"Growing cranberries at home"
They are known to have been part of Thanksgiving festivals in the early seventeenth century and later bacame a traditional accompaniment to turkey and other poultry dishes. Cranberries are used in many types of recipes; sauces, juices, fruit pies and puddings. They have been proven to have many healing qualities including problems with urinary tract and kidneys. Growing: Buy your plants from a reputable nursery or garden centre. Thompson and Morgan in the UK deliver to UK addresses -
And in the US, Amazon is a good place to start...
Prepare the site: Cranberries are a ground-cover plant and will happily cover a fairly large area in 2-3 years. The plants produce flowers and fruit after three years. When planting young plants, allow space for them to spread. The plant sends out runners, a bit like strawberries, and each on of these will produce an upright plant that eventually produces fruit. They like an acid soil and will benefit from being close to water, but the ground should never be water-logged. They also prefer a sandy soil - add a layer of sand to the bed every couple of years in the spring. This also helps stop weeds germinating. Grow on an open site so pollination is easier. If you want to grow just one plant, allow a 2ft. by 2ft. growing area. Otherwise prepare a bed and expect about 1lb of fruit per square foot of land covered. They can be grown indoors but they tend not to produce fruit because the plants need sunlight to develop. 
Plant in autumn or spring. Watch out for frosts... sprinkle plants and soil with water as soon as possible after a frost, or the plants will be damaged, and the harvest will suffer. As with many perennial plants, once the initial work is done, they will pretty much look after themselves. Keep an eye on them for any viruses or insect attacks. Protect the low growing plants from the cold by covering with plastic and mulching but watch out for garden pests... mice love to nest under your carefully applied layer of mulch. - but mice are a pest in the garden and will devour all your fruit before you've even realised they've developed... When your bed has been producing for three years, cut away the old shoots, tidy runners and generally straighten up the bed. You will get a larger crop from your plants if they have space to grow and develop. Harvesting: Pick by hand when red, from September to October depending on your climate. Pick them before any hint of a frost.
 Happy Gardening! Grow Your Own Groceries: Producing your own food is not only rewarding but - in times of economic and environmental changes - increasingly a must! Nature provides everything the human body requires to thrive, and cultivating some of those natural products in your own back garden will not only produce the best food on the planet for you and your loved ones, it is also economical, environmentally friendly and more fun than shopping.
 Gardening is more than a hobby; it's a way of life. Even without a garden, many plants can be grown in containers, on a balcony, and indoors. Order it now direct from the publisher... Grow Your Own Groceries Herb Gardening: Herbs are becoming recognised more and more as superfoods, as if we didn't know that really! 'Herb Gardening' has been beautifully put together by the publisher (Crowood Press) into a well presented book with full colour photos.  Along with growing instructions for forty different herbs, there are lots of great ideas, including culinary delights and medicinal alternatives. You'll also find gardening advice as well as some ideas on planning a herb garden. Order it now direct from the
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Grow Your Own Pharmacy: If, like me, you want to be able to eat the best food on the planet, grow your own!  • Clear instructions on planning, planting, growing and harvesting the fruits, vegetables and herbs required for a healthy vitamin intake. • Recipes and menus to help incorporate the fruit and vegetables into your daily diet. Granny's Book Of Good Old Fashioned Common Sense is packed full of great ideas and tips. Granny brings traditional home-making up to date with cooking, gardening, needlecrafts and even games to play with the kids...Click on the link below to order your copy.  Cooking doesn’t have to be a chore and preparing nourishing home cooked meals for the family will certainly keep them away from the goodie shelf. Gardening encourages physical exercise and a good healthy dollop of fresh air. And you can get the kids involved too. Before the days of computer games and electronic pets, children used to have fun without rummaging about in the fridge every five minutes. Enjoy a few rainy-day games and crafts of yesteryear with today’s kids. They’ll love it and so will you!
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