Allotment Manual: The complete step-by-step guide

This manual is essential for the budding or experienced allotment owner. Along with all the details for growing fruit and vegetables that one might expect from an allotment book, this manual also details some of the more advanced aspects of modern allotment keeping. It includes information on planning projects such as an allotment shop, and outlines the legal and financial issues that face today’s allotment owner. It also has comprehensive A-Z lists, making it a one-stop source of allotment knowledge.

Contents: The plot: finding the right plot; growing fruit, vegetables and flowers; sheds and greenhouses; communal tools; dealing with weeds; entering competitions.Sheds and greenhouses: learning the rules.Soil management: fertility, raised beds, rotation.A-Zs: growing vegetables, growing fruit, the greenhouse, weeds and allotment pests.Livestock: hens, bees; thinking about larger livestock.The Allotment Society: policy-making, security, gaining grants for disabled access, toilets and education.Raising standards: improving an allotment to include signs and pathways.Planning projects: improvement of soil, drainage, items for a shop.How to get along with fellow allotment keepers: neighbours, bartering, allotment politics and how to complain without losing friends.ORIGINAL HARDBACK EDITION 978 0 85733 160 1

Author Biography: Paul Peacock was the founder editor of Grow It! and Home Farmer magazines. He has written more than 20 gardening books and has been involved with many allotments. He introduced nationwide beekeeping allotment training and was involved with creating a school allotment in Manchester, receiving grants from various sources. He has recently become a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time.