Vegetable & Herb Expert

[kt.]

Just bought a new book from Homebase today. "The Vegetable & Herb Expert by Dr D.G. Hessayon" It says on the cover - the worlds best selling book on veg & herbs...(hhmmm) £7.99

Anyway - It looks fantastic and I would say will suit beginners to experts from my initial look. Very easy to follow. There are hundreds of colour photos of almost every kind of veg. Several photos of each - showing good, bad rotten, diseases. All in full colour and describing detail very well.

With each veg is a calender of when to sow and harvest different varieties such as early main and late crop. Details on how to store well with colour pictures again.

ISBN code : 0-903-50546-0 for those who wish to order. 

Definately definately definately recommend all you budding allotmenteers keep a copy of this to hand. It has now taken the number one spot of all my allotment gardening books by far.  ;)    (He also does a similar book on fruit but I dont grow much fruit)

[kt.]

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's certainly comprehensive, but it's also very conventional and dedicated to chemicals. I'd suggest following it up with Bob Flowerdew's 'No-Work Garden' and 'Organic Bible'. That'll give you a much broader range of ideas.

[manicscousers]

quite agree, I've got both,like the instructions in veg expert but not the chemicals, prefer bob's outlook  :)

[vee]

I agree it's very useful for spacings, germination times and seed storage life etc.
I use it a lot and just ignore the chemical bits

BTW I just love the information about garlic which says  'If you are a beginner with garlic you must use it very sparingly or you will be put off forever. Rub a wooden salad bowl with a clove........ If by then you have lost a little of your garlic fear you can try using crushed (not chopped) garlic.........as the Continentals do. :o :o

[kt.]

As I have not read it yet I will read carefully about chemicals. But still appears on my top spot for now. Detail seems very good.

[Merry Tiller]

Hessayon books are very basic & about 20 years out of date, there are some much better books around now

[Robert_Brenchley]

How many people are that nervous about 'continental' habits like garlic nowadays?

[kt.]

Hessayon books are very basic & about 20 years out of date, there are some much better books around now

Such as..... ::)

[saddad]

Some of mine have been on , and off, the shelf for that long MT but I still check things in them.............
:-X

[Curryandchips]

I am hoping to catch a copy of Hessayon in a charity shop ...

[tim]

Yes, yes & yes - but no other book has been so simply & easily readable for the last 20 years.

As a quick, standardised & fairly comprehensive reference it is hard to beat.

Pesticides? Was he not sponsored by PBI? For those just setting out, just ignore them.

[sarah]

its the only book i had to guide me throught the first couple of years and i found it invaluable; its simple and easy to use and as Tim says you can ignore the chemical bits (didnt realise he was sponsered!). after the first year or two you start to do things your own way a bit more and then i think its a good time for your bob flowerdews and joy larckoms.  i have found that on the south coast i can start things a good few weeks earlier than he suggests (but we can all get caught out sometimes!) but those are the things that experience teaches you. as a starting off point i think Dr hessayon is hard to beat. i often see copies in the charity shops curry, in fact i do have a second copy ( a bit beaten up) if you want it. PM me if you do.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I wouldn't ever deny that it's useful; it's got a lot of people started, including me. But I'd always advise people to get something else as well; the sooner you start to realise there's more than one way to grow veg the better.

[cornykev]

Yes I got that one for Xmas KT also the allotment book by Andi Clevely.   :D :D :D :D :D :D ;)

[kt.]

Yes I got that one for Xmas KT also the allotment book by Andi Clevely.  

Already got Allotment Book by Caroline Foley which is great - but a picture paints a thousand words. Also have The gardeners Year by Alan Titchmarsh. I prefer Caroline Foley for allotment gardening compred to Alan Titchmarsh, though both are good.  ;)

Let me know what you think of Andi Clevely once you have read it / scanned through it.

[greyhound]

My Dr Hessayon Veg Expert is about 20 years old.  It has a chapter on "shop-bought vegetables" which are far too exotic for us to grow.  This includes chillies and coriander .....   :o

It's still pretty useful, though.

[caroline7758]

As a relatively new allotmenteer, I find Dr H much better than Caroline Foley because, as someone else said, he gives all the details on spacing, timing etc which she doesn't. I don't use chemicals either. I'm looking out for a secondhand copy on ebay so that I can keep one at home and one at the allotment.BTW, does anyone know whether Dr Hessayon is/was an actual person or just a name for the series of books?

[angle shades]

in my copy of The Pocket Vegetable Expert (£1.99 from wilko's a few years ago) it says 'People who claim  that they never need to spray are lying,lucky or living on poor vegetables' :o :o :o how very dare he :P/shades x

[jennym]

...BTW, does anyone know whether Dr Hessayon is/was an actual person or just a name for the series of books?

See this: http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk/expertGarden/expertStory.htm

[sally_cinnamon]

Let me know what you think of Andi Clevely once you have read it / scanned through it.

KT, I bought the Andi Clevely book a couple of months ago and LOVED it.  It was really easy to read, wasn't too complex and din't use use complicated jargon (or where it did there were explainations) but wasn't too bayish either.  Plenty of information about thingslike each veg type, sow/germination/harvest times, plot planning and what to take into consideration with a new plot (okay, not so useful for long-term plot holders, but still there might be things there that hadn't been thought of?), pest and diseases, and also a bit on flowers which was nice.  All in all a thoroughly good read IMHO.  Each time I pick it up it gets me raring to go!  That's what you want from a book isn't it?!
:)