This book is all about growing healthy, organic vegetables at home, something that more and more of us are doing these days. We also 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.

We take a different approach from the diagnostic system we developed in What’s Wrong with My Plant?

We begin with suggestions on how to prepare for success. Four essential physical factors affect how successful your garden will be: temperature, soil, light, and water. No matter where you live you can modify or improve each of these somewhat unpredictable factors to an extent, and give each vegetable the best growing conditions possible. Considering these factors from the beginning will take a long way toward the delicious harvest of your dreams.

Following this brief 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. You can fine tune your choice of cultivar (cultivated variety) by having a look at the Appendix.

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.

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 The cabbage worm eats holes in the leaves of your cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and other brassicas. It only devours the foliage of vegetable crops and weeds in the cabbage family (Brassicaceae). It does not move by looping like an inchworm. It crawls about like most other kinds of caterpillars.

A white butterfly, the adult cabbage worm feeds on nectar of a wide variety of flowers. Like all butterflies, she has straw-like mouthparts. She can’t eat leaves, only her babies can do that. She’ll lay her eggs, usually one at a time, on the underside of brassica leaves.

The cabbage looper, another caterpillar that trashes your brassicas, moves like an inchworm. It loops its head-end forward first, then brings the rear-end forward arching its body into an upside-down U. It has an appetite for many different kinds of vegetables, not just cabbage family members.

A grayish-brown moth with a white monogram on its forewings, the cabbage looper adult flies about and lays her eggs at night so you usually won’t see her. The moth, like the butterfly, has straw-like mouth parts.

Brassicas under row covers exclude the adult butterflies and moths. Keep the adults out and you’ll avoid the damage that their caterpillars do to your crops. Cover the plants with a lightweight, white fabric that lets in air, light, and water but keeps bugs out.

Cocoons of a tiny parasitic wasp hang like little white footballs off a tomato hornworm. The female wasp laid her eggs inside the caterpillar, the eggs hatched, and the baby wasps (maggot-like) ate the caterpillar alive from the inside out. When the wasp larvae matured they ate their way through the caterpillar’s skin and spun all these little cocoons. Pretty soon the baby wasps will all fly away and hunt down more caterpillars. A gruesome tale, we know, but the point is that nature has lots of little helpers to aid you in your endeavors to grow clean, healthy vegetables without spraying poison on your food.

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These are warm season crops so wait to plant till the weather is warm and settled. Start seeds indoors a month before planting out and be sure to check the seed packet labels for disease resistant varieties. The more disease resistant your food plants are the less you have to treat them with remedies. If you run into fungus or bacterial diseases on your plants, be sure to treat them with organic remedies. It’s important for the health of your family to only use organic remedies on the plants you eat.

Insects, like tomato hornworms or tomato fruitworms, can sometimes be a problem. Knock these critters into a jar of soapy water and they’ll die very quickly.

Peppers, especially the small fruited types can also be successful grown in pots indoors in a sunny window. You can enjoy these during the winter doldrums and use them to spice up your cooking.