Recommended reading..

Having just started gardening and being an avid reader I was wondering what books or magazines members read and can recommend? (or not!)

 

To be honest, I dive straight into Google if I want want to know anything.

I have a shelf full of books, but find I get distracted too easily and end up reading everything except the thing I started looking up. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.

The Expert series of books has sold more copies than Harry Potter so that must have something going for it, it is certainly a good starting point, and some of the books in this series are on the reading list for the RHS Level 2 General Certificate in Horticulture, so obviously gets their seal of approval.

[ 13. October 2005, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Rich ]

 

Google for me too (using Gardeners Corner Google Bar at the bottom of the page!)

[ 13. October 2005, 10:49 AM: Message edited by: jjordie ]

 

I google a lot as well, and find this equally time consuming!
The books that I rely on are all RHS publications:
A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants [now 2 volumes]
Pests and Diseases
Propagation
Pruning and Training
Their website and magazine are good, too.
The encyclopaedia was a joining offer from the Readers Union gardening book club, and is my favourite, although now out of date.
I also have some of the 'expert' series, they are comparatively cheap, and very good.

 

Really cheap ones!

Yes I know I am cheap - but I started by buying reasonably good books in a very cut price location. I was paying �£1.99 and �£2.99 for books which I have since seen selling at their full price of �£15 or �£25. That way it was much easier to justify buying them - you could buy them at random. I liked to look through the pictures and decide what I liked and what I did not like. That helped me to decide how I wanted my garden to look.

My decision almost from the start was not to buy books that duplicated each other. If you buy 5 general gardening books, each will have a chapter on laying a patio, taking cuttings. hanging baskets etc, so after the first book the later ones added almost nothing. I bought a seperate book on annuals (at �£2.99 you can almost afford two), perennials, tender perennials, propogation etc.

The other type of book is one filled with personal opinions such as Christopher Lloyd's Garden Flowers (�£5 at a good book shop or �£18.99 at a not so good book shop). Most books give you cold facts - but I have found that some plants are very much better than others in terms of appearance, long flowering and ease of cultivation. You need someone to say this plant is rubbish but that one is superb.

 

Found this club with google great engine great club.

 

For me like other's the books I use the most the RHS a-z of plants and their encyclopaedia. To that add Roy Lancasters What plant Where, and Lance Hattatt The Gardening Year.

Being a member of the RHS - I get their monthly magizine which I enjoy and also Gardening Which - but for the rest its the internet - my friends in the forum, RHS site for plantfinder and much much more, the BBC site gardeners world - and google.

 

Seeing you mention Roy Lancaster reminded me that he is coming to Suffolk next week to speak at an Autumn Gardening Conference. I am booked to go so I look forward to hearing him speak. He always comes across as being v knowledgeable on the TV.

 

I've owned What Plant Where for a couple of months and it's an excellent read and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who uses Google.

I'd never considered RHS books but just looking at their Website they've got plenty so i'm going to get a couple of the practical guides and add a couple of books to my ever growing Christmas list. :D

Thanks folks!

 

Now your talking, Roy Lancaster I think is one of the best, strange we dont see him anymore on the BBC, just old, Munty Dunn is it? :D

[ 14. October 2005, 08:12 PM: Message edited by: pete2255 ]

 

I had a subscription to Amateur Gardener for 2 or 3 years and only stopped it in the end because of the awful puns they use for articles! The mag itself was a mine of information and tips and I really learned a lot.