So I've been reading this book, and I want to impress on everyone that my recommendation is with regards to the week-by-week calendar of gardening tasks that this book provides. I said it's older, well it's from the 30's and the author uses ALL KINDS of chemicals -- fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticidesapplestar wrote:I just borrowed a book from the library. I came across it in Googlebooks, so you CAN read it on-line. It's called YOUR GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK by HELLYER, A.G.L It's an older book, written by an author based in London area, so some of the information is not pertinent to my own situation, but it appears to be a very detailed description/gardening journal of a serious gardener. (I don't have a greenhouse or a cold frame either, but this book gives you a good idea of HOW to use them.) Some of the information and the sheer scope of the book might be overwhelming/daunting to a beginner, but I think it conveys an interesting seasonal PROCESS of gardening.
But at the same time, there are plenty of mentions of well rotted (e.g. composted) manure of all kinds, and other organic gardening techniques. If you read the book the way I do, from a standfast organic gardening and anti-chemical use point of view, you can automatically substitute SAFE alternatives as you read, or make mental notes to look one up. I had to laugh when on one page, it said to [my underlines] "Mulch fruit trees with well-rotted farmyard or stable manure or ... spent hops (not hop manure, which contains chemicals). When just 2 pages before, in bold type, it says "Dust Brassica Seedlings with DDT" BUT! The point of interest here is that you want to watch out for flea beetles on your brassica seedlings as the weather warms up in May, and that it's a good idea to mulch fruit trees with compost after they have flowered and are starting to fruit. Interestingly, the author needed to explain what "mulch" was for. "This is known technically as a mulch..."
Then, the entry right above it describes, with illustration, how to make "liquid manure" for feeding fruiting cucumbers. I've seen this called "manure tea" by other authors. (Well, I actually don't have ready access to manure, but I can -- and I will -- make and use compost-enriched-with-alfalfa-pellets tea.) So you really have to be selective and make intelligent use of this book, which really contains a LOT of technical and detailed information.
Well, back to the book....
