Perennial Vegetables – this book comes highly recommended by a friend

Perennial Vegetables

Imagine growing vegetables that require the same care as the flowers in your perennial beds and bordersono annual tilling and planting. They thrive and produce abundant and nutritious crops throughout the season. In Perennial Vegetables, author and plant specialist Eric Toensmeier introduces gardeners to a world of little-known and wholly under-appreciated plants. Ranging beyond the usual suspects (asparagus, rhubarb, and artichoke) to include such eminori crops as ground cherry and ramps and the much sought-after, antioxidant-rich wolfberry (also known as goji berries), Toensmeier explains how to raise, tend, harvest, and cook with plants that yield great crops and satisfaction. Perennial vegetables are perfect as part of an edible landscape plan or permaculture garden. Profiling more than a hundred species, with dozens of colour photographs and illustrations, and filled with valuable growing tips, recipes, and resources, Perennial Vegetables is a groundbreaking and ground-healing book that will open the eyes of gardeners everywhere to the exciting world of edible perennials.

This other book by UK author – Martin Crawford – a director of ‘Gaia’ – is due out on 5 April 2012 – How to Grow Perennial Vegetables: Low-maintenance, Low-impact Vegetable Gardening
is well worth putting on your wish list!

Perennial vegetables are a joy to grow and require a lot less time and effort than annuals. In this book Martin Crawford gives comprehensive advice on all types of perennial vegetable (edible plants that live longer than three years), from ground-cover plants and coppiced trees to plants for bog gardens and edible woodland plants. There are many advantages to growing perennial vegetables, for example: * they need less tillage than conventional vegetables and so help retain carbon in the soil * the soil structure is not disturbed in their cultivation * they extend the harvesting season, especially in early spring * and, of course, they are much less work. Part One looks at why and how to grow these crops, and how to look after them for maximum health. Part Two features over 100 perennial edibles in detail, both common and unusual – from rhubarb to skirret; Jerusalem artichoke to nodding onions. This book offers inspiration and information for all gardeners, whether experienced or beginner, and also includes plenty of cooking tips. It includes beautiful colour photographs and illustrations throughout.

wellington boots can be bought online at Amazon. They have several top brands including Hunter.

If you’d like some with steel top caps then look in their Workwear Boots & Shoes section for safety boots. These will protect the tops of your feet too. Perhaps a little OTT for the average gardening you should be doing, but perhaps if you live in fear of putting a fork through your foot they’d help your peace of mind?

And don’t say that never happens – a lad down the road from me when I was a kid managed it!

If you’ve got concerns about how wide wellies are around your calves then buy LADIES GREEN DUNLOP WELLINGTON BOOTS WELLIES WIDE CALF
(Also available for men) – these are designed for wider calfs. If you have trouble fitting into fashion boots then these are a guaranteed fit! You’ll also be able to tuck your trousers in easier to them!

If you plan to do a lot of digging then a reinforced sole wellington might be a better idea.

Vegetable Growing Month-by-Month – this is a great book! A useful resource and reference for the whole year.


Vegetable Growing Month-by-Month


Only £3.99 at the moment at Amazon.

A month by month guide about what you should be doing on your allotment or garden. Growing vegetables explained and you’ll find useful hints and help.

No glossy photos but you don’t need them! This is a practical book (Take it with you to the plot) and will come in handy month after month as you check through how to grow veggies and see what things you should be doing each month outside.

It’s an essential skill you will need if you grow soft fruit (unless you want to give away or sell your excess fruit).
You can do it in a pan on the hob and it’s not tricky. Just alittle time consuming and a little effort to make sure the jars are clean properly.

This Kitchen Craft Maslin Pan with Handle, Stainless Steel, 9 Litre
pan is ideal for making jam. It’s a lovely looking pan with a nirror polished pan with pouring spout, carry handle and helper handle. It has Graduated imperial and metric markings on the inside of the pan and a 5mm sandwich base for even heat distribution
Suitable for induction
Size 35cm (D) x 20cm (H)

They also have a Kitchen Craft Deluxe Cooking Thermometer in Stainless Steel which has a clip to hold it upright in the pan and Measurements range from 60ºC to 220ºC / 100 º F to 400 º F. There’s also a Kitchen Craft Jam Funnel which makes getting the jam in jars less tricky!

Kitchen Craft Jam Funnel, Stainless Steel is £5.29 at the moment
Kitchen Craft Deluxe Cooking Thermometer, Stainless Steel
is £4.99 at the moment.

They also have Swift Jam Straining Set which makes straining jams easier. As well as Kitchen Craft Home Made Waxed Circles which are used for help sealing the jars.

How to Store Your Home Grown Produce looks like the book all allotmenters need after a busy season and when you’ve got gluts of fruit and vegetables to deal with.



It’s wonderful to grow your own fruit and vegetables but what do you do when it all ripens at once? How do you cope with the glut which threatens to overwhelm you? Will help all those who grow their own fruit and vegetables to store their produce properly so that it will last for months and feed the family when the garden’s bare. This title offers easy and practical advice on how to bottle, dry, freeze and even salt home grown fruit and vegetables. Discover the taste of your delicious home-made jams, chutneys and ketchups. John and Val Harrison reveal just what you can do with that bountiful harvest and share their 30 years’ experience of growing fruit and vegetables and you’ll never waste another tomato or courgette again. Praise for John Harrison: ‘Britain’s greatest allotment authority’ – “Independent on Sunday”.

How to Store Your Home Grown Produce

Another soon to be classic book from John Harrison that will help you preserve more of your crop that ever before. A book that should be on the Christmas wish list of every good gardener!

Why clear moss? It catches dirt and debris and this builds up to allow weeds to take root properly. It’s also slippy in the wet weather and dangerous.

You can buy Moss killer online at Amazon and it’s worth looking at a chenical option if you don’t fancy brushing it off with a stiff broom!

This Yeoman 11″ Stiff Broom is one you might want to get to sweep your paths and driveways clear or not only moss but leaves and other rubbish.


Yeoman 11″ Stiff Broom

Stiff bristles to pick up and move all size of debris
Wooden handle
Yellow & green design
Ideal for general yard and patio maintenance
133 cm in length
Sweeping is good exercise! You’ll find it satisfying using a stiff brush on patches of moss.

Empty out your hosepipes and roll them up for the winter. Probably later than usual this year but time to do it! Also look at getting a cover for your outdoor tap if you have one so it doesn’t freeze up and burst! (Or turn it off inside if you have a stop tap on it and drain it out – better safe than an expensive plumbing bill – and don’t forget if your pipes burst other people’s will have done too so it’s harder to get a plumber.)

A little planning now can save you money!

Garden Tap Cover

Keen to save a few quid whilst getting great gardening tools and equipment? You should try amazon – yes Amazon don’t just sell books. They do have a brilliant range of gardening books too though as well as heaps of gardening tools, and essentials. Plus some fab prices and offers

Garden and outdoors items at Amazon UK

The brilliant new Contech ScareCrow Motion Activated Animal Deterrent will help keep away unwanted pets and wildlife from a precious lawn or veggie patch.

Get your garden neat and tidy with super savings on tools from Bosch and Black & Decker, including hedge trimmers, shredders and blower vacs.

20% off garden hand tools–including Fiskars, Spear & Jackson and Yeoman.

Best prices on tons of items

New offers every week – Home and Garden deals of the week

Look out for best sellers like

Defenders Mega-Sonic Cat Repeller
Universal Ice Traction Slip-on Stretch Fit crampons Size 5-6 – stop you falling over when it snows!
Car Windscreen Frost Cover – not gardening but an essential if you have a car!
Meripac Window Feeder with Fat Ball Holders
PestBye Battery Operated Cat Repeller
10 PACK MIXED COLOUR WIRE-FREE TRADITIONAL ECO SKY LANTERNS – for enjoying any outdoor celebrations !

This book – Vegetable Growing Month-by-Month – is a complete guide to growing vegetables whether you’ve got a garden or an allotment. It’ll make you yearn for more growing space so you can try growing everything listed in the book.
Month by month means you can read what you should be doing and eating in each month.
It’s only £4.28

Vegetable Growing Month-by-Month: The down-to-earth guide that takes you through the vegetable year

It’s written by John Harrison (b.1955) lives in Snowdonia, North Wales on a smallholding with his wife Val and a pride of miniature lions who can be mistaken for moggies. As well as writing, he runs his allotment.org.uk website from his home. They aim to be as self-sufficient as possible, not only growing fruit and vegetables, but making their own butter, cheese and preserves and soon to be raising their own livestock.
His first book, Vegetable Growing Month by Month was a best selling success, closely followed by The Essential Allotment Guide and Low Cost Living which he says should have been titled “Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs”
Easy Jams, Chutneys and Preserves was a collaboration with his wife, Val, and it has become a bestseller because of it’s straightforward, honest style. Val not only tells you what to do but also what do when things go wrong. And they do!

It’s packed with hints and tips that will help all allotment holders to enjoy their plot more.

Fab book – I got this for my birthday and have just finished reading it.

Minding My Peas and Cucumbers is written by Kay Seaton who’s worked on several different allotment sites as a co-worker. She explains all about co-workers (an idea by which a plot holder gets help with their plot, but the co-worker has no tenancy rights) and the fun she’s had on allotments. There’s some funny and poignant stories in the book and I know if you have an interest in allotments you will actually laugh out loud at it!





Buy Minding My Peas and Cucumbers: Quirky Tales of Allotment Life
from amazon uk now

Her book makes it clear how much hard work it is to get an allotment, let alone actually working on one! It’s an interesting story that might make you approach your local allotment site and see if any plotholders want a co-worker, so that rather than waiting years you can get a go on a plot now and start digging and planting and harvesting.