Online is fine but give me a book for gardening queries
In times past, gardening information was passed on by word of mouth or one learned it from a book. Reaching for one of my gardening reference books is second nature to me when I need help, but I realise that the younger generation must think I’m hopelessly behind the times. They will be far more inclined to search the internet.
There is a wealth of useful information online, but it’s easy to be caught out – not all information will be specific to growers in Scotland, for instance.
For first-time allotment gardeners, I can recommend the online fact sheets produced by Trellis, the horticultural therapy charity. Trellis supports a network of more than 400 therapeutic gardening projects in Scotland. I’ve attended their annual conferences and heard at first hand from those who have been helped by them. The fact sheets about growing peas and beans are so clear and detailed success is bound to follow.
I used to think the National Vegetable Society was just for enthusiastic growers of prize leeks and onions. I was wrong. They are just as keen to encourage today’s aspiring new vegetable growers. I followed a link on their website to a blog called It’s Sow Simple and liked their illustrations of pricking out tiny seedlings to move them on to the next stage. It might seem sensible to grasp the plant by the stem, but it’s safer to handle it by one of the leaves rather than risk bruising the stem. Careful handling of plants at this stage can make all the difference. A dibber or the end of a pencil is the right
implement to use to ease it out of a seed tray without damaging the hairlike roots.
Gardening books usually have the edge on internet searches for me. One of the benefits is that they group topics in context. For example, if you look up peas and beans, you will almost certainly find yourself led on to learn about other legumes.
My favourites include the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Growing Your Own Vegetables and Cox and
Gardening books usually have the edge on internet searches for me
Beaton’s Fruit and Vegetables for Scotland.
I find rooting around for secondhand gardening books irresistible. Favourites in my collection are a dog-eared copy of TW Sanders’ Encyclopaedia of Gardening, which was first published in 1895. Sanders went on to write Kitchen Garden and Allotment to help first-time gardeners grow essential food crops in the First World War. Most of it is still relevant today. n