"anton" wrote in message ...
[...]
There are several good books on pruning fruit trees you should be able to
get one from your library


Gary's got an ongoing pruning problem, so I suggest that
borrowing a book for two weeks is not going to solve it.
'Fruit' by Harry Baker for the RHS would be a good buy.

I'd like to weigh in with a "me-too" he I love answering gardening
questions when I think I know the answer, but I reckon a quarter of
the enquiries we get here would be better dealt with by a book. A few
of the answers we see (and perhaps of the ones I give) are distinctly
risky, as the "rules" are the result of generations of research and
experience. Bending the rules can work for some people in some places,
but generally, if you need to ask, you probably aren't yet ready for
experiment.

I don't imagine Franz will mind if I use one of our fruitful
disagreements as an example. I am very cautious of over-potting, as
I've seen it kill or maim too many good plants. Franz, on the other
hand, has an instinctive watering technique (this is among the things
we mean by "green fingers") which means he can succeed where I might
fail. You just can't teach that over the Internet, so somebody needing
to be told how to care for precious container plants *has to* do it in
the conventional way.

If a new gardener feels that the books may be too technical, or too
like school, I urge her or him to stroll into the library or the
bookshop and have a look at what there is. Nobody in there will take
any notice if you hang about browsing for an hour, and a pleasant
surprise is probably in store.

There's nothing like having a book you can pull off the shelf when in
doubt: it's a lot quicker than the Internet, too. (Don't get like me,
though, and end up with too many!)

Mike.