Let your plants do the talking
MAKING A GARDEN
by Carol Klein (Mitchell Beazley £25 % £18.75) aFteR 35 years as a professional gardener, Carol Klein (right) has concluded that the secret to successful growing is to listen to your plants.
these days, she writes, when she buys a plant: ‘I imagine taking it home and thinking where it would take itself if it had feet.’
In her latest book, she suggests considering each part of your garden as though it were a natural habitat — so woodland plants thrive in shady areas of urban gardens, seashore plants do well in poor, unsheltered sites and perennials flourish in open, well-lit conditions.
Beautiful photographs offer plenty of inspiration and the book comes with the helpful extra of two silk ribbon markers. THE WINTER GARDEN
by Emma Hardy (Cico Books £14.99 % £12.74) wINteR may be the quietest time in the gardening year, but that doesn’t mean it should be the dullest. emma hardy’s delightful book is full of practical suggestions for winter interest in small spaces, indoors and out.
a living wreath of succulents would make a wonderful Christmas present and will continue to thrive all year round.
winter-flowering clematis scrambling up twigs of pussy willow, underplanted with fragrant sweet box would surely smell as good as it looks, while a container planted with winter herbs and white narcissus bulbs is an elegant ornament for a winter kitchen windowsill. THE BIG BOX FOR SMALL GARDENS: RHS SIMPLE STEPS TO SUCCESS
(DK £20) the perfect Christmas present for anyone with a small garden, this collection of four little books comes wittily packaged in a box in the shape of a garden shed, complete with lifelike images of pots, a watering-can and a friendly robin.
Inside, the clearly illustrated step - by- step books cover everything you need to know about making a small space flourish, from basic planting and maintenance to container gardening, vegetable growing (with a helpful rogues’ gallery of common weeds and pests, and how to tackle them) and an invaluable guide to that most perplexing of all garden activities: pruning.
365 DAYS OF COLOUR IN YOUR GARDEN
by Nick Bailey (Kyle Books £25 % £18.75)
theRe was a time when garden fashion tended towards the pale and interesting, with a myriad of shades of white and green, relieved only by gentle watercolour or pastel tones.
Soothing though such gardens can be, they may leave you longing for a jolt of vivid colour.
Nick Bailey’s brilliant book is guaranteed to satisfy such cravings, with suggestions for colourful plantings all year round.
Introductory chapters offer advice on how to blend colours to best effect, there are suggestions for seasonal planting, winter colour and plants to enliven difficult sites, plus a guide to the longestflowering plants, such as the ravishing Bengal Crimson rose that will flower all year round in the right conditions. RHS LESSONS FROM GREAT GARDENERS
by Matthew Biggs (Mitchell Beazley £14.99 % £11.24) matthew BIggS is a familiar voice from BBC Radio 4’s gardeners’ Question time. In his elegantly presented book, he introduces 40 of the most original and creative gardeners through history, and explores their influence on the way we garden today.
the range of his subjects is eclectic, from the humble administrator’s garden (now a UNeSCo world heritage site) created by 15th- century Chinese civil servant wang Xianchen in the garden city of Suzhou, to the great 17th- century French landscape gardener andre Le Notre, who created the gardens at Versailles, and Christopher Lloyd, whose vibrantly original planting made his garden at great Dixter in Sussex a lasting inspiration. FIRST LADIES OF GARDENING
by Heidi Howcroft (Frances Lincoln £20 % £17) heIDI howCRoFt’S book was originally intended as a celebration of 20th-century english gardens created by passionate amateurs. But as she and her photographer, marianne majerus, drew up their shortlist, they realised their favourites were predominantly created or maintained by women.
and so their book became a finely illustrated celebration of female gardeners whose influence on the way we garden now has been far-reaching.
Some, such as Vita Sackville-west and gertrude Jekyll, are famous; others, such as Beatrix havergal, founder of waterperry School of horticulture, are less familiar, but the principles they instilled can still be seen in the very best of contemporary gardening. THE PRIVATE GARDENS OF ENGLAND Edited by Tania Compton (Constable £75 % £56.25) Some 35 years ago, the garden designer alvilde Lees-milne warned that ‘many lovely gardens are shrinking and may well end up like the dodo’.
In fact, a golden age of gardenmaking was just beginning.
this lavishly illustrated book brings together personal accounts of gardens by the owners of some of the most beautiful treasures of modern english garden-making.
Carla Carlisle gives a sparkling account of her gardening journey, from the banks of the Yazoo River in the U.S. to wyken hall in Suffolk.
mary Keen describes her slow- blooming passion for her gloucestershire garden, and tom Stuart-Smith speaks for all passionate gardeners when he writes: ‘I almost don’t know where the garden ends and I begin.’