New Book Released Today

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

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Growing a Greener World Podcast

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.

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Slugs and Snails in the Vegetable Garden

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

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More Bugs That Suck!

True bugs. Forewings cover half of the abdomen (aka backs) of true bugs. They are in the order Hemiptera, which means half wing. Many other insects are often called bugs, the lady bug for example, which is actually a beetle (a lady beetle). But the only actual bugs are insects in the order Hemiptera.  All of the true bugs have piercing-sucking mouthparts like hypodermic needles.

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Vegetable Gardens and Beetles

It’s officially summertime. The solstice came and went. We’re tending our gardens, nurturing our vegetables and flowers. We all look forward to an abundant harvest of fantastic, home-grown, organic vegetables.  Along the way we might run into beetles. Some beetles, like ladybugs (aka lady beetles), are good partners. Beneficial insects such as these help you achieve your goals by eating insects that damage to your

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New York Times Review

Our book “What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?)” has just been reviewed by Dominique Browning at the New York Times, May 27, 2010. And it’s a really good review too. 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

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The Lifecycle of Book Publicity

Our blog post for today is a guest blog written by Olivia Dunn, Publicist at Timber Press. 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

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We’re in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California – a gardener’s paradise. While it may have heavy, clay soil, and little water, it has perfect temperatures for growing plants from all the “Mediterranean” climates of the world. The flora of South Africa, the west coasts of North and South America, Australia, and, of course, the Med itself make appearances here. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden displays the amazing diversity of

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