Thank you to everyone who was so quick to give us such helpful advice re: burning pine needles and moonflowers!
We're just starting out as gardeners, and we're in search of a good book that would serve as a useful reference in regards to pests, weeds, and diseases, as well as both beneficial and harmful insects (and how to attract/get rid of them).
Don't know if there's any ONE such book out there, but we figured if anyone would know, it would be you guys! Thanks in advance!
Griciai

Much as I personally poohpooh Sunset Books, their

Illustrated Guide to Organic Gardening
isbn 0-376-03562-5

would make an excellent starter. Good pix of bugs, plant problems, solutions, well worth getting as a reference!
Hey, any bookstore, I picked my copy up for $ 3.99 and it's worth 10x the price.

Just my 2 cents.

Rodale has several good titles that cover these topics and they are all sold on this website (click on "Marketplace" on the navigation bar). My personal favorite is is The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Diseas Control by Barbra Ellis and Fern Marshal Bradley. I would also encourage you to buy a few field guides to weeds and insects. Both Peterson's Guides and Audubon have a good selection. These have good pictures and information to hundreds of species so you can learn to identify them.

two books that i use are "the encyclopedia of natural insect & disease control" isbn number 0-87857-488-3 published by rodale press, inc. and the other one is "the gardener's bug book" isbn number 0-385-01525-9 and published by doubledsy & company. peace be with you and may your garden be educational.

I use Rodale's Pest & Disease Problem Solver. It provides pictures for each disease and pest--which is very helpful to me. It also separates the book into categories: vegetables, perennials, trees, diseases and pests. You can look up either a specific plant or a specific disease/pest or browse the pictures until you find something that looks like what is happening with your plants.

I use "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control" ISBN 0-87596-753-1. It has great color photos that aid in identifying pests and diseases and offers organic methods of controlling them.

I also really like Sally Jean Cunningham's "Great Garden Companions." She teaches not only what plants to plant together to ward off problem insects, but also provides pictures and descriptions of beneficial insects and how to attract them to your garden to devour the problem insects. This is a great book and fun to read!

THanks for asking the question and to everyone who answered. I was wondering the same thing and now I have it answered!