I've enjoyed most of the other books in this series, so perhaps my expectations were high. This book is really just not that helpful. Partly the problem is the "encyclopedic" organization. The book is (obviously) arranged alphabetically. Fine - but then the index and TOC are useless additions of wasted paper that serve no real function, because hey - everything is alphabetical! The index is worthless for cross-referencing. Oddly, some things are alphabetical by scientific name, others by general name, etc. Another reviewer mentioned it was good for general reading. I didn't feel it was readable this way at all, but I wasn't expecting to. It really is organized as an "encyclopedia" and more conducive to looking up specific items. But when you look something up, the information itself is just not that useful. As a beginner to intermediate gardener, I was underwhelmed with the depth of the info - and at 700+ pages, you'd think there would be a lot of information! There are also about a half-dozen small black and white illustrations in the entire book.
Overall - it's okay, but not worth the money or the wasted trees....