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The Essential Allotment Guide: How to Get the Best out of Your Plot
In recent years allotments have grown in popularity with demand far outstripping supply. John Harrison shows how to improve your chances of getting an allotment and move up the waiting list. In this all-encompassing guide, he also advises on clearing an allotment, planning what to grow and how, building compost bins, using raised beds – plus detailed instructions on growing the best vegetables and fruit.Praise for John Harrison's Vegetable Growing Month by Month:“…solid words of advice, written in a way that everyone will understand.”Medwyn Williams, Chairman of the National Vegetable Society and member of the Fruit and Vegetable Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society.
- GenresNonfictionGardening
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 26, 2009
41 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
John Harrison
19 books1 followerThere is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This is John^^^Harrison, who writes about gardening.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 24, 2018
Excellent!
Having just acquired my first plot I can see this book becoming an excellent reference guide. Concise and down to earth! (Pardon the pun).
Having just acquired my first plot I can see this book becoming an excellent reference guide. Concise and down to earth! (Pardon the pun).
May 23, 2024
As I try to bring my back yard up to scratch I’m browsing a dozen gardening books for ideas and advice. These opening paragraphs will open every review of the dozen – the review of this specific book will appear at paragraph 5.
Can’t imagine any gardening book could be described as perfect – I live in Scotland, which might have a slightly colder climate than other places in the world. But gardening books are useful if you’re trying to bring a piece of land into productive use for yourself, family or community. Useful, to supplement what you may already know, useful to give you ideas and encouragement, useful to remind you of the essentials and the possibilities.
I’d caution against picking just one book – unless it covers a particularly narrow, specialist field. Browse half a dozen or a dozen books before and as you start your new project. Don’t necessarily buy new – pick up some second hand ones online or in charity shops. Seriously, gardening is not going to have changed much in the last 30 years, you don’t need to pay £20 to buy the latest piece by some celebrity gardener when you can get a half a dozen books for that money from charity shops or online.
Browse, take notes, compare, learn, become enthused … but don’t forget to get your hands dirty.
John Harrison “The essential Allotment Guide” - Excellent advice if you're taking over an allotment, but also inspirational if you're just trying to grow something edible at home.
No photos, a limited number of line drawings, but a lot of excellent written content.
Makes a brief but compelling statement about the advantages of allotments over the average garden – you’re not competing for space with play areas for the kids, room to hang the washing, somewhere to sit and relax. You can ‘farm’ the allotment … and you’ll be in the company of neighbouring allotment growers who have knowledge and experience to share.
Lots of good and intriguing practical advice – like a hugely informative piece on how to dismantle a secondhand greenhouse and remove it to your new plot! A good section on compost, use of comfrey, green manuring, etc. Some 40% of the book is given over to advice about growing vegetables, and a chapter on growing soft fruit. All highly informative, well communicated … and, I would add … definitely motivating, it's content you'll find highly useful even if you’re only considering getting the best out of a small back garden or patio.
There’s no calendar – but he includes an excellent, at-a-glance sowing and harvesting chart which I found exceedingly helpful in planning.
Altogether an excellent, small, handy book which will live long and prosper in your gardening section. Highly recommended.
Can’t imagine any gardening book could be described as perfect – I live in Scotland, which might have a slightly colder climate than other places in the world. But gardening books are useful if you’re trying to bring a piece of land into productive use for yourself, family or community. Useful, to supplement what you may already know, useful to give you ideas and encouragement, useful to remind you of the essentials and the possibilities.
I’d caution against picking just one book – unless it covers a particularly narrow, specialist field. Browse half a dozen or a dozen books before and as you start your new project. Don’t necessarily buy new – pick up some second hand ones online or in charity shops. Seriously, gardening is not going to have changed much in the last 30 years, you don’t need to pay £20 to buy the latest piece by some celebrity gardener when you can get a half a dozen books for that money from charity shops or online.
Browse, take notes, compare, learn, become enthused … but don’t forget to get your hands dirty.
John Harrison “The essential Allotment Guide” - Excellent advice if you're taking over an allotment, but also inspirational if you're just trying to grow something edible at home.
No photos, a limited number of line drawings, but a lot of excellent written content.
Makes a brief but compelling statement about the advantages of allotments over the average garden – you’re not competing for space with play areas for the kids, room to hang the washing, somewhere to sit and relax. You can ‘farm’ the allotment … and you’ll be in the company of neighbouring allotment growers who have knowledge and experience to share.
Lots of good and intriguing practical advice – like a hugely informative piece on how to dismantle a secondhand greenhouse and remove it to your new plot! A good section on compost, use of comfrey, green manuring, etc. Some 40% of the book is given over to advice about growing vegetables, and a chapter on growing soft fruit. All highly informative, well communicated … and, I would add … definitely motivating, it's content you'll find highly useful even if you’re only considering getting the best out of a small back garden or patio.
There’s no calendar – but he includes an excellent, at-a-glance sowing and harvesting chart which I found exceedingly helpful in planning.
Altogether an excellent, small, handy book which will live long and prosper in your gardening section. Highly recommended.
May 9, 2009
Ok, so I don't actually have an allotment yet, but I am on the waitlist (which averages 6-8 years here) so no harm in reading up in advance. This book is especially geared towards the British allotment grower, which is good because a lot of the plants I had in my head as normal home gardening plants from my childhood in Ohio don't really work here, and of course other crops work better here than in Ohio. It made me realize just how much I don't know about how to grow vegetables and properly manage a garden. He's much more into building stuff than I think I could be (I can't see myself building my own greenhouse anytime soon) and he's more geared towards England than Scotland, but still a good general guide on what the heck to do with an allotment.
November 2, 2018
Great book when starting your own allotment
April 5, 2013
Great read for having just started growing at an allotment. I shall be referring to this book as the season goes on, and throughout the winter as it still has useful info for the offseason.
May 15, 2015
Great! Packed full of useful info and tips. One to keep in the shed up the allotment.
May 10, 2020
What an excellent book and a must for any allotment holder. Great reference book to be used again and again.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews