LOSE YOURSELF IN A GLORIOUS GARDEN
THE FIVE MINUTE GARDEN by Laetitia Maklouf (National Trust €13.49)
DO YOU feel ‘horticulturally overwhelmed’? This book shows how, by squeezing just a few minutes of gardening into a busy day, you can tame your plot — and find your time there enjoyable, rather than a chore. Written in a sweetly breezy style, this is the guide to help you stop stressing about your garden.
DIARY OF A MODERN COUNTRY GARDENER by Tamsin Westhorpe
(Orphans €25) THIS enjoyably upbeat diary, by a journalist who also runs a well-known Herefordshire garden, mixes sound practical advice with wry observations. Despite our weather, she concludes, being a professional gardener is ‘a wonderful, healthy and rewarding occupation’.
WILD YOUR GARDEN by The Butterfly Brothers
(Dorling Kindersley, €21) CAN an ordinary garden really be turned into a nature sanctuary? Brothers Jim and Joel Ashton, aka The Butterfly Brothers, show how small changes like a ‘habitat heap’ log pile, choosing nectarrich plants and a tiny pond can make a huge difference.
Passionate but unpreachy, this is an essential manual for creating a wildlifefriendly garden.
AN IRISH NATURE YEAR by Jane Powers (Harper Collins, €20.30)
CALL it a daily meditation on the world around us for nature-lovers and nature newbies alike, An Irish Nature Year explores the small mysteries of our seasons as they unfold. Who’s cutting perfect circles in your roses? Which birds wear feathery trousers? And what, exactly, i s an amethyst deceiver?
I ATE SUNSHINE FOR BREAKFAST by Michael Holland and Philip Giordano (Flying Eye €20.25)
WRITTEN for children, this ‘celebration of plants’ will appeal to many adults, too.
Mixing practical projects, experiments and a hefty dollop of fun facts, it shows how inextricably our lives are linked to plants. After all, ‘without them, no other living thing would survive’.
Beautifully illustrated, this deserves to become a children’s classic.
ACCORDING to the author, a modern cottage garden should combine the best elements of a romantic oldfashioned plot with the principles of the New Perennial style, which uses long-lasting flowers and grasses to give colour and structure right through winter. An inspiring and imaginative guide.
HYDRANGEAS by Naomi Slade (Pavilion €30.90)
HYDRANGEAS, long considered rather dowdy and boring, have recently been undergoing a renaissance. Florists adore them and there are few flowers that age so beautifully. With the new, more compact varieties and a subtler range of colours, this exuberant book showcases their beauty and demonstrates why they are ripe for rediscovery.
GREEN by Ula Maria (Mitchell Beazley €24)
CAN a really small space ever be turned into a beautiful garden? Fashionable garden designer Ula Maria shows how even the tiniest balcony or courtyard can become something special. Featuring numerous case histories and practical advice on storage, paving, f urniture and lighting, this is an excellent reference source for anyone with l i mited space and big dreams.
MY GARDEN WORLD by Monty Don (Two Roads €23.99)
ALONG with the garden so familiar to Gardeners’ World viewers, Monty Don also owns a small farm in Wales. This book is a meditation on the natural world around him, how to appreciate it and how to protect it. Wildlife, he says, isn’t just found in exotic places: ‘It’s right here in our own backyards.’
SISSINGHURST: THE DREAM GARDEN by Tim Richardson (Frances Lincoln €37.10)
ONE of the world’s most f a mous and a d mir e d gardens, Sissinghurst has a fascinating history. This lavi shly photographed and well-written book traces the making of the garden from the 1 930s onwards and gives a tour of its many different areas, including the White Garden.