Product Description

Penelope Bennett's roof terrace garden, measuring just 9ft by 16ft (2.74m x 4.28m), supplies all her vegetables and is crammed with every kind of vegetable, fruit, herb and flower - from salads, potatoes, parsley, strawberries and cherries to honeysuckle and jasmine. She shows how any enthusiastic beginner can achieve the same, whether old or young, disabled or able-bodied, poor or wealthy. There is a month by month guide on what to sow, plant and look out for, and special sections, including growing your own tomatoes, developing the 'orchard', scented shrubs, scented annuals, sowing for brilliance, hanging baskets, creating a wormery to supply compost, making a compost heap, a roof-garden pond and recycling newspapers into 'logs'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34692 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
Penelope Bennett is a writer whose work has appeared in The Weekend Financial Times, Harpers & Queen, Contemporary Review, Modern Painters, Macmillan's Winter's Tales, The Atlantic Monthly, Mademoiselle, Encounter. Her novella and short stories were published by Hamish Hamilton and a children's book by Walker Books and Candlewick Press, USA. Despite having no formal training in horticulture she has learnt from the experts over the years and now teaches at the Battersea branch of the charity Horticultural Therapy. Her cousin is the landscape gardener Harold Peto.

Customer Reviews

inspiration
this is a great book for a tentative, beginner, organic, small space gardener. It inspired me to consider the processes involved and the magic of growth, which is something i had never closely observed before. It is written in diary form starting in January, as i bought it in June I thought this might be a problem, but I read it from the begining, couldn't put it down once I started and flicked forward for timely June advice too.It also touches on wider considerations of the environment and our impact on it, you can make a difference for your own and a greater good.
You really can grow food no matter what space you have available or how "ungreen" you consider your fingers to be.

A jewel of a book
I've been reading this book as if it were a work of fiction--the writing is that lyrical and entertaining. I'm a gardening novice (this is my first time ever planting seeds and I never could have imagined it would be so exciting to see them germinate!). The sections on mushrooming and composting are wonderful,too--I've just ordered a wormery from the resource guide in the back and have started growing muchrooms. Next up? A tiny pond. I admit that as a journalist, I can't help but wish that I'd written this lovely book myself--but I'm pleased to suggest it to everyone I know.

A new view on gardening.
Totally different to the instant garden make over genre that is currently popular. This book encourages the gardener to take pleasure in the subtle changes that occur throughout the year. Penelope Bennet takes time to study her seedlings and describes their development in a fascinating way. This book made me look at my small garden in a completely new light.