Organic Gardening

This is an essential reference guide to natural gardening, showing how to apply organic principles to all aspects of garden planning, design and maintenance and illustrated with over 800 colour photographs. It is packed with practical advice, step-by-step sequences to show you how to achieve the best results, directories of all the main vegetables, fruit and herbs, and an easy-to-use calendar of the vital garden tasks. It is named 'Practical Book of the Year' at The Garden Writers' Guild Awards 2003. Christine and Michael Lavelle give clear advice on creating and caring for a natural garden, showing how to adopt an organic approach. They also provide practical information on dealing organically with pests and diseases as well as how to attract a host of beneficial creatures to the wildlife garden. An easy-to-use directory of vegetables, herbs and fruit provides clear information on growing a range of healthy produce, with advice on sowing, planting, harvesting and storing. With its wealth of inspirational and practical photographs, useful step-by-step information and well-informed text, this is a comprehensive guide for both first-time and experienced gardeners, whether you wish to start an organic garden from scratch or use organic methods in an existing garden.

Christine Lavelle is a lecturer in horticulture and ecology at Writtle College, Chelmsford. She trained at the National Trust for Scotland's Threave School of Practical Gardening and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. Christine was assistant head gardener at Levens Hall topiary gardens in Kendal. Michael Lavelle has designed and constructed several exhibits at the Chelsea Flower Show, achieving gold medals in 1999, 2003 and 2005, and winning a silver medal for his specialist wildlife garden in 2007. He is currently a senior lecturer in landscape management at Writtle College, Chelmsford. Peter Anderson is a highly respected garden photographer. He has worked for many book publishers and magazines such as Gardens Illustrated and has published several titles with Lorenz Books.