Reading up

This weekend I'm off to the parent's place in Cornwall. Whilst down there I'm going to give my father a hand in clearing some ground to create a vegetable patch. I'm on the waiting list for an allotment in Wandsworth but it's a long old wait so I'm looking forward to living my veg growing dreams vicariously through my parents, (and with it being such a long way away I'll get out of most of the hard work!).

In preparation I thought I'd do some reading up:
 Joe's Allotment: Planning and planting a productive plot is written by Joe Swift, 'im off the telly, and follows the first year of his renting an allotment. It's an easy book to read, and Joe writes in the matey way in which he speaks. It's simply written and Joe is highly enthusiastic but this is in no way a manual that you'd want beside you when planning or working your plot. It's much more of a coffee table book, dusting lightly over the top of a multitude of subjects, without ever really diving down into the level of detail I'd want if starting out.

On the other hand, John Harrison's The essential allotment guide is a treasure trove of information. It's not big on the 'happy smiley family in the allotment' photos that Joe Swift's is but its concise but in depth knowledge and full coverage of so many subjects, feels almost like you are sitting in the pub across the road from the allotments, sharing a jar of bitter with the old allotment gardener from the plot next to yours whilst he divulges the tricks of the trade with a twinkle in his eye and the occasional 'don't tell anyone I told you this but what you want to do...'. I'd definitely recommend it.

Now, my veg growing in my back garden has so far not amounted to much. I've had some disastrous garlic - I put £3.95 worth of garlic into the ground and pulled about £1.20 worth out this summer, some tomatoes in a hanging basket (which do quite well) and a bit of rocket, so helping my father out is potentially going to be a bit of the blind leading the blind but we shall see.

I think on this trip we will be mostly clearing ground - so what could possibly go wrong....