I have lots of gardening books many of them are quite a bit out of date though and, like @Obelixx , I find they don't always reflect recent research and recommended techniques.
There is no substitute for experience and that is what you get when you ask a question here. Books and the Internet can offer widely differing views on dealing with most situations so the more good input one gets the more likely a solution will present itself.
There is clearly room for any and all information in any and all forms.
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." Sir Terry Pratchett
I still buy books for specific subjects. I recently bought from Amazon Marketplace - Growing Veg in Small Spaces by Joy Larkhom (I have Oriental Vegetables as well). She writes extensively with so much detail and gives so much advice.
As a prolific library user, I used to visit the gardening section regularly for new books, alas, that seems so long ago since I was allowed to visit one.
If I have an issue with something specific that cannot be found in a book, then I'll come onto this forum for support - usually there are lots of experienced gardeners who are able to help, and they have done so for me so many times which I am so grateful for.
There is a shift in problem solving thinking, for sure. It's nothing to do with gardening, it's any topic. People may or may not hit up some searches online to find the answer for themselves (a lot of the time it seems like they haven't). A great many do head straight for a forum to ask the question and let other people answer.
However, this is not a new phenomenon. Have not people asked a neighbour or a friend of a friend, or a 'guy down the pub' how to do something? There is a public library we all pay taxes into in England, yet not so many folks would visit one to look for a book on the subject.
I do understand that not everyone has got ninja skills with a search engine. They can spend a few hours putting in all kinds of search terms and get absolutely nothing useful, only for someone else to appear and within 10 seconds have the answer. In such a case, asking an online community is a reasonable thing to do.
Sometimes asking publicly, and seeing what responses one gets can actually be more helpful that a completely direct and narrow answer. It can provide other avenues of thought. Something not even considered, and sometimes only pitfalls known through experience can be avoided by just asking and a pleasant and kind person passing their knowledge over - just like face-to-face conversation.
Your point was more to do with basic things that clog up nearly all books on a subject and should be committed to memory (even unknowingly) should one read couple of books or websites. Yes, this irritates me a bit too. It's almost as if someone simply cannot be bothered to put any effort into finding the answer - and being such a basic thing, it's probably going to fill the first 2 or 3 pages of search results should someone actually search, or be in about 98% of the books someone could pick up.
However, so long as everyone puts some kind of sensible subject title to their post, it's easy to just carry on by anything you don't want to read or take part in. It kind of goes both ways - someone may think it's perfectly fine and many others may too. It's not yours or my place to say they cannot just ask the most basic of questions in a forum thread. That all said, they really should use a sensible subject title and not write "help needed". That really grinds my gears!!
The internet is for everybody.
Oh, and yes, we have some gardening books around somewhere, long out of date but basic stuff doesn't change. The answer for our current problems are rarely easily searchable if it is in there at all. I get a lot of info. searching foreign resources online.
I inherited most of my dad's collection of gardening books - he just loved haunting second-hand bookshops, and had an eye for a bargain, such as a beautifully illustrated book on ferns with a broken spine; he was an amateur bookbinder, so he refurbished the battered copies. Many of the ones I treasure are by famous gardeners like Gertrude Jekyll, or plant hunters like Reginald Farrer, and I read them for pleasure and inspiration. But for factual information and help, I use the internet and this forum.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
I love books and reading, we have well over a thousand (we had to count them for the movers and that was 14 years ago!). I prefer reading to TV and can get completely lost to the world. I have five shelves by the side of my chair filled with gardening books as these are the ones I read and re-read most but I still like to come on here and ask the occasional question as I know somebody, somewhere will know the answer.
There is no substitute for experience and that is what you get when you ask a question here. Books and the Internet can offer widely differing views on dealing with most situations so the more good input one gets the more likely a solution will present itself.
For me, this is the key - you will frequently get conflicting information on certain things, so what I love about places like this forum is that the answer you get is normally based on lived experience from a real human being. You just have that bit more confidence that the answer provided has definitely been successful in the past for someone.
And I say this as someone under 40 who also loves a gardening book or two! There's a place for both situations, but real life experience from others is often a tremendous way to learn.
We still consult our vast library of garden books but we also understand that those we have had for many decades cannot tell us about the new types of plants now on offer.
Having said that we have found some very great information that stills stands and will continue to access our books before we look on line.
I have my parents old books and some of my own, the most useful ones,
Dr, Hessayon. Vegetable growing which includes compost making, fertilising. A=Z of Plants, just like looking at it. RHS Pruning And training. A few on fuchsia growing. I don’t look up much on the net, they contradict each other too much.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Gardening books are rather like recipe/cookery books. It's all very well looking up recipes for, say, chicken online but it doesn't compare with reading a recipe (especially with a picture) and thinking "mmm, I can just taste that". So, yes, gardening books, but as someone said, you can get conflicting information online and on here you access real experience.
Posts
There is no substitute for experience and that is what you get when you ask a question here. Books and the Internet can offer widely differing views on dealing with most situations so the more good input one gets the more likely a solution will present itself.
There is clearly room for any and all information in any and all forms.
As a prolific library user, I used to visit the gardening section regularly for new books, alas, that seems so long ago since I was allowed to visit one.
If I have an issue with something specific that cannot be found in a book, then I'll come onto this forum for support - usually there are lots of experienced gardeners who are able to help, and they have done so for me so many times which I am so grateful for.
There is a shift in problem solving thinking, for sure. It's nothing to do with gardening, it's any topic. People may or may not hit up some searches online to find the answer for themselves (a lot of the time it seems like they haven't). A great many do head straight for a forum to ask the question and let other people answer.
However, this is not a new phenomenon. Have not people asked a neighbour or a friend of a friend, or a 'guy down the pub' how to do something? There is a public library we all pay taxes into in England, yet not so many folks would visit one to look for a book on the subject.
I do understand that not everyone has got ninja skills with a search engine. They can spend a few hours putting in all kinds of search terms and get absolutely nothing useful, only for someone else to appear and within 10 seconds have the answer.
In such a case, asking an online community is a reasonable thing to do.
Sometimes asking publicly, and seeing what responses one gets can actually be more helpful that a completely direct and narrow answer. It can provide other avenues of thought. Something not even considered, and sometimes only pitfalls known through experience can be avoided by just asking and a pleasant and kind person passing their knowledge over - just like face-to-face conversation.
Your point was more to do with basic things that clog up nearly all books on a subject and should be committed to memory (even unknowingly) should one read couple of books or websites. Yes, this irritates me a bit too. It's almost as if someone simply cannot be bothered to put any effort into finding the answer - and being such a basic thing, it's probably going to fill the first 2 or 3 pages of search results should someone actually search, or be in about 98% of the books someone could pick up.
However, so long as everyone puts some kind of sensible subject title to their post, it's easy to just carry on by anything you don't want to read or take part in. It kind of goes both ways - someone may think it's perfectly fine and many others may too. It's not yours or my place to say they cannot just ask the most basic of questions in a forum thread. That all said, they really should use a sensible subject title and not write "help needed". That really grinds my gears!!
The internet is for everybody.
Oh, and yes, we have some gardening books around somewhere, long out of date but basic stuff doesn't change. The answer for our current problems are rarely easily searchable if it is in there at all. I get a lot of info. searching foreign resources online.
Dr, Hessayon. Vegetable growing which includes compost making, fertilising.
A=Z of Plants, just like looking at it.
RHS Pruning And training.
A few on fuchsia growing.
I don’t look up much on the net, they contradict each other too much.