However, the book does work as a concept with its own focus and I think if you haven't read Fowler's earlier work then this is actually the best place to start. She has contributed to G ardens Illustrated, The Observer Food Monthly, The National Geographic and Country Living . We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Fowler suggests that it is far less time consuming to garden alongside nature rather than being a chore that includes constant weeding and back-breaking digging.

Alys Fowler trained at the Horticultural Society, the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. She also teaches you simple and effective design tools that will ensure your garden looks striking and wild, brings joy to your world and feeds you day after day.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Among the many possibilities, there are familiar faces such as fig trees, rocket and beetroot, as well as less commonplace plants and varieties such as Korean celery (Dystaenia takesimana) and mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum), a flowering plant from the Andes with edible tubers. Split into three main sections, the book takes a holistic approach by building from the basics, which are edible perennials in a variety of sizes and growth habits, up to fillers that self-seed, through to toppings, which are annual plants that will thrive in this mixed system. It suggests building a garden out of three components, "basics" (perennials), "fillers" (self-seeders that look after themselves) and "toppings" (more labour-intensive annuals). informative and interesting too, i learnt a lot and the idea of polyculture gardens has my brain buzzing.

I bought this book alongside “The Edible Garden”, (which i had been watching on the television), thinking it would be a food addition to my gardening library. From perennial vegetables that come back year after year, to easy-to-grow delights, she has selected plants that hold their own in both the garden and on the plate. I gave 4 stars rather than 3 because I felt Eat What You Grow had a great deal of poise, especially compared to The Edible Garden, which hinged on a very lifestyle driven TV companion, where many encountered Fowler's distinctive style for the first time.

In Eat What You Grow, Alys shows you how to create a rich, biodiverse garden that feeds not only you, but supports a wide range of pollinators, bees and butterflies, as well as other wildlife.

She has keen interest in agriculture and food politics and is setting up an urban farm in Birmingham. She has an allotment and an urban back garden with two chickens, lots of flowers and plenty of vegetables. I was especially intrigued by the Edible Water Garden section, as this is entirely unknown territory for me and I’d love to try my hand at growing edible aquatic plants.Eat What You Grow contains fewer lifestyle pictures, more focus on plants and more focus on science, which I'm sure all comes from a decade more of horticulture and more editorial influence with her publisher. All of the plants that Fowler has incorporated into this book have been selected so that they hold their own not just in a garden but on the plate.