This book is another of those which does exactly what it says on the cover ! It starts with how to find land to grow stuff on, even if you don't have a garden. It has suggestions about community gardens, garden sharing, allotments and even tips for tenants who are not allowed to change their gardens !
The next section is all about how to put hard landscaping in place which will support your food growing plans. For example, do you want a pond as it will attract predators which will eat pests ? Do you want a fence, if so make it south-facing so you can plant climbers . This is the section I wish I had paid more attention to when we were planning our garden as now it is well-established and it is much harder to realise that your greenhouse is in the wrong place once the garden has been going for a good while !
All the other sections of the book are divided into seasons so you can get busy with something no matter what time of year it is. Lots of items in the book are illustrated with hand-drawn pictures or photographs and I find this very helpful as then I can work out exactly what I should be doing , for example when I ma layering plants to get new ones. The instructions on how to make paper seed pots which can be planted out directly into the soil are especially useful, as are the ones on how to make a wicking bed so you don't need to worry about watering when you are away.
Every single thing in the book has been tried out by Dave Hamilton or his brother and that really comes across in the way they write. I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who does not want to give the garden centre a lot of their cash !
A quick tip for UK residents is that Park Promotions have pepper seeds on sale for 1p and 2p and lots of other seeds in the Spring sale for 25-50p, a big saving on buying seeds somewhere else !
Do you do-it-yourself in your garden ?
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