Page 22 - ALG Issue 2 2018 html

Incredible Edibles
By Matthew Biggs DK, £14.99
Hardback, 224 pages ISBN: 9780241302101
Are you new to grow-your-own and determined to make the most of a limited space with a gourmet harvest? Or are you a seasoned grower looking to spice up
the kitchen garden?
Including
step by step
instructions for
growing more
than 50 out of the ordinary edibles from tumeric and goji berries to cucamelons and strawberry spinach, Incredible Edibles offers guidance on growing new flavour experiences, as well as advice for storing and preserving your crops to reduce waste.
www.dk.com/uk/9780241302101-incredible-edibles/
The
Book of
Seeds
By Paul Smith Quarto Knows, £30.00
Hardback, 656 pages ISBN: 9781782405207
Seeds have sustained
life for as long as
insects, birds and
animals have been on
Earth. As the produce
of plants they are a
complex organ that
appears in a wide
variety of shapes, sizes
and colours; from the
giant double coconut
of the coco de mer, to the microscopic seeds of orchids.
In The Book of Seeds, discover 600 species of seeds from around the world: commonplace and rare, gigantic and minute, each shown life size and in detail.
22
Book Reviews
A History of
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway
Allotments in
Sheffield
By Kate Bradbury Bloomsbury, £16.99 Hardback, 288 pages ISBN: 9781472943118
By Margaret Boulton Self-published: available from Amazon, £10.00 Paperback
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway documents Kate Bradbury rewilding a tiny urban space at a time when her neighbours lock their gardens away under paving and decking. Set at her new home in Brighton, Kate gradually brings a barren garden back to life, transforming it into a wildlife oasis.
ISBN: 9781527211025
For those of us fascinated by the development of allotment provision and its link to wider social issues, this book is a fascinating close-up look at that process in Sheffield, a city that lays claim to being the pioneer of large scale allotment provision.
Packed-out with historical
maps and illustrations, this book takes the reader
from 18th century garden plots right through to their 21st century significance. I particularly enjoyed the description of the 19th century plotholder ‘wending
his way back to a sooty brick dwelling laden with rural spoils of cabbages, cauliflowers and juicy lettuces’ enlivened with ‘a huge posy of lupines and sweet Williams and pinks and of cabbage roses and pansies’.
Not only does Kate document her current battle, but also reflects on memories from her childhood garden. Kate’s lifelong passion for wildlife is clear as she works hard to clear the rubble and enrich the soil in her
new backyard, planting nectar and pollen rich plants, setting up bird boxes and bee hotels to attract the wildlife she tries to save.