I’ve dabbled in growing vegetables for years but still regard myself as a novice. I don’t seem to retain what I should have learned over the years and need to consult a book or gardening mag every year to decide what to plant and how to do it. My partner, on the other hand, has an encyclopaedic knowledge of flowers but, sadly, little interest in veg-growing.
I have found the ‘Kitchen Garden’ monthly magazine very readable and useful as a reference for matters relating to gardening (vegetables and fruits) in Sussex.
I assume that it might be less relevant to my French garden, being in the south of Deux-Sevres, given that it has a slightly different climate (?) and so I am looking for recommendations for a French gardening magazine that might help me get the best out of my French garden in terms of growing vegetables and fruit. Or a book . . . .
Thanks in advance.
Hello, The most widely available is Rustica. Books and magazines, including an almanac. Full of airy-fairy ‘bio’ propaganda and of limited use for specific regions as are any other publications, France being such a big and diverse country. If your French is up to it, I’d recommend talking to neighbours who have potagers. They’ll be able to give you useful information relating to your area and it’s a wonderful ice-breaker, often leading to swaps of surplus produce etc. Ditto a local gardening association if there is one. Then there’s FB 
Amongst the dross there are some useful, area-specific pages for exchanging info and asking questions.
What a strange comment! Most if not all of the people I know, including myself, grow our veg in order to be ‘bio’ (organic).
I second Rustics. Lots of valuable information about growing fruit and veg as well as lots of interesting and informative info on organic options. We also have s thread about gardening which I find very useful both for questions and reminders about real world planting / harvesting ect from other members.
I know pretty much nothing about gardening, but what I do know has come from the tv programme Silence ça pousse (Silence, ça pousse ! - France TV), which now publishes a magazine of the same name. The magazine is pretty lightweight, but there is some useful information in there.
I thought that would get a reaction 
Sorry, toryroo, I don’t use chemicals in the potager or verger either, but I do find a lot of the ‘received wisdom’ that’s trotted out nowadays to be worse than useless. I’ve tested it. Sloppy journalism is no substitute for real-life experience, wouldn’t you agree? As for laying down rules and timings, with the growing conditions varying so much from year to year, we’re all having to play it by ear now 
haha you got me then!
Interesting, you think they are not really gardeners and haven’t tried it? Out of curiosity what sort of things? I agree some of the ideas I’ve tried haven’t worked either but been many years since I’ve bought magazines!
I got Rustica for a year or so and then it started to get repetitive, but was useful to get vocabulary in particular. I have kept some articles.
For specifics it is chats with neighbours that are the most useful. And peering over garden gates!
There are a couple of gardening books that are my bibles - Beth Chatto (the dry and damp garden) and Christopher Lloyd who I find inspirational. He was a great believer in not getting too het up by rules, and better to do something when you wanted ro and had time, than not do it al all. His quite that I remember is « Gardening teaches us that growth is not linear; it is messy, unpredictable, and full of surprises. »
I find a bit lightweight and patronising. But of course try for oneself.
Rustica have a nice fat book with pictures for numpties like me which covers practically everything and is very reassuring. You can use it as a foundation on which to elaborate or improvise.
Edited to show you
I expect they’ve modernised it a bit!
There are plenty of books available. I recommend any by Charles Dowling or Huw Richards or, if you want a French one, Vive avec la Terre by Perrine and Charles Hervé-Gruyer.
All the above-mentioned have YouTube channels. I follow a few others, too. I’ll put links on the Gardening questions and chat thread if you want.
I’m a passionate veg gardener, next year I’ll be fully self-sufficient in veg, if you have any questions, pls pop over to Gardening questions and chat! - #772 by toryroo
I had a regular weekly magazine, might have been Rustica, anyway it was very useful and helped my language skills too…
EDIT at the end of 12 months I cancelled the subscription as I had the full year of what to plant, when and how 
If anyone gets a Gardening Magaxine sub, or sny magazine sub for that matter, this us a good time of year for igraal.fr to have some really good subscription offers. I think some single issues can smetimes be available of some magazines too.
Thry give 3 euros for signing up plus can be a surprising amount for your first subscription. There is a minimum amount collected to get your first payout but it’s not high.
Other places like Fnac and mainstream stores, other shops, insurance and mobile phone deals / broadband are all on there and particularly good at this time of year.
You csn slso clean up on gift cards (instant if you want) eg Carrefour 4% or Ikea 3-4% sometimes better.
All just money left on the table if you don’t use these (i frequently forget but try to remember in this season).
Did 15% off Lidl recently and today is Cybermonday so many offers will be boosted but only that much higher for today, this week I would say.
igraal.fr does track and does pay out just work out what you want then sign into a freshly cookie-cleaned browser to make most sure and do your buy straight throigh.
poulpeo.fr can be ok too for cashback but not sure if they have a “Presse” sectiom. They pay a tiny bit more but comments are they are fractionally less reliable than igraal.
Some like Widilo but I am not happy with them as they’ve ‘failed to track’ in same clean setup as above, most of the times I tried them.
Karen, sorry, are you having problems with your keyboard? It’s difficult to read your post with all the typos.
Sorry combo of needing new glasses and mobile phone keyboard sticking round the edges probably due to new screen protector. Hadn’t realised I’d left so many in so have gone back and corrected them.
The two that spring immediately to mind are the eggshell v peach leaf curl thing, and the sowing/planting/gardening in general according to the phases of the moon.
At my local horticultural club, a firm believer ran a controlled and fairly extensive trial of the latter in order to prove the theory. Sadly, she had to concede that the results seemed to confirm that it was rubbish. It’s much the same with the idea of doing whatever on a certain date, e.g. planting on la Ste Catherine. As a very rough guide to doing whatever in a certain season, yes, but local, current climatic conditions have far more bearing. Vive la science 
Yes I see what you mean! I agree that the old lore is good as a rough guide!