Joy Larkcom

Hailed as 'the doyenne of the kitchen garden' by Sarah Raven, Joy Larkcom has been growing and writing about vegetables for more than forty years. Her work has been influenced by travels in Europe, China, Japan, the USA and Canada as she's sought out new edible plants and cultivation techniques.

Over recent years she has concentrated on the 'potager' concept, making the kitchen plot a beautiful feature in itself. She created several small potagers in Suffolk before moving to Southern Ireland, where a fan-shaped potager has been made on a windswept slope.

Joy is a well-known author, journalist and lecturer. Her other books include Oriental Vegetables, Salads for Small Gardens, The Organic Salad Garden, Grow Your Own Vegetables and her recently published memoir, Just Vegetating. Joy has won the Garden Writer of the Year award three times and was awarded the prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal for services to horticulture. In 2003 she was presented with the Garden Writers' Guild Lifetime Achievement award.