It arrived today.
I first mentioned this book almost a year ago when I wrote about some garden related books I was reading at the time that I had loaned out from our local library. Since then, I have taken out this book many times more.
We like the flexibility of the overall plan the book proposes, as well as how they outline how several other households tackled their own 2 Hour Garden projects. There are also progress reports about them, and that further gives a realistic view of the plan implementation due to each household’s circumstances.
As of this writing, the book is unfortunately out of print in case you were wondering how you might get a copy of your own. If you are interested in the book, you can always check your local library/interlibrary loan (ILL) for a copy. That’s how I originally stumbled upon it myself while browsing the garden section at my local. This copy still has a due date records sleeve inside, and it looks as though it also had its heyday in the late 70s through the mid 80s, tapering off to one last loan in 1990. I can’t recall the exact last loan before the gap between when I started taking out the copy from my local library, but there was more loaning in the 90s for certain. Oh! I almost forgot–there is also a limited borrow copy online that you can find at archive.org.
I bought this copy from Better World Books, which I found through AbeBooks, a site that lists available stock of independent booksellers. I am especially pleased that the condition is exactly as described. I mention these sites for those folks that prefer not to buy from Amazon (I count myself among them), not because I am an affiliate with either.
One nice thing about having it in my hands now is that the plan starts in early April, which is just around the corner. Fortunately, we already have seeds for the first “Flower of the Fortnight” during Stage One which we manged to both plant and successfully grow last year–the scarlet runner beans. We have leftover purchased seeds as well as some we saved from the plants that grew. (Which are edible if you’ve not seen my other posts about them.)
This first stage covers planting the beans indoors in peat pots for starters, which I’ll be following along with. Last year we ordered seeds so late they went straight into the ground. I already know from reading the book before that eventually they’ll be transplanted under a cold frame, and they describe a few variations one can use for that when that week comes.
I have more thoughts I want to share about why we bought it and what we plan to do with it this year, but that will have to wait until another time. I’m considering making a new project subcategory for this gardening plan for anyone that wants to follow the progress along so one can see how you can work within the book’s options.
