THE GC GARDENING BOOK CLUB

A thread to post recommendations of your favorite gardening books
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My garden bible

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Christopher Lloyd's books are hard to beat....The Adventurous Gardener and the Well Tempered Garden, for example.
I like to browse book shops for old garden books......the information and advice in them is often scary and contrary to that nowadays esp about treating pests and diseases but very enjoyable reading . I wonder if we will look back in 20 years' time on today's books in the same way

 

I can't say I've read many.. yet Perhaps some over winter reading with the dark nights and not being able to get out in the garden. Monty Don's new book, Down to Earth is pretty impressive. I got it half price from an Amazon offer, the last few chapters are split into jobs per month which is handy for me as I often conveniently forget

 

Thats when i really get stuck into reading them - i find it's relaxing just browsing picking over ideas that maybe would work in our own gardens- It's easier to process these ideas then, because as you say, Mark, we cant get out int the garden then ....so it gives us time to draw up plans assess properly whether its right for you. Sometimes i have found that in my enthusiasm which has sometimes been fired by someone else's advice it's not always been the right decision for my garden- particularly when i first started gardening and it's been from some strongly opinionated
gardeners who must be obeyed ...even if where your gardening won't give the same desirable outcome
I have weeded those SOG's as we call them out now and have lovely supportive folk who like my garden allow me to grow and evolve with it at my own pace
for your input on MD's book one for me to have a peek browse tru online - and drop a few subtle hints for the
25th

 

Another of my stalwarts on me bookshelf


sign of a good book tatty edges ​

 

I agree about Christopher Lloyd - he wrote like an angel - and another gardener who I think writes very well is Alys Fowler. I always enjoy her Saturday column in the Guardian.

My main recommendation though is to try checking your local public library, if you haven't already. They need to be kept encouraged, if we're not to lose them, and it's a good way to try new writers without having to buy. My local has quite a good collection of gardening books I have discovered, and that's encouraging me to read ones which I probably wouldn't have considered buying, but am enjoying all the same.

Recently I borrowed and liked Carol Klein's 'Making A Garden: successful gardening by Nature's rules'. Lovely photos, some rather purple prose, but she is a great plantswoman with her heart in the right place. One idea that I think will stick with me was along the lines of: when you acquire a plant, imagine placing it in its pot in the middle of your garden. Then imagine it has feet. Where would it walk to, given the choice? That is where you need to plant it.

I'm now on Ken Thompson's "Sceptical Gardener". Not come across him before - he's a plant ecologist from Sheffield University and this is a collection of his columns from The Telegraph. His speciality is explaining new scientific research as it affects gardeners and I can recommend this one too. He writes clearly and amusingly and I had not understood before, for instance, that those annoying new scientific names/ reclassifications of old plants are down to the fact that scientists can now examine their DNA as well as their appearance. He's also good on practical advice and debunking false science!

 

Excellent points @Clare G

 

Stocking the Wild Asparagus.

 

@ARMANDII LUV Geoff H ...for posting these LOL I don't have to post them now

 

R Mandy PS: I don't have the Veggie ones .........so I couldn't have posted them ....so an extra

 

LOVE this book
Sooo useful for those who love or have to design their gardening in containers ​