Books - Xmas presents for people keen on plants ; growing, history and Green environs

[nickdub]

Organic :- Grow Your Own Fruit and Vegetables by Lawrence D. Hills
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grow-Your-O...4154270&sr=1-2

Ornamental :- Gertrude Jekyll gardening books
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=gertrud..._sb_ss_sc_2_13

Fruit growing Raymond Bush; 3 vols, one Apples, one Pears etc, one soft fruit
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-sear.../raymond-bush/

Fruit growing history :-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-Orcha...s%2C165&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fruit-Sands...s%2C153&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Potted-Hist...4158778&sr=8-1


https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/S...ruit%20Culture


A favorite of mine :-

For those interested in getting practical,local, community based tree planting schemes off the ground please read :-

"My Life: My Trees "by Richard St. Barbe Baker (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) who believed the same thing - and put his ideas in to practice in countries around the world by helping set-up self- help groups run by local people, with very little or no government help to look after forests and plant trees

amazon link here :-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-St....ntt_dp_epwbk_0

an environmental activist before the term was first used and an inspiring figure


Happy gardening :-)

[veggiechicken]

Nick, some of your Amazing links don't work but there are some great photos of dogs!!

[burnie]

Amazon not anywhere as good as you might hope

[nickdub]

Nick, some of your Amazing links don't work but there are some great photos of dogs!!

Thanks for that VC - should be fixed in the original now - looks like I did something dim-witted copying a few links over from another thread.

good job some chickens are eagle-eyed old birds :-)

[nickdub]

a couple more as I think of them - this time writers about the English countryside and gardening here

Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols and his other books on his garden

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beverley-Ni...ne_cont_book_1

Sissinghurst

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Sissing...f=nb_sb_noss_2

Christopher Lloyd

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=christo...b_sb_ss_i_1_18

An Author and a Gardener: The Gardens and Friendship of Edith Wharton and Laurence Johnston
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Author-Gard...327660&sr=1-12

old copies of the countryman magazine can be had on Ebay - maybe one for the year someone was born would make an interesting present ? ( I have about 80 copies from different years I think)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...azine&_sacat=0

[Nicos]

I'd love to read some of the Ruth Goodman books -Victorian,Edwardian and wartime Farm books.
I'm sure there would be some good basic tips in them (apart from the use of ddt)

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I totally recommend anything by Joy larkcom, great books, fantastic on salad growing and lovely to flick through over again.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=joy+lar...f=nb_sb_noss_1

[Mark_Riga]

Not keen on Amazon as they pay little tax here on £11 billion + . Not bought anything from them for over 10 years.
https://www.channel4.com/news/factch...-so-little-tax

I've got a few books by L D. Hills including the one Nick recommends above.

Another book I like is Organic vegetable Growing by Robert Milne. It is aimed at all gardeners but particularly schools with gardens for the children.
Also The Vegetable Expert by D.G. Hessayon. I bought it in 1985 and must be my most used book for vegetables.

[nickdub]

gardening abroad today, and as a tie in to yesterday's post re Hidcote

Laurence Johnston and his other garden Serre de la Madone

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Serre+d...ref=nb_sb_noss

I'm not envious of the rich in general but owning and developing two great gardens - how cool must that have been :-)

Monet's Garden, Giverny
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Monet%2...ref=nb_sb_noss

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Royal+B...f=nb_sb_noss_2
I'm putting this here, as its a world garden, even though it is sited near London, and similarly the next one from Cornwall

the Eden Project
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=the+Ede...&ref=sr_nr_n_7

Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden - Nature Sounds Collective 79p for the mp3 file

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nong-Nooch-...sr=1-1-catcorr

finally a grab bag or lucky dip of second hand books on gardening (not Amazon)

https://www.worldofrarebooks.com/lif...arden.html?p=2

[nickdub]

Had a wander in to Ross today as I bagged a rather plush two seater sofa off Freeccyle, which I needed to collect in my old Volvo estate - v splendid down filled cushions - saying good-bye to our old sofa bed thingy in the kitchen, which has seen better days

Anyhoo I called in at a local charity shop on the way back https://www.st-michaels-hospice.org....-living-store/ - well worth a look, about 5 mins from the start of the M50 by car

I got 3 small decorative china eating bowls ( from China) for £2

and a copy of :- https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Propaga...s=books&sr=1-2 for £1.50, in more or less as new condition

passed on some RHS manuals on pruning, insects, plant diseases etc as I already have similar books - hopefully another gardener will spot them :-)

[nickdub]

Writers about rural life in England and Wales

My Uncle Silas by H.E. Bates

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...4448187&sr=1-1

absolutely inspiring for an old codger like me - - what a legend even if fictitious - if you can't get some real laughs out of this I don't know what to tell you

I prefer the bbc radio version to the book or the TV dramatization https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007d96j


The illustrated CIDER WITH ROSIE by LAURIE LEE
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...4448488&sr=1-2

stunning writing - perfect evocation of the period, warts and all - the kicking to death of a rich bloke who came back to visit the village where he had been a boy rings true - I knew blokes in the Forest of Dean who would react just like that in the past


The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...0&sr=1-2-spell

a window into a world long gone


How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...4449010&sr=1-2

the sadnesses and joys of living in a mining town or village


The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compleat-An...s%2C139&sr=1-1

classic - perfect as a well cut gem


The Diary of a Country Parson, 1758-1802 by James Woodforde
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...4449512&sr=1-1

slices of real life from that period and place


The Natural History of Selborne by Gilbert White
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-His...s%2C151&sr=1-1

a naturalist and an observer of human life

Kilvert's Diary by Francis Kilvert
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-li...=used&qid=&sr=

Parsons had time to write and an education to use


The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals by Dorothy Wordsworth
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grasmere-Al...s=books&sr=1-1

an everyday story of towering genius


https://www.francisfrith.com/ross-on-wye

some photos of the past - you can search by town

[nickdub]

Having talked the talk, I thought I'd better, walk the walk (in other words a good excuse for buying more books)

So here's what your "bibliophile at large" has been buying - all these are Ebay because, although Amazon is very good for reviews and details on books, its usually but not always cheaper to buy them on Ebay or some other site like World of Books

A cheapskate book hunter on Ebay, last few days :-


Thoughts from a Garden Seat, S. Thomas, G. , Good

Sounds Of The River: A Memoir of China, Chen, Da , Good

The Luberon Garden: A provencal story of Apricot Blossom, Truffles and Thyme, Di

A Year in a Victorian Garden, Bright, Henry A. , Acceptable

Wildlife Gardening for Everyone (Rhs), Tait, Malcolm , Acceptable

Perfume from Provence, Fortescue, Winifred , Acceptable

this was a buy 2 get 1 other free deal, all used - so I decided to buy 4 get 2 free :-) Total £7.96

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dorothy Wordsworth's Illustrated Lakeland Journals : Complete Edition £1.95

The illustrated CIDER WITH ROSIE By LAURIE LEE. £2.56

Garden open today, Nichols, Beverley, Good Condition Book, (dated 1963 probably a first edition) £9.71

all Totals inc P&P

PS I have bought some other books from Amazon, but the prices you can buy for on there are easy to see - just remember to click the " all formats and editions" link first - sometimes a hardback version can be cheaper than the paperback one

[nickdub]

just had a copy of - The English Flower Garden by W. Robinson - 1889 - rock up in the post, £5.50 off eBay - that's this afternoon's reading sorted :-)