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.

Please click on our “store” tab to find out where you can buy our book.

This book is available by pre-order from timberpress.com and at amazon.

This beautiful bird is an American avocet. We found him wading right beside the road.

Lazuli buntings were everywhere, snatching bugs out of the air like tiny flycatchers.

We found this nutria at the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge in Washington.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and we’ll certainly do it again.

Joe is so knowledgeable and personable he made the whole interview fun and informative. Check out the other podcasts on his website. They’re full of good information.

Her topic for the reviews is “Gardening Books.” She reviews several good gardening books and our book is among them.

Here’s what she has to say: “Many gardeners find it hard to ask for help. The excellent (and sturdy) WHAT’S WRONG WITH MY PLANT? (And How Do I Fix It?) (Timber Press, paper, $24.95), by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, will be indispensable to them, and to the rest of us as well. The information is concise: “A borer’s hole and frass (poop) are obvious on this asparagus stem.” (Thank you very much.) The illustrations are clear, the remedies organic. I promise you, things will go wrong. Be prepared.” You can read the whole article  at this link

Our book has now been reviewed dozens of times, from the NY Times to the Washington Post and many more. All the reviews have been very positive and we are very grateful. Our book is now an award-winning best-seller. And that is very gratifying indeed.

Book publicity is a little bit like a junior high dance. If both the author and the publicist are ready to dance, it can be a ton of fun and really successful. If one party decides to stay on their side of the gym and leave everything up to the other person, it can be dull and lifeless. As a book publicist, I always hope for the former, and with the publicity campaign for What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How do I Fix It?) winding down, I thought it might be fun to explain what made the campaign so successful.

When I first met David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth of What’s Wrong With My Plant?, I was instantly struck by their willingness to do anything to help with the book’s publicity. Get up at 4 am Pacific time to do an East Coast radio interview on the phone? Check. Pack everything up and go on an 8 week West Coast bookstore tour? Check. Having authors willing participate in their book’s publicity is huge because no one knows the book better than they do.

After author participation, the second biggest piece needed for a successful publicity campaign may be the most obvious — it’s the media. Sometimes you have a book that clicks with the media and What’s Wrong With My Plant? was just such a book. If you haven’t seen the amazing praise for this book, check out the page on our site and read through it.

I could go on and talk about press releases and review copy mailings, media pitches and book tour organization, but that would probably get a little tedious. Let’s just say there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in order to create a successful publicity “dance.”

In the end, though, it really comes down to having a book you believe in. One you can stand behind, and one you know needs to be in everyone’s hands. That’s what made working on What’s Wrong With My Plant? so easy — it’s a book I felt was important, and I had fun making certain that everyone else felt that way, too.

Spectacular blossoms of pink penstemon (Penstemon parryi) and yellow baileya (Baileya multiradiata) erupt among the yuccas and mesquites. The beautiful colors of the desert wildflowers amaze and strike us dumb. Their profusion and their diversity inspire us to take way too many pictures.

Whole hillsides are carpeted with the lovely little Mexican gold poppy (Eschscholzia mexicana) a close cousin of the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Mexican gold poppy is often considered to be a subspecies of the California poppy. It is an altogether delightful little plant that blooms in extraordinary abundance once a decade or so.

When we arrive at our destination we soak up the warmth and the sunshine. How delightful to be here after winter in the chilly Pacific Northwest. Palm trees sway in the breeze and the mountains glow in the late afternoon sun.

We park in front of Changing Hands in Tempe and meet with the biggest crowd we’ve had on our whole book tour. Amazing. Several people bring in sick plants to be diagnosed and we all have a great time detecting plant solutions for an evening.

In Tucson we give a PowerPoint presentation at the University of Arizona Bookstore. One woman brings in photographs of a Dracaena in trouble. We use the book together to diagnose the problem. The leaves are turning brown and the plant sheds its oldest leaves. This is a natural process, as all leaves have a finite life span.

 It’s really wonderful to get to see how many people find that using the flow charts in our book is much like a game, or like being a detective. It allows people to be forensic scientists as they work through the decision tree to arrive at an accurate diagnosis. Who knew it would be so much fun?

 If you have a favorite spot we should not miss, please let us know. We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

 It’s interesting to be back. I (David) used to work here, in the Research Division, just after finishing my PhD. It was my first professional position and I loved all the exotic plants from Mediterranean climates around the world. And, of course, the peacocks!

Back then there were a lot of peacocks on the Arboretum grounds, and they’re still here after all these years. The peacocks and peahens are wild animals that live at the Arboretum and forage through the neighborhood. They’re big birds and their raucous calls are very loud. It’s amazing to see them fly up into the trees to lounge about and rest. The flamboyant tail plumage of the male birds is so huge it seems impossible that they can fly. And yet they do!

The grounds surrounding my old Research Division sport a brand new Permaculture demonstration garden featuring berms and swales. Swales are ditches dug on the contour to capture rainwater. The soil removed from the swales is piled up in mounds (or berms) adjacent to the swales and planted with a variety of fruit trees (citrus, banana), vegetables, and herbs. All the plants get watered when the swales fill up with water every time it rains. A drip trickle system waters the garden in between rains.

The Arboretum grounds feature exotic ornamentals grouped by region of origin. Many plants of Madagascar are spiny, and some look a lot like the boojum from Baja. Like Baja, Madagascar has extensive desert regions with plants adapted to extremely arid environments.

Australia is another part of the world with an extensive Mediterranean climate. Plants from these climates (summer-dry, winter mild and moist) do well on the pacific coast of North America where we normally receive no rainfall during the summer months. The Pacific Northwest is too cold in winter for many tropicals but they flourish in California.

South Africa also has a Mediterranean climate and its flora features many beautiful flowers. Ever notice that the five major areas of Mediterranean climate are also the premium wine growing areas of the world? The med, of course, and California, but also Australia, South Africa, and Chile. Beautiful flowers and great wines. What could be better?

 If you have a favorite spot we should not miss, please let us know. We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden displays the amazing diversity of flora native to California. The collection reaches into every corner of the state. Grasses, cacti, succulents, wildflowers, trees, and shrubs make a home here. The staff welcomes us warmly when we arrive to teach a morning workshop. We set up in the library to deliver a PowerPoint presentation followed by a hands-on diagnostic session. Some students have brought sick plants from home (contained in plastic bags to help prevent accidental introduction of pests or diseases into the botanic garden collection), and together we use the flow charts in our book to diagnose a wide variety of plant problems.

At the Book Loft in Solvang we enjoy an afternoon in the sun, signing books and diagnosing plant problems for the bookstore’s customers and passersby who are visiting the Danish village in the foothill. At Chaucer’s, a busy bookstore in Santa Barbara, we meet some avid, well-informed gardeners. Their enthusiasm for What’s Wrong with My Plant? is truly encouraging.

We explore shady trails through a forest of tree ferns in Lotusland, a botanical treasure featuring plants from all over the world. Madame Ganna Walska created this private garden on the estate she owned from 1941 until her death in 1984.

Lotusland features an amazing array of plants adapted to very dry environments. A large collection of succulent species of Aloe is featured in the photo above. Some people mistakenly call these plants cactuses. But they’re not cacti at all. Formerly included in the lily family, the Liliaceae, the aloes are now sometimes placed in a family of their own, the Aloaceae, or Asphodelaceae. Many of these plants have thick succulent leaves with a tremendous capacity for water storage.

Cacti have fleshy, water storing stems, and do not have leaves. Many have pretty flowers in bright colors. Cacti are placed in their own family, the Cactaceae, and are only found in the Americas. Most species are true desert plants and highly specialized for extremely arid conditions. Some are epiphytes, however, that grow on rainforest trees in the same manner as orchids and bromeliads.

Plants from desert regions of Africa and Asia that resemble cacti are in the family Euphorbiaceae. Although these plants superficially resemble cacti, their flowers have a completely different structure than those of the cacti.

If you have a favorite spot we should not miss, please let us know. We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details. 

Copperfield’s, in Sebastopol, rolls out the red carpet for us and a good group of people attend our presentation. Several people bring plants in trouble for us to discuss diagnosis and solutions.

Mrs. Dalloway’s, in Berkeley, also brings in a good group. One woman brings a chunk of the tree that fell on her house. It’s riddled by termites.

At Books Inc., in Palo Alto, we have a small but enthusiastic audience with lots of questions.

Book Passage, in Corte Madera, has a sohisticated set up where we show a PowerPoint Presentation. Then we answer questions and diagnose plants with problems for an hour or so.

 At Towne Center Books, in Pleasanton we again have a small but enthusiastic audience. Kathryn discusses problems on roses.

And David does a consultation out in the garden.

 And then we’re off to Santa Barbara. Whew! It really is a whirlwind!

If you have a favorite spot we should not miss, please let us know. We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)