Good Veg growers book

[rob39]

Looking for a good veg growing book for a friend, one that advises on growing year round veg, month by month guide to sowing growing etc

[rustylady]

The Allotment Handbook by Caroline Foley is a good one.

[VirginVegGrower]

Allotment month by month is a favourite reference of mine, or anything by Charles Dowding.

[Linzy]

Organic kitchen and garden by Ysanne Spevack, Christine Lavelle & Michael Lavelle. My mum brought this for me bout 5 years ago and its the only reference book i ever use.

[hellybore]

My OH bought me the Allotment Source Book by Caroline Foley when I first got my allotment. It is an excellent all-round reference book.

[Potstubsdustbins]

If I could only have one book it would be 'The Vegetable & Herb Expert' by Dr D G Hessayon.

Full of info and not expensive less than a tenner when I bought mine.

Potty

[veggiechicken]

Looking for a good veg growing book for a friend, one that advises on growing year round veg, month by month guide to sowing growing etc

Does your friend have an allotment or grow in their garden on a smaller scale? You need a book that matches!

[LincolnshireFloyd]

If you want something that is succinct but contains all the information you need plus have demonstration pictures on planting methods you can't go far wrong with 'The Vegetable Garden Displayed' by the Royal Horticultural Society. Says what it does on the tin. Well out of print but you can still get them on Amazon. A classic of its time. It's my first reference point every time.

Here's a review from Amazon.....

"The vegetable garden displayed". It sounds almost 17th century, doesn't it? This book has appeared, in various editions, for decades, and still remains the best buy for the serious vegetable grower. Forget all the funky 'in a bound he was free'-style allotment spin-off books with their profligate colour photographs, this is the one which will yield results year after year. From the point of view of sheer usefulness, one of the more up-to-date editions will undoubtedly be more practical, but this older edition has enormous charm.

Of course, vegetable varieties and garden chemicals have changed in the last 50 years, and the reader will have to bear that in mind. But the advice on soil preparation, timing, and proper professional cultivation techniques will hold true. And the lovely "how to do it" illustrations, featuring old codger with his trousers pulled up to armpit level, are worth the money alone. Plus the cover, with its charming wood engraving, will look just SOOOOOOO cool in your carefully outfitted vintage style potting shed! I bought this for a friend who is just starting grow asparagus and wants to make a proper job of it, and it was greated with great delight.

[rob39]

Does your friend have an allotment or grow in their garden on a smaller scale? You need a book that matches!

Small garden, beds roughly 15m2 in total + tubs

[veggiechicken]

I did wonder Books about growing on an allotment can be quite overwhelming when you don't have that much ground. Potty's suggestion of the Dr Hessayson book is a good one.

[SarzWix]

Food from Your Garden and Allotment: Amazon.co.uk: Reader's Digest: Books

Has absolutely everything including sowing guides, planting plans, month by month, recipes.

[veggiechicken]

I have that one - its good and only £4.99 from the Book people Food from Your Garden & Allotment(Hardback):9780276443367

[WPG]

If I could only have one book it would be 'The Vegetable & Herb Expert' by Dr D G Hessayon.

Full of info and not expensive less than a tenner when I bought mine.

Potty

Another vote here for Dr Hessayon. So much information in a relatively compact inexpensive book. Rob, it doesn't give a calendar guide to sowing as such, though does go through each vegetable and herb alphabetically giving the essential growers guide to each (including optimum sowing/planting months).
I've a couple of books which do give month by month guides, but find they're not that suited to the NI climate anyhow - probably same the issue for Ayrshire I'd guess

[WendyC]

Sadly I have the RHS Good Fruit and Veg guide by the bed in case I urgently need to look something up in the middle of the night. I like the explanations of different varieties of fruit and veg. Think I bought it for a few pounds from the B00k Peeps.

[julian91]

Grow your own food by Richard Gianfrancesco, How to grow organic by Chistine & Michel Lavelle, Allotment month by month by Alan Buckingham, Grow your own veg by Carol Klein, Gardening from Berryfieds by Monty Don (the kitchen gardening is at the back) The Allotment Source book by Caroline Forley , oh and lost the plot by allotment junkie have purchased this book on it's way! Here's a e-mail address too purchased this Grow Your Own hope this help :-)