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How to Be a Gardener: Back to Basics (Book One)
 
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How to Be a Gardener: Back to Basics (Book One) (Hardcover)

by Alan Titchmarsh (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.47 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

How to Be a Gardener: Back to Basics (Book One) + Alan Titchmarsh, the Gardener's Year + The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg
Price For All Three: £41.12

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 264 pages
  • Publisher: BBC Books; 1st edition (21 Feb 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 056353740X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0563537403
  • Product Dimensions: 27.7 x 21.3 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 11,945 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

No safer pair of hands than those of Alan Titchmarsh could be imagined to coax the nervous would-be gardener into picking up a spade. The BBC evidently think so, as they have commissioned the two series and accompanying volumes of How To Be A Gardener, their most ambitious gardening project to date. The elevation of gardening in recent years from a genteel pastime to national mania, fuelled largely by television, seems to have engendered a large audience of virtual gardeners, keen to get their hands dirty but unsure of how to begin.

No doubt the outstanding success (even by her own standards) of Delia Smith's comparable How to Cook trilogy formed an encouraging precedent. Just as Delia set out to give her readers and viewers the basic skills from which to build a confident technique, so Alan Titchmarsh in this first volume takes his pupils back to the basics ("Back to Basics" is the book's sub-title) of soil types and management, plant growth, seasonality, maintenance and pest control. It's a thorough, utterly professional, novice-friendly job; not all that different from a number of other manuals of garden basics, but self-recommending by the confidence its author inspires--the product on the one hand of a lifetime's expertise and on the other of his inimitable personality. --Robin Davidson



Review

'I want you to get a feel for gardening...to use all your senses - touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing - to make you a good gardener.' Alan Titchmarsh
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

How to Be a Gardener: Back to Basics (Book One)
66% buy the item featured on this page:
How to Be a Gardener: Back to Basics (Book One) 4.7 out of 5 stars (12)
£13.47
The Complete How to be a Gardener
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The Complete How to be a Gardener 4.8 out of 5 stars (9)
£15.99
The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg
5% buy
The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg 4.7 out of 5 stars (14)
£11.65
Alan Titchmarsh, the Gardener's Year
4% buy
Alan Titchmarsh, the Gardener's Year 4.5 out of 5 stars (6)
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
121 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the Jungle!, 1 May 2002
My wife and I required help. We had just bought a house with gardens that required much attention - Lawns that had had many football tournaments played on them, flowerbeds that resembled war zones and barren areas of land that made the Sahara desert look positively fertile.

We had studied many gardening books, many of which were good, but none aimed at the 'absolutely useless'. After watching Mr. Titchmarsh's series on back to basics gardening we decided to check out the accompanying book.

Were we impressed? Absolutely. There's everything here that the beginner could wish for. What tools you require and their uses. Garden pests and ways to remove them. Correct ways, positions, and times of year of planting, to name but a few topics. My only gardening 'skill' was mowing the lawn. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I'd been doing it wrong (Cutting too short, not removing dead grass, etc).

If the only time you get green fingers is after picking your nose (sorry) then this is a perfect book and cannot be recommended enough.

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146 of 151 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Does what the title says, 20 Feb 2002
By A Customer
A very well written book in simple language, yet full of valuable information from start to finish. Mr Titchmarsh takes you through a brief explanation of what gardening is or should be and onto the basic fundamentals explaining about soil and how plants live, breath and grow. Easy to read and excellent photographs. i particularly enjoyed the sections on pests which will hopefully get rid of the army of never ending slugs in my garden! Written with his usual sense of humour I found it more like a one to one chat than reading a book. Very informative for the whole spectrum of gardening, can't wait for the tv series.
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62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If you only buy one gardening book, make it this one!, 18 April 2002
By A Customer
The secret of Alan Titchmarsh's success lies in his ability to communicate with novices and old hands alike, at the same time and with neither feeling patronised or talked down to. He is at the same time a teacher, friend and fount of all wisdom. I particularly liked the section on design which made it quite impossible to fail to produce results. I have been a gardener for a few years, and found that this book plugged some of the gaps that inevitably occur when one is self-taught. For the beginner, it could quite possibly be the only book you will need (for a few years at least!)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent advice but for novices only
I was really tempted to give this book a five star rating but for one point - this is a very short book and, while it does what it says on the cover, if you follow Alan's advice... Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2005 by J. Brand

5.0 out of 5 stars great!
As with Book 1, I found the second in the series an excellent read and extremely helpful. Book 1 gave you the basic knowledge, this one helps you put it into practice. Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2004 by Helena

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent!
This is a truly wonderful book. It starts at square one and goes through all the very basic things you need to know about gardening. Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2004 by Helena

4.0 out of 5 stars Real Gardening at last!
I bought this book for my father who is an avid gardener but ended up reading it myself! It is very thorough and doesn't assume previous knowledge of the subject. Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2004 by Cantox

4.0 out of 5 stars How to be a gardener
I bought this book having moved into my first home with garden. The book gave me many ideas and tips on how to turn my garden from a plot of grass, into a beautiful flower and... Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Stuffed with information for the beginner and intermediate
If you've seen the series, this book is pretty much what you'd hope it would be. (I write this having seen only the first programme. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2003 by Bookworm1973

5.0 out of 5 stars At last! A gardening book for the true novice
How good it was to read a gardening book written for a true novice. Alan does not assume that you know anything except that the garden is usually outdoors. Read more
Published on 6 May 2002 by Fengirl

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for the new gardener
Alan really has the nack of putting something that is often shrouded in mystery in a clear and simple way. This book does just that. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2002 by paula

5.0 out of 5 stars what an excellent book!
This book has the same kind of cheeky attitude as the man himself,an EXCELLENT reference for any new gardener (like myself)and a pleasure to read. Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2002 by eggread@hotmail.com

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