Wednesday 29 January 2014

Expert No-Dig Advice - A book review

Charles Dowding's Veg Journal
(published by Frances Lincoln (www.franceslincoln.com | @Frances_Lincoln) 


The hype about this book by Charles Dowding has been hitting the web-asphere for a little while now and I think the praise is well deserved. I received my own copy a good while back from the lovely people at The Aurum Publishing Group but having double vision means reading is slow, plus the flu = I simply couldn't find the energy to write a review before now. But never fear dear reader, the release date isn't until February 6th so this is still a valid pre-release review :) Plus I have a coupon code for you..

So what's it like? 
Well anything that purports to make growing your own easier, helping you 'become an expert mulcher and weeder', 'produce the sweetest-smelling compost', tackle those pesky enemies and 'understand..intercropping, companion planting...and crop succession' to say the least, is good by me. Plus it has great quality photography, colourful pages, authoritative writing and feels lovely in the hand.

Shame on me, I didn't know who Mr Dowding was before this book but seems he is rather famous in the organic gardening world and is actually a pretty darn respected. The work is condensed down into a very easy to use monthly journal with checklists and step by step guides. The concept behind it all is little and often and saving yourself unnecessary and ultimately unproductive work. All of this can't be bad, right? 


Being a journal it naturally has pages left for your own notes, as many allotment books do these days, and this is great for those of us who do things and forget the details such a seed names and dates planted. Being hardback it is sturdy enough to be thrown in with the wellies etc and taken to the plot each time. However, if you're like me and have a blog for all that and a camera constantly attached to your hand you  may not need this part, hehehe.

An utter delight of a book I am happy to say :)

To order Charles Dowding's Veg Journal at the discounted price of £12.00 including p&p* (RRP: £14.99), telephone 01903 828503 or email mailorders@lbsltd.co.uk and quote the offer code APG69. 

Alternatively, send a cheque made payable to: 
Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, 
Littlehampton Book Services, 
PO Box 4264, 
Worthing, West Sussex 
BN13 3RB. 

Please quote the offer code APG69 and include your name and address details. 
*UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

Hugs and Love


5 comments:

  1. Sounds much better than the book I reviewed earlier - pity I didn't get this one to review. That will teach me what happens when you don't give a glowing report - people avoid asking you to review anything else!

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  2. I think I remember that review Sue, and your take on it was perfectly fine - honest. Sadly this book was a little better... xxx

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  3. A good post about an excellent book. Flighty xx

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  4. Thanks Flighty - that means a lot coming from you, you old sofa flyer you xx

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  5. I was lucky enough to win a copy of this from the fantastic Veg Plotting's blog, I'm really looking forward to reading it. Glad you enjoyed it too Carrie. Now all we need is some good gardening weather.

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