A good read

This is an excellent book for any one relatively new to veg and fruit gardening. It is written in Alan T's usual pragmatic style, but also with a good level of passion and humour. The overview at the beginning is the good length, and explains techniques, rather than the 'do as I say' style of some veg authors. For example what may happen if you add manure to your potato patch, and how to rotate crops which are not brassicas, and roots. Why you may want to grow some plants in pots on your patio if you have an allotment which is two miles down the road. There is an section on jobs to do per month, and a lenghty section listed alphabetically by plant. The photo's are very good, and at last a photo of potato blight! Not every brown patch on a leaf is blight. Calendars are helpful to indicate planting sowing and harvesting. However a little confusing at first if one is used to reading seed packets where the information is contained in one or two lines and not three. Alan is organic but does not present this as the only way as other popular garden celebrities do.
Even Mr T though fails to get the science quite correct. Water and vitamins are both chemicals essential to life. Some of the most toxic materials known to man are derived from plants so it should not be assumed that natural is safe. There are a few culinary hints and tips however Sarah Ravens Garden cookbook is not to be missed when wanting lots of seasonal recipes for using the produce you've grown.

The bees knees...

Having just started with a vagetable patch in the garden, I was looking for, in effect an"idiot's guide" to vegetable growing (believe me, I needed it !) - this book is marvellous - helpful illustrations,easy to follow layout & packed with information on cultivation, preperation, eating, protecting from pests & diseases, the whole lot.
The herb section is by no means as comprehensive as the veg part of the book, but it has inspired me to grow my own selection of herbs (in one of those very attractive"ornamental" wooden wheelbarrows,my wife's aunty got us for Christmas - bless) & hopefully add something a bit different, interesting & above all, tasty to the garden.
I bought this at the same time as a far glossier, bigger (& more expensive !) book I got from the garden centre - this book beats the more expensive competition hands down. A really great investment, made me burst with horticultural enthusiasm & feel like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's cousin.

If you buy one book about growing veg, buy this one

As a new vegetable gardener last year, I bought quite a few books to help me get started. Fortunately, this was one of them, and I now realise I need only have bought this one. Although low on colour pictures and other 'glossy' features, it is absolutely packed with useful information and I find I refer to it constantly. It covers a wider range of veg than many other books, too, and has several excellent features, including the value for space ratio mentioned in another review, and several excellent planting plans ('feed a family', etc). I just can't recommend it highly enough.

Great for new allotmenteers...

..I got myself a plot on an organic farm ealrier this year. Apart from growing the odd thing whilst I grew up, I was starting from scratch.

This book doesn't go into great detail about every plant, but it isn't an encyclopaedia of allotment plants so it isn't to be expected.

It does give excellent important notes for plants though and contains information about the whole allotment experience.

There are photographs galore to inpsire allotmenteers, the calendar section has been a godsend to newbies like me, and the recipes section is great too (my wife used his carrot cake recipe and it was gorgeous! Thanks Heather!).

He gives advise on companion planting, composting, storring your harvest, and many more essential matters.


I learn't a lot from reading his book, you can really feel his passion for growing fruit and veg, and this rubs off onto the reader.

beautiful!

I love this book, it has fantastic little projects for all rooms of the home, but would also make great gifts for family and friends. Beautiful photos throughout! Great instructions and patterns neatly at the back of the book.

Doesn't live up to the standards of the TV programme it is based on

I'm an admirer of Monty Don and I enjoyed the TV series this book is based on. But the book is far too sketchy to be satisfying; there's simply not enough material here, not enough photographs, too few insights.
If this is an Around the World trip, it's one of those lightning coach tours full of camera snapping tourists ("If it's Tuesday it must be Paris").
Worth a read, but not worth the asking price. As someone has commented before, just borrow it from the library; the publishers have let Monty down with this one.

New cover, but still old-fashioned inside

I have the 2002 edition, but it still only offers imperial measurements. While this may be an irritation for some, I do find inches and feet so much more appropriate for practical matters like gardening!

An excellent book with a great deal of practical advice on planting, mulching, pruning, picking, disease control, etc. I would prefer just a little more detail on these matters, however, and perhaps a slightly less comprehensive list of varieties - many of which are not availabe even from specialist nurseries.

But why change much - how much can gardening change?

I have just ordered the Rose Expert.

The Essential Garden Design Workbook

After ploughing through endless variations on this theme it's good to find something that's user friendly and totally practical. The best feature is that the book follows the design process in a logical manner identifying principles and showing you how to apply them in a practical way; it also shows you what works in design terms and what doesn't plus some tricks to achieve more professional results with plan presentations. Another thing of interest is the quirky graphic style of illustration used to highlight non- plan points. Extremely useful throughout.

The Tree & Shrub Expert by D G Hessayon

I found this book really helpful with lots of illustrations and easily understood information about lots of trees and shrubs. I managed to identify several of my shrubs that I did not know the name of, from the illustrations, as there are some quite unusual ones there. My only wish would be that the book was in the same format, but dealing with flowering shrubs only and twice as many of them. Overall though an excellent book.

An amateur gardener from Surrey.

great for beginner and those with gardening knowledge.

A great book at a good price.Ideal for the first time greenhouse owner aswell as experanced owners.
It has advice on what to grow, pests and how to treat them.great advice all-round.

the best investment a new plotholder can make

We had an allotment previously for five years which we had to give up for various reasons - not least the amount of work involved. We now have a new plot and even with all our previous experience - or perhaps because of it- I have found this book an invaluable resource. I know we want to get it right from the start this time and I have a pretty good idea where we went wrong last time, but even so seeing it all explained so clearly and in such a well structured way as it is in this book has really given me a lot of confidence in the systems we're putting in place and the information I need to do it.

Yes, the bit about using plug plants is a bit controversial but eminently sensible arguments are given for doing so. If you don't want to follow every word of advice in the book of course you don't have to - but at least you're asked to think through the decisions you're making in terms of effort put in and what you'll get back. We've put gooseberries in which aren't recommended but we love them and are happy to put in a bit more effort for that particular crop.

Thank you! I cannot recommend this book highly enough to a new or returning plotholder.

A superb guide to intensive organic vegetable growing

A highly productive vegetable garden that involves no digging, written by a man with no formal horticultural training, and organic to boot? You may be permitted a certain cynicism.

However if that cynicism stops you from reading this book then you will have missed out on a treasure.

This book is now my first port of call when I am looking for a gardening solution. As a beginner and non-scientist, I found his style easy to understand packed with useful tips and coherent in that it took me from an uninformed start to considering quite complicated seasonal planning without loosing the plot or throwing my hands up in confused despair. The results at the Domaine de Montrouch are looking promising- if the wild boar don't decide they fancy a salad dinner one night.

A walk I'll never forget

Having conceived the ever more popular coast to coast walk I'm sure AW would regret the impact it has probably had on the countryside. He wrote the walk as an example for people to go out and create their own long distance walks; but this is a classic walk that is hard to resist.

Told in the usual Wainwight style of lovely pen and ink drawings, meticulous attention to detail and dry whit, this is a great guide. You should really take (and rely on) the two OS Coast to Coast maps in order to navigate and refer to Wainwright for enlightenment/enjoyment as you go along.

It doesn't really give notes on planning and booking accommodation, but such research is half the fun of setting up for and doing the walk.

The memory of this walk will stay with me for the rest of my life, and reading back through my battered copy of this book from time to time brings it all back to life.

How to grow your own food

This delightful book is a practical guide to enjoying the growing as much as the eating of your own food. It clearly presents a week by week guide to sowing, planting, nurturing and harvesting your own crops, plus some veggie recipes to further enjoy the fruits of your labour. Along side this are notes to engender closer observation of the wildlife encountered while in the garden or allotment and historical background to the food grown. It would be a stimulating book to encourage a beginner but being informative on many levels it is a really rewarding read for all who are willing to get their nails dirty.

An indispensable book for English garden lovers.

Most of gardens of the world can be put into two major categories: formal gardens and naturalistic gardens. The formal gardens are represented by Egyptian gardens, Persian gardens, Islamic gardens, Italian gardens, French gardens, and some American gardens, etc. The naturalistic gardens are represented by some famous English gardens, Chinese gardens, and Japanese gardens, etc.

If you mention English gardens, most people will think of large areas of lawns, trees, garden architecture, lakes and sky. These are the basic elements of a typical English landscape garden.

"The English Garden" covers not only the typical and well-known English landscape gardens, but also formal garden layout ("formal bones"), country gardens, kitchen gardens and contemporary gardens, influences from abroad, as well as garden ornament, plant materials such as English roses, etc.

Ursula Buchan and Andrew Lawson wrote:"All gardens, if they can be described as such, have ultimately to do with the desire of their maker to control their surroundings." They continued to discuss the various periods of English gardens including the Roman period when the early formal gardens dominated and the Landscape Movement period when geometric forms were intentionally rejected. They also discussed knot gardens and parterres, Medieval courtyard gardens, the Arts and Crafts style, the cottage gardens and the New Naturalism.

"The English Garden" is one of the most comprehensive books on English gardens open to visitors. It has 240 pages and over 300 colour interior photographs. It is an indispensable book for English garden lovers.

Just one book on lawns!!

If you are just seeking one book on lawns and their care, buy this one. Although the content in parts is dated the basic techniques are still relevant today. In today's climate of ecology and organics the high use of chemicals is frowned upon but this was not the case when the first edition was written, also the author worked in the chemical industry.
Dr D.G. Hessayon's approach is basic and not flowered, yet is easily understood.

A treasure.

Buy this book even if you are not in need of ideas-it is a joy to browse through! Beautifully illustrated with photographs and water coloured drawings and with clearly laid out design plans, it is inspirational. There are no lumps of concrete or rusted metal here---just exquisite, traditional, practical gardens for differing situations.