Lifestyle Books > Home & Garden Lifestyle Books

The best £10 i have spent this year!

Advantages: Full of very good information
Disadvantages: none that i could see

...book "Grow Your Own Veg". Grow Your Own Veg was shown on BBC 2, and is part of the Gardener's World Series. The series follows Carol Klein on her mission to start growing vegetables in her garden, the series had some wonderful moments including Carol actually hand feeding a robin that has been nesting in her garden for some years. The series showed Carol right from the beginning, planning her vegetable garden, making the soil right for growing and ...
...you once you start to grow your own, you will hopefully never go to the supermarket for vegetables ever again. The book is a 224 page masterpiece in my eyes. There is a small introduction from Carol telling you the advantages of growing your own, and also advice on growing the whole year round. Imagine potatoes for the Christmas dinner taken from what you grown; trust me there is nothing better. Also if you have young children, get them involved ...

the_enlightened_one 02.03.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Grow Your Own Veg - Carol Klein

The New Vegetable & Herb Expert is a useful tool in grow your own

Advantages: Factual, clear and a good reference source
Disadvantages: Not a story book so it tends to be more scientific in it's format.

This book, like the others in this series, provides the grow your own movement with factual, easy reference advice on what to grow, when and the problems you can encounter on the way. For those of us who want facts and help quickly by turning to a page and getting on with it, then this book ticks all of those boxes. The style is clear, relevant and set out in an easy to understand format. Not masses and masses of text to wade through before finding ...
...text and helpful charts let you get there quickly. With the new movement to growing your own vegetables and herbs, everyone should look at this book before setting out. It's not the only book you'll ever need but it is one that should be in your gardening library. ...

QuestforGL 13.09.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of The Vegetable Expert - D.G. Hessayon

Grow Fruit in your own Garden

Advantages: comprehensive
Disadvantages: poorly thought-out layout

...Hessayon's 'Expert' books have become the standard works for keen amateur gardeners. If you want to know about a gardening subject, you can't go wrong with an 'Expert' book. Their information is condensed and comprehensive, and they're useful for beginners as well as very advanced gardeners. They're of a practical size - just a bit bigger than A5, with around 125 pages, they fit into a bag or box and are easy to carry into the garden. 'The Fruit ...
...But is it the perfect book on fruit growing? No. It has caused me as much frustration as it has given me pleasure. The main problem is the layout. Each popular cultivar is described in two boxes. One of them in prose text with the cultivar's name, and general strengths and weaknesses. The second box gives the vital statistics of the cultivar, such as colour, fruit size, required spacing, fruiting period, parentage. So far so good! But then there ...

queen_rain 22.10.2005 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Fruit Expert - D.G. Hessayon

A cook book for students

Advantages: easy to read
Disadvantages: not appealing

...would suddenly turn me into the next Deliah Smith or something but it didn't really have this effect on me at all! I didn't really use it and it was a good job it was quite a cheap buy so I didn't feel guilty for the fact it sat on my book shelf, hidden by all the huge text books I had to buy! Who is it for? This book is really very obviously aimed at students as you can tell by the title; "The New Students' Cook Book". When I first saw ...
...cook something instead of order the usual pizza I didn't want to spend hours reading a recipe or fiddling around in the kitchen. This, isn't exactly what the book is about, it is more aimed at students who would like to cook. I think the fact it says 'for students' means that it's for people who may not know the basics of cooking and want standard meals instead of fancy cooking. The book The book is split into sections which try to make ...

lorriellah 26.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The New Students' Cook Book - Carolyn Humphries

I learnt to cook in 24 hours

Advantages: Easy to follow, bullet points, pictures useful and informative
Disadvantages: The random rubbish bits about pledges

...trying different reciepes I found Jamie's Ministry of Food- Anyone can learn to cook in 24 hours. I have never watched any of Jamie Oliver's TV series and apparently the book is based on a trip "Up-North" where Jamie Oliver teaches people how to cook??? Correct me if I'm wrong here. So the book itself....... --CONTENT-- Well there's some strange bit in the introduction about Jamie wanting you to pass on a reciepe when you've tried it out. Well ...
...is all about and what Jamie's plan is. The final page of the introduction there is a "pass it on pledge" where for some reason they want you to de-face your book by signing it to say you will pass a reciepe on. Well let's face it how many people are going to scribble in a book??? According to Jamie there are approximately 30 items that are deemed essential for your kitchen kit but when you read throught these things they do seem pretty reasonable. ...

ebarnden1 25.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Jamie's Ministry of Food: Anyone Can Learn to Cook in 24 Hours - Jamie Oliver