The Resilient Garden And Allotment Handbook

Create a thriving garden or allotment that works in harmony with nature and will flourish in the face of ever-changing environmental conditions. In The Resilient Garden and Allotment Handbook, expert organic gardener Sally Morgan shares a wide range of ecological concepts from permaculture, regenerative gardening, agroecology and more to boost your garden’s biodiversity and enrich your soil. This must-have guide will help you: Build your soil so it’s full of healthy organic matter and protect it through no-dig practices, composting, cover crops and mulching Increase resilience through productive plant combinations and polyculture Create wildlife-friendly habitats utilising walls and fences, log piles, water features and wild corners Choose the right plants to attract pollinators and plant defenders Combat disease and keep pests at bay using natural predators, companion planting and trap and barrier crops PLUS The importance of collecting genetically diverse seeds from plants that have adapted to local conditions Sustainably manage water in your garden, especially in times of drought or excessive rainfall Whether you’re a passionate gardener, allotment holder or grower, The Resilient Garden and Allotment Handbook will help you future-proof your garden by giving it everything it needs to adapt and succeed, whatever the climate challenge. (Previously published as The Healthy Vegetable Garden, now updated and revised) 'A must-read for anyone who wants to know how to grow their own zero-food miles, pesticide-free veg, while treading gently upon our planet.' Dave Goulson, author of The Garden Jungle and Silent Earth 'This book could not be better timed, and given Sally’s lifetime experience of organic gardening, it’s bound to inspire all those who want to ‘grow back better’.' Helen Browning, Chief Executive, Soil Association

Whether you’re an experienced gardener, homesteader, or market farmer, this A–Z, soil-to-table guide shows you how to reduce chemical inputs; naturally enrich your growing ecology; and create a hardy, nutrient-dense, and delicious crop. "There are few gardeners (or farmers) I know who wouldn’t benefit from reading Sally Morgan’s new book. . . . The Healthy Vegetable Garden is a detailed and indispensable resource."—Hobby Farms In The Healthy Vegetable Garden, expert organic gardener Sally Morgan explains how to use natural approaches to cope with the challenges of a changing climate through principles from regenerative gardening, agroecology, and permaculture—all to help your green space thrive. The Healthy Vegetable Garden shows you how to: Combat disease and keep pests at bay with natural predators, companion planting, and trap and barrier crops Choose the right plants to attract pollinators and pest predators Build a healthy soil full of organic matter, earthworms, and mycorrhizal fungi Regenerate soil through no-dig practices, composting, cover crops, and mulching Boost biodiversity through the use of crop rotations and polyculture Rewild your garden by creating a range of habitats, making use of walls and fences, log piles, water features, and wild corners Understand plant defenses and use biocontrols Make natural barriers, traps, and lures A healthy, productive garden should work in harmony with nature to produce and protect delicious fruits and vegetables and build a rich soil that is full of life. With The Healthy Vegetable Garden, growers of all levels will start reducing incidents of pests and diseases while creating a verdant habitat—all without the need for fertilizers, pesticides, or weedkillers.

Written by the Royal Horticultural Society's foremost fruit and veg experts, RHS Allotment Handbook & Planner provides the lifestyle-changing advice that gardeners need for growing a year-round supply of healthy, edible crops for their garden. With RHS tried-and-tested varieties, this book covers what to grow, how and where to grow it. Exploring best practice growing advice, allotment life and its numerous benefits, this book also includes a month-by-month calendar of tasks to guide gardeners through the year.

An accessible and comprehensive guide, filled with everything you need to set up your own mini-farm and live more self-sufficiently. With the help of this handy book, you can grow all the fruit and vegetables your family needs, raise animals for meat and eggs, keep fish and bees, and even produce firewood on a plot of land of just one acre or less – all alongside your work and family life. Whether you have a garden, a paddock or perhaps the corner of a field, Sally Morgan guides you through various useful topics, including growing fruit and vegetables throughout the year, producing fish with aquaponics, and keeping livestock – poultry, pigs, sheep and goats. There is also helpful information on how to layout your plot, including fencing, poly tunnels or greenhouses, and tips on managing soil fertility. This updated edition also includes a chapter on coping with extreme weather conditions. Filled with practical advice, Living on One Acre or Less is essential reading for anyone who aspires to take control of their food supply or who wants to do more with the land they've got.

A wonderfully illustrated celebration of the blood, sweat and joy to be had ‘growing your own’ in an allotment – with the in-depth, practical gardening know-how for which Collins is renowned.

Create a beautiful, climate-resilient, sustainable garden that will take your outdoor space into the future. As we live with an increasingly changing climate, summer droughts, winter waterlogging, high winds, erratic frosts and frequent pests are challenges that all gardeners face. This forward-thinking book - grounded in the latest RHS research - shows you how to work with the environment and adapt your outdoor space to give it exactly what it needs to flourish... and to give wildlife a helping hand, too. Award-winning garden designer Tom Massey shares essential tips on how to analyse your garden looking at everything from soil type to sun exposure, before recommending practical projects and plant choices that will be perfect for your plot. Discover how a hedge can reduce noise and trap pollution, how a patio affects waterlogging, how to harvest your rainwater, and much more. Inside the pages of this horticultural handbook, you can expect to find: - Many innovative ideas on how readers can make small changes to their plot that will benefit biodiversity and reduce the impacts of climate change in their local area. - Top tips on how to select the right plants for your pitch, from trees and shrubs to grasses and climbers. - Fascinating case studies of intelligent, sustainable garden designs from around the world. - A chapter on sustainable materials and planting mediums. - Diagrams and infographics to illustrate key concepts, and photographs to show beautiful plantings and designs. This gardening guide enables readers worldwide to analyse the needs of their plot, looking at wind, sun, soil, water, wildlife, air quality, and carbon, and will only become more relevant as gardeners worldwide experience changes in weather and want to adapt their outdoor space so that it will continue to flourish. Together we can garden more sustainably, mitigate extreme weather conditions and ensure our outdoor spaces remain resilient, beautiful, inspiring places to enjoy for years to come.

The "Complete Allotment Guide - Volume 1" is the first in a series of books teaching you everything you need to know to get started growing fruit and vegetables. Whether you have an allotment, a smallholding or a vegetable garden at home, you will learn how to start growing in the ground and in containers.

This step-by-step guide starts from first principles, teaching you everything from how to choose an allotment to clearing weeds, coping with the weather and how to set your vegetable garden up. You learn exactly what to look for when choosing an allotment plus how to apply and how allotment sites work, which is useful for new allotment owners. Even if you are growing at home, there is plenty of information to help you get started growing.

Whether you are brand new to growing your own or whether you have dabbled, this book teaches you everything about owning and running an allotment. Written by a long term allotment owner, the information is first hand and gives you a real world view of having an allotment, packed full of valuable information to help you make the most of your allotment.

The "Complete Allotment Guide - Volume 1" goes into detail about how to work an allotment and grow fruit and vegetables. As you read this book, you will discover:

• How to compost, including what you can and cannot compost
• The common pests you will encounter and how to deal with them
• The various problems you may encounter and how to overcome them
• How to grow from seeds plus what F1 and heirloom seeds are
• When to feed your plants and what fertilisers to use, including how to make your own
• What companion planting is and how it benefits you and your plants
• Why you must rotate crops on your allotment and how to do it
• How to run an allotment with children so they can enjoy it too
• Different gardening techniques so you know how to look after your vegetable garden
• Ways to maximise productivity from your allotment while minimising the amount of work you have to do

As well as this, you get a comprehensive guide to sowing seeds showing you when to sow different types of vegetable seed, when to plant outside and when to harvest crops. You also get a month by month guide telling you what jobs to do at an allotment, including:

• Vegetable garden jobs
• Fruit garden jobs
• What to harvest
• What to sow
• Greenhouse jobs

If you are new to growing vegetables, this is the book for you. Whether you are growing at home or growing at an allotment, this book is full of useful information helping you get started and grow successfully.