Books

Could Anybody recommend a good book on Greenhouse Gardening especially towards growing toms,cues,peppers etc to take me through the coming long dark nights in the winter-sounds gloomy dont it.

 

I have:

"The Vegetable & Herb Expert" by Dr D G Hessayon [144 pages] covers those (and all other common vegetables).

Excellent series of books, only a page or so on each topic, but packed with information in an easy to digest manner.

"The RHS Growing Vegetables" by Tony Biggs [191 pages] goes into more detail and discusses some Pros and Cons.

"Grow your own Vegetables" by Joy Larkcom [384 pages] goes into more detail, covers more topics, and also covers things like Composting, Raised beds, etc.

For a newcomer I would recommend them in that order.

These aren't Greenhouse Books, but all cover growing toms,cues,peppers etc under glass.

if you want to grow flowers etc too there are specific Greenhouse books in the Dr D G Hessayon "Expert" series

 

I've got 'The Greenhouse Expert' by Dr. Hessayon and it has all the basic info and is very useful as are all the Hessayon books but quite a large part of it deals with ornamentals and exotic plants and cactii etc., which may not be of interest to you. It might be better to do as Kristen suggests and go for books that deal with veg specifically, most of them have a small section dealing with growing under cover. It sounds as though you have already written this year off shimsham, I feel pretty glum about it but I don't want to be thinking about long dark winter nights yet . Cheer up.

 

If there is a day in the year that i hate it is the last Saturday in October,Sometimes i wish i was a squirrel so i could and hibinate until the spring.

 

October is stil a fair way off and there are still things to do, you never know we might even get a 'summery' day or two and pretty soon it will be time to start picking blackberries, 4lbs = 1 gallon of wine=a few less gloomy winter evenings . :p

 

I must be in the minority here then. I absolutely adore Autumn, and am a bit partial to November to be honest. I live on the West Pennines and maybe we`re just tougher up here (LOL) but so what if its cold-put a vest on under your jumper and a big coat, there`s loads out there- I will post some pics of my best spots when the time comes.

 

I think you cant beat the Dr Hessayon books, Really informative and easy to understand. Ive had mine for years and are my favorites. 02

 

Digger could I ask you for a recipe for blackberry wine. Mr 02 picks tons every year and makes jam, but we are not big jam eaters so would be nice to try something different. Cheers 02

 

Hiya takemore, here's the recipe I use :---4lbs. blackberries
3lbs. sugar
1 gal. water
wine yeast, yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme
Wash the fruit, put it into a plastic bucket and crush it, pour on 1 gallon of boiling water and stir with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool to about 70f, then add the pectic enzyme, cover and leave for one day then add the yeast and yeast nutrient, cover the bucket again and stir daily over a period of four or five days. Strain through nylon or muslin on to the 3lb. of sugar, stir well to disolve all the sugar then add to the fermenting jar, fill to the shoulder of the jar only and keep any spare liquid in a sterilised bottle, when the early fermentation has died down , add the remaining liquid. There are plenty of web sites too, just Google 'blackberry wine recipe' and check them in case I've missed anything out. Highly recommended for cheering the dark winter evenings and reminding you of the day when you picked the blackberries with the sun on your back, good luck and cheers, T.D.