best veg growing/gardening books
thought this may be an interesting forum topic, and maybe helpfull for newbies looking for some good books to refer to-
what are everyone's favorite/most usefull books related to veg growing or gardening in general?
Without a doubt, my most used book is 'food from your garden' published by readers digest. My copy is a 1985 reprint, so its the same age as me! Lol.
The reason i find this book so great, is that all fruit and veg are listed, with all the growing instruction, recommended varieties, pests, etc all the stuff most books would include, but it is then followed by a selection of recipes to use the crop for. Also has lots of in depth info about drying, storing, preserving, keeping chickens and bees and loads more. I really would recommend to anyone.
What about everyone else?
Mimmee
Hello Mimmee
The book you refer to sounds quite good and complete I haven't read it but a good idea for any newbie gardener wanting a good reference book is to
1 See what's advertised in the garden magazines
2 Look at the list of gardening books on Amazon
Before you spend your money if you see any that you fancy make a note of the title and author then go and request them from your local library.If you then select one or some you can go ahead and purchase them from your favourite book shop and you are not waisting your money on a load of rubbish.
The ones I recommend for are available on E Bay or from most garden centres are the Doctor Books by Dr. D. G. Hessayon reasonably priced and well worth the money. Another good idea is to start with a monthly magazine ( I used Kitchen Garden ) in January and buy it every month till December.Over a year it will cost about £50 or £1 a week approx but you could spend £50 on books that are not worth the paper they are printed on. So in my opinion it's best to request any that you fancy buying so that you make sure they contain just what you want
Hope that helps
Lottyman
The last couple of weeks I have also had my nose in a lot of my books. I have quite a few, some are just about the gardening side and some are more about the storing and preserving and then I have a couple that covers both. I actually refer to most of mine for different things, so I will list my favourites and most useful:
The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency - John Seymour, this book is great for advice about keeping a small holding, but also covers other aspects of self sufficiency like preparing meat and fish, basket weaving, keeping chickens and bees and other complimentary skills required for keeping a small holding. Mine is a new edition of an older book.
Home Freezing handbook - Carol Bowden, this was given to me as a gift and is a great book if you are not sure of the best way to store your produce, it does cover all aspects of food as well as your veggies, but it is great as it advices on what produce to select how to prepare it and how to freeze and how long for.
The Allotment Book - Andi Cleverly, a good book about the basics, with a seasonal guide to jobs etc.
The three I am constintley refering to:
The RHS Allotment Handbook - Mitchell Beazley, this book has a general section about how to set up etc and then an a-z of Fruit & Veg, it has loads of useful info and is a lovely book to look at.
The preserving Book - Lynda Brown, I love this book, I only bought it a couple of months ago from the book people who are very reasonable priced and it is fab and gives soooo many storing solutions.
The Allotment Cookbook - Kathryn Hawkins, again a-z of produce advice on harvesting prep and freezing and several recipes for each item.
I must admit I am also a bit of a sucker for the glossy books by the celeb gardeners and whilst they look good on the shelf and I like to have a flick through for visual inspiration, they are not as informative and are always a little far fetched, these include Carol Klein and Sarah Raven.
Hope this helps with your selections.
Hayley
thanks for the suggestions- although i did not mean i was looking for good books, i have far too many already! I just thought it would be a good forum discussion.
Totally adore j.seymore, i have read it front to back a few times, and because of him i dream of '5 acres' as thats what he thinks is the amount of land needed to be totally self-sufficient!
Mimmee
Oh I am glad you love it as well that was one of things that inspired us to get the allotment in the first place, my good friend had an old edition and lent it to me and I managed to get the new one for Gary for one of his birthdays (although it was for me really). Because the plot is at the end of our garden I have said I don't think I would ever move unless it was to our own small holding, or if the council ever managed to build on the site, heaven forbid and over my dead body!
I am not sure I would like to do the small farm thing, but chickens, which are very popular here on the island and bees with a small orchard would be perfect. If the government ever let me and Gary retire then that would be how I would like to spend the rest of my days.
Oh well it is good to dream!
H