Now that I have access to some sun, water and dirt to grow some food I need to do some book learning. The sort of info I’m after is propagation methods, climate requirements, plant nutrition/fertiliser use and timing, etc, etc, etc…
What book makes a good reference for home vegetable growing?
Glance Fleeting said:
Now that I have access to some sun, water and dirt to grow some food I need to do some book learning. The sort of info I’m after is propagation methods, climate requirements, plant nutrition/fertiliser use and timing, etc, etc, etc…What book makes a good reference for home vegetable growing?
There’s heaps of books. I’d use most of them for mulch. Yates seeds did publish some good books. Also The Australian Women’s Weekly Gardening Book by Alan Seale is a good start. An oldie but a goodie. Peter Cundall from the original ABC gardening show has written some good books on the subject. https://shop.abc.net.au/products/practical-australian-gardener-1 is one that springs to mind.
Climate matters but I don’t know where you live. Timing is everything but again this relates to your location.
The best quote I can relay is from the foreword of a book on organic gardening written by a priest.
“Ten minutes spent leaning on the shovel is more productive than flaying about with it for an hour”.
I’d really recommend that plant labels should try to tell the basic requirements on the label. Generally they tell little about what to do with the plant bearing the label. Nurseries and garden centres essentially would go broke if they told you how not to kill the plants.
A good start is to get a cheapo pH test kit and do some tests of areas you may want to garden in. Some plants prefer the soil to be on the acid side whle others may prefer alkaline but most prefer the neutral range.
Another good thing is to drive and walk around your neighbourhood and see what other people are growing. Talk to locals about gardening.
I got most of my reading from the library. The gardening sections are usually quite comprehensive. Though a book I’d recommend to everyone is No Dig Gardening by Esther Dean.
The first thing about any garden is the soil. The more you can do to build a good soil, the better.
Why people bang on about organic gardening is more about creating or recognising a living soil. Yes, there are fertilisers but applying harsh chemicals to soils is a tricky business and it can be expensive. Best to try and get help from earthworms and soil microflora. Just dumping fertilisers can damage the life in the soil.
roughbarked said:
….The first thing about any garden is the soil……
I’m in the process of eliminating the soil component all together :)
Once I manage to fix the leak in the grow bed, I’ll be introducing Baramundi to my aquaponics setup.
roughbarked said:
Glance Fleeting said:
Now that I have access to some sun, water and dirt to grow some food I need to do some book learning. The sort of info I’m after is propagation methods, climate requirements, plant nutrition/fertiliser use and timing, etc, etc, etc…What book makes a good reference for home vegetable growing?
There’s heaps of books. I’d use most of them for mulch. Yates seeds did publish some good books. Also The Australian Women’s Weekly Gardening Book by Alan Seale is a good start. An oldie but a goodie. Peter Cundall from the original ABC gardening show has written some good books on the subject. https://shop.abc.net.au/products/practical-australian-gardener-1 is one that springs to mind.
Climate matters but I don’t know where you live. Timing is everything but again this relates to your location.
The best quote I can relay is from the foreword of a book on organic gardening written by a priest.“Ten minutes spent leaning on the shovel is more productive than flaying about with it for an hour”.
I’d really recommend that plant labels should try to tell the basic requirements on the label. Generally they tell little about what to do with the plant bearing the label. Nurseries and garden centres essentially would go broke if they told you how not to kill the plants.
A good start is to get a cheapo pH test kit and do some tests of areas you may want to garden in. Some plants prefer the soil to be on the acid side whle others may prefer alkaline but most prefer the neutral range.
Another good thing is to drive and walk around your neighbourhood and see what other people are growing. Talk to locals about gardening.
I got most of my reading from the library. The gardening sections are usually quite comprehensive. Though a book I’d recommend to everyone is No Dig Gardening by Esther Dean.
The first thing about any garden is the soil. The more you can do to build a good soil, the better.
Why people bang on about organic gardening is more about creating or recognising a living soil. Yes, there are fertilisers but applying harsh chemicals to soils is a tricky business and it can be expensive. Best to try and get help from earthworms and soil microflora. Just dumping fertilisers can damage the life in the soil.
What he said :D ^^^
Teleost said:
roughbarked said:
….The first thing about any garden is the soil……
I’m in the process of eliminating the soil component all together :)
Once I manage to fix the leak in the grow bed, I’ll be introducing Baramundi to my aquaponics setup.
But you are a clever biologist type, marine?
Happy Potter said:
What he said :D ^^^
It was mostly waffle. ;) Don’t take it as gospel.
Some of the good aspects of using soil.
The bible for growing fruit is, without a doubt, and well better than anything else out there, a book by Louis Glowinski called “The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia”. It is so well written that I read it like a novel, cover to cover, when I first bought it many years ago. It is still in print.
Clive Blazey has also written “The Australian Vegetable Garden” and “The Australian Fruit and Vegetable Garden”. They are well set out and easy to understand.
I have also bought a couple of European books on growing vegetables but the difference in climate makes them less useful. Waay back over 30 years ago when I was starting on my veggie gardening, I used a Readers Digest gardening book. I’ll see if I can find the name and if it’s still about.
buffy said:
The bible for growing fruit is, without a doubt, and well better than anything else out there, a book by Louis Glowinski called “The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia”. It is so well written that I read it like a novel, cover to cover, when I first bought it many years ago. It is still in print.
Clive Blazey has also written “The Australian Vegetable Garden” and “The Australian Fruit and Vegetable Garden”. They are well set out and easy to understand.
Good books for me to read then. :)
This is the Readers Digest one:
http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Readers-Digest-Illustrated-Guide-to-Gardening/9780909486761?utm_source=googleps&utm_medium=ps&utm_campaign=AU&gclid=CLDupNDE2scCFQ0JvAodSbIFHQ
Looks like you can get it from online places second hand. I found it very useful.
buffy said:
This is the Readers Digest one:
http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Readers-Digest-Illustrated-Guide-to-Gardening/9780909486761?utm_source=googleps&utm_medium=ps&utm_campaign=AU&gclid=CLDupNDE2scCFQ0JvAodSbIFHQ
Looks like you can get it from online places second hand. I found it very useful.
Yes. There are good books. The information varies a lot due to climate and plant origins.
Most seed packets carry good info about climatic zones and timing for planting.
Books are important because you don’t have to bookmark the link and you don’t have to sift through the BS to find the useful facts.
You don’t need soil or aquatics to produce bean sprouts.
GF asked for book suggestions.
buffy said:
GF asked for book suggestions.
Thats right.
I don’t think you can go wrong with Peter Cundle’s Practical Australian Gardener as a starting point. There is no substitute for getting your hands dirty and getting stuck into it though. Plants have been growing themselves quite happily without our intervention for millennia so once you have got the basics like soil (or other growing medium,) sunlight, and water it is just a matter of planting something for your climate. Everything else is just to grow bigger and better plants! I find http://www.gardenate.com/ a good resource for growing what, where and when. And if something doesn’t work the way you want the first time, try again or something else.
How about checking the library for books by locals and others written for your area?
Take a look at your nearest community garden and learn from locals in your area.
http://communitygarden.org.au/
Thought buffy’s comment elsewhere should be added to this.
http://tokyo3.org/forums/gardening/newpost/?topic_id=6619"e_id=789287
ISBN 1 86447 019 4
Tomatoes for everyone.
Allen Gilbert.