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.

The American Midwest is an ideal place to grow a huge variety of vegetables, and there are plenty of healthful and economic benefits to having your own garden. Whether you have a traditional backyard space or several containers on a high-rise balcony, you can grow a season-long supply of tasty produce. Best-selling garden writer Laura Peters provides all you need to know to dig in: * Basics such as light, soil, exposure and frost tolerance * Almost infinite garden styles, including raised beds and limited space gardening * Preparing the garden and selecting which vegetables to grow where * Recommended varieties, including new, traditional, heirloom and unusual selections * Seasonal care, including mulching, weeding and watering * Tips throughout, including how to extend the growing season and what to do with your harvest * Organic approaches to management of pests and diseases * An appendix featuring companion plants and relationships * Helpful hardiness maps, and delicious colour photos throughout.

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.

In these turbulent times, Britain is rediscovering a passion for gardening and home produce - and the nation's favourite gardener is here to provide the definitive book on the subject. Alan Titchmarsh's comprehensive guide will tell you everything you need to know about fruit and veg and how to grow it, from herbs, baby veg, salads, and every-day fruits to gourmet and unusual varieties. As well as providing the key facts needed to yield good results and what to do when things go wrong, the text is sprinkled with Alan's personal observations, anecdotes, culinary tips and quirky historical uses. Alan's practical approach starts from scratch for those who've never grown their own before, but is also ideal for those with some experience who might be growing edibles in a new way - perhaps in a small space that needs to look attractive, or on a new allotment. Lavishly illustrated throughout, Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg offers inspiration, in-depth knowledge and practical advice, whether you are looking to be self-sufficient or just to grow a few items on your patio or window box. Originally published as The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg

*Editor's Choice on Best Products List of 35 Gardening Gifts for the Person in Your Life with the Greenest Thumb One intrepid cook's exploration of her urban terrain, with over 500 recipes for every season! "Marie Viljoen is the real deal. . . Forage, Harvest, Feast is a joy to read, an inspiration, and a culinary adventure." Amy Stewart, author of New York Times bestseller Wicked Plants In this groundbreaking collection, celebrated New York City forager, cook, kitchen gardener, and writer Marie Viljoen incorporates wild ingredients into everyday menus and special occasion fare. Motivated by a hunger for new flavors and working with thirty-six versatile wild plants some increasingly found in farmers markets she offers deliciously compelling recipes, including variations on: Cocktails Snacks & Appetizers Entrees Desserts Breads Preserves, Sauces and Syrups Ferments, spices, and salts From underexplored native flavors like bayberry and spicebush to accessible ecological threats like Japanese knotweed and mugwort, Viljoen presents hundreds of recipes unprecedented in scope. They range from simple quickweed griddle cakes with American burnweed butter to sophisticated dishes like a souffleed tomato roulade stuffed with garlic mustard, or scallops seared with sweet white clover, cattail pollen, and sweetfern butter. Viljoen makes unfamiliar ingredients familiar by treating each to a thorough culinary examination, allowing readers to grasp every plant's character and inflection. Forage, Harvest, Feast featuring hundreds of color photographs as well as cultivation tips for plants easily grown at home is destined to become a standard reference for any cook wanting to transform wildcrafted ingredients into exceptional dishes, spices, and drinks. Eating wild food, Viljoen reminds us, is a radical act of remembering and honoring our shared heritage. Led by a quest for exceptional flavor and ecologically sound harvesting, she tames the feral kitchen, making it recognizable and welcoming to regular cooks. "The photos are beautiful, and most of the recipes are simple enough that you don't need a culinary degree to follow them, but at the same time they ooze creativity. . . . It's not just a book of recipes, it's a celebration of local flavors. You can feel the love on every page. There are no other books like it an amazing source of inspiration and a must-have for anyone remotely interested in wild edibles." Pascal Baudar, author of The New Wildcrafted Cuisine

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.

Permaculture is an ecological movement popular among farmers, homesteaders, and a growing number of home gardeners. It is a systematic and holistic approach to living that includes everything from beekeeping and raising chickens, to foraging and fermentation, and leads to a life rich in healthy food, comfortable and safe housing, and renewable energy and resources.

Practical Permaculture for Home Landscapes, Your Community, and the Whole Earth provides home gardeners with the skills they need to start their first permaculture garden or to further their current involvement in the practice. Jessi Bloom, the bestselling author of Free-Range Chicken Gardens and an ecological landscape designer, and permaculture expert Dave Boehnlein explain the basic principles and ethics of permaculture, show the entire design process from land assessment to the completed master plan, and offer detailed information on the plants, water, waste, energy, shelter, food, animals, and structures that make up the garden.

Illustrations and color photographs provide instruction, inspiration, and glimpses into working permaculture gardens throughout the world. This comprehensive and accessible guide is the ultimate reference for anyone interested in learning more about permaculture.

What happens between the hopeful spring weekend spent planting seeds and the warm summer morning when the gardener wanders back into the rows of vegetable plants with picking basket in hand? Plenty! Every healthy vegetable garden represents an entire world of activity and every vegetable gardener, no matter how experienced, wants to know more about what's going on in those tidy rows and how to handle any growing quandary that may arise throughout the season The popularity of vegetable gardening is at an all-time high. Home grown vegetables taste great, nourish body and soul, and provide the additional security of knowing where the produce comes from and how it was grown. "The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book" feeds readers all the insider's tips and tricks, practical advice, and organic wisdom necessary for growing the very best crops.

Written by RHS experts with more than 50 years of combined growing experience, RHS Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Year Planner provides the life-changing advice that gardeners need to grow a year-round supply of healthy fruit and vegetables for their table. The book starts with planning what to grow and where to grow it, whether that's an allotment, a series of containers, raised bed or veg patch, then how to get the best from your soil, and how to get started. Next, in season-by-season chapters, the book takes the reader from sowing to harvesting with simple, clear instructions that will help them stay on top of the challenges and joys of a productive garden. From apples to asparagus, raspberries to radishes, this book will show how to apply age-old techniques to get the most from your plot.