New crop of garden reads

What To Sow, Grow And Do by Benjamin Pope (Frances Lincoln, £22)

Leading you through the gardening year season by season and sharing ideas for a flourishing outdoor space, this elegantly stylish book is a treat for novices and experienced gardeners alike.

Benjamin explains which plants are in bloom when and how to care for them as well as offering advice on jobs to do in each season. You can also learn about preserving flowers, brewing weeds, taking cuttings and encouraging insects, and there’s a handy glossary of technical terms.

Miss Willmott’s Ghosts by Sandra Lawrence (Blink Publishing, £25)

Ellen Willmott was a pioneering Edwardian gardener and plant expert, widely celebrated as a genius. But she developed a reputation for being cantankerous and embittered, best known for spitefully seeding other gardens with an invasive sea holly.

However, Sandra Lawrence accessed a trove of previously unseen papers and here reveals the charismatic woman behind the controversial image.

It’s a fascinating work of excavation and it’s also grimly poignant to see how one woman’s reputation could be dragged through the mud and her legacy destroyed, with neither her beautiful gardens nor her once-famous prizewinning creations preserved.

How To Grow A Garden by Ellen Mary (Greenfinch, £16.99)

Go back to basics with Ellen Mary, who shares her tips for a thriving veganic garden. She helps you to make the best of your gardening space, whether it’s a container, a balcony, a border, or a patch of land, and explains how to understand your soil and prepare a planting plan.

There’s advice on what to plant where, on watering and tools to use, on weeds and how to feed, so it’s a comprehensive guide for budding gardeners. Charlotte Heathcote