The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals

I wish I had this book before I ever started a garden. You can look up info by plant or by insect. It will tell you how to grow a certain plant, what kind of soil you need. It tells you about any problems you may have and how to deal with them. It tells you how to water each type of plant and what insects you should attract for a plant type. All and all an excellent book.

Living in the tropics, I have had frequent failures starting up my organic garden due to pests taking it over. This year I have used some tips and "natural pesticide" recipies from this book with great success. It has also helped me identify "good" versus "bad" insects so I can better assess what treatment, if any, to use. I strongly recommend this book to anyone trying to start an organic vegetable garden!

Have referred to this book numerous times for specific problems that I've have in my garden and find it to be very helpful. It covers many plants and every pest and disease that you can imagine. It has separate sections on plants and pest/diseases.

Great information on many different subjects. It would be helpful if it had more color pages with pictures of the actual bugs (which is has some of these but I needed more). It has many different places to look up things that you find yourself easily drawn into other subjects you were not looking for. It has plants seperated by diseases, or by insects that attack them. A ton of information on how to do an organic garden with sacrifical plants, a few home brewed help receipes, and lots of information for the new gardener, plus some wise parts for the small home farmer. Something for everyone and easy to read and understand.

The book really is complete, easy to consult and delightful to page through. I live in a tropical area outside the US and was afraid the book might not cover the (many) pests we withstand here. But they were all there, and were referred to attacks against tropical foliages, which actually amazed me! The detailed pictures of insects and disease symptoms are accompanied by an informative text, and the chapter on organic controls covers cultural procedures, physical control, biological control and organic sprays and dusts, both commercial and homemade, with recipes. The structure is perfect for a handbook, easy to consult in any situation, be it garden design, crop choice, regular maintenance or solution of installed problems.