"Place to go"
Sources of information for organic gardeners and friends of the environment
Organic gardening
Organisations
Garden Organic https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk is the national organic charity, with lots of information on their website. Their informative booklets can be ordered here: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/recommended-publications
The Soil Association (Scotland) https://www.soilassociation.org/our-work-in-scotland/ one of the accrediting organisations for organic production but full of useful links for amateur gardeners too on organic standards and benefits. Scottish Organic Producers’ Association http://www.sopa.org.uk/ for commercial growers.
Dave Allan – The Herald garden correspondent. www.askorganic.co.uk and twitter@boddave (Click on this to go to “Gardening: Growing food for an easier life”)
Books
Garden Organic’s Encyclopaedia of Organic Gardening Ed. Pauline Pears. (Dorling Kindersley, 2005) Out of print but second hand copies available
No-Dig Home and Garden Dowding, C. & Hafferty, S: (Permanent Publications, 2017) You will find details of other books on organic gardening by searching for Charles Dowding publications.
Organic Gardening Hamilton, Geoff: (DK edition, 2011) There are also other books on organic gardening by Geoff Hamilton.
How to make and use compost Audrey Litterick. (Published by Blackland Project, North Uist. 2010. Copyright Audrey Litterick Consulting.) Blackland Centre – Agricultural Research and Practice in the Outer Hebrides
The Garden Jungle or Gardening to Save the Planet Dave Goulson (Cape)
Your Wellbeing Garden: How to Make your Garden Good for You – Science, Design, Practice Alistair Griffiths et al. (Dorling Kindersley for RHS) 2020
The Well Gardened Mind Sue Stuart-Smith (Collins) 2020
Do Bees Need Weeds? A Gardener’s Collection of Handy Hints for Greener Gardening Gareth Richards & Holly Farrell (Published in association with RHS)
Rewild Your Garden Frances Tophill (Quercus)
Grow Yourself Healthy Beth Marshall (Frances Lincoln)
Super Organic Gardener Matthew Appleby
Wild About Weeds Jack Wallington. (Jackwallington.com )
Successful Organic Growing Heart of England Organic Group 2019. www.heog.org.uk
No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture O’Hara, Bryan (Amazon 2020, paperback/Kindle)
Dirt to Soil One Family's Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture Brown, Gabe (Chelsea Green Publishing) 2018.
The New Organic Grower 3rd Edition Coleman, Elliot (Chelsea Green Publishing) 2018. Revised for its 30th anniversary edition.
Food
Nourish Scotland. http://www.nourishscotland.org
Sustainable Food Trust www.sustainablefoodtrust.org.uk
The Scottish Food Coalition http://www.foodcoalition.scot/
For the Perth & Kinross Council allotment strategy, visit https://www.pkc.gov.uk/article/15330/Allotments-and-Growing-Spaces
Dacha gardens in Russia supplying up to 40% of the nation’s food…. A thought for us?: http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm?fbclid=IwAR26_UPaYFaReA_MGiB2YEYQHGIZc3oouGK5c4oIEbuDdobmtDZfPHhW7kI
The Fife Diet. A local food and food justice project that was started in Burntisland, Fife, by Mike Small. The movement folded due to lack of funding, but achieved much during its running time and, through its Seed Truck project, was successful in spreading the word about the links between local food, diet and environmental crises, leading to the establishment of similar movements worldwide. This video is an arresting explanation by Mike Small of what motivated its formation and how it achieved wide popularity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2wHsVJh4rs
Can Britain Feed itself? An in-depth article from The Land Magazine 2007/8, with interesting statistical modelling, covers many of the questions raised in our discussions on various farming methods and the issues around a plant or meat-based diet. https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/sites/default/files/can_britain_feed_itself.pdf
Scotland the Bread. For organic, locally grown and milled flour from Scottish wheat varieties, and everything on making your own bread Scotland the Bread https://scotlandthebread.org/
Books
Riverford Farm Cook Book Guy Watson and Jane Baxter: (Harper Collins 2008) Also: www.riverford.co.uk/recipes
How to Store Garden Produce: Key to Self-sufficiency Piers Warren: (Green Books, 2008)
Eat Green: Delicious Flexitarian Recipes for Planet-friendly Eating Melissa Hemsley 2020.
Good Food for Everyone Forever Colin Tudge 2011
Food for Free Richard Mabey.
The Forager’s Calendar John Wright.
The Hedgerow Handbook Adele Nosdar.
The Edible City; A Year of Wild Food John Rensten (Pan Macmillan/ Box Tree)
Climate change and the environment
Plant vulnerability to climate change – a view from the Orkney News: https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/06/07/researching-plant-vulnerability-with-climate-change/?fbclid=IwAR0T7I9Dow94HK_p1dB9wElGaTwrQE7evRJMVp6ke3wGvLVwl3ZmXGxd8HQ
This website and approach you may find inspiring: https://www.activehope.info/great-turning.html and the book, below.
Food Forever Exhibition & Toolkit: an ongoing project hosted by Botanic Gardens, including RBGE, to promote the diversity of global food and agriculture systems. It will run till 2025, and further details and the downloadable toolkit can be found here: https://www.bgci.org/our-work/projects-and-case-studies/food-forever-global-exhibition/
Interview with Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at London City University: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/22/tim-lang-interview-professor-of-food-policy-city-university-supply-chain-crisis?fbclid=IwAR23fNeILXgbEzn3sdgOFw8Z4-QHENMxLt8AuM6rX7ih34_DFTCv_C0P2X0
Feeding the Nations – Common Weal podcast on global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on food systems https://commonweal.scot/common-weal-policy-podcast-episode-43?fbclid=IwAR01DHT9zT1LJDbFNmV9M5xiGLIGhv4VVMJz3kX6I9wuI5YoZp0iwSfw58A
Article on small-scale, organic routes to food security from Off-Grid World: https://offgridworld.com/un-report-says-small-scale-organic-farming-only-way-to-feed-the-world/?fbclid=IwAR0wO7jicrCa-MwmQFWMlLmkfswARt6Os8JJ-asCnPDPmjbfTdM3BM1bJCU
Campaign for Real Farming https://www.campaignforrealfarming.org/
Community Supported Agriculture: https://communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk/event/farming-community-starting-csa-scotland/
Agroforestry & Agroecology: https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/ https://scotland.permaculture.org.uk/practical-solutions/agroforestry https://www.hutton.ac.uk/about/facilities/glensaugh/agroforestry https://www.soilassociation.org/what-we-do/better-food-for-all/transforming-the-way-we-all-farm/what-is-agroecology/
Permaculture Association UK https://www.permaculture.org.uk/
Books
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess we’re in Without Going Crazy Macy, Joanna & Johnstone, Chris (New World Library)
The Ultimate Heresy Seymour, John (Green Books, 1989)
Me Wilding – Rewild your life – start small - Think big – This is how (Scotland Big Picture) 2019. https://www.scotlandbigpicture.com/MeWilding
The Earth-Care Manual Whitefield, Patrick (Permanent Publications, revised 2011)
Wild Child Patrick Barkham (Granta Books) 2020.
The Climate Change Garden Kim Stoddart & Sally Morgan 2019.
Feeding Britain: Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them T Lang (Pelican) 2020
Other Topics
Books
Plastic Free Gardening Fiona Thackeray. (Trellis) https://shop.trellisscotland.org.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=59
Plant Therapy Katie Cooper. (Hardie Grant)
Plant Magic Gregory J Kenicer. (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh)
Seed to Dust: A Gardener’s Story. Marc Hamer (Harvill Secker)
The Consolation of Nature: Spring in the Time of Coronavirus Michael McCarthy, Jeremy Mynott & Peter Marren. (Hodder Studio)
5 March 2021
