Rightly has Joy Larkcom been described as the doyenne of vegetable growing – she has after all been writing about and growing vegetables for some 40 years.
Whilst rows of vegetables growing in a kitchen garden are a thing of admiration, few of us have space or inclination for such a luxury. Nevertheless to be able to go into the garden and pick a handful of vegetables and have them on the plate within 30 minutes is the best way of getting some of your ‘five a day’.
From now on we shall be, at least part way, following Joy’s example and turning our attention more towards a potager – an ornamental kitchen garden where fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs grow together. As she points out ‘inter-planting different vegetables …helps to prevent the build-up of pests and diseases …planting flowers among vegetables introduces colour … as well as beneficial insects and deterring harmful ones’.
Joy takes the reader through the stages of creating a decorative vegetable garden from design to dramatic effects as well as management of the garden and how to tend for the plants. The last section of the book is a useful A-Z Directory of vegetables with recommended varieties. The text is interspersed with some lovely colour photography.
Creative Vegetable Gardening. Joy Larkcom. ISBN 978-1-84533-924-1. £18.99.
Published by Mitchell Beazley, Octopus Publishing Group. www.octopusbooks.co.uk. Available on Amazon.