I use the Napa Floor Dry or horticultural perlite, and sometimes poultry grit in my mixes. Part of my decision on which to use is whether or not I want a lighter weight or heavier mix. Heavier works better for me when I need the stability for what would otherwise be top heavy, but it makes it much more challenging for me to carry large containers alone.
These discussions tend to go round and round after a while. There are a lot of good gardening books available for reference. Check for one that pertains to your locale.
Here in So Cal we have Pat Welchâs books, the California Master Gardener program/website, and the Sunset Western Garden Book as solid references.
This seems a bit anti-forum to me. Of course there are gardening books by single authors with their own prejudices. Iâve actually never known a garden writer who I would consider an authority nearly as informative as this forum. Garden writers often seem to write more than they actually garden.
In my opinion, the best way to learn to be a very good gardener is not by reading gardening books but by reading some elementary text books about soil, botany and arboriculture to get a basic holistic understanding of how plants and soils really work.
Otherwise you are a cook that relies on other peoples recipes.
A first book I recommend for those interested in hardy perennials is âArboricultureâ by Richard Harris published by Prentiss Hall.
It is much more expensive than some popular gardening book but will go a long way to help any person that likes deriving information from print to rounding out their understanding of how trees grow and how they can most competently be managed.
For something less academic (and expensive) Whitcombâs âEstablishment and Maintenance of Landscape Plantsâ should be very useful.
I have to admit that I stopped reading gardening books a long time ago, so maybe the field has become more fundamentally informative. I know I learn much, much more on this forum about growing fruit trees than anything form the fruit growing books that I purchased when I started growing fruit in the northeast.
Wow, I really like that statement. I learned tonâs from you and this forum. I cannot thank you enough. Fruitnut, Olpea, and Scott etc, it goes on and on, almost every user here has helped me understand how to do what we do better. Other forums have helped to like the DWN forums, and Tomatoville is a great place. It has more professional farmers than any other forum I have run across. Many of the regulars there own farms, or nurseries, and a few even have written books. The Dwarf Tomato project originated there. I think up to 37 cultivars developed by users there. These are series breeders who use the web site to combine knowledge and accelerate the development of cultivars. Nothing on the web is like Tomatoville.
There I learned the value of compost and DE in containers. I also researched use and found numerous studies showing the advantage of using these products. I didnât just follow a recipe but adjusted amendments to where they worked well here for my situation, and my environment.
I did the same with BYOC which does not work universally everywhere. The basic concepts are very sound though. Just following that advice though has led me to lose trees. All gardening is local.
I like garden books and usually seek ones that cover areas I know little about. I know a lot about soil structure. Lately Iâm more interested in edible landscape design. I want to find a better way to present edibles in the garden for a pleasing ornamental effect. So I studied traditional landscaping with ornamentals, and advanced to books about using edibles in landscape design. I love to visit formal gardens too to get ideas and such. Iâm a sight learner, and seeing various plant combinations makes more sense than reading about them to me. So far I have not done well, as I lack experience and need a few years of experimenting to see if I can apply what I have read. So far I would say I have failed to achieve my goals, yet realize the journey is the prize. So all is good!
Here is an example, first you see Nadia, then a large Japanese maple with strawberries as ground cover. Just past that is a satsuma plum tree (hard to see) Against the house is raspberries, but at the corner is a lilac tree, then the raspberries. Hard to see, but looks good when in bloom. On the fence Iâm developing a currant cordon. The canes in front of the fence will eventually be removed to spot light the cordon. To the right of the sidewalk next to the raspberries is 4 young elderberry plants. I need better border materials, and itâs not perfect, Iâm still learning.
Trying to incorporate edibles into suburbia is not done that often, although many users here do just that. I want to at least make them presentable, yet offer more (food!) than traditional landscape design for suburban homes.
Yoohoo, I take exception to that one! Love my hands in the soil!
I didnât say all garden writers, of course, and I was actually speaking of professional book writers who often spend a great deal of their time promoting their products as well as putting them together.
There is one in my area that specializes in writing about fruit that actually teaches classes where he strongly discourages his students from trying to grow anything besides pears, native fruits and whatever can possibly be grown without spray.
A man is meeting me here in an hour to flag trees to buy that took one of his classes but wanted to succeed at growing fruit so much he searched me out. When I told him I often get sound apples with only 2 insecticide applications he was completely blown away. The writer in question has access to this information and actually met me at one of the orchards I manage to take photos for one of his books.
Just one example- but a pretty prominent garden writer who shall remain anonymous (please, no posted guesses).
Recipes and maps are good things. They can be altered later, but itâs typically a good idea to work from success, or follow a well known path. Some folks need to leave out the eggs in a recipe to truly understand why they need to be in there in the first place. I get that.
A knowledgeable chef can make a great meal with the ingredients on hand. That is the point Iâm making, although as a grower I did, long ago, try to make cake without the eggs (attempt to grow sun needing plants under oak tree canopy, for instance). I purchased the Sunset Gardening book when I was 17 years old and went on from there.
Gardening books are fine for beginners, but once you have the passion for growing fruit youâve probably graduated from most of what is helpful in popular books, IMO.
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Yes but many published recipes really donât work, go to allrecipes.com and often published recipes from books are sliced and diced to pieces with numerous (sometimes hundreds of) reviews pointing out why the recipe sucks and how to fix it. I think like Alan said about garden books, it would be nice if the author actually tried the recipe before publishing it.
Just because something is in writing does not make it work or that it is even true or even made before. Some recipe books are terrible! I enjoy the reviews on allrecipes.com as often the suggested changes are fantastic. Making a mediocre dish exceptional. I keep a recipe book there for oneâs I like and everyone I have kept has changes noted that I made (you can add notes in your own recipe book).
I like reading all of the opinions and making a decision on exactly how I will proceed. I have learned several things in this thread about using compost. I find discussions much more informative than just one persons view. I would imagine in times before how to books communities functioned in this very way.
Drew,
I like the idea of using strawberries as groundcover. One thing I question is, do you have good harvest out of this bed? I imaging the strawberries ground is shaded at the most intense time of the day.
Tom
Thanks Derby. I take pride in this forum as a very active participant and really am not very receptive to the idea that referring to gardening books is a superior option.
I havenât noticed Mr. Clint coming for advice here and when offering it, itâs often in the form of directing members to other sources of info. Iâm fine with that, but letâs give this forum credit where itâs due, even if itâs not the best source of info for growing fruit in the San Fernando Valley.
Group intelligence, as a rule, is superior to that of a single person, except when individual voices in the group drown out the intelligent consensus.
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No, harvest sucks here. Luckily I have other beds! I used throw away runners and soon filled it as you can see. I do get some. One species of raspberry can be used as ground cover too.
http://www.raintreenursery.com/Herbs_and_Groundcovers/Raspberry/
I find this forum to be informative and entertaining.
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Alan, in the immortal words of a an ambassador who is a great friend, he once said to his best friend, â you know a lot, but you donât know it allâ. And frankly you donât either. Certain gardening books are fruit, perennial, annual, tree, shrub, or rose specific, etal. Many of the gardening writers I know,do the work, have gardens, plant and research. Many of us that have written gardening books as well as cookbooks know the difference, by discerning the given text. Drew, all of my recipes were tested three times, then tested by an independent ârecipe testerâ (yes, there is such a job and they make plenty of dough, pun intended.) Even those in the know need advice. 
The advantage of this forum is due to the combined knowledge of all members. I donât remember talking about the scope of what I know compared to anyone else.
Very noble of you to defend the entire professional realm of garden writers, but I actually didnât intend to attack the ensemble and certainly wasnât comparing my knowledge to anyoneâs.
Where the group failed me was when I was first attempting to grow fruit in the northeast.
A slap is a slap, even if the slapper is wearing white gloves. Slaps are not appropriate here.
Alan, youâre a great grower and you add so much to the forum. All of your advice has been and is appreciated. However, there is a roughness to you that comes in the form of snappy responses that sometimes hurt peoples feelings, and I feel you are unaware of doing this. You tend to strong arm when it is not necessary. Considering all the good you do, it is really not necessary to âstep on antsâ.
Awesome, could you please list your cook books for us? These is the kind of books I look for. I have a few really good ones. I think Alan and I are just saying the books run the spectrum from great to poor. Not all cook books are created equal. Same with gardening books. I have run into some really poor landscaping books. Itâs just the author is not good at describing the gardens and the photos are poor, etc. Some are unreal, artistic, even masterpieces!
Well so much for that other thread! I thought Alan was mostly talking about one author he has experience with. And I know who it is, yet I actually still like his books. I have yet to run across a dish that everybody likes. Thank God we are all so different else I would be bored to death.
Pretty sure I wouldnât be directed to OâReillyâs Auto Parts for garden supplies by any gardening book, although I donât doubt thatâs good advice.
Gardening books tend to be heavy with the cut and paste, both literally, and figuratively, in the form of regurgitated conventional wisdom.
Best case scenario is a book with direct, experiential based advice, but then they tend to be region specific.
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You can also obtain iron shavings from brake jobs for free. I would not use it on edibles, but any acid loving plant would benefit from the iron in the shaved steel. So when I go for my DE, I bring a bucket for the shavings. I also mix DE with peat moss as a seed starting mix. I tried pure DE for seed starting and it works, although I think mixed with peat works better. Adding a little compost can bring Ph up too.