Practical Step-by-step Book of Allotment Gardening: The Complete Guide to Growing Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs on an Allotment, Packed with ... Illustrated with More Than 800 Photographs - Hardcover

In this new book, experts Michael and Christine Lavelle guide the budding allotmenteer through every step, from applying and early planning to planting and harvesting. Information on tools, equipment and soil management follows, along with a chapter on what to grow where, crop rotation, companion planning and growing both outdoors and in a greenhouse. Techniques such as sowing, propagation, feeding, watering, pruning, harvesting and storage are examined with easy-to-follow instructions and examples. Directories of vegetables, fruit and herbs outline the specific requirements of different crops while a section on plant health helps to deal with common pests and diseases and carry out weed management. A season-by-season calendar of care then presents an at-a-glance checklist of what to sow, plant out and harvest for every stage in the gardening year.

Christine Lavelle is a lecturer in horticulture and ecology at Writtle College, Chelmsford, in England. She is currently carrying out research projects to encourage beneficial insects within ornamental gardens. Michael Lavelle worked as a professional landscaper before starting a career as a horticultural lecturer in the early 1990s. Together, Christine and Michael won the Garden Writers' Guild Practical Book of the Year Award in 2003 and 2008 for their books Organic Gardening and How to Create a Wildlife Garden (both Lorenz Books).