Product Description

Written with passion and packed with practical advice, Monty Don breathes new life into organic gardening. Monty’s straightforward advice plus extraordinarily beautiful photographs taken over the course of a year in his own Herefordshire garden reveal the secrets of growing abundant flowers and vegetables, plants and produce while respecting the needs of the environment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139408 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 440 pages

Review
"An evocatively written and beautifully illustrated roam through the gardening year, suitable for all levels of gardener." Psychologies 01/05/06

About the Author
Monty Don is one of the UK's leading gardeners and garden writers. He is the presenter of BBC’s Gardener’s World, has been a gardening correspondent for The Observer since 1994 and written numerous books including The Jewel Garden. He is completely committed to organic gardening and environmental awareness. He lives in Herefordshire with his wife Sarah.

Customer Reviews

Intelligent, thoughtful and practical
This is by far the best gardening book I have. It explains in detail the reasoning behind the organic approach and applies the author's personal experience to the most important subjects in gardening. His passionate commitment is backed up with nuts and bolts detail - such as exactly what bacteria do in soil (as much as we know). The book is based on the author's own garden and this grounds it in honest, specific content. He tells you exactly what he does and why he does it, but always with an eye to how it might be different in other circumstances, for example on other types of soil. The pictures are glossy but they really illustrate the text, showing what he's writing about or giving added inspiration.

This is an articulate and heartfelt book full of sensible, useable advice. It isn't cheap, but to me it really is worth the money.

Inspiring and Practical
This is genuinely a good read. Although it is handy to dip in and out of, it also works well when read straight through. Monty writes really well - his written voice sounds exactly like his presenting voice, and he manages to fit a lot of useful information in simply and elegantly.
Perhaps best of all, however, is the fact that the whole book is firmly grounded in his own experience. Lots of gardening books give you masses of practical information, but Monty tells you how it all fits together, and how he organises his own garden and schedules his tasks. He also tells you about mistakes that he has made. This is useful not just because it means he can offer some useful advice, but also because it reassures the novice gardener (me) that even the experts get it wrong sometimes.

Another Monty Don favourite
I just adore Sarah and Monty Don's books - not the least for the wonderful glimspes they give us into their house and garden. Monty Don's The Complete Gardener is probably my favourite (although it has to compete with Fork to Fork). I am an experienced gardener (currently restoring an old Victorian agrden), but I still throughly enjoyed this book which covers many aspects of gardening from composting to eating: partly it is the prose (clean, helpful, non-condescending); partly it is the wonderful photographs; and very partly it is the information. For a novice gardener it will be extremely helpful ... for the experienced gardener it is just a delightful wander (once again) into the Don's garden.

My only quibble, and one which keeps me from giving this a 5-star rating, is the mention of global warming on every third page. I found that a little tedious. I'm well aware of the effects of global warming (in Tasmania, how can I not be?) but I didn't need to have it rammed down my throat quite so often. A point made less is a point made most.

Only a minor quibble, though, and it won't stop me rushing out to buy the next Monty Don book.