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Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: spartz on February 24, 2005, 12:33:27
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Hi all,
I'm hoping the experienced veggie growers out there can recommend a book for a complete novice. I'm about to move into a house with a garden (first time in my married life!) and would love to grow my own veggies. But where do I start? There is a huge choice on Amazon, so I thought I would ask here for peoples favourites.
All answers appreciated! Meanwhile, I think I'll explore this marvellous site some more...
Spartz (in Germany).
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I like Joy Larkom's veg book - thick paperback - lots of info. (think it's called Grow your own veg). That one is good for proper information. She has several other books - one of which is very inspirational - Creative Vegetable Gardening.
Magazines can give you plently of info and this forum is really excellent - use the search facility to pick up lots of useful info about any topic you cna think of.
Sarah.
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if you search the site this question comes up a lot! click the search button at the top :)
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The RHS have what I'd call a good coverage applicable to new gardeners. Their 'Growing vegetables' (ISBN 1 84000152 6 )is just one of a library of books on gardening which include Garden Planning, pruning, propogation, growing fruit and growing under glass.
Prices are about £9 a book and certainly go into enough detail to put you on the right track.
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Agree with sara joy larkim -
grow your own veg as well as been very informative its a dead handy size
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I have a wealth of books on veggie gardening - a nice big tome is the complete book of veg, herbs and fruit (not sure if that is in the right order) by Bob Flowerdew, Matthew Biggs and Jekka McVikar. Bob has other books - the organic bible, and the no work garden. The Veg Expert (Dr Hessayon) is also worth getting your hands on. I bought an organic gardening book in German 15 years ago when I was on a school exchange in Viersen - it had lots of tables in!
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the vegetable expert by dr hessayon sp? is the one I use the most
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I too am a Newbie, for what it's worth I have the Joy Larkcom book "Grow your own Veg" and find it very informative etc same as Sarah-b. I also have a book called "Organic Gardening" by Christine & Michael Lavelle as recommended by someone on here. It should have been £16.99 and WH Smith are selling them at £4.99. It is full of photos and is a bit more glossy but does cover all aspects of general organic gardening & has a useful bit on soft fruit etc.
Hope that helps,
TimJ
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The HDRA have a good organic version. Its called Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: the complete guide to natural & chemical-free gardening. Try local libraries before purchasing, and narrow down your choice.
Good gardening Baz.8)
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:) Hi Baz.. I've got that book and I like it very much. There's loads in it for beginners and experienced gardeners alike. It's a good book for dipping back into when you need to refresh your memory about something
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i too have joy larkcom's book.
it does however not cover herbs, or soft fruit. (well it's not called 'grow your veg' for nothing :D)
need to find something equally brilliant for those two areas.
svea
PS: spartz, are you just living over there or are you actually german? unfortunately, cannot help with german books on this matter.....
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Another vote here for Joy Larkcom's book. Reckon I have a shelf-load of veg & fuit books and hers is the most comprehensive and the one I refer to most (though she doesn't cover fruit in it). The other one I use a lot is The Vegetable Expert by Dr Hessayon. There are a series of these books and the fruit one is great too.
The monthly magazine Kitchen Gardens is good publication with a useful 'what to do this month' section. I also find it very useful for keeping up-to-date on new developments (varieties, products, methods). They cover veg, fruit, herbs, under glass, keeping chickens and even the odd article on bee-keeping !
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I also get Organic Gardening Magazine - I have their subscription, plus it is possible to get some past issues (which I have got a number of). They don't have a website at present, and not a large q&a as in Kitchen Garden Mag.
I like the Lavelle's book as well. Another one is kitchen garden month by month (will check exact title later otherwise my warm cuppa tea will be stolen by my 3 year old) by Andi Clevely (again, will check name). I managed to buy the complete bit-part series Grow your own which gives a week-by-week doofy of what you could do, and info on fruit, herbs and veg, etc, from a charity shop.
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Spatz :)
Wishing you a Warm Welcome Here ...great people great site Enjoy it here :D My Recommendation ???
[ Vegetable and Herb Expert Dr D G Hessayon ] ;D
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My tea still got stolen! Anyway. The Kitchen Garden month by month by Andi Clevely gives not only month by month advice, includes garden projects & ideas as well as a brief synopsis on the veg.
The Grow Your Own bit part magazine included Ralph Whitlock's gardening diary. I have the second edition published in 1979 (first was in 1977)
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Another vote for Joy Larkom; no glossy pictures but VERY comprehensive! "Grow Your Own Vegetables"
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Can recommend "Practical Allotment Gardening"by Caroline Foley.
ISBN 1859748902
Try www.play.com Much cheaper than Amazon and free postage
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Have borrowed 'Organic gardening for the 21st century' by John Fedor from the library. Only about a third of the way through it so far, but it seems to be pretty good on the general organic stuff. Will let you know on specifics for different veg once I've read that :)
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The Organic Garden Book
Geoff Hamilton
Dorling Kindersley
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Have read 'Organic gardening for the 21st century' and have now borrowed the HDRA tome (hurrah for library requests online! :)). Found the former quite good, but perhaps I should compare with the HDRA one. 'Organic gardening' did seem to be quite veg focused, which I found good as that's mostly what I'm growing.
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Can recommend "Practical Allotment Gardening"by Caroline Foley.
ISBN 1859748902
Try www.play.com Much cheaper than Amazon and free postage
I agree with Nitriam - for a begginer this book is really comprehensive; and gives a great month by month breakdown of what one should be up to down on the lottie...
Star read ;D
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Another vote for Joy Larkcom & Dr D G Hessayon, but a good place to start, before you lay out any hard earned dosh, is down at the local library.