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A comprehensive guide to all aspects of polytunnel usage, from planning your purchase to harvesting the rewards. A polytunnel, high tunnel or hoop house, can be used as an affordable, low-carbon aid to growing your own food all year round, from crispy salads and fresh vegetables in the dead of winter to juicy melons and mouth-watering grapes in high summer. But once you've decided to invest in a polytunnel, there are many questions to be answered... Do you need planning permission? What are the different sizes and types you can buy? Where should you put it, and how do you put it up? What can you use it for, how do you look after it, and what are the likely problems? The Polytunnel Handbook looks at all aspects of using a polytunnel, from planning to harvesting. The book features a step-by-step guide detailing how polytunnels are put up and maintained, and also detailed instructions on building a polytunnel from scratch for DIY enthusiasts. There are also chapters on developing healthy soil and preventing pests, and a jargon-free guide to the range of often mystifying accessories that many tunnel retailers offer. Learn how to keep your polytunnel productive in every season with this brilliant guide

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‘Until now, there has been next to no information available on how to make the best use of a polytunnel. The Joyce and Ben Russel team have filled that gap, showing us in clear, precise detail how to erect and manage polytunnels, and above all, what to grow in them.’ Joy Larkcom The Polytunnel Book is the most comprehensive, practical month-to-month growing guide to polytunnel gardening available. Whether you are a complete beginner, or a more experienced grower, this book has got what you need including information on: Preparing the site How to get the best from each crop Identifying and coping with pests Making a hotbed Composts and organic feeds Month-to-month planting plans for year-round growing But at the heart of this book is Joyce Russell's experienced hand guiding you through each month of the year. It tells what to do and when to do it, in order to grow the best fruit and vegetables all-year-round. 300 colour photographs illustrate the wealth of practical tips and techniques as well as celebrating what can be achieved. 'A polytunnel offers a relatively cheap and simple way to tend crops undercover. And Joyce Russel tells exactly how to do it.’ Kitchen Garden Magazine

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An easy-to-follow, practical guide to growing crops year-round in your polytunnel. Are you using your polytunnel, also known as high tunnel or hoop house, to its full potential? If so you'll be harvesting fresh crops all year round – sweet potatoes and late celery in November; winter radish, baby carrots and celeriac in early February; salad leaves right through the winter. Even in the 'hungry gap' you'll have a choice of new potatoes, pak choi, peas, tender cabbages, beetroot and more. How to Grow Food in Your Polytunnel has all the information you need to make the most of this precious covered space, including a detailed crop-by-crop guide to the growing year, dedicated chapters on growing for each season, including the 'hungry gap', and a handy sowing and harvesting calendar to help with planning.

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'Sound, well-seasoned advice [on] how to bring wood fires into our lives.' - BBC Countryfile The Wood Fire Handbook shows you that the soothing effect of dancing flames and glowing embers is a simple pleasure to have in our lives. Understanding everything that underpins the perfect wood fire makes it even more enjoyable. Vincent Thurkettle's handbook is the essential companion and manual. The expert insight and knowledge in this book allow everyone to rediscover the skills of previous generations and savour the delight of a perfect wood fire in all its incarnations. Contents include... Understand which trees make the best firewood Learn how to split, season, and store wood Lay the perfect fire Make an ingenious campfire Choose wood for its scent ...and much more! This revised edition features updated information on wood-burning stoves, 'clean' wood and other environmental considerations.

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The UK's leading no-dig gardening expert, Charles Dowding, draws on his years of experience to show how easy it is to start a new vegetable garden. Any plot - whether a building site, overgrown with weeds or unwanted lawn - can be turned into a beautiful and productive vegetable area. Charles's no-nonsense and straightforward advice is the perfect starting point for the beginner or experienced gardener. The book takes you step-by-step through everything - from planning, clearing the ground and the early stages of starting a vegetable garden, to growing in polytunnels and greenhouses. There is also helpful guidance on how to use mulch, ways to minimise digging, and planting/sowing tips across the seasons. Filled with labour-saving ideas and the techniques that Charles uses to garden so successfully, How to Create a Vegetable Garden is illustrated throughout with photos and tales from Charles's first year in his new vegetable garden.

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The Mother Earth News Guide to Vegetable Gardening is a must-have volume packed with time-tested information, photographs, and charming illustrations for home gardeners everywhere. For years, millions of readers have turned to Mother Earth News for trusted advice on growing vegetables and fruits. The Mother Earth News Guide to Vegetable Gardening harnesses decades of wisdom, bringing together all the indispensable techniques, complete growing guides, helpful tips, useful photographs, and inspiring illustrations for which Mother Earth News is known. Plan for self-sufficiency with a garden focused on edibles! Choose from a variety of plans for kitchen gardens, browse strategies for small space gardening, or up your gardening game by installing and maintaining permanent beds. Soil concerns? Get the dirt on building fertile soil, soil pH, compost, vermicompost—even biochar. Longtime gardeners are sure to find something new, from vertical gardening to plans for extending the seasons. That’s right, garden through the seasons with dozens of vegetable-and fruit-specific growing guides. Start with your favorites or learn to love something new (Asian greens or fruit trees, anyone?). In slower-growing or more challenging seasons, Mother Earth is there to help. Whether you need to know the best vegetables to grow in the shade or the top gardening tips for soil health in winter, this book has it all.

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The "Complete Allotment Guide - Volume 1" is the first in a series of books teaching you everything you need to know to get started growing fruit and vegetables. Whether you have an allotment, a smallholding or a vegetable garden at home, you will learn how to start growing in the ground and in containers.

This step-by-step guide starts from first principles, teaching you everything from how to choose an allotment to clearing weeds, coping with the weather and how to set your vegetable garden up. You learn exactly what to look for when choosing an allotment plus how to apply and how allotment sites work, which is useful for new allotment owners. Even if you are growing at home, there is plenty of information to help you get started growing.

Whether you are brand new to growing your own or whether you have dabbled, this book teaches you everything about owning and running an allotment. Written by a long term allotment owner, the information is first hand and gives you a real world view of having an allotment, packed full of valuable information to help you make the most of your allotment.

The "Complete Allotment Guide - Volume 1" goes into detail about how to work an allotment and grow fruit and vegetables. As you read this book, you will discover:

• How to compost, including what you can and cannot compost
• The common pests you will encounter and how to deal with them
• The various problems you may encounter and how to overcome them
• How to grow from seeds plus what F1 and heirloom seeds are
• When to feed your plants and what fertilisers to use, including how to make your own
• What companion planting is and how it benefits you and your plants
• Why you must rotate crops on your allotment and how to do it
• How to run an allotment with children so they can enjoy it too
• Different gardening techniques so you know how to look after your vegetable garden
• Ways to maximise productivity from your allotment while minimising the amount of work you have to do

As well as this, you get a comprehensive guide to sowing seeds showing you when to sow different types of vegetable seed, when to plant outside and when to harvest crops. You also get a month by month guide telling you what jobs to do at an allotment, including:

• Vegetable garden jobs
• Fruit garden jobs
• What to harvest
• What to sow
• Greenhouse jobs

If you are new to growing vegetables, this is the book for you. Whether you are growing at home or growing at an allotment, this book is full of useful information helping you get started and grow successfully.

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An accessible and comprehensive guide, filled with everything you need to set up your own mini-farm and live more self-sufficiently. With the help of this handy book, you can grow all the fruit and vegetables your family needs, raise animals for meat and eggs, keep fish and bees, and even produce firewood on a plot of land of just one acre or less – all alongside your work and family life. Whether you have a garden, a paddock or perhaps the corner of a field, Sally Morgan guides you through various useful topics, including growing fruit and vegetables throughout the year, producing fish with aquaponics, and keeping livestock – poultry, pigs, sheep and goats. There is also helpful information on how to layout your plot, including fencing, poly tunnels or greenhouses, and tips on managing soil fertility. This updated edition also includes a chapter on coping with extreme weather conditions. Filled with practical advice, Living on One Acre or Less is essential reading for anyone who aspires to take control of their food supply or who wants to do more with the land they've got.

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Widen your winter horizons and enjoy an abundance of vegetables at the darkest time of year in this lovely book. Many people believe that not much grows in winter, but a well-organised plot can still be productive with careful planning. In fact, many salads can be grown in winter, especially with a little protection from fleece, cloches or larger structures. Written by organic gardening expert Charles Dowding, this guide explains how you can come through winter with plenty of vegetables stored and ready to harvest. Beautifully designed with full-colour photographs from Martin's garden, How to Grow Winter Vegetables includes an extensive month-by-month sowing, planting and growing calendar, as well as plenty of tips on storing produce. Martin shares harvesting guidance, from garlic in July right through to spring cabbage and pea shoots in May. The guide also includes a whole section on frost-hardy salad plants and other vegetables. How to Grow Winter Vegetables is a useful resource for anyone looking to utilise their garden and grow fresh produce throughout the year.

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'An essential book for every kitchen and garden.' NIGEL SLATER 'The number one book for anyone who loves salads.' ANNA PAVORD 'Charles is a passionate and accomplished gardener'. RAYMOND BLANC An updated edition of the definitive guide to salad leaves, with everything from sowing and growing leaves to delicious salad recipes. Salad leaves can flourish in a range of settings – whether on a windowsill, in your garden or on the allotment. This compendium of practical methods will inspire you to grow a wide variety of salads throughout the year, including lettuce, spinach, cabbage, beets, endives and chicories. Beautifully designed with colour photos throughout, Grow Organic Salad Leaves and Greens includes detailed information on how to grow micro-leaves using organic and permaculture principles, enabling you to enjoy fresh salad while also lowering your carbon footprint. Written by the guru of no-dig, Charles Dowding provides an overview of all you need to grow productive, healthy and tasty salads. He shares vital knowledge and gardening tips, from advice on indoor propagation to coping with slugs and other pests. The guide also includes delicious and imaginative recipes by Stephanie Hafferty, exploiting the fantastic flavours, colour and vitality of home-grown salad leaves. Learn the subtleties of salad seasons and the virtues of different leaves throughout the year with this practical guide.