This book proposes a way of gardening where edible plants are incorporated into gardens, rather than being the sole preserve of allotments and kitchen gardens. informative and interesting too, i learnt a lot and the idea of polyculture gardens has my brain buzzing.

Fowler suggests that it is far less time consuming to garden alongside nature rather than being a chore that includes constant weeding and back-breaking digging. The book sets out the argument for gardening in this way in the introductory pages and then splits into subsequent sections. She has presented on BBC's Gardeners' World, The Great British Garden Revival, Our Food , and her own six-part series The Edible Garden . It's lacking the introductory detail to give structure, and some of the chapters feel rather cursory.Eat What You Grow contains fewer lifestyle pictures, more focus on plants and more focus on science, which I'm sure all comes from a decade more of horticulture and more editorial influence with her publisher. And as I now embark on my second year in a new garden, Eat What You Grow has provided a source of inspiration to consider more ambitious plans for each of the seasons. Alys Fowler trained at the Horticultural Society, the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. There are lots of interesting new edibles throughout the book, which may or may not be shown in the photos, but you can't tell, so you haven't a clue what they look like.

Her inspiration for urban gardening comes from her time volunteering in a community garden on the Lower East side in Manhattan, New York City. Among the many possibilities, there are familiar faces such as fig trees, rocket and beetroot, as well as less commonplace plants and varieties such as Korean celery (Dystaenia takesimana) and mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), a flowering plant from the Andes with edible tubers.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that it is a galvanising treatise on the possibility of a truly nature- centric edible garden, a celebration of biodiversity as well as deliciousness. From perennial vegetables that come back year after year, to easy-to-grow delights, she has selected plants that hold their own in both the garden and on the plate.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.It suggests building a garden out of three components, "basics" (perennials), "fillers" (self-seeders that look after themselves) and "toppings" (more labour-intensive annuals). I love all of her books including her novel and this was a splurge, whilst the paper is gorgeous and the pictures are delightful this is a coffee table book or possibly a seed catalog rather than an actual gardening book. In Eat What You Grow, Alys shows you how to create a rich, biodiverse garden that feeds not only you, but supports a wide range of pollinators, bees and butterflies, as well as other wildlife.

She also suggests effective design techniques for ensuring that your garden looks as good as it smells and tastes! In Eat What You Grow, Alys Fowler offers expertise on cultivating a rich and biodiverse edible garden that will attract wildlife, including important pollinators, while also providing you with incredibly nourishing and wondrously home-grown crops. I gave 4 stars rather than 3 because I felt Eat What You Grow had a great deal of poise, especially compared to The Edible Garden, which hinged on a very lifestyle driven TV companion, where many encountered Fowler's distinctive style for the first time. Interesting and well written, but a huge disappointment after Alys's previous book, The Edible Garden.

I bought this book alongside “The Edible Garden”, (which i had been watching on the television), thinking it would be a food addition to my gardening library. In Eat What You Grow, Alys Fowler shows you how to create a rich, biodiverse garden that feeds not only you, but supports a wide range of pollinators, bees and butterflies, as well as other wildlife. All of the plants that Fowler has incorporated into this book have been selected so that they hold their own not just in a garden but on the plate. I was especially intrigued by the Edible Water Garden section, as this is entirely unknown territory for me and I’d love to try my hand at growing edible aquatic plants. She has written seven books including T he Thrifty Gardener, The Edible Garden, The Thrifty Forager, Abundance , Hidden Nature and A Modern Herbal .