There’s a plethora of new gardening books out this spring, providing inspiration on everything from design and hard landscaping to practical planting advice for both budding and experienced gardeners.
TV garden gurus Alan Titchmarsh, Toby Buckland and Joe Swift all have new books coming out, while the famous Dr D.G. Hessayon, author of the popular Expert series, is spreading the ‘green’ word.
If you’re looking for Mother’s Day or Easter gifts and beyond, here are a selection of books providing inspiration and offering advice to both budding and experienced gardeners:
1,000 Garden Ideas, by Stafford Cliff: This is the book for anyone who has trouble visualising ideas and needs some pictures for inspiration. Each category, ranging from tiles, paths and paving, to garden benches, pots, gates, edging and topiary, is illustrated with masses of small photographs to show what effect can be achieved by using particular materials and styles, from modern to traditional. Author and designer Stafford Cliff, who has visited thousands of gardens on his travels, has recorded the cleverest solutions. (Quadrille, Apr 6, £14.99)
RHS Wildlife Garden, by Martyn Cox: Instead of an Easter egg for the kids, splash out on this gem of a book to encourage your children to get into the garden and explore, as well as do their bit for the environment. There are many fun projects including making a stag beetle bucket, growing sunflowers, keeping a nature diary and making a bird house from a flowerpot. The book is full of child-friendly pictures of how to go about the tasks and features simple information about all manner of wildlife and its importance, from frogs and toads to hedgehogs, birds and bugs. (Dorling Kindersley, £9.99)
How To Make Your Garden Grow, by Toby Buckland: This book for beginners, brought to us by the new presenter of BBC Gardeners’ World, focuses largely on specific plants which are easy to grow and can make a real impact, including allium, lavender, lilies and other bulbs, as well as cottage garden favourites such as roses, delphiniums and hollyhocks. This is a book to get you started, with basic advice on the tools you need and how to enrich your soil, as well as seed-sowing, watering and looking for pests. (Mitchell Beazley, Apr 6, £12.99)
The Green Garden Expert, by Dr D.G. Hessayon: Dr Hessayon has had a massive influence on gardening in the last 50 years and now a new version of his original Garden Expert rings the changes as it’s written with the environment in mind. It shows how to care for wildlife, the environment and your own well-being, whether you decide upon a totally organic approach or prefer to take a few steps along the eco-friendly road. (Expert Books, £7.99)
The Book Of Weeds, by Ken Thompson: Anyone who despairs of all those plant invaders who pop up just where you don’t want them should bag a copy of this little gem, which features witty, down-to-earth advice on how to stop them taking over your garden. A ‘rogue’s gallery’ will help you identify whether the weeds you have are just annual or if they are hardened perennials such as the dreaded bindweed and ground elder and how to best eradicate them. (Dorling Kindersley, Apr 1, £13)
