Fruit and Veg Gardening

pollyanna24

I believe there is a long thread on this site about this, but just wondered if anyone could recommend a book on the subject. There seem to be so many out there. I'm not an expert by any means, but know the very basics of how to grow plants!

Linda32

Do you prefer a book or would you consider a magazine.

Garden News is a weekly news paper which costs about £1.40 Obviously that works out more expensive than a monthly mag, but these more in it.

With magazines you are given bang up to date information on plants and products and also with the weekly one more hints and tip and "things to do now" section.

Biddyrolo

I can also recommend Grow your Own and Kitchen Garden magazines, these also have websites with forums where you can get lots of advice, also the river cottage site forums are very good.

pollyanna24

Cheers.

I think I've mainly decided what kind of things I want to grow in my little 10x6 patch.

Just need a bit more info on when to do things, like prepare the soil and when to plant things. That type of info. I'll have a look at the mags, but was looking for a book with pictures mainly.

wigginsmum

I'd recommend this book:

The Allotment Book

It's the clearest and most comprehensive one that I've found so far, and a joy to read.

kiwichick

I have a copy of Sarah Raven's "The Great Vegetable Plot" bought for £7.99 from the book people. The price on the inside cover is £20 so thanks to MOGGINS for pointing me in the BP direction!

http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productSearch_10001_10001_19044_100___10_SimpleSearch_2_1_2__basicSearch_

The table of contents is as follows;

1 What To Grow
*Let taste decide
*The unbuyables
*My desert islands plants

2.How To Grow It
*Grow what you eat
*How to sow and grow
*desining your garden

3.What You Need To Know
*A-Z of vegetables
*Calendar of jobs to do

Its great! Maybe you try to get a copy through your library and have a look before deciding whether or not to buy.

HTH,
Allison.

pollyanna24

I've been flicking through a few websites on gardening and one mentioned that now is a good time to plant out strawberries before the frosts come in.

My garden is overrun with these. I was going to dig them up and plant them in pots. The big ones with loads of holes in the sides. Should I be doing this now? If so, that's my job for the weekend. Any tips, just dig them up and replant them? Don't really want to kill them!

pollyanna24

Also, (we've just moved in), there are a load of bamboo poles in our greenhouse which are fixed together in a kind of frame. What kind of things would the previous owner have been growing here? Think I might just copy him and use the canes to good effect!

samnmalc

Yes,it's a good time to do your strawberries now. Dig them up and replant..water them and Bobs your uncle.

Strawberries have a three year cycle so ideally you want three pots/areas for them. Take the runners from this years plants for pot two,(next year) then again from pot two for pot three (the year after) Then the year after that bin pot one and use runners from pot three to create pot one again and restart the cycle.:D

Hope that makes sense...

samnmalc

The bamboo poles/ canes would probably have been used for runner beans.:D

Too late to start those this year tho'

pollyanna24

Cheers. Looked up a little bit on the strawberries. They have loads of runners. So gonna chop them off this weekend and pop them into new pots. But the website I found said I shouldn't let them have a crop next year.

Then dig up established plants and pop into more pots and let them have a nice crop next year. Had loads this year.

Not sure where they are in their cycle, only moved in 5 months ago!