The Kitchen Garden: A Month by Month Guide to Growing Your Own Fruits and Vegetables

by Alan Buckingham

Overview

In tune with the popular move toward fresh, local, and homegrown food, The Kitchen Garden lets you get the most from your garden and helps to dramatically reduce the amount you spend on produce at the supermarket.

This new edition of the bestselling guide from Alan Buckingham is filled with seasonal advice, essential to-do lists, and essential fruit and vegetable crop planners. Discover how to grow fresh, seasonal produce in your garden all year round, and take the uncertainty out of your harvest with clear, reliable gardening advice for every month.

In-depth crop planners show you when to sow and how to cultivate more than 60 herbs, fruit, and vegetables, including potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, and apples. Month-by-month alerts help you guard against the season's garden pests and diseases to ensure a top-quality harvest. Prioritize key tasks, learn crop rotation techniques, and try step-by-step garden projects, such as sowing peas in guttering and making your own compost bin.

Ideal for first-time vegetable growers, urban gardeners, and seasoned gardeners alike, The Kitchen Garden has everything you need to know to make the most of your plot.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780594228776
Publisher:	DK
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	167,148
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Alan Buckingham is an author, editor, photographer, and gardener. He holds a plot on the Royal Paddocks Allotments near Hampton Court Palace in London, where he grows more food annually than his family can eat. His books include Grow Fruit, Grow Vegetables, The Kitchen Garden, and DK Eyewitness: Photography. His books often feature his own photographs.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

Kitchen garden know-how: Where to begin: how to organize your plot and plan what to plant. Information that gives you the confidence to start digging. 14

Assess your site 16

Weather, seasons, and microclimates 18

Plot layouts and bed systems 20

Crop rotation 22

Composts, manures, and fertilizers 24

Must-have tools and equipment 26

The garden calendar: Crops to sow, plant, or harvest, tasks to tackle, and tips on problem solving. 30

January 32

Feature: Pruning apple or pear trees 38

February 44

Feature: Give your soil a health check 51

March 56

April 68

Feature: Prepare a seedbed 75

May 82

Feature: Double up your crops 90

June 100

Feature: Wage war on weeds 114

July 120

Feature: Grow edible flowers 127

Feature: Survive a summer drought 134

August 136

September 150

Feature: Make your own compost bin 160

October 166

Feature: Construct raised beds 174

November 180

December 190

Feature: Store crops for the winter 194

Crop planner: Cultivation details crop by crop: all the essentials, plus hints and tips for successful harvests every year. 200

Vegetables 202

Root and stem vegetables: Potatoes 204

Sweet potatoes

Beets

Rutabagas

Radishes

Parsnips

Celeriac

Celery

Florence fennel

Carrots

Turnips

Unusual root vegetables

Cabbages, leaves, and other brassicas: Cabbages 220

Brussels sprouts

Cauliflower

Sprouting broccoli and calabrese

Swiss chard and perpetual spinach

Oriental brassicas

Kohlrabi

Spinach

Kale

The onion family: Onions 235

Shallots

Garlic

Leeks

Green onions

Unusual onions

Peas, beans, and other legumes: Peas 244

Runner Beans

Green beans

Broad beans

Unusual beans

Salads: Arugula 252

Lettuce

Corn salad

Endive

Chicory

Unusual salad leaves

Summer fruiting vegetables: Tomatoes 264

Peppers and chiles

Eggplants

Corn

Okra

Squashes, pumpkins, and cucumbers: Vegetable marrows 274

Zucchinis and summer squashes

Pumpkins and winter squashes

Cucumbers

Perennial vegetables: Asparagus 282

Globe artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes

Rhubarb

Herbs: Must-grow essential herbs 288

Fruits 292

Apples 294

Pears

Plums

Cherries

Peaches and nectarines

Apricots

Figs

Strawberries

Raspberries

Blackberries and hybrid berries

Gooseberries

Black currants

Red currants and white currants

Blueberries

Cranberries

Melons

Cape gooseberries

Grapes

Troubleshooter: The place to turn when things don't quite grow as planned, How to diagnose problems and avoid them in future. 320

What's wrong? 322

Common plant diseases 324

A-Z of plant diseases 326

Malnutrition 333

Common pests and parasites 336

A-Z of pests and parasites 338

Index 344

Acknowledgments 351

Editorial Reviews

…the most straightforward and informative guide I've seen in a while, from a publisher that has a knack for elegant simplicity. Buckingham offers clear, simple, well-illustrated advice for month-by-month care…

The New York Times Book Review - Dominique Browning