Manual of Practical Gardening by Daniel BunceAdapted to the climate of Van Dieman’s Land:
Containing Plain and Familiar Directions for the Management of the Kitchen, Fruit, and Flower Garden, Nursery, Green-House, and Forcing Department.
For every month of the year.
By Daniel Bunce

This fascinating facsimile of the original book written by Daniel Bunce in 1838 looks at gardening month by month in the new colony. Daniel Bunce arrived in Hobart in 1833 after establishing his own nursery he published his ‘Practical Gardening’ month by month, starting with July. When it was finished, all the monthly bulletins were bound together and sold to the general public. In 1857 Bunce was appointed Curator of the Geelong Botanic Gardens. This facsimile has been published by The Friends of the Geelong Botanic Gardens and copies can be obtained by emailing The Friends at  [email protected]

So I looked to see what I should be doing this month and found that I should be sowing spinach and parsnip seed, planting out cabbage and cauliflower seedlings, blanching endive and manuring artichoke plants. All still absolutely right and relevant today, nearly 175 years  later. The pages are full of gardening wisdom, such as this last comment for July ‘Every part of the garden should now be kept very clean (of weeds), as if the seeds are suffered to grow they will get ahead and prove troublesome all the following season.’