The New Kitchen Garden: How to Grow Some of What You Eat No Matter Where You Live

This is probably the best book onkitchen gardening to appear in the lastfew years.Mark Diacono runs Otter Farm, theUK’s only climate change farm andhome to orchards of olives, peaches,almonds and apricots. As well asplanting and maintaining the farm’svineyards, forest garden and vegetablepatch. Mark also leads the Garden Teamat Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall’s RiverCottage - running and growing courses,giving talks and hosting events at RiverCottage HQ and appearing in the RiverCottage TV series.In the opening chapter of ‘Over TheGarden Wall’ he sets out his newapproach to kitchen gardening. The oldperception of the Victorian walledgarden - hard working place ofproduction, raising the staples of lifefrom the soil with sweat, spade andhoe, pleasure being incidental andsurvival and self-sufficiency king.There is more to it than this heespouses.He says your kitchen garden, whateverform it takes can be a place of pleasure,of eye-opening flavours, where life’sbalance can be restored. Whether it’ssolitude, a place to share with lovedones, exercise or relax, your kitchengarden offers it in abundance. Markthinks we need a new kitchen gardenthat relates to everyone; that marrieshow and what we eat with our ideas ofhow we grow.He wants you to have the kitchengarden that suits you, that works for youand that provides you with fine food andenjoyment in equal measure.The second chapter ‘Beginning’explores the subject of what to grow -favourites, transformers, multis,secondary pleasures, make life easier,faders and challengers among the sub-headings. All food for thought1The third chapter is a comprehensivesection of vegetables, fruit and nuts,herbs and spices plus complimentarygrowing charts. The photos throughoutare superb and his text is easy to followand full of thought provoking ideas andwonderful tips and suggestions.All vegetables are mentioned includingsome unfamiliar varieties such asagretti, buck’ horn plantain, callaloo,mashua, siberian pea tree and viola“heartsease”.Chapter four is untypical for this type ofgarden book. ‘Open Gardens’ is thegardens of eleven people. FromSaumarez Park Walled Garden inGuernsey, Tresillian House in Cornwall,International Solidarity Centre inReading, Chris Achilleos’ Allotment inLondon, Lucinda’s Food Forest inLondon and well known gardens ofCharles Dowding, Anni Kelsey’sPerennial Garden in Wales and LeManoir Heritage Garden in Oxfordshireare among them.There is a wealth of useful informationhere, with extensive descriptions oftheir patches, describing the mainfeatures and why the particular plantsare chosen. Again the illustrations areexcellent of the properties and produce.Chapter five is ‘Creating Your KitchenGarden’. This covers the topics ofknowing your soil, compost, weeds -both annual and perennial, dig or nodig, seed sowing of all types, seedlings,plants, mycorrhizal fungi, plantingplants and trees, propagation, cuttingsand succession.Chapter six - ‘Ongoing Care’ featureswatering, tackling weeds, mulches,manures, green manures, wormeries,compost making, liquid feeds, plantprotection and companion planting.Also encouraging beneficial wildlife,crop rotation, pruning and winterprotection.This is an exceptional book on kitchengardening. Soon to be become a classicI am sure .Don’t trust me, get it foryourself. You will not be disappointed,but even intrigued and inspired.

Beautifully photographed, laid out usefully, and I especially like the overviews of OTHER gardens and gardeners. My kids are fed up with the fact that here at Common Farm we only grow flowers and nothing useful like food, so they have made their own raised beds, with the help of Fabrizio, and so far have sown carrots, radishes and made me buy them strawberry and raspberry plants. I think they'll be inspired by the junior gardener in the book. I love to see them with dirty hands, and love even more the fact that they're so disparaging of our flower growing that they rebel by wanting to grow food.

Marc D is a gardening hero of mine. I lent my first copy to someone hoping to inspire them while I had no garden of my own.I do have a garden now... and my copy was lost when I bought this. (Since been returned... doh)

Life changing guide book into growing a variety of useable stuff

As a beginner gardener I was looking for some inspiration and this book delivered. There are lots of photos and the layout is really simple and easy to dip in and out of. I loved the section looking at different approaches for gardens - it's definitely a book I'll be leafing through again and again.

Easily the best gardening book I've read in years. Clear, easy-to-read and bursting with fresh ideas.

Love this book.Easy to read and sets out the information in a reader friendly manner.Has information on plants a lot of other gardening books don't .

An excellent book to enthuse and excite about all the possibilities of edible gardening. Beautifully illustrated with tempting photography. Written in a confident and engaging style. A must for all who love to potter around their garden!

This is a wonderful guide for those of us without a green thumb but who what a garden.

Do not have it.

The New Kitchen Garden ist das bisher das hilfreichste Buch, das ich über Planung und Pflege von Gemüsegärten gelesen habe. Extrem hilfreiches Nachschlagewerk über die Ansprüche und Vorlieben einer großen Anzahl (oft ungewöhnlicher) Pflanzen.