The Edible Garden

I have just treated myself to a couple of new gardening books to compensate for the terrible weather ( well that's my excuse) and wondered if anyone else has come across Alys Fowlers book "The Edible Garden" It is just the most delicious book I have read in ages. I have got lots of great ideas from it and she is wonderfully practical and down to earth which makes you feel you too could achieve the wonderful mix of ornamental and edible display she has achieved in her small garden. the quality of the book and print, layout and photography is a delight and I shall be referring to it for years to come. It is the sort of book you can curl up with in front of the fire and dream with. The other book I got is The Ivington Diaries by Monty don; another treat to look forward to but my husband has snaffled that for the moment.

Ooh, I'll look out for that 'The Edible Garden'. I have some vouchers for Amazon which I hadn't a clue what to use on, so will see if it's on there.

Sounds good, I shall put it on my wish list along with Sarah Ravens book about wild flowers (pricey!)  I can fully recomend The Ivington Diaries by Monty Don, I absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down, It really is more like a diary than a gardening book, beautiful pictures and wonderful writing.  I'm currently reading Carol Kleins book, Life in a cottage garden and I'm thoroughly enjoying that too.

P.S. How are the tomatoes Insomnia ?

Still non existent. I gave in and bought some liquid feed yesterday, and am poised, ready for action!

When you say the Monty Don book is more like a diary, do you mean his own personal one, or a diary of when we should be doing/planting things?

Glad to hear that Monty's book is going to be a treat too. I shall look out for Carols book with a view to a naughty purchase. I missed the first 3 episodes of the TV programme only discovering it a couple of weeks ago by which time she had got to summer!! No joy picking it up on the BBC iplayer either even though it was on BBC4HD. Yet another snub for us gardeners!!!  Forgot to mention above that Alys' book has some lovely recipes at the end as well as a section on "fermented things"

I missed Carols programme completely too, very disappointed   It will surely appear somewhere on iplayer or on my BT vision catch-up !

Monty writes from the heart about his garden and it reads like a story rather than a factual "This is how to prune a fruit tree" kind of book !  I'm just a mega Monty fan so rather biased I admit.

Insomnia, I'm sorry to hear about your tomatoes (or lack of them) , there is still time yet......I have a few flowers now.

Thank you Figrat for your recommendation too !

Oh no Lilly! Yay, you have flowers, and so has Loz, so that leaves me in the corner on my own! Oh well, I can party on my own I suppose. Just leave the biscuits!

Due to the rain and not being able to get out into the garden much, I bought a mag called cookbook for spring 2012, I've loads of cook books but none with heaps of recipe's using home grown stuff, usually they just have the occassional one.

It isn't a mag just for home grown stuff mind but there were lots of recipe's, and very simple one's, which were quick to put together using vegs and herbs grown in the garden. Home made salsa's, omlettes, roasted veg, potato salads, frittata's, ratatouille., veggie bakes and soups.

Oh Zoomer, I long for the day when I can use my cookbooks properly. I've just got to wait for my little one to change her preference from fishfingers!

But she does love her veg, so not all bad. Was it a one off mag, or a regular publication over the year?

Insommnia, It's possibly one which only comes out with the seasons, 4 x's a year as it said spring 2012 in small print in the corner, purchased at Tesoc. The summer one might now be  on sale  

I'll keep my eyes peeled. Thankyou.