The Swedish Grande Book Sale is an annual event that, admittingly, have lost some of is gala, but still holds its place in the hearts of many swedish bookworms. Because of it I've given my swedish readers tips on usefull gardening books that'll be sold tomorrow - one is the first and only handbook in vegetable gardening written for decades in Sweden.
Gardening books fit for every country in the world is hard to find, I admit it, so my only international tip for today is "Worms Eat My Garbage" by Mary Appelhof. This is a must in any indoor vegetable gardeners bookshelf. (No, it's not sold on the Grande Sale, and Yes, I own one copy - a well read one.)
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
What I did on my holiday
Not much really. In essence we filled the fridge with christmas food and ate for the fun of it. Since Uppsala have a rare layer of winter snow we brought the son out for some sledge rides, but in most we rested. Christmas is a good time for resting.
I couldn't let go of indoor gardening entirely, though. I purchased some seeds from Impecta (swedish seed mail order company specialising in exotic and swedish heritage seeds) and perhaps it was unwise to do so without a proper plan. According to my notes I've ordered two kinds of melon, oil pumpkin, blackberries and a kind of cabbage that grows to a two meter tall "palm". I don't think any of them would do good indoors, but I do have my allotment gardens - and motivation to really make those raised beds.
This year I made it easy for the indoor hubby and wished for a book easy to get since it was released a few months ago. The title translates as "Cloister gardens Heavenly places on earth", it's Lena Israelsson, my favourite swedish garden writer who's travelled to cloisters and convents around the world studying their gardens and the monks' and nuns' gardening techniques. An absolutely beautiful book, but somewhat dangerous - I'll take a post to explain why. In the meantime you could pester your local publishing firm to make a translation, it (and her other books) is worth it.
And I've finally bought my bokashi starter set! My mother in law is kind enough to give her kids, daughters in law and grandkids a good amount of money for christmas. My share was quickly sent to the swedish bokashi seller. The receit was sent by email, and included the line
"Are you the one who writes Parkettodlaren (Indoor Gardener's swedish motherblog)?"
which made me feel like a celebrity for a few minutes. I picked up the parcel yesterday, and now have both worms and microbes eating our leftovers.
Since my only new years resolution was Stick to the plan I've sterilised soil today. Thus I've checked another point on the list I made before Christmas, together with the point on ordering seeds. Now I only got these left:
I couldn't let go of indoor gardening entirely, though. I purchased some seeds from Impecta (swedish seed mail order company specialising in exotic and swedish heritage seeds) and perhaps it was unwise to do so without a proper plan. According to my notes I've ordered two kinds of melon, oil pumpkin, blackberries and a kind of cabbage that grows to a two meter tall "palm". I don't think any of them would do good indoors, but I do have my allotment gardens - and motivation to really make those raised beds.
This year I made it easy for the indoor hubby and wished for a book easy to get since it was released a few months ago. The title translates as "Cloister gardens Heavenly places on earth", it's Lena Israelsson, my favourite swedish garden writer who's travelled to cloisters and convents around the world studying their gardens and the monks' and nuns' gardening techniques. An absolutely beautiful book, but somewhat dangerous - I'll take a post to explain why. In the meantime you could pester your local publishing firm to make a translation, it (and her other books) is worth it.
And I've finally bought my bokashi starter set! My mother in law is kind enough to give her kids, daughters in law and grandkids a good amount of money for christmas. My share was quickly sent to the swedish bokashi seller. The receit was sent by email, and included the line
"Are you the one who writes Parkettodlaren (Indoor Gardener's swedish motherblog)?"
which made me feel like a celebrity for a few minutes. I picked up the parcel yesterday, and now have both worms and microbes eating our leftovers.
***
Since my only new years resolution was Stick to the plan I've sterilised soil today. Thus I've checked another point on the list I made before Christmas, together with the point on ordering seeds. Now I only got these left:
- Mix new potting soil (jay for home made worm fertiliser!)
- Repot seedlings
- Buy sills, consoles, lamps, chains and flourescent lights
- Paint sills
- Put up sills and added light
- Move the mound of pallets under the window in the study
- Put the potted plants in their new places
Friday, December 05, 2008
Good harvest at the library
I was offline yesterday due to my visit to Uppsala City Library. The café over the street has a pretty good wlan, but it was out of order yesterday. Rats!
Anyhow, I found some interesting books. You know, since I've recently had pneumonia I should take it easy on myself. And the sensible thing to do when being easy on oneself is to borrow one book. My addiction for gardening books have reached an serious level ie. I'm going for agricultural books now. A couple of months ago I borrowed a textbook from agricultural school and I wanted to read it again. However it wasn't on the shelf so I settled for a handbook in "ecological farming", a sensibly written one.
Since I couldn't spend the afternoon surfing on my favourite café I returned to the library after lunch - still believing I could refrain from borrowing more than one book. But I found a very small book; a scientific report on ecological farming in Sweden. You know, I've never before seen a scientific report you can fit into your handbag. And someone had dribbled compost (?) over the pages. I'm beginning to find those little traces of former readers quite charming, and since the weight was next to nothing I borrowed that too.
It could have stayed with that. Unfortunately I crossed the indoor square where the librarians displays books they think you should borrow and entered (drums of fate) the 'foliant' section (if "foliant" isn't an english word I can tell you that books in folio formats are the Big Books in a library).
With one normal and two Big Books in my backpack I stumbled out of the library on my way to daycare to pick up my son. I mean, it's soon christmas and a book on christmas celebrations can come in handy. Don't ask me why the artist made the little kids on the cover look like zombies - there's probably some deep reasoning behind. Beeing a romantic I couldn't leave "Planting a Bible Garden" or "The Shaker Garden" on the shelf either.
With five books and a computer in the backpack I my steps were somewhat heavy, but since I survivded the journey home with my son I can probably say that I am on the mend. Hooray!
Anyhow, I found some interesting books. You know, since I've recently had pneumonia I should take it easy on myself. And the sensible thing to do when being easy on oneself is to borrow one book. My addiction for gardening books have reached an serious level ie. I'm going for agricultural books now. A couple of months ago I borrowed a textbook from agricultural school and I wanted to read it again. However it wasn't on the shelf so I settled for a handbook in "ecological farming", a sensibly written one.
Since I couldn't spend the afternoon surfing on my favourite café I returned to the library after lunch - still believing I could refrain from borrowing more than one book. But I found a very small book; a scientific report on ecological farming in Sweden. You know, I've never before seen a scientific report you can fit into your handbag. And someone had dribbled compost (?) over the pages. I'm beginning to find those little traces of former readers quite charming, and since the weight was next to nothing I borrowed that too.
It could have stayed with that. Unfortunately I crossed the indoor square where the librarians displays books they think you should borrow and entered (drums of fate) the 'foliant' section (if "foliant" isn't an english word I can tell you that books in folio formats are the Big Books in a library).
With one normal and two Big Books in my backpack I stumbled out of the library on my way to daycare to pick up my son. I mean, it's soon christmas and a book on christmas celebrations can come in handy. Don't ask me why the artist made the little kids on the cover look like zombies - there's probably some deep reasoning behind. Beeing a romantic I couldn't leave "Planting a Bible Garden" or "The Shaker Garden" on the shelf either.
With five books and a computer in the backpack I my steps were somewhat heavy, but since I survivded the journey home with my son I can probably say that I am on the mend. Hooray!
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Small Garden Encyclopedia - review
I admit it, currently I'm buying books with pretty pictures to look at. This is an ideal one. You gett colourful flowers and the tools are either shiny new or eastetically worn (I'm particularly impressed by the hands that are replanting plants and digging in soil without getting even a speck on them). Every opening covers a task or a tool (if you call a vermicompost a tool) connected to a small garden. You get work instructions for almost anything; garden design, vermicompost, container gardening, damm building, you name it...
The part on container gardening was a bit weak. It's more about painting baskets and arranging flowers than how to water or which container to chose for what environment. You do get a small recipe for a self waterer and tips about water keeping crystals. You get more interesting stuff on that topic in the part covering conservatories. Anyone who really wants to grow vegetables indoors should take a look on the vegetable part (surprise). Here you get valuable instructions on intensive using of the soil, advice I haven't found in any other book for beginners (I do suspect you can find more in 'heavier' books). I also found the advice on how to grow big vegetables/plants in small spaces helpful, which is another indoor gardener problem.
This book gets 7 pots out of 10.
The Small Garden Encyclopedia
Ed. Sue Phillips
Salamander Books Ltd 2002
ISBN-10: 1571458441
ISBN-13: 978-1571458445
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