Allotment Month By Month: Grow Your Own Fruit And Vegetables by Alan Buckingham - Non Fiction - Hardback

Title:
Allotment Month By Month

Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780241360002

Overview:
Allotment Month By Month is the definitive hardback guide to growing your own fruit and vegetables year-round. Written by Alan Buckingham and published by DK, this 352-page manual offers a clear, practical path through every season. The subtitle—Grow Your Own Fruit and Vegetables, Know What To Do When—captures its core promise: remove guesswork from gardening with precise, month-by-month plans. This new edition updates varieties and pesticide guidance to reflect current best practices, ensuring readers have the most reliable advice on hand. Inside, you’ll find more than 60 crop planners for herbs, fruit, and vegetables—from kale and rhubarb to strawberries and apples—designed to suit a range of spaces, from urban plots to family kitchens. Month-by-month alerts help you spot pests and diseases early, while crop-rotation guidance promotes long-term soil health. The book also features hands-on projects, such as building a compost bin and simple drainage improvements, making it a tactile, visual reference as well as a practical handbook. Ideal for urban gardeners, balcony growers, and traditional plot-holders alike, Allotment Month By Month is a trusted companion for harvesting seasonal produce with confidence and minimal waste.

What You’ll Discover Inside:
This practical gardening handbook opens with month-by-month chapters that tell you exactly what to sow, plant, water, and harvest, turning a sprawling plot into a predictable cycle of success. Visual galleries illustrate the crops you’re aiming for in each season, helping you select varieties that suit your climate and space. The crop planners catalogue more than 60 fruits, vegetables, and herbs, offering flexible options for a plot, a balcony, or a kitchen garden. A dedicated “Allotment Know-How” section demystifies soil preparation, tools, and crop rotation, while a “Troubleshooter” chapter identifies common pests and disorders and provides straightforward remedies. The 2019 edition also integrates updated variety recommendations and current guidance on pesticide use, ensuring readers follow responsible, modern practices. With step-by-step projects—like constructing a compost bin or improving drainage—you gain practical skills you can apply immediately in your own plot.

Who It’s For:
Whether you’re tending a compact urban plot, a balcony container garden, or a traditional allotment, this book speaks to you. It’s ideal for first-time vegetable growers seeking a clear, navigable handbook and for seasoned gardeners needing a dependable seasonal reference. Parents buying for curious young gardeners and teachers planning garden-based activities will find practical, task-focused guidance. Gift buyers will appreciate a durable hardcover that signals lasting value. Fans of practical non-fiction about food, sustainability, and seasonal living will also appreciate the book’s year-long structure, which makes complex gardening knowledge approachable and achievable.

Key Highlights:

• Month-by-month chapters map sowing, planting, and harvesting tasks for every season
• Visual galleries showcase harvest-ready crops to guide selection
• Crop planners feature 60+ fruits, vegetables, and herbs for flexible growing
• Allotment Know-How on soil, tools, crop rotation, and plot management
• Troubleshooter with practical remedies for pests and diseases
• Step-by-step projects, including composting and guttering sowing, to build confidence
• Updated varieties and pesticide-use guidance in the new edition
• Durable hardcover format ideal for frequent reference and gifting

About the Author:
Alan Buckingham is a seasoned gardening writer, editor, and photographer with more than twenty years in illustrated publishing. He has contributed to DK’s acclaimed Grow Fruit and Grow Vegetables series and is a longtime plots-holder at the Royal Paddocks Allotments near Hampton Court Palace in southwest London. Buckingham’s clear, practical voice blends reliable horticultural science with approachable how-to instruction, helping readers translate ideas into action in their own plots. His background in photography also means the book’s visuals support step-by-step learning, making techniques easy to imitate in real life. This combination—expert guidance, accessible language, and a gardener’s eye for detail—makes Allotment Month By Month a trusted staple for home growers.

Why You’ll Love This Book:
If you’re serious about growing your own fruit and vegetables but feel uncertain where to start or how to pace your work, this hardcover guide provides a calm, methodical path through the year. The month-by-month structure turns a potentially overwhelming garden into a series of achievable milestones, while the crop planners expand your options beyond the basics. It’s a durable reference you’ll return to season after season, whether you’re tending a busy urban plot or a quiet backyard. The 2019 edition’s updated advice keeps you aligned with current best practices, including responsible pesticide use, so you can harvest confidently with less guesswork.

Please Note: The individual books included in this listing will be dispatched as per the original UK ISBN and UK edition cover image shown in the image.