Potato Pete

At Christmas I was talking about starting a collaborative book project, with food growing bloggers sharing their expertise with a wider audience, and the proceeds going to a gardening charity.

Despite the vagueness of the original idea, I’ve had a few volunteers:

Suzanne Griffith isn’t currently blogging, but writes a gardening column for Nation News, Barbados’ leading newspaper.

VP from Veg Plotting is a well-known ‘plot blogger’ who needs no further introduction.

Andrew Pendrick blogs on many topics and has a lovely writing style – check out his posts on bluebells and a kite.

And Madeleine from Mad About Herbs will be familiar to everyone who listens to the AKG as she often stops by to share her knowledge.

It’s time to move on now, and choose a concept for the book – and since this is a collaborative book project, you’re going to choose :)

This morning I have come up with three ideas:


  • Open Gardens. A book based around the concept of open gardens, showing online gardens to the public. VP did this very nicely in her Open Garden Blog last year.

    Everyone who contributes would take us on a tour of their garden – noting the highlights, their favourite plants, maybe sharing a recipe and touching on their ‘hot topics’ (the things we often blog about).


  • The Allotment Show, with the book arranged along the lines of Allotment Show Classes. We could cover veggies, fruit, flowers and recipes.

  • The Kitchen Garden, with the book laid out as a working garden – with a vegetable patch, fruit garden/ orchard, greenhouse, cutting garden, chicken run and compost heaps.


So the question is, which book would you most like to read? Or do you have a better idea? If you do, then leave a comment or send me an email.

Voting in this poll will remain open until 31st January 2009.

There will be more opportunities to guide the development of the book as it moves forward. We still need a lot more contributors, so if you’d like to write a piece for the book do get in touch.