Allotment Month by Month

by Buckingham, Alan

For tasty, delicious fruit and veg that hasn’t travelled halfway around the world, you can’t beat home grown produce from your own allotment or vegetable patch. Here’s how to ensure your plot provides fresh, healthy food all year round.

Follow month-by-month, easy-to-follow advice on what to do on your allotment and how to do it. Pick up time saving tips and techniques on everything from pruning to dealing with pests. There’s clear guidance on when to sow, plant, and harvest for excellent results

Get more from your allotment with this indispensable companion.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[TheNeverendingTBR · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. It's got everything you need to know about growing fruit and vegetables, whether it be in your back garden or an allotment.

It goes through the months of the year, letting you know the best things to plant on that month and how to plant and care for it.

It's a reference book, so it's a valuable companion through the year to keep you right and learn new and better ways to plant, care for, and harvest your crops.

The descriptions, explanations, and illustrations are all made easy to understand. It doesn't get too complicated.

Ideal for beginners or even the competent gardener.

[Nadya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely resource for the novice gardener!

Most useful are the jobs for each month - it really breaks it down when it can sometimes feel like there is so much to do and learn.

I also enjoy the extra information on pests, and the gudes to building your own raised beds and compost bins etc.

Really lovely, motivating photos too.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for the brand new gardener like myself. Super helpful having the month by month guide, tells me what to do and when to do it.

[Sheryl Garratt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is possibly my most middle-aged posting ever, but.. it gave me exactly what I was looking for, which was a clear guide when to plant and when to harvest my fruit and veg, with lots of tips and information without being overwhelming. A useful reference book.

[Amy N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super straightforward book outlining the key jobs to be done month by month for the beginner gardener. Just a tip from a friend who also has this book AND an incredibly productive allotment, it's very England-centric so if you're in Scotland, he would recommend moving things a few weeks to a month later (i.e. tasks designated for March in the book might need to happen closer to April in reality if you're in Northern Scotland). I've yet to try this in practice yet but it his results speak for themselves!

[Conny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allotment month by month, might probably the only book you need on the subject. A stunningly designed book, packed with very useful information and written in a clear style that even novice gardeners will be able to easily understand. The quality of the photos are an added bonus. I’m very pleased with this book and will be ordering a second one for my friend’s birthday, no actually 2 more, for 2 of my friends! So really, a lot of gardening books that look good, are ending up on the bookshelf totally ignored, while this one will most likely get used over years to come.

[Miss RCD Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good breakdown of what to do in the allotment which I found incredibly helpful when I was first starting out. It's not a complete guide on how to do everything, but it's a valuable resource for beginner allotmenters.

[Just_me · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fantastic help for my first year growing and now is my go to guide for growing, jobs and guidance of what to do on my allotment.

Fab book and I recommend it to all beginners like me.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful

[Alan Daly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for gardeners/allotmenters.

[Gary Greenslade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. I just took over an allotment and it's a daunting task. This book has helped me to decide what to grow, understand how to grow it and I've planned out my year. This book is a must have!

[Tonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly enough detail especially if someone is a beginner

[Rachel Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book. It's easy to read and understand, full of excellent information, advice and tips. It's my allotment Bible.

[Eliza Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book but you can find most of this information online e.g. on RHS

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent guide

[Ruric Amhari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very straightforward book to growing veg, fruit and herbs in an allotment situation. Lots of great photos, text frequently borken up by lots of headings to improve readability and it's easy to skim though and find what you need.

Divided into 4 sections:

Allotment know how - assessing the site, microclimate, plot layout, making beds, crop rotation etc

Allotment calendar - bullet point list of top tasks to be done every month backed up by more detailed information of veggies available, sowing & planting, other jobs to be done, pests & diseases to look out for.

Crop planner - page entry per crop item with calendar to show sowing/harvesting times, info on where to grow, sowing & planting, tips on growing, harvesting and troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting - pests & diseases A-Z.

[Rory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book. Easy to follow. Love the month by month guide of what to do and plant. Plus section on diseases to refer to. Great for the beginner.

[Yasmin Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently took on an allotment patch, this is literally the allotment bible.