More about The Allotment Keeper's Handbook

Dispensing with the strict calendar-based advice usually found in gardening manuals, Jane Perrone steers a carefree course through the gardener's year. Featuring a full chapter devoted to harvesting, a history of allotments, an exhaustive section on crop rotation, 'spotlights' on unusual vegetables, fun monthly projects and a glossary to cut through garden jargon, this book is all you will need to get growing.

If you're wondering, what's an allotment? Good question! In the UK, allotments are plots of land that anyone can rent - either from a local government body or from a private landowner - to grow their own food. Many other countries have a similar system, but it may have other names such as a community garden. You don't have to have an allotment to get something out of this book! You can learn more about allotments on the website of the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners.

A bit of background

This book was published in 2008, not long after I had my first child. I had been blogging about my allotment for a while, but I was still working as a news journalist at the Guardian and had not yet made the leap into garden writing. I was approached by the publishing arm of the Guardian who asked if I would be willing to write a book about allotments. I said yes without really knowing what I was getting myself into! I loved writing the book and it received good reviews at the time, but I had a tiny baby when it came out and looking back now that whole period is a bit of a blur.

I loved tending my allotment, but once I moved to a house with a much bigger garden, I had to give up my allotment - with small children I simply didn't have the time. All of the principles I set up and grew by when I had an allotment carried through to my garden food growing - although it is admittedly on a much smaller scale now. I try to grow by organic principles and with wildlife in mind. I grow things that I enjoy - whether that's as food or as houseplants - and I try not to take myself too seriously.

Getting the chance to read the whole of this book out loud was a great experience. So much of what I wrote then, I still stand by. But when you listen to the audiobook, you may notice a few things that have changed since I wrote the words within. For example, I talk about wormeries, and not having tried them yet - I have now been using wormeries for at least a decade in my garden and absolutely love them. I am also a lot less willing to kill anything in the garden, including slugs and snails. The only things I have changed from the original text are a couple of references to pesticides that have been removed from the permitted list for organic gardeners - these I have updated to current guidelines. I also removed one slightly flippant reference to climate change allowing us to grow sweet potatoes in the UK, which at the time I am sure felt acceptable: now it feels uncomfortable.

I hope you enjoy listening - if you have any questions or spot any mistakes please let me know... I really want to hear from you! Get in touch via my Contact page.