When this book arrived after ordering it from Amazon (and being fooled by other reviews), my husband and I couldn't stop laughing--this is not an encyclopedia but a pocket sized dictionary (literally 2inches squared), with entries such as "ants"--the descriptions of anything are way too short to be of any merit, and if you really need to look up the definition of "ant" you are going to need a lot more help in your garden than this book can supply!!The only reason it gets two stars instead of one is the shock-value I had when I received it--and a good laugh is always worth something.In place you might consider Nancy Bubel's "Seed Starting Handbook"--lots of useful, easy-to-follow, and fairly detailed information on gardening.