The healthy vegetable garden A natural, chemical-free approach to soil, biodiversity and managing pests and diseases

At a time when many people are enthusiastically growing their own produce and organic gardening is more popular than ever, this guide to nurturing plants and the soil they grow in will certainly be in demand. Though Morgan is based in the UK, the bulk of the information here will apply to gardens in North America as well. Starting with the soil, organic gardening expert Morgan outlines how to assess, improve, and maintain a healthy growing environment, moving on to how to identify and, using beneficial predators and other organic means, address the various pests that may harm one's plants. While the title refers to the vegetable garden, this book (as any good organic guide should) also includes information about interplanting flowers and which varieties coexist happily with veggies. This quite extensive guide focuses on working with nature and the ecosystem in one's garden to achieve the best results for humans, plants, and the ecosystem itself. Beginners will find this a useful introduction; they, and experienced gardeners too, will surely return to it again and again.

"There are no short cuts when you are trying to create a healthy garden," cautions Organic Farming editor Morgan (The Climate Change Garden) in this comprehensive look at Earth-healthy gardening. Focusing on regenerative gardening practices that eschew weedkillers and pesticides and instead enrich gardens with organic matter, Morgan begins with soil, which, she writes, needs a diversity of organisms "from bacteria and fungi through to nematodes and earthworms." Improving soil requires not disturbing the soil's "food web" and making use of livestock manure. Second to soil maintenance is understanding pests and predators, and the ways bugs--from sapsuckers to defoliators--attack plants. "The key to keeping pests and diseases under control is observation," Morgan writes. "Beneficials" such as spiders, beetles, wasps, and even hedgehogs, make their homes in gardens, and Morgan shows readers how to use the good ones to help keep the ones that do damage to a garden in check: provide desirable predators with "bug hotels" to keep them returning to fight the enemy. Rounding things out is an A--Z index of pests and diseases that makes for easy reference. Morgan's detailed advice will be a boon to climate-minded gardeners. (Sept.)