For home gardeners in the temperate climates of North America, this is the ideal reference book for growing fruit, vegetables, culinary herbs, and nuts organically. 

Begun as the personal database of a home gardener and previously self-published as The Organic Gardener's Home Reference in 1994, this compendium profiles 765 food crops from artichokes to thyme with advice on sowing, cultivating, companion planting, varieties, disease, pests, harvesting, storage and more.

Promoted as "the only single-volume reference that supplies all the information necessary to plant a successful organic food garden," this guide certainly covers all the basics and provides an excellent starting medium for novice, intermediate, and even experienced gardeners taking the organic approach to gardening.

"Organic methods free us from worries about children and pets being exposed to poisons in the garden and remove concern about unintended negative impacts on native wildlife," writes author Tanya Denckla. "You can garden knowing that a strawberry plucked fresh from the plant can be safely popped in your mouth, warm from the sun, unwashed and enjoyed. This can be a small taste of heaven on earth, and it's yours if you choose."

Rotate Your Crops

Plant the same vegetable in the same soil site no more frequently than once every other year (a 2-year rotation). If possible, routinely rotate on a 3- to 8-year basis. Same soil site is defined as a radius of 10 feet from where the vegetable has been planted. So, rotation can occur within the same growing bed as long as the vegetable is planted at least 10 feet away from where it was the previous year.