The complete guide to growing your own fruits and berries : everything you need to know explained simply

Format:

Book

Title:

The complete guide to growing your own fruits and berries : everything you need to know explained simply

Author:

Gault, Karen Szklany.

ISBN:

9781601383488

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

288 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Series title(s):

Back to basics growing.

Contents:

Types of fruits and berries -- What types of fruits and berries should I grow? -- Soil texture, quality, and enrichment -- Basic gardening tools you will need -- Pollination -- Cultivation and planting -- Container gardening and greenhouse growing -- Ongoing care -- Pests and diseases -- Enjoying the feast : harvesting and storing your fruit.

Summary:

Leads you through the process of starting your own garden of fresh fruits and berries. You'll learn step-by-step methods for planting, harvesting and caring for your berry bushes, shrubs, and fruit trees.

Subject(s):

Fruit -- United States.

Berries -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	634 Gault 2011	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

There is nothing better than a freshly picked apple or raspberry from your own backyard and yet many home owners lack the resources or the necessary gardening acumen to effectively plant and harvest their own fruit. While some fruits, like apples, grow in almost any climate (as many as 35 of 50 states providing perfect conditions), others like blackberries and blueberries are incredibly hard to grow without the right soil, weather, and care. This book will guide every man and woman out there who has ever wanted to grow their own crop of fruits and berries or who has tried and failed. From the simplest fruit tree to the most fickle berry bush, this book will be your one and only guide. You will learn how to select your fruits and berries of choice, using a combination of climate information that matches the best possible bushes, trees, and vines to your home and how these plants will grow there. You will learn how to maintain your plants in your climate with the right sunlight, location, soil, and fertiliser and what each different kind of fruit or berry needs to be most effective. You will learn the planting conditions and the maintenance that each fruit or berry needs, from pruning and picking, to maintaining a pest free environment around your plants. Starting with the most basic aspects of your planting sequence, you will learn everything possibly needed to grow and have your very own fruits and berries every year. Additionally, the top gardeners around have contributed, through interviews, their own tips and tricks to effectively growing and maintaining the lives of your new fruit and berry trees and bushes. With this book, any prospective gardener can start enjoying the sweet fruits of their labour.

Author Notes

Karen Szklany Gault spent her childhood in Hawthorne, New York and has since called Ireland and several of the United States her home. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Marist College(1986) and a M.Ed. in Elementary Education from the University of Massachusetts, Boston (1996). She currently resides in Berlin, Massachusetts with her husband and daughter as a member of Mosaic Commons, a cohousing community, where she enjoys creating her own backyard garden and home-schools her daughter, Cosette. When she is not gardening or home-schooling, she makes music, walks labyrinths, sails, cooks, bakes, and makes cross-stitch tapestries.

Introduction	p. 13
Chapter 1 Types of Fruits and Berries	p. 17
Fruits and Berries Across the Country	p. 17
Geographical Regions of the United States	p. 19
Pacific Ocean	p. 22
Mountains	p. 25
Southwest	p. 26
Plains	p. 28
South Central	p. 29
Southeast	p. 30
Mid-Atlantic	p. 31
Great Lakes	p. 32
New England	p. 34
Chapter 2 What Types of Fruits and Berries Should I Grow?	p. 37
Things to Consider	p. 40
Topography - lay of the land and soil erosion	p. 40
Soil quality	p. 41
Moisture	p. 42
Climate that supports certain fruits and berries	p. 43
Sunlight and shade - what is available for growing	p. 44
Pollination opportunities for growth and fruiting success	p. 45
Available space - how much of each fruit can be planted	p. 47
Disease and insect resistance - the survival of fruits and berries	p. 48
Underground structural obstacles	p. 49
Best Seasons	p. 49
Planting seasons	p. 51
Harvesting	p. 51
Some Final Notes about Personal Preference	p. 53
Chapter 3 Soil Texture, Quality, and Enrichment	p. 57
Soil Testing	p. 58
Acid vs. Alkaline	p. 60
Types of Soil	p. 62
Sandy soil	p. 64
Gravelly Soil	p. 65
Silty soil	p. 65
Clay soil	p. 66
Chalky soil	p. 66
Peaty soil	p. 67
Loamy Soil	p. 67
Creating Organic Soil with Worms	p. 68
Why use worms?	p. 68
Where to find the worms	p. 69
Where to keep the worms	p. 70
Furnishing a home for the worms	p. 70
Care of the worms	p. 71
Case Study: A Bin of Worms Named ôSteveö	p. 72
Feeding Your Soil	p. 74
Mulch materials for fertile soil	p. 74
Manures	p. 79
Compost	p. 79
Natural soil composition	p. 82
Layering of soil with mulch materials	p. 85
Case Study: Down and Dirty Methods for Making Garden Soil Fertile	p. 86
Chapter 4 Basic Gardening Tools You Will Need	p. 89
Description of Tools	p. 89
Clothing	p. 90
Mapping the garden	p. 92
Digging and soil preparation	p. 94
Moving rocks and large piles of earth	p. 96
Sowing and planting	p. 97
Containers	p. 98
Pruning	p. 103
Protection from pests and diseases	p. 106
Harvesting equipment	p. 106
Care and Maintenance of Gardening Tools for the Winter Months	p. 107
Chapter 5 Pollination	p. 109
Anatomy of a Fruit Flower	p. 112
Self-Pollinating Plants	p. 113
Cross-Pollinating Plants	p. 114
Artificial Pollination	p. 115
Keeping Bees	p. 118
Chapter 6 Cultivation and Planting	p. 123
Grafting	p. 125
Planting Tree Fruits	p. 127
Planting Citrus Fruits	p. 132
Planting Melons	p. 137
Planting Brambles	p. 140
Steps to take before planting	p. 141
Discerning the best brambleberry to grow	p. 142
Preparing to transplant brambles	p. 143
Digging the holes for brambles	p. 143
Completing the planting process	p. 145
Planting Bush Berries	p. 145
Blueberries	p. 147
Other bush berries	p. 151
Planting Strawberries	p. 154
Sunlight	p. 155
Soil	p. 156
Runner production and spacing	p. 156
Planting	p. 158
Planting Grape Vines	p. 161
Location	p. 162
Preparing the soil	p. 163
Planting the grape vines	p. 163
Trellis design	p. 165
Vine training systems	p. 168
Planting Kiwifruit	p. 169
Planting Rhubarb	p. 172
Chapter 7 Container Gardening and Greenhouse Growing	p. 177
Container Gardening	p. 178
Types of containers and what they are used for	p. 180
Container planting	p. 183
Sources for obtaining containers	p. 184
Spaces to put the containers	p. 184
Case Study: Outrageous Gardening with Recycled Materials	p. 186
Greenhouse Growing	p. 187
Greenhouse design and construction	p. 189
Heating equipment	p. 191
Fruits and berries that are grown in a greenhouse	p. 192
Case Study: Raising Tomatoes from Seedlings in Greenhouses	p. 193
Chapter 8 Ongoing Care	p. 197
General Care	p. 197
Sunlight	p. 198
Watering	p. 198
Fertilizing	p. 199
Weeding	p. 199
Pruning	p. 200
Case Study: Caring for Fruit Trees and Berry Bushes as a Labor of Love	p. 204
Low-Temperature Climate Care	p. 205
Dormancy	p. 206
Protection from frost	p. 207
Chapter 9 Pests and Diseases	p. 211
Purchasing Healthy Cultivars	p. 211
Pests	p. 212
Aphids	p. 214
Borers	p. 216
Caspid bugs	p. 217
Caterpillars	p. 218
Curculio	p. 219
Grubs	p. 219
Maggots	p. 220
Mealybugs	p. 221
Repelling mealybugs	p. 221
Mites	p. 222
Moths	p. 223
Nematodes	p. 224
Pear psylla	p. 225
Scale insects	p. 225
Slugs	p. 226
Suckers	p. 227
Wasps	p. 227
Worms	p. 228
General long-term pest protection	p. 229
Barriers for keeping out furry scavengers	p. 230
Diseases	p. 230
Common causes	p. 230
Common types of diseases	p. 232
Examples of common fruit plant diseases	p. 233
Chapter 10 Enjoying the Feast - Harvesting and Storing Your Fruit	p. 241
The Right Time for Harvesting Tree Fruit and Berries	p. 241
Problems with harvesting too early	p. 242
Problems with harvesting too late	p. 243
Methods for picking fruits and berries	p. 244
The best way to pick each type of fruit	p. 244
CaseStudy: Harvesting, Baking, and Preserving Rabbiteye Blueberries in North Carolina	p. 245
Eat, Drink, and Save Some for Later	p. 250
Appendix A Resources for Finding Garden Tools and Supplies	p. 251
Appendix B Recipes	p. 263
Apple Salsa (Matt Higgins)	p. 263
Blueberry Squares (Connie Stanfield)	p. 264
Classic Spanish Sparkling Sangría	p. 264
Fruit Shakes	p. 265
Honey Madelines (a nod to the bees)	p. 266
Hot Apple Soup	p. 267
Lemon Mousse	p. 269
Raspberry Fool	p. 270
Strawberries in Cream	p. 271
Apple Pie	p. 272
Four Berry Fruit Cobbler	p. 273
Grilled Peaches with Cinnamon Sugar Butter	p. 274
Easy Triple Fruit Jam	p. 275
French Cream Fruit Dip	p. 276
Appendix C List of Scientific Names of Fruits and Berries	p. 277
Glossary	p. 279
Author Biography	p. 283
Index	p. 285

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Table of Contents