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Whether for an ornamental edible cottage garden or a utilitarian allotment, with a smattering of animal husbandry for the adventurous, peruse this section and lick your lips.
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The definitive work on the subject by the artist and historian who has done more than any other to rescue Kitchen Gardens from destruction.
A mine of information, illustrated with Susan Campbell's superb drawings, both evocative and accurate.
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This book is intended as a photographic quick guide to the best-known and most commonly used food plants of the world. It provides information on characteristics, origin, history, cultivation, harvesting and especially the culinary uses and nutritional value.
I would have preferred a little more information on cultivation (so how far apart should I plant those chick peas? Will they grow in the UK?) rather - or at least in addition to - knowing that they contain 17% protein and up to 5% fat.
I suppose one should rather consider it an inspirational, well-illustrated guide to foods, rather than a practical guide to growing them.
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Based on Fearnley-Whittingstall's endearing and inspiring series, this contains the author's insights and observations on life and food as the seasons and months go past, interweaving cookery with the cycles of the natural year. 100 original seasonal recipes. The main lesson we should all learn is to grow and eat the food appropriate to the season. Inspirational.
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Kitchen Garden is part of Collins new series "Practical Gardener." Like Tate Modern it has done away with definite articles, but like Tate Modern it is a welcome addition.
This handy, user-friendly book is divided into three parts. The first chapters guide you thorugh all areas of garden practice, from assessing your site, through general care and pruning to harvesting, storing and freezing. A comprehensive plant directory follows, with individual entries on over 150 of the most commonly available vegetables, fruits and herbs. These offer useful comparative tables to the frequently confusing issue of which variety of cabbage or whatever to select. The book covers "all the tastiest and most versatile" fruits and vegetables and deals with different styles and uses. The final section of the book covers plant problems, with troubleshooting pages guiding you through diagnosis of the causes of your problems and some advice on how to solve them.
Somewhat reminiscent in its handy tables of the renowned Hessayon guides, Kitchen Garden provides an inspirational and practical guide.
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One of Dr Hessayon's classic and evergreen Expert bestsellers. Slightly old-fashioned, but dependable. Clearly laid out in his inimitable style with concise, dogmatic and accurate information.
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One of Dr Hessayon's classic and evergreen Expert bestsellers. Slightly old-fashioned, but dependable. Clearly laid out in his inimitable style with concise, dogmatic and accurate information.
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The genus of Vacciniums includes the well-known blueberries, and the first cousins cranberries and lingonberries. Within that subdivision are gloriously named Rabbiteyes, cowberries and huckleberries, as well as other shrubs grown for purely decorative reasons.
The author, Jennifer Trehane, runs a blueberry and cranberry nursery in Dorset, combining practical commercial experience with a Bachelor's degree in horticulture.
'Blueberries' is very detailed - much more information than the amateur gardener would ever need. The photographic section solved a mystery in this reviewer's life - how are blueberries harvested. It shows a hand rake, looking rather like a dustpan with a comb at the front that scoops up the berries. I've got to get me one of those. It also shows the grown up version, a mechanical harvester taller than a man, which straddles the bushes and beats them with little poles to release the fruit. Don't get trapped in one of them.
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Brothers Adam and James Caplin are authors of Instant Gardens. Adam set up
the Alexandra Palace garden centre and has co-designed a prize-winning
Chelsea Flower Show. James has been involved in securing lottery funding for
the successful rejuvenation of Tavistock Gardens, a community park.
This book describes how to 'Grow delicious fruit, vegetables and herbs in a
really small space'. And who could argue with that?
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Heligan's Kitchen Garden achieved fame through the TV series when Tim Smit and his team reclaimed the overgrown jungle and turned it back into the productive star it had been a hundred years before. Tom Petherick worked in those gardens in the mid-90s and has now written a book that combines practical gardening lore, a history of productive gardening in Victorian and Edwardian times, and the tale of the painstaking restoration of those gardens.
After rather too much praise for the gardeners, who are unfailingly passionate, enthusiastic, dedicated, charming, responsible, thorough and skilled, with comprehensive knowledge allied to a lust for further knowledge… (which they probably are, but enough already) Petherick turns his attention, and his wife's photographic lens, to the varying elements of the Kitchen Garden , including vegetables, fruit, glasshouse fruit, and the flower garden.
The last two chapters deal with the pleasure grounds, and the jungle (are they part of the Kitchen Gardens?). The pleasure grounds are run by Mary (no one is more in tune with the needs and requirements of this part of the garden, and Mary is always the first to work in the mornings…) and her trusty and muscular assistants, but luckily all are tireless. And Mary is a wizard propagator.
But what is to become of those of us who are a little less dedicated and charming, or not such wizard propagators? A little less praise for the team, fabulous as they undoubtedly are, and a little more practical information and history, would have made this book a less irritating read.
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That's it for this category. Click here to suggest a title and we'll do our best to review it.
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