Organic Gardening for Dummies - Book Review

Title: Organic Gardening for Dummies, Second Edition


Author: Ann Whitman, Suzanne DeJohn, Editors of National Gardening Association


2009 Wiley Publishing, Inc.

This a straight-to-the-point, organic gardening primer book. As with most of the Dummies books, this book starts out by providing the reader with a Cheat Sheet giving reasons to be an organic gardener and a checklist to use for assessing your gardening site.

From there, it helps readers understand the basics of organic gardening. The book can be helpful whether it is read from beginning to end or skipping around the chapters.

Organic Gardening

The first chapter starts by defining organic gardening and then jumps right in to building the soil, planting wisely, garden diversity, pest management, and feeding the soil.

Organic gardening according to the authors, “Is all about preventing and treating problems in the least obtrusive, most nontoxic ways. Dedicated organic gardeners adopt methods that use cultural and natural biological processes.”

Just a few of the many reasons for planting an organic garden given by the authors include:

• Human health management

• Reduce water pollution by reducing the amount of pesticides used

• Cost savings

• Improve soil health and fertility.

Planning an Organic Garden

There are a multitude of considerations to make when planning an organic garden according to the authors, such as:

• Life cycles of plants such as annuals, biennial, and perennial

• Evergreens and conifers

• Types of leaves, flowers, and root systems

• Plant shapes including climbing, upright, and mounding

• Hardiness and temperature zones

• Basic design principles such as color, season of bloom, and scale.

Planting and Maintaining

A chapter is provided on Soils 101 teaching readers what makes good soil and how to build good soil. Organic fertilizers get an entire chapter also appropriately called Fertilizer 101.

Several chapters are dedicated to pest control, pesticide safety, plant diseases, and outwitting the critters that will invade organic gardens such as gophers, mice, and birds.

All items are discussed in terms of recognizing a problem, then determining a diagnosis, and then finding an organic solution.

Thankfully, there is a how-to plant organic plants midway through the book. Other how-tos include, how-to grow from seed, tips on buying plants from garden centers, how-to prepare soil, and how-to plant.

Types of Organic Plants

The authors provide readers with information on several types of plants including vegetables, herbs, fruit bearing plants, flowers, bushes, shrubs, and trees, and organic lawns.

The book ends with a chapter on the “Ten Best Organic Gardening Practices” and a chapter on the “Ten Ways to be Eco-Friendly.”

Organic Gardening Can be for Dummies

Most of the Dummy books break seemingly complicated processes down into easy-to-follow, easy-to-get started, and easy-to-read instructional guides.

With rising food costs and with commercial growers cutting corners and using pesticides and fertilizers that can harm the consumer and the environment, organic gardening is a viable alternative.

For those who are uncertain on the basics of organic gardening and need a few tips on getting started, Organic Gardening for Dummies can fill that need. It is an easy-to-understand, quick read, and makes a really great get started guide.