If you want a vibrant, chemical-free vegetable garden, companion planting is the solution. Did you know tomatoes produce a natural insecticide that can help protect carrots against pests? Or that planting mint near lettuce can repel slugs? Every gardener knows that the key to an abundant harvest in their vegetable garden is controlling pests and disease, while still maintaining a healthy growing environment. But it is possible to have a healthy, thriving vegetable garden without using dangerous chemicals? It is, as long as you know how to pair up the right plants. Organic gardeners have known for years that planting the right plants together is the key to minimizing pests, improving soil quality, and increasing the yield of their gardens, and almost any vegetable you can grow likely has a beneficial companion. Companion planting is the ideal way to avoid using chemicals, while still increasing the efficiency of your garden. Expert organic gardener Brian Lowell will teach you how to use plants to create a beautiful, vibrant vegetable garden that will be free of toxic chemicals. Here's what you'll find inside: Handy companion planting pairings for all of the most common garden vegetables Practical, simple photography and colorful illustrations for dozens of beneficial planting configurations Expert advice from a master gardener that is specifically designed for beginners Loads of troubleshooting tips for fixing common issues with companion-planted gardens Tips for setting up the perfect vegetable garden, including practical advice on watering, soil management, troubleshooting, and more

Grapes are the most popular and widely grown fruit in the world. From the tropics to Alaska, grapes will grow successfully in almost every climate. Whether you raise them for fresh eating, or for making wine, juice, or jellies and preserves, the right grapes will reward you with abundant crops for a modest investment of time and effort. Now for the first time comes a book for grape growers who wish to use organic growing methods to raise healthy, thriving vineyards in the backyard or on a small commercial scale. The Grape Grower distills the broad knowledge and long-time personal experience of Lon Rombough, one of North America's foremost authorities on viticulture. From finding and preparing the right site for your vineyard to training, trellising, and pruning vines to growing new grapes from seeds and cuttings, The Grape Grower offers thorough and accessible information on all the basics. The chapters on grape species, varieties, and hybrids are alone worth the price of a college course in viticulture. Technical information on the major (and minor) insect pests and diseases that affect grapes, as well as their organic controls, makes this book an invaluable reference that readers will turn to again and again. Rombaugh also provides a wealth of information on hardy but little-known grapes that are native to North America, and on a wide range of topics, including: pruning neglected or overgrown vines growing grapes on arbors and in greenhouses controlling animal pests in the vineyard bunch grapes and muscadine grapes for the South winter protection, and how to increase the hardiness of grapes creating your own new varieties

A guide to creating harmony between the vegetable garden and the wildlife who consider it part of their habitat, this book teaches readers to understand how the garden fits into that environment. It explains how to start with a healthy garden, how to create beneficial relationships through thoughtful planting, how to attract beneficial insects and pollinators, and how to purposefully create habitats for wildlife with strategies to help garden and wildlife peacefully coexist. Gardeners are just one book away from a more peaceful, stress-free vegetable garden.

Since the 1950s we have lost 63 per cent of our orchards through development or neglect, and even though we have been able to grow 3,000 varieties of apple in England, almost 70 per cent of apples we buy are imported. Common Ground has worked to interest local communities in creating and saving orchards to provide fruit and nuts, havens for wildlife and places of beauty. The Community Orchards Handbook shows how to start your own Community Orchard, from getting support to tackling legal issues, organising work, selling produce and enjoying together the fruits of your work. It gives suggestions on 'apple mapping' and saving local varieties, and practical advice on planting, harvesting and safeguarding your orchard. It includes a comprehensive resources section and is full of examples of diverse Community Orchard projects across the UK.

Whatever the size of your garden - whether it's a tiny patio or even if you only have a windowbox available - John Harrison can help you to grow fresh tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, runner beans and much more to provide delicious food for your table. * Discover which are the easiest vegetables and fruit to grow in your particular situation * Make the most of your containers and growbags * Find out about dwarf fruit varieties * Benefit from John's practical experience and his no-nonsense advice * Enjoy the taste of homegrown produce, free of chemical residues

Let Paul and Robin, aka Two Dirty Boys, take you through the process of reusing items to grow plants from kitchen cuttings otherwise bound for the waste bin. Vegetables have the extraordinary ability to regenerate themselves without fertilization - even your everyday kitchen scraps. With step-by-step illustrations, this guide shows you how to grow twenty vegetables that are every bit as delicious as their first incarnations. Ranging from fruits and herbs that will sprout in a matter of days, to vegetables that will delight in later seasons, Regrown is an easy-to-follow guide to growing new plants, with a focus on repurposing produce found in any supermarket. The projects include everything from carrot tops and mushroom stalks to ginger, avocado and even pineapple, with tips on how to use them in the kitchen, too. Grow new plants from your cooking scraps - all you need is a jar and a tapful of water... then just let nature do its thing.

A guide to self-sustainablity in either the city or the countryside for both the beginner gardener and the experienced farmhand. It takes the reader through all the stages of crop growing, with helpful drawings throughout. A recipe section suggests delightful and nourishing ways to consume the grown produce.

Your Backyard Bounty Awaits! You can grow beautiful, healthy, delicious veggies and herbs right from the start - just follow the trustworthy advice found in The Beginner's Guide to Growing Great Vegetables. Expert gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner shares all the information you need to create a thriving garden, from facts about soil and sun to tips on fertilising, mulching, and watering. Regional planting charts show what to plant when, and a month-by-month planner takes you from January through December. Profiles of popular edibles explain exactly how to plant, care for, and harvest your bounty. Whether your garden grows in the ground, on a balcony, or in containers on a sunny patio, this is your guide to grow-your-own success.

Many of us want to increase our self-sufficiency, but few have access to the ideal five sunny, gently sloping acres of rich, loamy, well-drained soil. Jenni Blackmore presents a highly entertaining, personal account of how permaculture can be practiced in adverse conditions, allowing anyone to learn to live more sustainably in a less-than-perfect world. With a rallying cry of "If we can do it, you can too," she distills the wisdom of twenty years of trial and error into a valuable teaching tool. The perfect antidote to dense, high-level technical manuals, Permaculture for the Rest of Us presents the fundamental principles of this sometimes confusing concept in a humorous, reader-friendly way. Each chapter focuses on a specific method or technique, interspersing straightforward explanations with the author's own experiences. Learn how to successfully retrofit even the smallest homestead using skills such as: No-till vs. till gardening, composting, and soil-building Natural pest control and integrating small livestock Basic greenhouse construction Harvesting, preservation, and more Ideal for urban dreamers, suburbanites and country-dwellers alike, this inspirational and instructional "encouragement manual" is packed with vibrant photographs documenting the author's journey from adversity to abundance. Jenni Blackmore is a farmer, artist, writer and certified Permaculture Design Consultant who built her house on a rocky, windswept island off the coast of Nova Scotia almost twenty-five years ago and has been stumbling along the road to self-sufficient living ever since. A successful micro-farmer, she produces most of her family's meat, eggs, fruit, and vegetables, in spite of often-challenging conditions.

Selected as one of the best gardening reads of 2019 by The Daily Mail Short of outdoor space but want to grow fruit and vegetables? Congratulations. Really, lucky you. Not for you the back-breaking trudge of tending large spaces of land, the weeding, digging and pest vigilance. Gluts? They will mean nothing to you. Instead you can look forward to small but perfectly formed bursts of flavour. Handfuls of fresh leaves, berries and tomatoes, just when you want them, and at arm's reach. As more of us live in cities with restricted outside spaces, growing food becomes all the more important, not just for the delicious results, but as a mindful way to connect us to the seasons and to nature. Full of tried-and-tested, fool-proof crop ideas exclusively tailored for containers, raised beds and small gardens, Crops in Tight Spots guarantees vegetable growing success for even the most newbie of gardeners and limited of spaces.

Delicious Italian-inspired recipes from a New Zealand home garden Nostrana means homegrown, ours; growing food with the intent of sharing it. Inspired by the abundant lemon trees and trellised tomato vines of her Italian grandparents' vegetable garden, Bri DiMattina started her own edible pantry in her back garden and discovered the joys of bringing food from seed to table. Organised seasonally, and with growing guides for each ingredient, Nostrana shares simple, gorgeous and delicious recipes with fresh vegetables and fruits you can easily grow and harvest yourself. Just a taste of the mouth-watering, Stromboli-inspired recipes in Nostrana includes: fried artichokes with caper mayonnaise strawberry and amaretto slushies green bean panzanella bottled spaghetti zucchini arancini rhubarb and custard tortes BBQ parmigiana and limoncello.

An infallible guide to vegetable growing for gardeners with little space but big ambitions. It's time to get your hands dirty! This gardening book will help you learn how to grow, nurture, and harvest more than 50 types of fruits and vegetables. The bright photos, step-by-step illustrations, and foolproof advice will get you growing in no time. Perfect for beginners as well as keen gardeners. This planting book will teach you how to plan your space, be it a small raised bed, some pots, or a large vegetable patch. Maximise your harvest and explore different planting themes that suit your needs! You'll also discover useful tips for selecting plants to match your theme. Want to know how to keep pests away and your plants healthy? RHS Step-by-Step Veg Patchcontains brilliant expert advice on how to grow more than 50 different crops. Simply look up the specific crop you want to grow, and follow the photos and clear instructions on planting, nurturing, and harvesting. You'll also discover the latest popular new cultivars, crops, and heirloom varieties in this updated edition. Dig Into Vegetable Gardening Enjoy a successful harvest with this organised and stress-free approach to gardening. Whether you're new to gardening or interested in saving costs, this book offers easy-to-follow steps for starting and sustaining your very own vegetable garden. It also makes for a perfect gift for the gardening enthusiast in your life. Whatever the size of the garden, this vegetable garden planner offers you: - Beautiful photos - Step-by-step illustrations - Foolproof gardening advice RHS Step-by-Step Veg Patch is part of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) gardening series from DK Books. DK's series of gardening books present handy advice and tips to expand your gardening knowledge. With DK's gardening books you can discover all you need to know about plants, shrubs, trees, fruit, and vegetables, for all gardening novices or green-fingered experts.

The Pig is a collection of restaurants with rooms in Hampshire, Devon, Dorset and Somerset - and soon in Kent, West Sussex and Cornwall. Now, everyone can enjoy The Pig from the comfort of their own homes. Among the pages of The Pig you will find an idiosyncratic, seasonal approach to the good life, with delicious recipes, how-to guides, tips, tricks and stories. Inside the pages of The Pig you will find: Classic recipes from Nan's rice pudding to proper fish pie, porchetta, gammon with parsley sauce, devilish devilled kidneys on toast, a right old eton mess and even a pink blancmange bunny. The Pig's Guide to Pigs from identifying different breeds and selecting the best cuts of meat to making your own sausages, crackling and charcuterie. How to pickle, forage and identify edible flowers and suggestions on how to bring the weird and wonderful vegetables, fruits and salads from the garden into the kitchen. Noble wine, simple food from classic cocktails to modern twists and all the best accompaniments. Interior design recreating the comfort and elegance of The Pig at home. Setting the scene, The Pigs top tips on hosting your own festivals, summer feasts and winter gatherings, including creating the perfect playlist to the best recipes to cook outdoors. Praise for the book: 'For us at home, the cookbook provides the perfect inspiration.' The Telegraph Magazine Praise for The Pig Hotels: Rick Stein: 'Dinner, bed and breakfast at The Pig, any Pig, is a comforting thought of some lovely flavoured pork, a British abundance of vegetables and some fabulous red wine.' The Sunday Times: 'There isn't a trace of cynicism here - just enthusiasm, craft and people who love what they do, creating a place you really, really don't want to leave.' The Financial Times 'Some inherited memory of a weekend with grandparents I never had... a little bohemian, and unbelievably good at cooking.' Tom Parker Bowles: 'The Pig revolutionised the country house hotel, creating a true home away from home. No pomp or pretence, just beautiful rooms and magnificent food with produce from their own kitchen gardens. Where The Pig goes, the others follow.'

This is best-selling author Ed Smith's complete guide to growing a bounty of vegetables in small spaces and without land. This is a completely updated and expanded edition of "Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers", now including conventional containers of all sizes, from window boxes to tubs. "The Vegetable Gardener's Container Bible" provides information on growing everyone's favourite vegetables in all kinds of containers. And Ed Smith delivers his wealth of container gardening knowledge in the friendly, accessible style that his readers love. He explains how to choose the rights plants, select appropriate containers and tools, provide balanced nutrition, care for plants throughout the growing season, control pests without chemicals, and much more. He even includes plans for small-space container gardens that urban and suburban gardeners will love.

This comprehensive new textbook takes a scientific approach to explaining the principles of modern conventional and sustainable commercial vegetable production. The book describes the basic botany of vegetables, environmental requirements for successful growth and development, mineral nutrition, field establishment, harvesting methods and post-harvest handling practices. Professor Gregory E. Welbaum is a former commercial vegetable grower whose family farm has been involved in crop production for several generations. He has taught both classroom and online vegetable crop classes at Virginia Tech for over two decades. Vegetable Production and Practices has been specifically designed to accompany courses in vegetable crop production, so is ideally suited to inspire students in crop and horticultural sciences, as well as provide a useful reference for experienced practitioners.

Having an allotment, or at least growing some of your own fruit and vegetables, is currently very popular. This book features the non-growing side of allotment gardening; the more practical and functional elements of a typical plot. Clearly defined by season the projects are further broken down into twelve monthly chapters with appropriate projects and techniques in each. All projects are illustrated by step-by-step photography and artwork. Projects range from very basic and intermediate to more complex tasks, such as building a shed.

Dig into the fruits of your labor! Profitable, innovative organic fruit farming strategies and skills for modern growers of any scale. The Berry Grower is an innovative guide for growing and marketing organic small fruits and berries that offers intelligent strategies and solutions for successful small-scale, non-chemical fruit production in the 21st century. Coverage includes: History, innovations, and 21st-century challenges in modern fruit farming Creating your own market farming reality Farm planning for efficiency and profitability Factoring in climate change, drought, and extreme weather Soil fertility, efficient weed management, and organic pest control Modern tools of the trade for efficiency * Harvesting, fruit handling, and packing Fruit profiles including raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, figs, tomatoes, and more, including new cultivars Innovative marketing methods and thinking beyond fresh fruit with multi-product strategies to maximize profit Learn from other experts through interviews with successful growers and marketers from diverse areas around the USA. From the market garden and small farm to the homestead and backyard, The Berry Grower is the essential guide for both new and aspiring organic small fruit growers and seasoned farmers looking to produce high-quality organic fruits and products for local markets and self-sufficiency.

Use this book to grown your own fruits and berries, and you will discover the joys of tree-ripened peaches and vine-ripened cantaloupe just bursting with farm-fresh flavour. Suitable for both beginners and experts, it is the perfect resource for anyone engaged in gardening. Not only do you learn how to grow your own fabulous fruits and berries, this book will tell you what to do with all the produce you harvest.

This book presents a directory of varieties and how to cultivate them successfully. It is an illustrated gardener's guide to the different varieties of shoots, peas and beans, their history and cooking uses. It includes step-by-step instructions for preparing the soil, sowing under glass, and harvesting and storing. It offers practical advice on cultivating asparagus, celery, celeriac, globe artichokes, rhubarb, seakale, peas, runner beans, French (green) beans and broad beans. It includes helpful hints on how to avoid pests and diseases, and what to do when problems occur. Shoots, peas and beans are some of the choicest and most delicious of the many vegetable crops available to the kitchen gardener. In this book, the main types are described and illustrated, with useful information about the varieties that can be grown, their history, cultivation requirements and cooking uses. There is key advice on improving your soil, making compost and preparing the vegetable bed. A section on practical cultivation explains how to grow and care for each type of vegetable, from sowing to harvest.A must for the novice grower, the book also provides information for the experienced gardener who wants to experiment with new varieties.