Description
How to understand your space, grow the right crops in the right place, and enjoy abundant harvests
Each area of a garden offers a different environment for plants, with differing levels of sun, soil, moisture, and more.
In this book, expert gardener and vegetable-grower Lucy Chamberlain breaks down the environments we may find in our gardens into seven zones, from sunny and sheltered through to shady and dry – as well as using indoor space.
Following the principle of “right crop, right place”, everyone can grow fruits and vegetables that will thrive in their space, large or small. Including varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, edible flowers, and crops in pots, there is something here for everyone – from favourites like chilis and figs to honeyberry, wasabi, agretti, and amaranth.
Learn how to identify and map the zones of your space, make the most of the natural conditions, collect water, use a greenhouse effectively, and understand the basics of what’s happening in the soil. With photographs of crops, diagrams of each zone, and a trouble-shooter guide to managing plant problems, this book will truly enable gardeners to grow food anywhere.
About the Author
Lucy Chamberlain has been cultivating edible produce since her teenage years, after being raised on her family's smallholding in Essex. She now grows more than 150 varieties of fruits, vegetables, and herbs year-round in her modern kitchen edible garden. Lucy has worked as Head Gardener at East Donyland Hall in Essex – an 85-acre estate with a walled kitchen garden; as Editor of Grow Your Own magazine; and at RHS Garden Wisley. She co-hosts the podcast Talking Heads, authored RHS Step-by-Step Veg Patch (DK, 2012), and in 2023 won the award for Best Showcase Garden after co-designing a kitchen garden for the Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair.