The Pocket Vegetable Expert
Book Review by Trevor Edwards
11th September 2002

A new title in the acclaimed Pocket Expert series - a ‘boiled-down' version of the UK 's best-selling standard sized Expert, including sections on getting started, plant care and a vegetable A-Z. The book is set out in the following sections Introduction, Vegetables A-Z, Baby Vegetables, Getting Started, and Plant Care. Within the A-Z most vegetables are afforded two pages crammed with stunningly useful and concisely detailed information on Sowing the Crop (including a drawing showing the planting or sowing depth and spacing), Looking after the Crop, Harvesting the Crop and a List of Varieties. For each vegetable as well as a colour photograph, you will find a description, which will indicate such information as the Expected Germination Time, Expected Yield, Approximate Time between Sowing and Lifting and the Ease of Cultivation. Also for each vegetable you will find a simple bar chart Calendar showing the Sowing Time and/or the Planting and the Picking Time - very handy when planning your plot! Baby Vegetables are now very trendy and given the small size of many gardens and vegetable plots, baby vegetables are extremely useful where space is limited. Chapter three dedicates two pages to the topic and to some of the suitable varieties. The Getting Started chapter deals with the important topics of Crop Rotation, Manuring, Digging, Preparing the Seed Bed, Liming, Seed Sowing, Growing in the Greenhouse and The Bed System! Plant Care clearly helps with Thinning, Transplanting, Mulching, Watering, feeding, Weeding, Spraying, Protected Cropping, Harvesting and Storing. This book is a MUST for anyone who is keen to start or improve their Vegetable Plot production. Just imagine the extra taste and flavour you will get from your home grown vegetables. Apart from the health giving properties of the vine ripe and fresh vegetable, just think of the satisfaction and therapy of the Good Life! Enjoy - yum yum!

Book: The Pocket Vegetable Expert
Author: Dr D.G Hessayon
Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Price: £3.99