You've gotten great advice here, Philotea. I'll only add serious agreement to what Anney said about finding a chart/guide for your area. All zone 8s are not the same. My zone 8 most likely gets hotter and drier (and stays that way *sigh*) longer than many other zone 8s, so my gardening guide would be different than, say, Seattle's guide. I also agree with the info on soil temps ~ I've long known that soil temp greatly affects germination and growing, but never watched it closely. I just bought a soil thermometer (less than ten bucks) and plan to check things out more accurately now. Here's a soil temp chart I plan to use. Keep in mind that soil temp info is fairly universal, as is the veggie variety hardiness info they give (though I find broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale are more hardy than they say), but the rest of the info on that chart may not be accurate for you (dates are based on the company's zone, and I like to space some of my things a bit closer than they say to). That does look like a good book, MarlinGardener! Wish I'd read this before I bought a couple other books from Amazon a couple weeks ago. Oh, well ~ that just means I have to find another book to buy to qualify for that free shipping. ;) I haven't been gardening as long as you (I'm about 15 years short), but do know I still have lots to learn. One of my fave gardening quotes: "Though an old man, I am yet a young gardener." ~ Thomas Jefferson

I don't think I had a biggest or most pressing. I guess the questions came to be as I had to learn how to battle the problems I encountered. A great thing to explain though would be when to start your seedlings. I'm in zone 6 and I have to start my lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant indoors. I can direct seed radish, squash, pumpkin, melons, and corn. That can be a huge topic because it changes with zones, but it would be something that beginners probably wouldn't know. Soil basics would be a great chapter too. Where you can get your soil tested, how to prepare your soil samples, understanding the results, and then amending your soil to correct any problems. Such as, if the pH came back as 5.5. How much lime to add, usually the back of the bag has a chart that will show the square footage across one axis and the pH across another. Then you just match the two and it will give you the pounds of lime to add to get a neutral pH. Most frustrating: VARMINTS! Pronounced "GROUND-HOGS"! Nothing is worse than working diligently in your garden only to come out the next morning and all of your cauliflower is gone! Common problems: bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs (repeat that a few hundred times), drought. Diseases are a common problem too. This could be a huge topic, probably a book of its own. Ortho has a really awesome book out that has most common garden plants listed, then for each plant it lists the most common diseases and pests. Along with pictures of what a disease looks like, what the pests look like, and your possible defenses. How much would I pay? Probably nothing for a course. Not that I'm cheap, I just can't afford the time. I usually Google around for my answers or post them on forums such as this one. For a book, I've paid $40.00 for a book or two on specific gardening topics such as how to prune and train trees. I think in this forum you're going to find a lot of do-it-yourself-ers. People here tend to try what the want and then learn from their mistakes. In fact, a lot of gardeners I know are like that. That's what is nice about gardening, you don't need a heap of book smarts to get great results. A few simple rules that need to be memorized and then a huge amount of work that needs to be done. Good luck on your book. Maybe check out that Ortho book, I can't remember the title, but it is was published by Ortho. A local nursery had one that I used to pair my apple trees for cross-pollination. That is another topic for fruits too! Cross-pollination vs self-pollination. Pollinators......I think that you're book is going to have to be 15 or so volumes to cover the amount of information that your survey is trying to gather.

GardenMan, I created an account on PhotoBucket and when I want to show a picture in the forum I just cust and paste into the Message the entire line that is in the "HTML Code" row. (You will see how your photo shows when you click Preview Message.) Goatster, I have continued to put bagged leaves collected between Thanksgiving and Christmas over my entire garden. I till these in when they decompose. My garden is full of earthworms as a result. To feed, I do have to add an occasional "tweak" with 13-13-13.

If one wants to invest in a book for garden planning rather than using all the free resources available on the web then there are many books available; books that are far more current and detailed than those mentioned above. For starters, look into The Essential Garden Design Workbook Garden Planning & Garden Design: 500 Ideas & Professional Plans for Fantastic, Easy Garden Improvement How to Design a Small Garden I am a long time admirer of Dick Raymond and his publications but they are outdated in many respects. They were directed at another generation (mine) when gardening goals were different and it was practiced on a larger scale and a different environment than most use today. Dave