Product Description

This updated edition contains new chapters on "baby" vegetables and the modern easy ways to grow food crops. There is an enlarged chapter on herbs, with details of new varieties which have appeared in the past few years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1250 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Dr. D.G. Hessayon
Dr D.G. Hessayon's Expert books have made him the world's best-selling author on gardening. Born in Manchester, he was variously a horticulturist research scientist, university lecturer, artist and newspaper editor before launching the Expert series in 1959. In 1999 Dr Hessayon was awarded a Guinness World Record Certificate for being Britain's best-selling living author of the 1990s. He lives in Essex, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.

Excerpted from The New Vegetable and Herb Expert by D.G. Hessayon. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
One of the most important changes in gardening since World War II has been the resurgence of interest in growing vegetables at home. The concept that it is only for the poor or the country dweller has long been swept away with the realisation that home-grown produce beats the shop-bought equivalent in three vital ways. Firstly, you can harvest at the peak of tenderness and flavour instead of having to wait for maximum yields like the professional grower. You can also serve vegetables within an hour or two of picking and with sweet corn, beans, asparagus etc. this can mean a new flavour experience for you. Finally, you can grow vegetables which do not appear in High St shops and you can sow top-quality varieties of ordinary vegetables which are not grown commercially.

You can save money by growing your own – it has been estimated that an expenditure of £1 on seeds, fertilisers, canes etc. yields a crop worth about £9 at shop prices. But saving money is not the main motive for many – it is just a bonus from a hobby which provides a special thrill from growing and then eating your own.

Most of the basic principles of vegetable growing have been with us for hundreds of years, but the subject doesn’t stand still. There have been several important developments since the earlier edition of this book appeared. Interest in herbs continues to expand and specially-bred baby vegetables have made their appearance in seed catalogues. Until recently growing vegetables nearly always meant long rows of plants, but now the idea of growing in pots, raised beds and even in the flower bed and shrub border has taken root.