided, in detail. However, solutions were regulated to a third section of the book.

Solutions were decent, and comprehensive, however, not always helpful. For example, the authors recommend watering most vegetables 1-inch a week. Inches are not readily translated into quantities and timings for everything from sprinklers to hoses to timing of watering.

Other information, such as the benefits of marigolds in vegetable gardens, was detailed.

So, overall, not a bad addition to one's library, I'm just not sure I would make it a initial or primary tool for one's garden.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked this out because I hoped it would tell me how to *fix* what was wrong with my vegetable garden. I already know what's wrong with it - my yard is so shady it's practically forest understory.

Unfortunately this book's only advice for "not enough full sun" is "cut down some trees". Sorry, nope. If we cut down the trees we'd have to get air conditioning in the house and that's not worth a few zucchini. (also there would be no more maple syrup and walnuts and pecans!)

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice basic book which has a "family problem solving guide" in the back of the book for reference.

[Arianna Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful reviewing how to make sure my veggie garden stays bountiful

[Maura Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

So great - I returned my library book and purchased a copy!

[Ian Tierney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what I was looking for, easy to understand and helpful in so many ways. Its not a typical gardening book which is very broad in scope. Instead the author kept it narrow to the specialty of identifying problems and offering up solutions.

[Fernleaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic resource for the home gardener, this book makes it easy to narrow down the choices for what could be wrong with your vegetable plants. Obviously not all-inclusive it still manages to cover the most common crop problems and offer good, organic solutions to solving them. With a heavy emphasis on prevention this book opens with a discussion of ways to head off problems before they start with a concise list of things that will help your plants flourish. What follows is a brief photo section to help you recognize what type of problem you're seeing, whether it's water-related, soil-related, temp-related, or light-related. The rest of the book is devoted in sections to plant profiles, family problem-solving with pictures, descriptions, and suggested solutions, and wraps up with a chapter devoted to organic solutions including everything from inter-cropping and companion planting to Neem oil and other organic extracts.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of this. Some of the crop specific pages I skipped over. It inspired me to plant sweet potatoes and melons in the future, as well as a lot of other fun veggies I wish I had space for. Loved the color photos. It gave very specific ideas for adding beneficial pests into the garden as well as different pest solutions from organic to not so organic. I also liked the polyculture advice, which I'm trying, and so far is working this growing season.

[Slmstanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I have the answer to the vegetable garden version of 'what fresh hell is this?', fully illustrated with color photographs.

Extremely useful guide, with tips on how to fix what's ailing your garden. Only complaint I have is that it doesn't address growing zones (state-specific guides would be a great future project, Mr. Deardorff, I'm just sayin'.)

[Beth Lequeuvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great start to being able to diagnose the issues in your garden and some tips on how to improve the situation. Most of the problems are divided between water-related, soil-related, temp-related, or light-related. But it gives you a plant by plant example with photos to help see which category your issue falls into.

[Avrelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's wrong with my garden is that it's mine. But that book lets me pretend that it's fixable, anyways. I don't think I am going to do anything differently, really, so it's more like a fantasy escapist read, but it's still very reassuring.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book. Gave me some ideas for the garden this year.

[Andrea Bleho · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the A-Z index of veggies and their pest and diseases. I also liked the pics of the problems. The solutions was also informative.