Grow Your Own Food was fantastic - it had so much great information. It inspired me and helped me believe I could actually grow my own food despite having a black thumb. I loved the tips and what to plant during each month - so helpful for a beginner like me. I am so excited to start my own garden!

I'm a terrible gardener. I try, but I lose interest. This book gives me ideas to makes it less burdensome which may help me stick with it from planting to harvest.

I loved this book so much it will be added to my library. I'm a new grower and felt this was a great blueprint to growing my own food

I've never really tried growing much on my own because the "green thumb" gene missed me ;-). After reading this, I think I may try it again with next year's spring gardening season.

The upcoming year I want to have a beautiful garden in my backyard with raised beds so I can grow my own vegetables. I love that this book talks about it all and tells you what you will need and so much more. Like what is open pollinating, what propagating your plants and how to make them grown beautifully. The best part for me it tells you month by month what to plant. I know each area is different but known what I can plant and when I should plant make all the difference. I also like that it talks about what insects and bugs you would see in your garden as well. So if your a beginner just learning about gardening and want need a way to go this book would be great.

Grow Your Own Food is a helpful tutorial guide by Clare Macnaughton for gardeners who wish to begin, to improve, or to increase their food security. Released 29th July 2022 by Pen & Sword on their White Owl imprint, it's a compact 120 pages and is available in paperback format.

This is a basic guide full of general advice on getting started with raised bed gardening, sourcing and starting seeds, growing (with a little bit of troubleshooting along the way), and even a short bit on chickens for egglaying. The advice is written with an emphasis to readers living in the UK (and associated climates), but is also general enough to be moderately useful to readers living outside the UK.

The guide's chapters are full of photographs to illustrate the advice and planning details included in the text. This is in no way an encyclopaedic start to finish one-size-fits all guide which will turn readers into professional gardeners with one read-through, and the author wisely says precisely that. Gardening is less a destination so much as a journey and a process.

Her advice about allotments, personal gardens, and even balcony/windowsill gardens will allow a complete beginner to make some progress toward a successful harvest of some sort. Gardening is a very therapeutic hobby, and one that brings benefits in the form of physical exercise, mental health and stress reduction, life skills, and with hopefully the promise of high quality food at some point. The author's style is chatty and informal and definitely not at all intimidating. It reads more like a friendly chat with a helpful neighbour.

Four stars. This isn't the -only- book a new beginner should depend on, but it could be a good addition to a starting gardener's bookshelf.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

this is a great intorduction for those just starting out on the GYO journey, filled with easy guides and processes to follow. For those that know a little already its a good remidner of the basics we all need to have for healthy growth

This book is a great way to jump off your gardening project. it includes basic tools, a way to plan your year of planting and cultivating, and environmental concerns. Also, it has some great resources for keeping chickens!

If you want to learn how to grow your own food this is the perfect book to help you start. Great ideas for a whole new beginning. Helps you choose what vegetables to grow. What tools you need. Beautiful photographs.

I'm interested in growing food and loved this book which is well explained and easy to follow.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is a very useful book to read if you are planning to try growing some food in your garden, and having read it I’m really considering getting my garden ready this year for growing some fruit and veg next year!
It has lots of great information to take you right from making sure you have the right tools , to planting, growing and what the plants look like when they’re best to be harvested.
My favourite bit of the book is the monthly planner that tells you what tasks to do during each calendar month, which, for someone inexperienced like me, will be invaluable.
And for those with sufficient space, it even takes you through how to keep chickens.
A great book that I would definitely recommend.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

I really loved this. I learned so much about growing your own food. I was very impressed with all information. The pictures were great visuals too!

I don't have a green thumb, but while reading this book I wished I had done the same while the pandemic just started. Planting greens and vegetables would have helped immensely. It's never too late and I might start doing it in the future. Author did have some good tips about taking care of the vegetables and when and how to harvest them. Only thing I didn't like was them getting rid of the insects and slugs the way they did. There are more humane ways to do it, without harming the harvest or the insects. Overall, nicely written garden book, could have left out chicken part and I would have liked it more.

Very knowledgeable book. great for anyone looking to grow there own vegetables but not quite sure how to begin. Or how to maintain your vegetable patch. Very well written

Thank you Netgalley for 'Grow Your Own Food' guide.
It is a fantastic guide which gives detailed instructions and knowledge to grow any plants. The author has divided the fruits and vegetables by which grows best in different months.

This is a must-have resource! It is full of great strategies, advice, and easy to implement ideas. This is one I'll return to again and again. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

I'm not sure what differentiates this book from thousands of others out there, most of which do a better job in my opinion. This is a standard how-to gardening guide with stock photos. It's is UK based, which will not work as well for gardeners in other areas. The information is rather old fashioned and not the most sustainable or earth friendly. It does not go into things like no-till gardening, lasagna gardening, etc. and also has information I'd consider unhealthy like the advice to grow garden vegetables in old tires (which leech toxins into the soil and plants). Problems like pests are dealt with using products like salt sprays (bad for the soil) and products that will also indiscriminately kill all the beneficial insects. There's a little bit about raising chickens in the end and a tiny bit on foraging, but for the most part it is not nearly as complete as it could be. There is not mention of food forests to plant, perennial garden plants to grow, edible landscaping like elderberries and fruit trees, etc. The information on growing fruits and veggies is very sparse. This reminds me of a standard self-published kindle book, which is not a bad thing but it is not one I'd single out as best for purchasing for new gardeners.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book.
This was a quick read. The color photos and drawings of the various plants and gardening items were great. I like how the author gives you several items to use to make raised beds along with tools one needs for gardening. Each month has tips and what to plant during that month. There’s even a chapter on raising chickens.

This is an interesting guide.

The book dives into how to grow your own food whether outdoors or in a container garden. It covers choosing soil, plants, when to plant, and how to care for your plants. There's also information on raising chickens if you have the space. Some of the information is a bit high level and in other places it's very specific. Overall I think it could be helpful for anyone considering starting a garden.

This book is a great introduction to growing your own food. It's full of information, tips, and practical applications. And it's presented in a clear and approachable way.

The month by month section, with tasks and lists of things to plant and prepare for each month, is very helpful. It's specific to the author's climate (UK), but they can be adapted to fit any region. And I really appreciate the section that explains how to know when you should harvest.

I do wish that there were more photos of the specific pests, since that would help troubleshoot issues. But I like that many pests and issues are specifically mentioned, and have detailed explanations for dealing with them. It provides an excellent starting point for researching garden pests.

This book is a useful resource and something that can be referred to again and again.