Our new book, What’s Wrong with My Vegetable Garden?, comes out today. Timber Press has, as usual, done a masterful job and produced another beautiful book of which we can be proud. We’d appreciate it if you let all your gardening friends know about it.

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.

We had a great interview with Joe Lamp’l at Growing a Greener World and we want to share the link to the podcast with you.  Here’s the link: http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/028-whats-wrong-with-my-plant-and-how-do-i-fix-it-an-interview-with-authors-david-deardorff-kathryn-wadsworth/

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.

It’s August and everybody’s vegetable gardens crank out delicious organic food. Yum-oh! But sometimes gardeners find holes in the middle of the leaves of their vegetable crops. Large holes. Many of them. Who’s the culprit? Caterpillars? Grasshoppers? Beetles?  Or maybe snails!

Snails and slugs both glide through your garden on a ribbon of slime, the shiny, sparkly stuff the snail in the photo above is leaving behind. At bottom left you can see the slime glistening on the ground. These animals are mollusks, related to oysters, clams, and octopus.

A trail of dried slime across the large hole in this green pepper is the definitive clue. A snail or slug definitely made this hole. Anytime you find holes in the leaves or fruit of your vegetable plants look for slime. Slime, this incontrovertible evidence tells you who to blame. And then you know how to fix it.

If you catch the buggers red-handed in the act of destroying your produce you don’t even have to search for evidence. This slug has just devoured the side of a friend’s tomato. Yuk!

But often, you can’t catch them in the act because they hide in the heat of the day. They come out at night, on overcast days, during rain storms, or when the sprinklers come on. They like it cool and wet and they hide under boards and pots – in any cool, shady, damp place where they can survive the mid-day sun and heat.

You can go out into the garden at night with a flashlight and hand pick snails easily. Just pick them up by the shell put them in a brown paper bag. Then you can step on it to crush the critters and bury it in your compost. Slugs, however, have no shells and are too slimy to pick up. Because slugs and snails hide during the day you can also make traps for them and that way you don’t have to go out at night with a flashlight. Put upside-down flower pots around your garden. They’ll hide inside them where you can easily harvest and destroy them in daytime comfort.

Iron phosphate controls these mollusks in the garden. You’ll find it under the brand name Sluggo. Iron phosphate is not toxic to pets, children, or birds. It also has no effect on insects. It kills mollusks and only mollusks. Slugs and snails eat it and they die.

 Older style, toxic, non-organic slug bait uses a poison called metaldehyde. Metaldehyde is poisonous to your pets, your kids, and wildlife. Avoid it.

 Some people swear by beer to kill slugs and snails. You’re supposed to put a shallow bowl of beer out in the garden, the slugs and snails are attracted by the odor, crawl into the beer and drown. Maybe I just don’t do it right but it’s never worked for me.