Go too books

[hedgerowpete]

I would disagree. Seymour’s ‘Complete Self Sufficiency ‘, and in particular ‘Self Sufficient Gardener’ was ahead of it’s time. In it he DETAILED the Deep Bed Method. It is what most allotment holders seem to do now in the form of ‘Raised Beds’. It is a spin off of the 19th Century, ‘French Intensive Method’.

i agree that Seymour was good but was a man of his time, back in the old days when the return to root campain started. French markey gardening is a brilliant base and he realised it was high intensity and organic and such like but he knew nothing on symbiotics and nuitriants. if you like that sort of ideas a much better book author that covers the subject far better in John Jeavons, he turned out a book years afterwards but covered the technical reasons why it works and how it works and how to get it to work correctly, continuously.

try googling
John Jeavons, How to grow more vegtables.
Its a modern day french market gardening book thats been in print for many years now and does explain deep bed and deep dig and therefore no dig beds and soil pans, nuitriants and crops and intercropping.
he used to do meetings and training courses on it. i believe it was taken as part of the modern training courses in the uk agri collages as well now his ideas on no dig and soil enrichment

out of all the gardening books i own and have used i only have three
John Jeavons is one of them.
The Vegetable & Herb Expert: by Dr D G Hessayon , is the second book i would have
the third would be a decent polytunnel or under glass book.
the ones i read are far to technical for most gardeners , but glass or polytunnel is a great area to cover

alot of the books i started with have long since been udated with far better information or more detailed ideas, but i shy away from the Caroles and Montys of this world and stay further back in time, i find victorian books and Edwardian books far better suit my style of production as they are all chemical free or home made chemical treatments, i think the latest book i would use is one from the 1970's

[jansman]

I have the Jeavons book.I dont really rate it,( personally),as it touches on Bio- Dynamic gardening: something I consider to be out there with witchcraft and UFOs! But hey! It's horses for courses.As my wise brother often says

" one man's wombat p##s is another man's real ale. "