The Edible Backyard

Gardening expert Kath Irvine’s guide to everything you need to know to grow organic vegetables, fruit and herbs in your own garden, all through the year.

In this practical step-by-step guide, gardening teacher Kath Irvine shares her wealth of knowledge from more than 20 years of helping Kiwi gardeners design, build, grow and maintain their own productive edible gardens.
Kath’s sage, hands-on, often humorous advice steps readers through everything they need to know to grow great produce at home, including garden design, tools and equipment, seasonal planting advice, soil fertility, seed-saving basics, managing pests and diseases, and how to incorporate organic and permaculture gardening methods into any home garden.
While documenting a year on her own property, Kath shows how you can successfully produce bountiful crops throughout the seasons to provide a steady, daily harvest with minimal wastage.
The book is illustrated with hundreds of stunning photographs and helpful hand-drawn illustrations that share clever design concepts and planting plans for gardens of all shapes and sizes.

Kath is the perfect guide, and this easy-to-understand, comprehensive book is ideal for gardeners at any skill level, from beginners setting up a new garden from scratch, to intermediate trouble-shooters, to advanced green-thumbs seeking deeper knowledge.

Author Biography

Kath Irvine is the creator of Edible Backyard and a passionate permaculture expert, who has designed, taught and managed food gardens for more than 20 years, successfully feeding her own family of six from her 0.4ha garden in Ohau on the Kapiti Coast along the way. Kath’s articles, books, garden consultations and workshops help people create and maintain smart, well-designed gardens that save time, money and the planet. Spray free, natural, low-input food gardens are Kath’s thing. She believes in a daily serve of fresh-picked organic greens for a happy mind and strong body, and her dream is that every New Zealander can have this.