This extraordinary book contains in one unique volume, the most wide-ranging history of apples ever written and a detailed survey of over 2,000 of the world's apple varieties. Beautifully illustrated with 32 exquisite colour paintings, the last edition of this book received many accolades and was quickly recognised as a classic. Complete with a fully revised directory covering all the varieties of apple to be found in the world's largest apple collection, The New Book of Apples includes full historical, geographical and botanical details as well as tasting notes on each type of apple. Exploring the role of apples in cooking, cider making, gardening, myth and medicine, this is an indispensable reference guide.

Discover how to keep your garden in the best of health. Ideal for first-time gardeners, Grow Pests & Diseases contains everything you need to know to prevent and treat a wide range of plant pests, diseases, disorders, and more. Far more than a simple list of treatments, this book shows you how to keep plants in top condition, recognise the signs of ill-health, and decide whether or not intervention is needed, while the fully illustrated ailment directory is organised by symptom and plant type for quick and easy identification. Packed with practical, jargon-free know-how, this easy-to-use guide has everything you need to know to help your garden Grow.

The Low-Tech, No-Grow-Lights Approach to Abundant Harvest Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers good news: with nothing more than a cupboard and a windowsill, you can grow all the fresh salad greens you need for the winter months (or throughout the entire year) with no lights, no pumps, and no greenhouse. Longtime gardener Peter Burke was tired of the growing season ending with the first frost, but due to his busy work schedule and family life, didn't have the time or interest in high-input grow lights or greenhouses. Most techniques for growing what are commonly referred to as "microgreens" left him feeling overwhelmed and uninterested. There had to be a simpler way to grow greens for his family indoors. After some research and diligent experimenting, Burke discovered he was right-there was a way! And it was even easier than he ever could have hoped, and the greens more nutrient packed. He didn't even need a south-facing window, and he already had most of the needed supplies just sitting in his pantry. The result: healthy, homegrown salad greens at a fraction of the cost of buying them at the market. The secret: start them in the dark. Growing "Soil Sprouts"-Burke's own descriptive term for sprouted seeds grown in soil as opposed to in jars-employs a method that encourages a long stem without expansive roots, and provides delicious salad greens in just seven to ten days, way earlier than any other method, with much less work. Indeed, of all the ways to grow immature greens, this is the easiest and most productive technique. Forget about grow lights and heat lamps! This book is a revolutionary and inviting guide for both first-time and experienced gardeners in rural or urban environments. All you need is a windowsill or two. In fact, Burke has grown up to six pounds of greens per day using just the windowsills in his kitchen! Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening offers detailed step-by-step instructions to mastering this method (hint: it's impossible not to succeed, it's so easy!), tools and accessories to have on hand, seeds and greens varieties, soil and compost, trays and planters, shelving, harvest and storage, recipes, scaling up to serve local markets, and much more.

If you love the joys of eating home-garden vegetables but always thought those joys had to stop at the end of summer, this book is for you. Eliot Coleman introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. He shows how North American gardeners can successfully use that sun to raise a wide variety of traditional winter vegetables in backyard cold frames and plastic covered tunnel greenhouses without supplementary heat. Coleman expands upon his own experiences with new ideas learned on a winter-vegetable pilgrimage across the ocean to the acknowledged kingdom of vegetable cuisine, the southern part of France, which lies on the 44th parallel, the same latitude as his farm in Maine. This story of sunshine, weather patterns, old limitations and expectations, and new realities is delightfully innovative in the best gardening tradition. Four-Season Harvest will have you feasting on fresh produce from your garden all through the winter. To learn more about the possibility of a four-season farm, please visit Coleman's website www.fourseasonfarm.com.

Vegetable gardens can be designed for flavor AND fun Niki Jabbour, author of the best-selling "The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener, " has collected 73 plans for novel and inspiring food gardens from her favorite superstar gardeners, including Amy Stewart, Amanda Thomsen, Barbara Pleasant, Dave DeWitt, and Jessi Bloom. You ll find a garden that provides salad greens 52 weeks a year, another that supplies your favorite cocktail ingredients, one that you plant on a balcony, one that encourages pollinators, one that grows 24 kinds of chile peppers, and dozens more. Each plan is fully illustrated and includes a profile of the contributor, the story behind the design, and a plant list."

Backyards, rooftops, courtyards and balconies are sprouting with herbs, ballooning with fruit and bursting with vegies across our urban landscapes. Slowly, but we certainly believe surely, people are embracing the joy of gardening and the more relaxed lifestyle it brings. There is a change in the air and we are excited to watch it unfold. Enter the completely addictive world of urban growing, where you can pocket a slice of farm life in the city, even if just for a few minutes a day. Growing your own lemongrass for a mojito or rhubarb to make jam isn't just about producing food, rewarding though that is. It's an antidote to the relentless pursuit to 'do it all'. It doesn't matter the size of your space, or your skill, the garden is a place for everyone. Expert horticulturalist Byron Smith has created urban food oases in even the tiniest of plots and in this book he gives you the know-how to grow your favourite ingredients as well as killer recipes to make the most of your harvest. So tuck this book under your arm and grab a beverage with the other - the time to slow down and grow is now. The good life is waiting for you.

A new approach to foraging Roger Phillips is the legendary godfather of foraging. Drawing upon decades of experience, his knowledge of wild food is unrivalled and in this richly illustrated book he shares some of his most recently gathered wisdom, collected from around the world. Roger reveals the edible and therapeutic secrets of our fields, woodlands and flower beds, and suggests tips for sourcing delicious morsels growing throughout the countryside and in our gardens. He also describes the native habitat and history of many fascinating plants and fungi, both common and unusual: from the camas bulbs eaten by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, to the Italian and Spanish favourite, Caesar's amanita; from hostas, the familiar garden foliage consumed as a succulent vegetable in Japan, to the newly popular Australian citrus fruits. The Worldwide Forager is divided into four sections: mushrooms and fungi; flowers, leaves and herbs; fruit and nuts; and roots and tubers, and Roger uses each one to provide a wide range of ideas for making your meals more colourful, delicious and sustainable.

The SEED To PANTRY Planner is the first-ever planner that helps readers calculate everything from seed to pantry in order to grow, cook, and preserve a year's worth of food. The SEED To PANTRY Planner is a game changer. No more guessing how many tomato plants are needed to grow to feed a family. DIY farmers simply insert the number of people in their family and get the number of plants that they need to plant. The SEED To PANTRY Planner is an actual yearly planner which helps to keep everything in one place, including month-at-a-glance pages for readers to record appointments along with birthdays and week-at-a-glance pages to record daily to-do lists. Within The SEED To PANTRY Planner, there are: Charts for food preservation through home canning Charts for food preservation through home dehydrating Generous worksheet space Recipe multiplier worksheets Worksheets for prioritizing goals Graphs for planning a garden Seed starting calendars Worksheets to keep track of herbs and roots used medicinally Monthly budget planner worksheets Weekly menu planning sheets that include planning for preserving

Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds.

Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author has grown seed crops of every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden.

This newly updated and greatly expanded Second Edition includes additional information about how to start each vegetable from seed, which has turned the book into a complete growing guide. Local knowledge about seed starting techniques for each vegetable has been shared by expert gardeners from seven regions of the United States-Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast/Gulf Coast, Midwest, Southwest, Central West Coast, and Northwest.

Selected as a Book of the Year 2017 in You Magazine 'A lavish monthly guide to getting the most from your garden' Daily Mail A punnet of plums from your tree, a handful of gooseberries; home-grown nuts and herbs, and a few freshly laid eggs from your hens - all enjoyed in your own small plot. What could be more satisfying? The Garden Farmer is an evocative journal and monthly guide to getting the most out of your garden throughout the year. Whether you are a keen gardener looking for inspiration, or just starting out and wanting to rediscover and reclaim your patch of earth, Sunday Telegraph garden-columnist Francine Raymond lays the groundwork for a bountiful year of garden farming. Maybe you would like to get outside more, grow a few essential vegetables, some fruit trees or bushes for preserving, and create a scented kitchen garden to provide for you year round. Or perhaps you will raise a small flock of ducks or geese, or even a couple of pigs? Could this be the year you decorate your home with nature's adornments, encourage wildlife back to pollinate your trees and plants, and spend celebratory hours in a haven of your own creation? Each chapter of The Garden Farmer offers insight into the topics and projects you might be contemplating that month, along with planting notes and timely advice, and a recipe that honours the fruits of your labour. With just a little effort and planning, every garden can be tended in tune with nature, and every gardener can enjoy a host of seasonal delights from their own soil. Keep up-to-date with Francine's gardening adventures on her blog at kitchen-garden-hens.co.uk.

Like the idea of growing your own fruit, veg and herbs but don't have the room or energy? "Crops in Pots" is a user-friendly guide to getting a taste of self-sufficiency, growing wherever you can grab the space - whether it be your patio, balcony or window sill. Apart from the many joys of growing your own food, the benefits of container gardening are manifold: accessibility, portability, soil choice, easier pest and disease control...Find out how to get started and choose your pots, how to grow and harvest - including the most appropriate crops for small spaces, how to deal with problems and lots of great tips on how to be successful on a shoestring.

This practical guide explains the techniques you need to grow a variety of vegetables in any available space. Along with methods, tips and horticulutral expertise there are lots of inspirational ideas to keep you eating your own crops all year round. It offers simple and concise instructions to get you started.

Ever wondered why supermarket potatoes are so bland and boring? In the Andes, where potatoes originate, there are thousands of varieties with bright colours, beautiful markings, unusual shapes and variations of flavour and cooking quality. In the modern world, industrialised monoculture has reduced all this diversity down to a handful of near identical varieties. However, it's incredibly easy to grow potatoes from seed, and every seed is full of unexplored diversity. Best known for her Daughter of the Soil blog, Rebsie Fairholm gives clear and practical instructions for how to make seeds from potato berries, how to cross different varieties, how to choose which ones to experiment with, and how to keep your newly created varieties growing into the future. She gives examples from her own experiences with all kinds of potatoes, from ordinary garden varieties to historic Scottish heirlooms and rare Andean landraces, and explores the different colour possibilities, from orange flesh to purple flesh. Our ancestors created their own vegetable varieties in their gardens and took it for granted as a completely normal thing to do; and then the commercial age came along and changed our habits, and so it became something of a lost art. This unique book is a small step towards changing that.

Growing vegetables can be a tricky business, and even the most experienced of gardeners will occasionally need to turn to a trusted tome for some handy advice. The Veg Grower's Almanac is just such a book - a compendium of month-by-month tips, advice and items of interest. With sage advice from old Gardeners' World hands coupled with tips on the best varieties to grow and timely advice on how best to look after your plot, this attractive collection blends practical advice with evocative writing and fascinating facts. Illustrated throughout with charming drawings and sketches, The Veg Grower's Almanac is a welcome additional to any gardener's shelf - from hands-on instructions for preparing a seed bed or trying new varieties of tomato to fascinating little-known facts about our favourite crops.

Home-produced food almost always begins in the vegetable garden. So, too, begins "The Backyard Homestead". Planning charts and a thorough vegetable-by-vegetable growing guide are accompanied by simple techniques for canning, drying, and freezing the garden's bounty. The plant section continues with the hows, whens, and wheres of growing fruits, herbs, and nuts. Hardworking food growers will be delighted to reward themselves with healthful herbal teas and homemade wines and cordials. Recipes and simple techniques are included for the beginning home wine maker. Part two moves from plant to animal products, beginning with an overview of chicken keeping. Readers will find charts, lists, and helpful tips for collecting, storing, and using eggs, along with advice on butchering chickens and cooking the meat. Additional chapters focus on raising larger animals, such as cows, sheep, and goats, either for their meat or for their milk. Milk producers will find plenty of information on making simple yogurt, butter, and ice cream, as well as all the basics on getting started with cheese making. Additional information on rabbits and pigs rounds out the meat-raising sections. An overview of foraging and detailed information on installing and caring for honeybees wrap up "The Backyard Homestead". Storey's trusted advice on gardening, cooking, brewing, cheese making, and raising animals proves once and for all that it truly is possible to eat entirely from the backyard.

You can't beat growing, picking and eating fruit from your very own garden. This book will guide you through the processes and pitfalls of fruit-growing, from propagating your first seeds, or planting your first fruit tree, to selecting the ripe fruits for your dinner table. Includes: * guidance on selecting all types of fruit for home growing * handy tips for maximizing flavour and cropping * illustrated A-Z profiles of recommended fruit * practical advice on care, harvesting, storage, pruning, propagation and pest control * step-by-step illustrations showing essential techniques Alan Titchmarsh imparts a lifetime of expertise in these definitive practical guides for beginners and experienced gardeners. Step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions guide you through the basic gardening skills and on to the advanced techniques, providing everything you need to grow delicious fruit in your garden.

A one-stop treasure trove from the experts at RHS that covers every aspect of gardening! Dreaming of having the perfect garden? Does it have a vegetable patch? Classic borders or flowers to attract wildlife? A picturesque garden for all to marvel at is achievable with this gardening guide giving you the vital tools to achieve whatever you desire for your dream garden. Delve into this concise and practical guide to find all the gardening ideas and advice you need to create a spectacular, thriving garden. Here's what you'll find inside: - A comprehensive guide covering everything from growing in containers to planting a garden from scratch - Fully illustrated with detailed step-by-steps and inspirational gardening ideas - Detailed beginner's guide to garden design, including step-by-step instructions for simple hard landscaping such as building a raised bed, creating a pond, or laying a patio - Covers all aspects of planting styles, including "recipes" to make the most of different types of plants - Easy-to-follow guides on how to water, feed, prune and propagate your garden - Advice on problem-solving and controlling weeds and pests - A chapter full of Plant Chooser galleries to help you grow the right plant in the right place at the right time Learn how to plan, sow, plant, and protect your garden throughout the year with expert tips and techniques that will see your garden flourish. Discover how to design with plants by using colour and texture to create inspirational displays, and keep them at their best with jargon-free guides to pruning and preventing pests and diseases. Undertake a new endeavour of DIY landscaping projects, which include laying your own patio or lawn, or building a raised bed ready for you to grow your own fruit and vegetables. Choose from a catalogue of hundreds of different ornamental plants to find varieties that will thrive in your garden's climate and provide seasonal interest throughout the year. The Complete Gardener's Manual is the perfect all-around practical book for gardening beginners, also for those looking for a step up from a beginners' gardening book.