Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2222 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-16
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"The business, and top of our list of must-haves. Packed with information and few frills, but the first place to turn for anything vegetable-related." --Lia Leendertz, The Guardian 24/02/07

Synopsis
This guide contains everything you need to know to create a highly-productive, beautiful vegetable plot. Joy Larkom's easy-to-follow advice covers every aspect of vegetable gardening, including preparing and looking after soil; manures, composts and fertilizers; growing techniques; pests, diseases and weeds; protection; and planning and making good use of space. The second half of the book provides cultivation information for over 100 vegetables, including site and soil requirements, cultivation, pests and diseases, and cultivars. Comprehensively revised, the book now includes unusual vegetables from the increasingly wide range available today, new varieties and modern techniques, and up-to-date research. It addresses the concerns of 21st-century gardeners and is totally organic in its approach.

Customer Reviews

from novice to experienced -worth it
Bought this book 2 plus yrs ago. Brilliant. I admit was initially sad by lack of colour pictures!! but as time has gone on and have now managed to dig most of my veg. plot (rather than stare at it in hope) and made time to plan, this book has been invaluable. There's loads of info. on the web (some a little confusing and a little conflicting) but Ms Larkcom's info. is steadfast and logical and is my first and sometimes, only, port of call. It's a valuable reference for both new and experienced allotment keepers. I've given away my glossy, pretty, fairly useless allotment books and kept to hand this superbly informative and helpful reference. Cheers Ms Larkcom, it was worth every penny.

Beginners guide to reference in one volume.
Ever wondered how to build a compost heap? a polytunnel? how to store leeks? when to sow Russian kale? Joy Larkcom's not so little volume will tell you. If Hugh and Monty have inspired you then Joy will deal with all the practicalities of turning that inspiration into real produce.

She neatly divides her subject into two parts. The first half of her book can be read as beginner's guide or a course on vegetable growing as she covers all the basics one would need to know such as what double digging is, the best way to build compost heaps, what tools you would need and so forth. The second half is a directory of vegetables with detailed sowing, cultivation and harvesting instructions and the occasional hints on using your produce. Throughout the book are a number of very useful tables and charts giving diaries of when to sow, transplant, harvest, etc, suggested garden layouts, green manures and other information which could usually take a long time to gather together.

This is not a coffee table gardening book with masses of pretty pictures. This is wall to wall information all packed into a single place which can make it heavy going and it is not a book to read starting at page one and working forward, it is primarily a reference work. The greatest virtue of her book though is that while it will teach you all you need to know it is usable as a reference work and she goes into enough detail that this is a book which you will still find yourself using when you have years of experience.

If you've been inspired to create your own vegetable garden then buy this book. It isn't pretty but it is astoundingly useful and comprehensive enough that you will still be using it years hence.

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.