Product Description

The demand for locally sourced organic foods continues to rise. This resource is a prime reference for the many who are growing or wanting to grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruits.

The book features superb full-color photographs and illustrations and an easy-to-use A-Z directory. Comprehensive growing, harvesting and preserving tips and a wealth of recipes are a boon to gardeners and cooks alike.

Practical aspects of gardening are explained in detail, with in-depth sections on creating a garden, pollination, soil fertility and greenhouse growing. Some of the topics covered are:

Nutritional values

The most useful and most recommended varieties

Plant hardiness, propagation and growing guidelines

Cropping, harvesting and storing

Weed, pest and disease control

Ornamental and wildlife value

Pruning and training

Companion planting

Container growing.

A yearly maintenance calendar, glossary, further reading section, seed sources list and detailed index round out this outstanding book.

(20060723)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #660759 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

About the Author

Matthew Biggs lectures at the Royal Horticultural Society. His other books include Matthew Biggs' Complete Book of Vegetables.

Jekka McVicar has won several top awards from the Royal Horticultural Society. Her other books include The Complete Book of Herbs.

Bob Flowerdew is an author and a lecturer for the Royal Horticultural Society.

(20060302)

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Customer Reviews

Fun and informative!
This book is wonderful! Every section gives you a in-depth overview of the vegetable, herb or fruit; detailing different varieties and how they rank in terms of taste and/or hardiness, how to propagate, grow, maintain, harvest and store. Plus gives tips of typical pests/diseases and how to avoid them. Very helpful are the "companion planting" paragraphs, explaining which plants do best next to each other. And to top it all off, each section includes a "culinary" and "medicinal" section, informing you of the best ways to use your crops once harvested. The pictures are beautiful and the wording is easy to understand and to the point. This is a great book for any gardener's reference shelf. Fun to read cover-to-cover, but set up so that you can dip in and out as you choose.

One of my favourites....
...for everyday gardening reference. My husband and I refer to this book often. Lots of great information, good detailed info on herbs as well. We leave it out on the table so that it's always handy. Easy to understand, covers a wide variety of things. We even found information for our Quince tree, and with recipes for each herb/fruit/veggie, it's definitely worth its money.