BOOK REVIEWS

The Organic Salad Garden

Joy Larkcom
Special photography by Roger Phillips
Frances Lincoln Ltd, distributed by Bookwise International
$NZ59.95

YOU are what you eat - and with summer not too many weeks away, now is the perfect time to start thinking about establishing an organic salad garden.

The Organic Salad Garden is an invaluable reference book, following every step of the salad-making process, from planning the layout of the garden, to choosing your mix of plants, with a range of creative recipes to make the most of your homegrown crops come harvest time.

The Organic Salad Garden is comprehensively illustrated with clear identifying photos, so it's just what you need if you can't tell your mizuna from your mustard seedlings. As well as salad greens, it covers fruiting vegetables like peppers and cucumbers, root vegetables, onions, peas, beans, herbs and edible flowers. There's even a chapter on weeds - just imagine serving up a fresh salad of dandelions, fat hen, shepherd's purse and thistles!

The appendices of practical growing advice include planting calendars, germination and harvest times for cut-and-come-again seedlings, a useful guide to seeds suitable for sprouting and suggestions for difficult positions, such as gardens in light shade or dry soil.

Joy Larkcom - one of Britain's most respected garden writers - has been gardening organically for more than 25 years, so she definitely practices what she preaches. Larkcom also runs a specialist organic market garden in Suffolk, growing unusual salad vegetables and herbs.

Weekend Gardener, Issue 105, September 5-18, 2002, Page 30

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH