It’s not surprising this book won the Gardening Oscars – the Garden Media Guild (UK) Practical Book of the Year Award for 2017. It is such a brilliant resource.

I couldn’t wait to get this book. I even pre-ordered with the publisher. I was not disappointed when it finally arrived. It is so full of such practical and extremely useful information for living a simple, natural, low-tox life.

From cover to cover this book is full of valuable tips and recipes. It’s really a documentation their successful way of growing an abundance of food and how they store and use it. There are recipes for the garden, home, your body and your plate! It’s got so many of the things I love all in one great book.

Charles and Stephanie take us for a dive into what they do in their gardens, homes and kitchens – it’s their daily reality. This kind of real advice, cultivated from decades of practical experience, is gardener’s and simple lifer’s gold. Charles is considered a no-dig master and expert salad grower. He is the market gardener, with all that entails, a popular Youtuber and avid teacher. Stephanie is a kitchen gardener, allotment gardner, edible landscape designer and educator.

Charles explains his no-dig method in detail and the wonderfully effective strategies he uses to grow an incredible productive garden naturally and with ease. Stephanie writes about ways of using your produce. Knowing this information is liberating – from wastes, from chemicals, from costs – and I love the way she uses things that are often considered waste food. She shows you:

• how to make your own vegetable stock powder (avoiding the unwanted added chemicals)
• how to bottle and preserve your surplus without needing special equipment
• how to make your own stevia extract and stevia lemonade
• how to make your own citrus oil furniture polish with just oil, vinegar and lemons

This book is such an great practical guide – one that you want to keep in your kitchen, particularly if you live in a temperate region. Learning from them will help you not only save time and work, but also lots of money. Even if you live in other zones, the information about how to use the produce is worth the cover price.

This book is produced by Maddy and Tim Harland, and the team at Permanent Publications. I want to congratulate them for their amazing commitment to keep publishing great permaculture and related books. If you haven’t already had a look at their titles, go and check it out http://www.permanentpublications.co.uk/ and consider subscribing to the Permaculture Magazine they produce too. It’s fabulous.

TITLE: No Dig Organic Home and Garden: Grow, Cook, Use and Store Your Harvest

AUTHORS: Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty

PUBLISHED: 2017

PUBLISHER: Permanent Publications, UK

ISBN: 978 1 85623 301 9