First impressions: Great! I'm so happy to have this book. It can be easily referenced by its color coded page tabs and it is a how-to-o'rama with step-by-step instructions accompanied by clear illustrations. There are tons of photos for plant identification, too.

This is a must-have book for all homeowners who do their own gardening and landscaping. It covers topics spanning from planning gardens to selection and propagation of plants. The Guide also offers an extensive section on organic solutions to most garden problems. It resembles a coffee table book, with its large format, full-page color photos and diagrams. Actually, it has been quite handy when I couldn't entertain guests. While one friend waited for me to burp a fussy baby, she was delighted to find the solution to her iris issue and when she finished researching a few other gardening questions, declared, “I'm buying this book!”.

Since I live on a half acre of pine, sage, apple/peach trees, flower gardens and vegetable gardens, there are a pile of gardening projects (issues) calling to me from outside the slider door here. So, I thought I'd put the book to a test. I listed all the things that I need help figuring out how to do and cracked the Guide to Gardneing.

Here's my list:

• Did I prune the fruit trees correctly last winter?
• Why is the peach tree oozing sap?
• Should I prune the lilacs after they bloom or wait until the fall?
• How can I build up the nitrogen in all this decomposed granite?
• Ideas for making a useful rock garden that's easy to water
• Best practices for planting potatoes
• Best practices for caring for those garlic plants I started in the fall
• "Effective", non-12-foot-high fence ideas for keeping the deer out of my garden?
• Which plants grow well together and which should not grow together (companion planting)?
• What should I do if the aphids attack the willow trees again?
• How should bulbs be stored for the winter?

My research was a breeze and, overall, very helpful. I found answers to all of my questions (and some more that popped up along the way). The only exception was companion planting. Well, there actually were references to it but it wasn't indexed as such. I'm sure that by going back and looking specifically for the vegetables that I'm growing, I will probably see that there are recommendations for what or what not to plant close to other plants.

When I was researching bulb storage, there was a recommendation to spray the bulbs with Pyrethrin before storing them. I questioned whether or not Pyrethrin is in fact organic. So I did a quick out-of-the-book search and found out that it is an organic compound occurring in plants. Pyrethrin has been deemed safe for humans. Too much can be toxic for pets. However it is the same ingredient they put in flea baths and flea collars. And, yes, the book did answer my question about the bulbs and the instructions are very clear.

The potatoes are planted (as well as about twenty other different vegetables). I followed the potato instructions word for word. They are growing so fast that my husband swears he can sit and watch them grow. We are excited to start harvesting young potatoes once the plants flower. I have also compared notes with a long time potato grower from Belarus and her instructions for starting and growing potatoes matched the book almost to the letter (had it only been in Cyrillic).

As far as layout and organization go, I give the Illustrated Guide to Gardening an A. I have two sniveling complaints. One is that the guide letters in the index are of a hideous font. But, with only 26 letters to pick from I was able to figure it out. The other issue is that some of the illustrations (mainly in the plant disorder section) are a bit fuzzy. Other than that, I am thrilled to have this book. I have been referring to it several times each week. Thank you Reader's Digest!