Organic Kitchen Garden

About this book

Practical, beautiful and an invaluable gardening reference, "Organic Kitchen Garden" shows you how to grow your own food and discover the taste of really fresh fruit and vegetables, and more. This book explains how to set up your vegetable patch, how to prepare the soil, choose and care for your crops and stagger your harvest across the seasons. Each chapter covers a different crop, from salads, beans and brassicas to onions, potatoes and root vegetables, as well as more unusual crops such as fennel, pak choi and seakale. It also includes helpful monthly lists to remind you which jobs need doing when and tips on composting, weed control, plant health care, pest and disease control and watering.Photographed in the 18th-century walled kitchen garden of Audley End in Essex, stunning photography demonstrate the various techniques and processes used in organic gardening. Digging up your first ever homegrown potatoes is said to be a life-changing experience; but eating them is even more of a thrill. Once you've tasted really fresh produce, you'll never go back. And not only do really fresh fruit and vegetables taste better, but they also have greater levels of vitamins, making them one of the best ways to a healthy diet. Written by expert gardener and journalist Juliet Roberts, "Organic Kitchen Garden" contains all the information you'll need to ensure a constant stream of produce from your garden to your kitchen.

Contents

Introduction: The History of Audley End Kitchen Garden; KITCHEN GARDEN BASICS: Planning, Soil, Sowing seed, Watering, Encouraging widelife, Pests and diseases, Words of wisdom. SALADS: lettuce, rocket, chicory and endive. PODS AND SEEDS: runner beans, French beans, broad beans, peas, asparagus peas and sweet corn. ROOTS CROPS: Potatoes, beetroot, carrots, celeriac, kohlrabi, parsnip, radish, salsify and scorzonera, skirret and turnip. POTATOES: Buying, chitting, earthing up, harvesting, pests and diseases, growing in pots. ONION FAMILY: Garlic, leeks, onion, shallots. FRUITING VEGETABLES: tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, cucumbers, courgettes and marrows, pumpkins and melons. BRASSICAS: Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, sprouting broccoli and calabrese, and cauliflower. LEAVES, STEMS AND SHOOTS: Florence Fennel, pak choi and spinach. PERENNIAL CROPS: Asparagus, globe artichokes, jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb and sea kale. FRUIT TREES IN POTS: Apricots, Peaches, nectarines and figs. Gardening calendar Projects Books and suppliers Glossary, Index & Acknowledgements

Customer Reviews

Biography

The editor of Gardens Illustrated, Juliet Roberts has been an enthusiastic organic vegetable grower since helping her dad on his allotment as a child. She now has her own allotment in Bristol, where she loves experimenting to find the best varieties for flavour. Having followed the progress at her favourite walled kitchen gardens at Audley End in Essex through the seasons, Juliet is keen to pass on all she has learnt from her mentor, Mike Thurlow, its head kitchen gardener.