Rodale's Vegetable Garden Problem Solver: The Best and Latest Advice for Beating Pests, Diseases, and Weeds and Staying a Step Ahead of Trouble in the Garden

by Fern Marshall Bradley

With a wealth of information and tested advice, this problem-solving treasure gives gardeners every-thing they need to do battle with garden pests, diseases, and weeds—with safe, natural solutions

Combining a troubleshooting approach with encyclopedic coverage and drawing on the most up-to-date research on biological and non- or low-toxic controls, Rodale's Vegetable Garden Problem Solver by Fern Bradley

• more than 60 vegetables, organized alphabetically from asparagus to zucchini

• individual pest entries on the 30 most common insect pests and how to combat them

• individual disease entries on the 30 most common vegetable plant diseases—including symptoms and causes and ways to keep plants disease-free

• a problem-solving approach to such favorite gardening topics as seed-starting, soil, weather, watering, crop rotation, fertilizing, transplanting, and season extension

• "Beyond the Basics" sidebars for those willing to go the extra mile to eradicate a problem in the garden in a safe and natural way

With numerous tips on prevention so gardeners can spend less time putting out fires and focus instead on producing higher-yielding and more attractive gardens, this will quickly become the trusted companion of every vegetable gardener.

Genres: Gardening, Reference, Nonfiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2007

Reviews

[Misti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thinking of starting your own vegetable garden? This book doesn't have all the specifics like which veggies to plant near each other, but it does have a lot of nice information about all the things that could ever go wrong in your vegetable patch. Here's a tip. Don't read this more than a few weeks before planting, or you'll lose your nerve just thinking about all the stuff that could fail miserably. This also has one of those fantastic guides about rotating your crops, which has always intrigued me.
All in all, a good tome for fixing stuff, maybe not too great for the before portion of your project.

[Jake B-Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a reference text, this book is not meant to be read cover-to-cover, but I did it anyway. Besides being remarkably thorough, it’s also beautifully designed and thoughtfully self-referential (allowing the reader to identify which reference pages would be useful to them by starting with one entry, such as “potatoes” or “soil”). I am mildly terrified to begin gardening, given the number of potential disasters identified by this book, but at least I’ll know what to do!

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderfully helpful! I would say my only issue with it is that the pictures aren't in color. It makes it rather difficult to distinguish between bugs when you can't see their coloring.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Extremely helpful. BY FAR the most comprehensive text on problems plaguing your garden. Arranged alphabetically, it includes explanations of individual vegetables as well as individual diseases and pests. For new or moderate gardeners, it is an indispensable tool. (When you find yourself asking, "why are the leaves yellowing? What is this white stuff? What do I do to get better flavor?" then this is a one stop solution.
My only complaint: no color photos. It would be helpful for a picture of powdery mildew in addition to the description.

If there were photos, this would unquestioningly deserve a 5. Even without the photos, it is still THE best resource I've found out there. I keep referring to it. This is one to purchase.

[Kate Kubera keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first serious year of gardening was plagued with one problem after another. As the planting season started this year, I checked Rodale's Vegetable Garden Problem Solver out of my local library, and read up on potential solutions to the issues I encountered last year. Some of those problems were diminished this season, and as new problems came about I was ready to address them. Browsing through this well organized manual also gave me the confidence to try planting a slew of new-to-me crops as well. Now I'm eager to acquire this for my own library.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't go through this whole book, but what I saw I liked. Every "problem/solution" is listed in alphabetical order by chapter. The issues I did go through had lots of info, but it was in simple language. Easy to read, easy to find. If I ever have problems I will probably look to this book first.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great gardening book and exactly what I need since my garden is full of problems. A month check-out from the library just wasn't long enough to get me through the season.

[Jeffrey]

I am keeping this physical book. 9/16

[Damon · Rating 4 out of 5]

#1 veggie garden resource

[Veronica Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned to be a problem solver by not growing a garden.