Grow Your Own Vegetables

By: Joy Larkcom

This guide contains everything you need to know to create a highly-productive, beautiful vegetable plot. Joy Larkom's easy-to-follow advice covers every aspect of vegetable gardening, including preparing and looking after soil; manures, composts and fertilizers; growing techniques; pests, diseases and weeds; protection; and planning and making good use of space.

The second half of the book provides cultivation information for over 100 vegetables, including site and soil requirements, cultivation, pests and diseases, and cultivars. Comprehensively revised, the book now includes unusual vegetables from the increasingly wide range available today, new varieties and modern techniques, and up-to-date research. It addresses the concerns of 21st-century gardeners and is totally organic in its approach.

This is really one of the best vegetable gardening books you can buy, highly recommended

 The HDRA Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening

By: Henry Doubleday Research Association

An illustrated reference for organic growing and gardening, this guide caters for every level or organic committment, from simple first steps to organic self-sufficiency, and includes an easy-to-use A-Z directory.

From the people who know all about organic gardening - another must have. You don't have to be organic to benefit from this book, either.  

 Vegetable and Herb Expert

By: D. G. Hessayon

The famous 'Expert' books are very no-nonsense in their approach and this is their real strength, When you start growing you can be overwhelmed with information and technical details. This book gives you the basic facts in a clear and easy to digest format.

Another one of my 'must have' books.

 The Fruit Expert

By: D. G. Hessayon

What he does for vegetables is just as applicable for fruit. I recently bought some redcurrant bushes and the first place I looked for guidance in was this book.

Another sensible addition to your library

 The Greenhouse Expert

By: D. G. Hessayon

A guide for anyone who owns or is considering buying a greenhouse. It gives advice on the best kind of greenhouse to buy, which plants to choose, how to care for them, how to control the environment, and includes descriptions of the ten types of plants that can be grown in a greenhouse.

Once again, clear and concise. If you have or are thinking of getting a greenhouse, invest in this book first.

 Vegetable Growing Month by Month

By: John Harrison

OK, I'll come clean and declare my interest! I wrote this and I'm a bit biased. Well extemely proud of it to be truthful and it is a bestseller

It's aimed firstly at the new vegetable grower but there are tips and tricks that I think will help even more experienced gardeners. It's not a coffee table book, no full colour photographs or exotic ideas, just basic advice I'd give to another grower on the allotment.

For a full chapter list and to buy a signed copy direct, click this Vegetable Growing Month by Month Or for a discount follow the Amazon link to the right.

Go on - it's not expensive and you won't be sorry! At 256 pages it's just over 2p a page!

 The Essential Allotment Guide

By: John Harrison

This is my second book and it's aimed squarely at the allotment grower. Like my first book, Vegetable Growing Month by Month, it's straightforward and simple advice. No colour pictures, if you need to be enthused with staged shots of wonderful carrots, this is not the book for you.

You'll find full details of the book here - The Essential Allotment Guide

 Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Growing in Small Spaces

By: John Harrison

For those of us who aren't fortunate to have a large garden or allotment, this book covers how to maximise production from a tiny garden and how to container garden. Even if all you have is a window box, you can still grow something edible.

You'll be surprised by the range of edibles that can be grown in next to no room but it pulls no punches about those crops that really aren't suitable for container or pot growing.

There's more on the book here: Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Growing in Small Spaces

 The Pocket Vegetable Expert

By: D.G. Hessayon

The beauty of this pocket sized version is that you can do that - pop it in your pocket and take it down to the plot with you. Very useful when you can't remember if something should be a six inch spacing or a four inch spacing!

 Create Compost: Green Essentials - Organic Guides

By: Pauline Pears (Editor)

Compost is the unsung hero of the garden. It is the fuel that makes everything from flowers and shrubs to fruit and vegetables vigorous and healthy. And it can be free when you make your own. What could be better than gathering together all the plant waste, leaves, clippings and prunings and using it to grow new plants?

Here we are shown how to make excellent compost faster and more easily than you thought possible. Everything from choosing or making a compost bin, creating compost and how to spot problems is covered  plus, of course, practical advice on when and where to use compost in the garden. Create Compost is endorsed by the HDRA and the Soil Association, so you know you can trust all the organic advice.

 1001 Ways to be a Better Gardener

By: Pippa Greenwood

Pippa Greenwood is one of those gardeners who I have a lot of respect and admiration for. She might not be as famous as some of the TV crowd, but she really knows what she's doing, especially with pests and problems.

This book isn't one to read cover to cover in one go, it's a reference to skim and then dip into as you undertake different tasks. It's basically lots of really useful tips and snippets of information, many make you go "Aha! That's a good idea." 

One of those books that comes off the shelf frequently - pop it onto your wish list, you won't regret it.

 Growing Vegetables (Royal Horticultural Society's Encyclopaedia of Practical Gardening S.)

By: Tony Biggs, The Royal Horticultural Society

This text provides the techniques needed for growing both popular and more unusual vegetables, including salad greens, brassicas, roots and tubers, onions and herbs. It treats each vegetable concisely with guidance on preparing the soil, sowing, transplanting, tending, harvesting and storage.

This book is a little dated but still valuable for the beginner. Clear basic information that doesn't assume knowledge. Unfortunately, it is very chemical in its approach. The organic approach doesn't get a look in. In fact, some of the chemicals mentioned are now banned in the EU and not available.

Having said that, I would still say it is worth getting.

 The Kitchen Garden Yearbook: Month-by-Month Guide to Growing Your Own Vegetables

By: Daphne Ledward

Beginning in January with advice on soil preparation and going right through sowing, planting and harvesting, this is a book for gardeners who want a gentle yet thorough introduction to growing their own produce.

Daphne Ledward is a well known and respected expert so I was hoping for something a little more technical. Enjoyable read anyway.