YAY SPRING IS HERE. It is 1 September today and the gardeners among us, at least those of us who live in the southern hemisphere, will now be turning our attention to our gardens.
To mark the official beginning of Spring I have chosen a selection of new and recent titles guaranteed to inspire gardeners young and old.
A Year of the Good Life in Grey Lynn
The confessions of a novice urban gardener
Fionna Hill
Harper Collins - $39.99
After seeing a display on community gardening at the Grey Lynn Festival, Fionna Hill was hooked.
Living in urban Auckland had severely limited Fionna’s gardening options. While she could manage window boxes of microgreens, she yearned for more space — and she was utterly delighted to eventually find herself with a plot in the Grey Lynn Community Gardens.
A Green Granny’s Garden is the diary of Fionna’s first year in a vegetable allotment in a New Zealand city community garden.
‘I was a novice gardener learning the ropes with a bunch of young organic permaculture enthusiasts who diligently lived by their code. It was an eye-opener,’ admits Fionna.
‘The gardening experience with my new gardening friends was enriching and honest. They are marvelous characters. Some of their rules are too stringent for me, but we survived and I love my wee garden in their space.’
The book is full of Fionna’s plant stories, people stories, observations, successes and failures, feasts and famines, bugs and bites, shared pot luck meals, experiences and learning curves.
There are lots of lovely colour photos as well as line drawings throughout the book. A Green Granny's Garden is for gardeners and non-gardeners alike, as Fionna’s endearing and honest account of her experience makes for a warm and witty read.
She is obviously an exuberant, vivacious gardener with an enormous zest for life. An experienced writer, she is also a professional florist and stylist.
http://www.fionnahill.com/
GINNY'S HERB HANDBOOK
Ginny Clayton
Bateman - $24.99
One of gardening’s greatest pleasures is growing herbs & using them fresh from your garden. Ginny Clayton shows you how in this handbook for the modern herb grower.
From culinary herbs such as Thai basil and French tarragon to herbs for healing, including comfrey and chamomile, Ginny describes how to propagate, raise and maintain over 60 herbs using organic growing methods. There are tips on how to plan your kitchen herb garden, companion planting, which herbs to plant to attract bees, and which ones repel insect pests. Also included are delicious recipes using fresh culinary herbs that boost flavour and your health, and how to make herb oils, butters and vinegars and relaxing and refreshing herbal teas.
Easy to use and full of great advice, this friendly guide to homegrown herbs is all you need to get started on the road to a more herbal, and healthier, lifestyle.
Ginny Clayton runs GINNY’S HERBS, a market garden in Northland New Zealand. She promotes herbs through her website http://www.ginnysherbs.com/ with a catalogue filled with ‘old, tried and true’ species. She supplies Palmers Whangarei with plants, teaches classes on all aspects of herb growing and use, and has had articles published in Lifestyle Farmer and Weekend Gardener.
IN THE HEART OF MY GARDENAn intimate look at Central Otago's gardens
Ian Brodie and Jill Herron
Harper Collins - $39.99
Award-winning photographer Ian Brodie and accomplished writer Jill Herron are passionate about both gardens and Central Otago, and so they decided to combine their talents to showcase some of Central Otago’s finest gardens.
In The Heart of My Garden is a visually stunning tribute to the gardeners and the gardens they cherish.
About the authors:
Ian Brodie’s love for his country is evident in his award-winning photography and books. His most recent book, Ian Brodie’s New Zealand, was praised for its ‘powerful and intensely colored images’ with ‘vivid colours and crystal clear photographs’.
Ian is one of one of New Zealand’s largest selling non-fiction authors: The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook was one of the inaugural Booksellers Platinum Award titles, and Cameras in Narnia, simultaneously published in four countries, had one of the largest initial print runs of any New Zealand book. In 2005 he was awarded an MNZM (Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit) for services to tourism, in particular his work with media promoting New Zealand in conjunction with The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
He was the founding director of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum in Wanaka, but left his beloved Centro Otago to become the Media and Communications Manager for Hobbiton Movie Set and Farm Tours in Matamata.
For more : http://www.ianbrodiephoto.net/
Jill Herron grew up on a high country sheep station where she developed a passion for the outdoors, which led to a lot of adventures including nearly four years living in the bush in Africa. As a journalist she spent many years as a Central Otago-based reporter for the Otago Daily Times, later freelancing for the publication from overseas and within New Zealand.
She has contributed feature stories to numerous magazines, and studied creative writing with Owen Marshall. Her fiction work has appeared in literary journals. She is the author of two history books, both based in rural Southland. She is a dedicated plant lover who continues to study landscape design.
Jill, a mother of two, also works as Media Manager for the Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow.
GROW IT YOURSELF - VEGETABLES
Andrew Steens
Bateman - $39.99
Andrew shares his life-long passion for home-grown products and his outstanding gardening knowledge in Grow It Yourself Vegetables . As you read it you’ll be drawn into the satisfaction of DIY gardening.
A down-to-earth practical guide to growing vegetables for you and your family. Internationally best-selling author and industry-acclaimed gardening guru Andrew Steens is your right-hand man in the vege patch, and here he gives expert advice that will inspire you to give it a go and grow it yourself.
Grow It Yourself Vegetables includes:
* An A–Z of the vegetables best suited to New Zealand gardens, with quick reference to sowing and harvesting for each of the 33 crops.
*Handy sowing and harvest charts by climate zone give you detailed information about what grows best where and when — minimising the risk of shrivelled produce and unproductive gardens.
* Garden management information including planting plans, preparing the soil, watering, feeding and sheltering your plants, and fending off pests and diseases. There are also tips on companion gardening, green crops, planting by the moon and weed control.
About the author:
Andrew Steens is a soil fanatic, a professional horticulturist with extensive experience across the landscaping, fruit, vegetable and flower industries in management, production, education, consultancy and marketing – as well as being a keen gardener with a half-acre property north of Auckland.
Andrew is currently managing director of Crop Link Consulting Ltd, which provides consulting services for numerous horticultural crops, and he is often called on as an expert witness for crop damage claims.
HOW TO GROW MICROGREENS Fionna Hill
Bateman - $29.99
Not having a vege garden is not an excuse for not growing tasty greens says author......
Microgreens – the tiny seedlings of herbs and vegetables – pack a powerful punch. Larger than sprouts and smaller than ‘baby’ salad greens, they contain higher levels of active plant compounds than mature plants or seeds and can easily be grown in containers on a terrace or windowsill.
With microgreens, you don’t wait weeks or months for them to come to maturity; most varieties are ready in a week and you can grown them right through winter. Microgreens are the new big thing in growing your own food.
This book describes how to grow your own microgreens with detailed information on 25 popular varieties. The many recipes within the book include salads, nibbles, bakes, dips, desserts, stuffing, wraps, and garnishes.
Offering a range distinct flavours, from spicy, mild and subtle to hot or nutty and in a multitude of colours...what are you waiting for?!
About the author:
Author Fionna Hill is well placed to write How to Grow Microgreens; living in an apartment in Grey Lynn, Auckland, she understands space constraints and has first hand experience of the culinary delights to be found in these flavour-packed greens which she has been growing and eating for herself and friends for several years. She also values being able to grow organic vegetables in a nearby community garden and sharing the knowledge of the inspirational garden gang.
Fionna is a London trained and experienced floral designer who runs her own her own floral design business. She has always used vegetables decoratively in her designs and has now turned her attention to growing them to eat.
She contributes to lifestyle and garden magazines, as well as travel writing. Microgreens is Fionna Hill’s fourth book: her second, Country Style Flowers, was an international success, selling in Europe, UK, USA and South Africa, while A Green Granny's Garden has also just been published and is reviewed above.
FOOD:
And now having taken on board all that gardening advice lets have a look at a some books that deal with how to cook that garden produce:
FEEL GOOD FOOD
Tony Chiodo
Hardie Grant Books - NZ$49.99
Using an array of ingredients designed to be kind to your body and taste great, Feel Good Food is a modern, everyday cookbook with stylish and simple recipes for every occasion.
About the Author
Tony Chiodo was apprenticed at Mietta’s in Melbourne with Jacque Reymond
before studying at La Linea Italiana di Cucina in Milano and working in some
of Italy’s top restaurants. He went on to qualify as a macrobiotic and wholefoods teacher at the Kushi Institute, Boston, and through his Eating Well programs, and regular articles in The Age’s Epicure and Australian Natural Health, inspires others to integrate natural foods into their daily lives. His recipes have also appeared in Vogue Entertaining and Travel, Australian Gourmet Traveller, and his recently released title Eating Well.
View recipes and health tips on his website - http://www.eatingwelldaily.com.au/.
KIWI BACKYARD COOKING
Nestle NZ Consumer KitchenRandom House - $24.99
The team at Maggi have put together this collection of easy to prepare meals, perfect for the barbecue, the family picnic or a pot-luck dinner with friends.
While it may be better to wait until summer to try most of these why not fire up the bbq if we strike some pleasant spring weather, especially once daylight saving is underway.
With handy hints on barbecue techniques to get the best from that juicy steak or tender seafood, this book emphasises barbecue recipes, but also has salads and sides and perfect summer desserts. Great dishes for the whole family.
And if you can harvest the salad ingredients and other vegdirectkly from your own garden then all the better, can't be fresher than that.
Richard Brogan is the Culinary Innovations Manager for Maggi.
Having gained National Food Guide recognition in the UK for the last two restaurants he managed, Richard turned his attention to developing great tasting recipes to meet the demands of today’s consumers.
Richard joined the technical team at Nestlé in 1992 and later helped set up Nestlé UK’s ambient foods development centre of excellence.
In 2002 Richard relocated to New Zealand to create new taste sensations for the iconic MAGGI brand. \While continuing to work with the MAGGI brand, Richard transferred to Sydney to head up the newly formed Culinary Innovations Centre.
It is here that delicious new recipes are conceived and developed.
Richard and his family loved NZ so much that they became NZ citizens and can’t wait to return one day.
If you’ve enjoyed these recipes, visit their website at http://www.maggi.co.nz/ for more suggestions.
SPRING
But of course the ultimate cookbook for recipe ideas for those fresh garden veg is the recently published:
THE NEW ZEALAND VEGETABLE COOKBOOKLauraine Jacobs, Ginny Grant, Kathy Paterson
Random House - $49.99
I wrote about this gorgeous book last month when it was first published. This is a book that every home vegetable grower must have on their kitchen bookshelf. If you buy only one cookbook this year, make it this one.
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