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
Starred Review.This encyclopedic collection of gardening advice is, in the Rodale  tradition, purely organic, albeit with a no-nonsense, 21st-century attitude.  Extensive attention is given to tantalizing techniques such as cover cropping  and dealing with deer damage (including what to protect, repellants and scare  devices, and 10 kinds of antideer fences). The vegetable entries are equally  comprehensive, with sections detailing "Crop Basics," "Secrets of Success,"  "Preventing Problems," "Regional Notes" and "Troubleshooting Problems."  Drawings of pest-infested plants are helpful, and Bradley covers the gamut of  solutions, from timed planting to crop rotation, barriers to repellants, wisely  advising prevention as the first tactic and using (organic) insecticides as a  last resort. The book is extensively illustrated with attractive drawings,  although the choice of what to depict is sometimes mysterious; the image of  flowering arugula is lovely, for example, although readers may wish they could  see a picture of, say a disease called "aster yellows." the "new growth... pale  and bushy, forming a witch's broom." For any gardener who needs to keep track  of "crucial care" for squash, how to control cucumber beetles with a vacuum  cleaner or any of the myriad details that arise every day in the garden, this  book is a must.(Feb.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.