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About this book
Forget the rules: 'received wisdom' about gardening is surprisingly inaccurate. Understand better what is going on in the soil and with your plants, in your own garden and climate, and work out your own methods instead. Respect and encourage life as much as you can, chiefly by spreading good compost or manure. There is no need to dig in compost and manure - just spread it on top and let worms take it in. Digging can harm soil structure, and is not helpful to plants. You can reduce weeding to a little hand-weeding or hoeing every ten days.
Based on the author's experience of a system of permanent slightly-raised beds, the second edition of this book covers a delicious variety of fruit and vegetables: what to choose, when to plant and harvest, and how best to avoid pests and diseases. The book includes recipes to inspire you to culinary heights with your fresh-picked produce alongside new photos and tips on new varieties.
Contents
Foreword by Patrick Holden Introduction LETTING NATURE NURTURE YOUR GARDEN 1 The Art of Not Digging 2 The Basics 3 Deciding What to Grow 4 What's in Season? 5 Living with Pests 6 Sowing Seeds, Raising Plants 7 Making Compost 8 The Moon HEALTHY HARVESTS 9 Summer Salads 10 Winter Salads 11 Alliums 12 Choice of Roots 13 Savouring Summer 14 Brassicas 15 Tomatoes, Greenhouse and other Vegetables 16 Perennials 17 Herbs and Edible Flowers 18 Tree Fruit 19 Soft Fruit (berries) Postscript Resources Bibliography Main Index Index of Recipes
Customer Reviews
Biography
Charles Dowding has not dug, except to clear perennial weeds and turf, for twenty-five years; he started growing organic vegetables commercially in 1982 and has farmed in both Somerset and France, and had a programme of Gardener's World devoted to his farm. He now crops almost an acre on intensive raised beds, runs courses, and sells salad bags and veg boxes from his farm. He contributed to The Complete Manual of Organic Gardening (Headline 1992), and writes for RHS magazine and Blackmore Vale Magazine. He lives in Shepton Montague, Somerset.
Out of Print
By: Charles Dowding
240 pages, 32 colour plates, illus
Whteht you dig or not this contains a wealth of personal knowledge about growing vegetables from a man who pioneered vegetable boxes and impressed Jy Larkcom - the doyenne of vegetables. Oxford Times - November 2010 "The revised edition, Organic Gardening features new photogrpahs, new varieties and more tips and advice on growing delcious vegetables and tasty fruit the no-dig way. It also includes inspiring recipes by Charles' wife, Susie." Positive News - Winter 10/11 "This book works as a brilliant introduction to growing your own, but is also an encyclopaedia of fruit and veg varieties, with practical advice on sowing, planting and growing." Bristol Evening Post / Western Daily Press