THE ORNAMENTAL KITCHEN GARDEN is a beautifully illustrated and highly practical guide to a new style of gardening. In fact it is not a new style but a return to traditional methods once found in gardens all over the world, from medieval monastries to Victorian kitchen gardens, when fruit, flowers and vegetables were planted in the same beds in an attractive and productive mix.

Geoff Hamilton, BBC TV’s popular gardening expert and the writer and presenter of The Ornamental Kitchen Garden television series, first shown in 1990, on which the book is based, tells you everything you need to know to create an ornamental kitchen garden from scratch or to transform an existing garden. Using step-by-step photos and easy-to-follow drawings he shows how to plan your garden with paths, beds, patio and garden pool and how to make all the essential components: brick and scree paths, arbours and pergolas, cold frames, cloches and compost bins, as well as how to lay lawns. He gives detailed descriptions of the decorative plants — perennials and annuals, bulbs and herbs, climbers, vegetables, ornamental trees and shrubs, fruit trees and bushes -which would be most suitable for this sort of garden and explains how to cultivate them.

Inspired by the wealth of suggestions and ideas in this highly illustrated, informative book, you can spend many happy hours creating and looking after your own ornamental kitchen garden — a place of beauty to relax in and enjoy.