How to Create a New Vegetable Garden: Producing a Beautiful and Fruitful Garden from Scratch

We bought one of Charles newer books and it wasn't really what we were looking for as new gardeners so I returned it and bouggt this book. This is everything you could need, and more, it is a great book with invaluable information, great photos, and the best calenders. I definately recomend this book if you are new to vegetable gardening as we are!

For my use it was too heavy in trials and comparisons. I already use a no-dig gardening method so I didn't need to be convinced.

This book is great if you wish to get going with your own veg garden. Its given me all I needed and am so excited

Excellent book on gardening in general, but especially on starting in a new spot. Best discussion of invasive perennial weeds I've ever found in a gardening book. Advice not only on beds but paths as well. How long to expect covered weeds (with their light blocked) to remain a threat and when you could reasonably expect to see them gone. Extremely clear writing plus photographs that explain a lot. Also photographs of the author's various beds, how each was started under different conditions. His experiments with added products, with more or less digging, with several crops in one space each year. Lots more, from seed starting to space saving. Must mention the author seems truly invested in whether the reader goes on to enjoy gardening and is successful. He includes even those photos that show mistakes and carefully tells what he did wrong. I had a few difficulties understanding some words, since I'm not from the UK but the US, but in context I figured out what was meant pretty quickly. Not a problem. The book is quite attractive, well bound, and the pages are of good paper. Would make a nice gift.

I love Charles Dowding's books. However, in most of Canada we do not garden around Christmas or in February, when the ground is frozen and, blankets of snow are on it!