Learn while the weathers bad

If my experience of OXFAM is anything to go by, they will most probably produce the seeds and GM them, along with a copyright so only they can profit

As for books, well I am still awaiting Dai's publication Gardening for Dummies like JackMc

Some of the OLD books could be dangerous, advising you dust with some chemical compound that has long since been banned :-)

Last year whilst emptying one of our family homes (since 1864) the library had about 40 garden books, which were given to me "The new family gardener"

I went through them one by one, ie book one was good, book two not as much info as book one book six had more info than book two etc. until I was left with four
The rest went to BHF charity shop
Then I ended up buying the RHS Encyclopedia of gardening, and of plants

I still need to come on here and get personal advice from good gardeners with experience
EVEN what would be to them BASICS

I look in the book, and yes it tells me a variety, and when to plant, but it does not tell you When you should start preparing the ground, and what with, nor what to do and look for whilst they are growing

Books are good GC is better

Jack McH

 

That's one of the many things you can get from here but not from a book. Someone asks a question. Lots of people try to answer, all giving a slightly different perspective. Original person learns but still doesn't understand some of the answers. In a book, that's it. On the forum, simple, you just stick a post on saying 'thanks, got that, but what about....'. You can't do that with a book.

 

I've been a bookworm all my life and always have a book on the go. I have a dedicated shelf full of gardening books, and these include "old" books by Percy Thrower which are just as relevant as those produced currently. I think Dr Hessayen's "Expert" books take some beating and new gardeners cannot go wrong with them. I also like to keep my finger on the pulse of new(ish) ideas and have books by Piet Oudolf, although my garden isn't big enough for prairie planting - I like looking at the photos though, and some of the ideas are relevant for my gargen in terms of combinations etc. Books by Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd are also inspirational..............well, I could go on. I think new gardeners have access to a mine of information - often available at their local charity shops, as has been said, and there is also the library!

 

One very significant advantage that a Kindle has is that if one is visually impaired you can enlarge the font. Mrs W has to use a magnifying glass for most paper printed texts but on her Kindle she can enlarge the font to an easily readable size. We both like reading and travel abroad fairly often and the ability to take books on our Kindles saves us a lot of weight and cost.
I like my reference books and have a stack of them on mainly technical subjects and on gardening and wouldn't be without them. However I do find the internet is an invaluable source of up to date information and it gives me access to info I wouldn't be able to find in our local library or in a book shop.

 

I keep getting new ideas from old books.

 

I find most gardening books are out of date in terms of plant trends or are too basic to tell me the stuff I would like to know. Lots of the cheap, popular offerings seem to put forward a very unintelligent view of gardening, they don't solve people's real problems and sometimes I just plain disagree with the "advice" they offer.

Christopher Lloyd is my absolute favourite. I can read his books just for pleasure, rather than for information. I like the way he was prepared to break the rules rather than just regurgitating received wisdom. He only gives advice based on situations he has personally thought through and he finds creative ways to solve problems. He also uses a wide range of plants, not just the usual hackneyed range, and has a distinctive personal aesthetic. He would have had the guts to plant up a bed with dandelions and make it look good. He's also a grumpy old curmudgeon who knows how to write entertainingly, God rest him!

I was just thinking this morning that I would quite like a Kindle to save my poor old eyes, like Dave W has found. Great for reading novels, useless for reference, though. Also, I don't really approve of the commercialisation of our reading habits that is occurring as we gradually become hooked into them. At the moment a lot of our reading can be free or at very low cost due to free exchange of books or use of secondhand material. Is this going to happen when most books are on a microchip somewhere and publishing companies suck the cash directly from our credit cards? (I don't know if it is possible to exchange books for free between kindles, using a memory stick, say. Somebody enlighten me.)

I absolutely love the internet for researching plants. It is far more wide-reaching and up to date than almost any freely available reference book and you get pictures as well. I also love the input of amateur gardeners into forums, such as this one. Some of them, like Growing on the Edge, contain far more detailed expertise about obscure and little known plants than I've seen in most textbooks. Sometimes it's good to feel a bit out of depth!

I also really enjoy reading garden design and planning books - the internet is not good at this because it requires photographs of the kind that it would be hard to search for. (Let me know if you know different) I don't want to see the old stuff being endlessly recycled. The more progressive, modern and unusual the designs, the better. Sadly, unless you're a pro, it's not possible to design many gardens from scratch unless you move house regularly so I'm reduced to merely tweaking mine occasionally.

 

Really enjoyed reading this one

 

Mahdahlia, it's not possible to pass books on throught the kindle, it's a shame because we've already paid out for them. Perhaps at some point Amazon will consider it.

I've had my kindle 9 months now and wouldn't be without it. If you do treat yourself to one, consider getting a case for it too, it makes it easier to hold, just like a book. It also stops the screen from being scratched.

 

Well, that's terrible. If, in the future, the market and manufacture of paper books disappears, we'll all be totally in the hands of big business for written information of all kinds. It's not in Amazon's interests to consider changing it. Will they be obliged to give it away free once it is out of copyright, or was that just a "goodwill" gesture on their part?

 

Are you talking about the kindle or the e-books?

Sony make one similar to Kindle, but I don't think you can get the supply of books as you can with a Kindle.

There are many books on Amazons listings that you can get free or under £1-00 but it really is down to what type of thing you read.

It would be worth your while going into the Amazon site and checking out the Kindle e-books section and see what you think.