Aside from the ravages of slugs, the menace of ground elder and the weather, two topics often crop up in my conversations with gardeners: how to encourage the next generation and the difficulty of growing in towns where space is short. So, it seems appropriate in the midst of National Gardening Week to be looking at two new books that tackle those issues.
The Community Gardening Handbook and Grow have been written by Ben Raskin and draw on his experience both as Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association and as a father of two.
In them, he seeks to encourage us all to discover the joys of growing – whatever the space available or whatever our age.
The Community Gardening Handbook is a comprehensive guide on how to join a fast-growing movement in towns and cities across the world.
“There are plenty of ways to get your hands on some growing space,” Raskin assures us before going on to outline some solutions.
Although he includes the more solitary individual allotment plot or rooftop garden, it’s clear his real passion is for group gardening and even the allotment section has ideas on how to collaborate with other growers.
Novel space solutions include ‘portable gardens’ in skips, sand delivery bags or trailers while he suggests land awaiting development or the corners of parks could yield growing room.
Guerrilla gardening, where otherwise neglected public space is cultivated, is also considered, although he concedes planting up potholes would be more a statement on road repairs than a horticultural benefit.
Having established the parameters, each with practical considerations that would need to be considered and often with an example from across the world of where it has worked, he goes on to lay down a route to a successful community garden.
And it is thorough. Everything is covered from how to drum up support and, importantly, money to legal issues and how to ensure the project lasts more than one season. There’s even advice on running a public meeting.
More practical advice comes in sections on how to grow, including planning, watering and crop rotation, and what to grow with a list of his favourite crops complete with cultivation notes.
Despite the wealth of advice packed into the book, it is an easy read thanks to the layout and numerous photos.
As a handbook, it would provide a firm foundation to any new community project but much of the growing advice, such as saving seed and calendar of tasks, is suitable for any new gardener.
It’s new gardeners that Raskin is particularly concerned with in his other book, Grow. Billed as a family guide to growing fruit and veg, it is obviously designed with younger members in mind.
Colourful, illustration-heavy pages and a chatty style give it a children’s book quality. Yet, again it is packed with sound advice ranging from the structure of plants and what they need to grow to planning a veg garden and how to sow seeds. There’s even a simplified version of the periodic table showing what chemicals plants need and a checklist for spotting deficiencies.
Pages of stickers – ‘Top Gardener!’ and ‘I Dig Fruit and Veg’ – add appeal for younger readers and there are two games, a gardening version of snakes and ladders and a card game pairing fruits, to encourage participation while a recipe for pizza suggests using vegetables from the garden for the topping.
With a list of his top ten crops to try and a great ‘growing wheel’ showing how long things take to mature, there’s plenty to inspire and the book would be ideal as a starting point to getting children growing.
• The Community Gardening Handbook (buy now) and Grow (buy now) are written by Ben Raskin and published by Leaping Hare Press. Both are priced at £9.99 RRP. (If you buy through the Amazon link, I may receive a small fee and the price you pay will not be affected.)
• Review copies supplied by Leaping Hare Press.
• For more book reviews see here
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