Books: Veg Garden Design Elements

The problem with most vegetable gardens is that they look like veg gardens, unless they are fenced off and away from the main designed landscape.

However, in Build a Better Vegetable Garden: 30 DIY Projects to Improve your Harvest (Frances Lincoln Ltd., 2017), British author Joyce Russell offers 30 projects that will make the veg garden even in a very small landscape stand out for good design.

Why buy an obelisk just like the ones you might see everywhere when you can build one that reflects your personality and complements your garden theme? I loved Russell's simple frame for an espaliered cherry tree (you could substitute many others) made from simple timbers (like 2x2s) and bamboo canes.  Plus, she shows you how to hinge it so you can, when needed, paint the wall behind it.

An ingenious drying cabinet will give you loads of pleasure in dried apples, pears, tomatoes, you name it. And wait until you study the hinged door in the tool cabinet that gives you loads of extra space -- and the copper-bottomed cold frame that deters slugs and snails.

All the above-mentioned items look terrific -- like they might have come from a trendy garden store -- so if you have a yen to build things yourself, this is the book for you.