Many old gardening manuals are now available on-line from various sources. Though the texts are lengthy, they give a good insight into past growing techniques. In some places they are remarkably similar to modern practices.
The first is John Evelyn's Acetaria. A discourse of sallets published in 1699. It has some great ideas on raw salads CLICK HERE
A little later comes Richard Bradley's New Improvements of Planting and Gardening from 1717 CLICK HERE
And thirdly, my favourite winter read, Vilmorin-Andrieux's comprehensive The Vegetable Garden first published in an English edition by W Robinson (editor of "The Garden") in 1885 CLICK HERE
Historical vegetable gardening texts on-line
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- alan refail
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- oldherbaceous
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Morning Alan, just the job if i'm going to lose some time off work due to the snow, thank you.
I do love old gardening books.
I do love old gardening books.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
There's no fool like an old fool.
There's no fool like an old fool.
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How interesting, Alan. A pity I don't have the time to sit reading all this at present. Maybe a few minutes here and there. It would be fascinating to compare 300-year-old recomendations, before the advent of pesticides and fertilisers, with modern ones.
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- Geoff
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Some more here, including "Dig for Victory" - we could be doing that again before long when our credit runs out.
http://www.earthlypursuits.com/
http://www.earthlypursuits.com/
Hi Geoff,
In his text he says the only complete set of these pamphlets. Well I have the 12 copies in pristine condition in my library of gardening and horticultural books.
They offer the perfect information for beginners and although some of the terminology may be a bit old fashioned, to some, they really are very good.
JB.
In his text he says the only complete set of these pamphlets. Well I have the 12 copies in pristine condition in my library of gardening and horticultural books.
They offer the perfect information for beginners and although some of the terminology may be a bit old fashioned, to some, they really are very good.
JB.
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Congratulations, JB. Keep them. They should have considerable intrinsic value, the more so as a complete set.
Please support Wallace Cancer Care
http://www.wallacecancercare.org.uk
and see
http://www.justgiving.com/mikevogel
Never throw anything away.
http://www.wallacecancercare.org.uk
and see
http://www.justgiving.com/mikevogel
Never throw anything away.