Organic pest control is a hot topic for gardeners, and this book covers many traditional and effective methods.

The first few chapters are fairly basic definitions of garden pests with a few factual inaccuracies and a hard sell on why you should use organic pest control methods. The reason this still gets a 3 is that the entire rest of the book is made up of various methods and recipes to make your own organic pest control. As a keen gardener, I’m already familiar with a few of the given methods, having used a few of them myself over the years. Covering everything from smell sachets and weedkiller to mite control and companion planting, there are a lot of options here for gardeners who want to try organics and vegetable gardeners who want to preserve their crops from pests while keeping it edible.

On the downside, it is American-focused. Several of the pests mentioned aren’t a problem in the UK, while others which are are not covered. There are no photographs or diagrams, and the layout is simple but clear.

Despite the very basic introduction, the lists of organic pest control are comprehensive and well-described and this could be a useful reference for gardeners.