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Category: Books on Gardening & Gardens

Recommended specialist books, monographs, historic gardens and data sources.

In Praise of Rhododendrons

In Praise of Rhododendrons

Rhododendron group

Rhododendrons have many praiseworthy characteristics.

Why Grow Rhododendrons

  • They are some of the most colourful spring and early summer flowering shrubs. Red, white and blues with yellows, pinks and shades to suit all tastes.
  • Rhododendrons are generally evergreen and provide structure through the year.
  • Modern hybrids are easy to maintain, slow to outgrow their allocated space and need little attention.
  • There are 1000 species to select and learn about. Prostrate and miniature rhododendrons suit a rock garden whilst some varieties can fill a woodland.
  • Scented Rhododendrons are shorter lived but have great aroma.

Where to See Rhododendrons

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Further information

Early Rhododendrons

Housekeeping for small Rhododendrons

Veg as Cheap as Chips

Veg as Cheap as Chips

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The last of my root vegetables and Leeks are now consumed and a distant gastronomic memory. New baby salad leaves have been available but I do not take enough care to be able to binge on them until later in the season. Rhubarb once again is prolific and abundant so that I and the neighbours are enjoying the fruit of my labours literally.

The early potatoes that I tried in the cold greenhouse are full of growth, above the soil at least, so I look forward to my own new spuds fairly shortly. The majority of the Earlies or Second earlies have been grown in pots or tubs rather than the ground and I am interested to see how they crop. I have heard good reports of growing Carrots in large pots to avoid pests and get long straight roots but I have just put my new seed in a new bed so that idea will have to wait for next year.

My Tomato plants are starting to go out into the greenhouse now they are six inches high but I need to watch for frost with my fleece at the ready. If you want more information on Vegetable Growing month by month the book will cost less than a fiver from Amazon.

Grow Abeliophyllum White Forsythia for Spring Scent

Grow Abeliophyllum White Forsythia for Spring Scent

Abeliophyllum distichum also called White Forsythia is more refined than traditional yellow Forsythia to which it is distantly related, both being part of the Olive family.

Growing White Forsythia

  • Abeliophyllum distichum AGM  is native to Korea and produces clusters of fragrant, creamy white flowers which emerge in late winter or early spring before the leaves.
  • Trained against a sunny wall,  Abeliophyllum distichum will grow 3-6 feet tall. It can be rather untidy and lax if grown in a border
  • Prune after flowering to within 2-5  buds to make a permanent framework and encourage new wood for flowering next year.
  • Grow in full sun or light shade in average soil 3-4ft apart. Feed with a balanced fertiliser once a year in early spring
  • Can be underplanted with Scilla sibirica, Muscari or species Crocus for a lovely early spring display.

Abeliophyllum distichum roseum group is the seldom seen pink form. According to Junker’s nursery ‘It is sometimes called “Pink Forsythia” but this reflects more its time of flowering than either its colour or parentage! A very pretty plant that stays quite small, rarely more than 3 feet tall’.

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Majestic and RemarkableTrees

Majestic and RemarkableTrees

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New Trees: Recent Introductions to Cultivation by John Grimshaw, Ross Bayton and illustrated by Hazel Wilks. Amazon

A good reference work or wonderful coffee table book can be costly but the joy of a book on your favourite subject may be a great investment. I adore Trees and wish I could own and plant up my own Arboretum. Unfortunately I have to be content with good books, regular trips to sites of interest and a small number of trees in my own garden.

If I was looking for something different then this book would be amongst my first reference work from Kew and Royal Botanic Publishers. I have made plans to have a trip to Kew gardens to check out one or two ideas that I have been accumulating through winter.

Another series of books I like to browse are the ‘Remarkable’ series by Thomas Pakenham
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Meetings With Remarkable Trees starts “The two largest Common Oaks (Quercus robur) in Britain and probably Europe, too – are the Fredville Oak in Kent and the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire”. In Meetings with Remarkable Trees Pakenham assembles a beautifully photographed gallery of 60-odd trees of Scotland, England and Ireland, and magnificent trees they are. One is a 600-year-old king oak that looms large over Charleville, Ireland; another is the yew tree that Wordsworth called the “pride of Lorton’s vale”; still another is a sequoia brought from the United States and planted in a Herefordshire grove in 1851. Amazon

In ‘Remarkable Trees of the World’ there are sections entitled, Giants, Dwarfs, Methuselahs, Dreams and an exceptional section about Trees in Peril. Amazon

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Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

You don’t need global warming to get a warm glow in your garden if you plant some Canna. The fiery hot flowers and leaves on some Cannas are hard to beat and are worth a place in any passionate garden.

What other plant starts flowering in June and keeps flowering right through until the first frosts. Do not deadhead the flowers at any price as new blooms arise from the center of old ones. They flower in shades of red, orange, pink and yellow often bi-coloured with blotches, spots and streaks. The foliage is also a most attractive feature, and can be shades of purple/bronze, red, green and striped.

Growing Canna

  • Rhizomes have to be started into growth in February and you can be certain that if you see a new root, then a new shoot will soon follow. Start them by putting them in a hot place in a poly bag. An airing cupboard is ideal.
  • Part fill a 2 liter pot with peat based compost improved with slow release fertilizer and insecticide and lay the rhizome on the compost. If any shoots are growing, place these pointing upwards. Be very careful with any shoots because they break off very easily.
  • Fill the pot, affix a label showing the variety and the date of planting. Give the compost a good drenching, and sprinkle a few slug pellets around.
  • Place the pot in a warm frost free place. They will grow much quicker if heat is provided.
  • They can be planted out in June in sun, shade or preferably semi-shade.
  • Cannas prefer a damp soil but can survive some drought conditions. Some varieties grow well in bog gardens.
  • Large clumps can be divided in Autumn when the rizomes are stored in a frost free environment. Keep slightly damp.
  • Canna are very strong and sturdy and do not require staking. They are generally insect free in the UK.

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Gardening with Dummies

Gardening with Dummies

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Gardeners Tips for Dummies are contained in the above book.

Other Dummies to Consider

If your veg crop fails, buy some dummies from the local greengrocer.
Do not be upset if your dummy is not working in the garden today.
Slugs and pests are seldom dummies, they are always live.
Babies dummies sometimes benefit from a bit of sugar – so too can your Tomatoes and Carrots prior to eating.
Do not throw your dummy out with the rain butt water.

This is just a dummy post – a garden post

Growing Veg in Winter for Spring Crops

Growing Veg in Winter for Spring Crops

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Sowing and planting vegetable in Autumn will ensure produce can be harvested from next April in mild districts. Over wintered crops avoid the problems of insect and pest damage suffered by spring sown crops but beware of mice when planting seeds.

Winter Vegetables to Grow

  • Broad Beans can be sown in October or November. Most varieties should be hardy though I would select The Sutton which grows 2′ tall or Aquadulce Claudia.
  • Peas of round seeded varieties such as Felthams First, Pilot or Douce Provence are suitable for autumn sowing.
  • Mange-Tout should overwinter if you grow Oregon Sugar Pod.
  • Garlic and Shallots are best planted in November.
  • Carrots of the Nantes type such as Adelaide or Nantucket will mature in June if overwintered.
  • Winter greens can often be bought as young plants for putting out in your veg plot.

Growing Tips for Winter Vegetables

  • Protection is the name of the game if you want to boost crop yields.
    • In wet regions use cloches to protect seedlings.
    • Sow some seed in modules in a cold greenhouse for planting out in March to get an early crop.
    • Cover with fleece in really cold weather.
    • Shelter for strong winds where practical.
  • Great Preparation will help winter crops
    • Plan to get all your crops started before December by which time the soil will be too cold for sowing or planting out.
    • Good drainage will help so I use  raised beds.
    • Place crops to benefit from winter sunshine.

The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-round Vegetable Production Using Deep-organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses.  Eliot Colman helps the Home Farmer (and the keen gardener) extend their growing season to cover   winter   as his techniques can easily be adapted.

Growing Citrus – Oranges, Lemons, and Others

Growing Citrus – Oranges, Lemons, and Others

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Glasshouse gardeners and those with large conservatories may be tempted to grow citrus trees. This book by Martin Page contains well written, instructive comments. Due to an American influence on the varieties chosen it is worth doing more research for UK purchases before plunging.

 

Don’t expect a crop of sweet juicy fruit in normal UK conditions.

It is noaccident that oranges grapefruit and other citrus come from Florida, North Africa and hot fertile climates

‘Growing Citrus’ is also  available as an ebook.

A more general text may suit casual growers of fruit. The book below contains interesting ideas on 50 different fruit crops.
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Swiss Chard as Coloured Spinach

Swiss Chard as Coloured Spinach

swiss Chard HC

Similar to spinach with a slightly bitter flavour Swiss Chard is pungent and slightly salty. It contains an exceptionally impressive list of health promoting nutrients. Although Swiss Chard is available throughout the year, its season runs from June through August when it is at its best.

  • Swiss Chard is a tall leafy green vegetable with a thick, crunchy stalk that comes in white, red or yellow with wide fan-like green leaves.
  • It is ornamental enough to grow in the border.
  • Chard is easy to grow from seed and grows upto 18 inches tall and spread.
  • Eat and cook Chards like spinach. Both the leaves and stalk of chard are edible, although the stems vary in texture with the white ones being the most tender.
  • ‘Ruby Red’ has stunning deep veins and can be picked young.
  • ‘Bright Lights’ is a seed mixture ready within a month
  • Organic seed is available and if growing it organically watch out for slugs

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Easier Gardening as You Age

Easier Gardening as You Age

Expert gardeners can spend 50 years learning, sometimes just about one species or family and then they die!

You are never to old to start gardening, nor are you too old to learn easier and simpler ways to enjoy your gardening.
Bending and kneeling may get a bit harder as you age but there are ways to overcome these restrictions like padded kneelers with good handles.

Tools as You Age

  • You are not going to double dig acres of ground so get a spade to suit. A small stainless steel blade will not over tax the muscles but still get most jobs done at a steady pace.
  • I have very useful forks and a trowel on long handles. They are easy to obtain and save your back. You can also fashion your own dibbers and gadgets
  • A two wheeled barrow is lighter for pushing than a traditional one wheeler.
  • Use large pots and containers to reduce watering and put them on casters for moving around.

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The Illustrated Practical Guide to Gardening for Seniors: How to Maintain Your Outside Space with Ease Into Retirement and Beyond by Patty Cassidy from Amazon

Easier Gardening as You Age

  • This new American book shows how easy it is for seniors to carry on gardening, into and way beyond retirement.
  • It looks at different kinds of homes and the gardens they provide, assessing the location, local climate and soil type and evaluating problems such as arthritis and loss of balance.
  • The book also outlines the importance of taking care of your body, summarizing the safety issues, what to wear, warm-up exercises and equipment to make the garden easy to access for unsteady feet or wheelchairs.
  • Included is a directory that profiles the many planting choices available, each with a difficulty rating and a hardiness category.
  • Gardening for Seniors is packed with projects, garden plans and step-by-step sequences.
  • Easier gardening will appeal to active gardeners in their early retirement through to those with more limited abilities, showing how, by adapting garden activities and the tools employed, the joy of gardening will remain undiminished.

Plants and Planting as You Age

  • Avoid fast growing shrubs that need pruning and regular spraying. I prefer small rhododendrons to roses for this reason.
  • Aim at your senses placing plants where you will get the best reaction from those you have in full working order.
  • Design and implement your gardening to impress others and they will stop and talk. Easier gardening can still recognise you are up for a challenge despite your age