Gardening Books

Advantages: Lovely and clear and well written. Includes every part of life and home.
Disadvantages: Sadly no diagrams/photos

...about vacuuming the floors or how clean the windows look, the book goes further into your home. Helping you to organise areas in your life as well as your wardrobe. Covering household tasks like the laundry to the household bills and finances. It covers pests and diseases and stain removal. How to entertain for Christmas and parties and how to be prepared for emergencies. Sadly there are no diagrams to refer to but the book is well written and does ... Read review

Advantages: Accurate Descriptions and Illustrations
Disadvantages: Small text

...and Europe What is it? Collins Tree Guide is a book that describes over 1500 trees. This is the largest single-volume ever included in a field guide. The book has a black cover with white and gold text with a solitary tree illustrated in the centre of the cover. The book is stunning and feels like a prized possession in your hand. The cover is very well designed but we all know the saying, never judge a book by the cover! Inside the book ...
...I have never found a Collins Guide that has poor illustrations and this book is no exception. The Illustrations are very accurate and every species is portrayed in fine detail. Seasonal changes are considered along with flowers and fruit. (N.B. in botanical terms fruit refers to the seed). Summary I think it fair to say that this is a very comprehensive guide to the trees of Britain and Ireland. The author acknowledges that not all trees could ... Read review

Advantages: An inspiring guide to organic kitchen gardening in small spaces
Disadvantages: The author's garden is a hard act to follow

The Edible Container Garden is written for people who want to grow their own healthy fruit and vegetables, but only have a small space in which to do so. It's written by a man, Michael Guerra, who has done just that - and you can see exactly how because the author has included photos of his suburban garden, a plan and a description of how the garden evolved over the first few years. This is a book about organic gardening. Chapter 1 takes you through ...
...making a proper design for the garden. Next there is everything you need to know about soil and compost, water and containers. Hard landscaping is also covered and there's advice on keeping your garden as low maintenance as possible. Chapter 2 is more eclectic, with sections on tools, pruning and supporting structures, but also on techniques like catch cropping and rotation. Various types of garden are examined (roofs, windowsills, patios, balconies) ... Read review

Advantages: Practical advice
Disadvantages: Too basic for experienced allotmenteers

...Perrone has been recording the progress of her allotment for several years on her Horticultural blog, and it's nice to finally see her expertise combined into one volume in her book, the Allotment Keeper's handbook. This is a practical book, containing all the information you need to start cultivating your own allotment and growing your own healthy fruit and vegetables. Find out how to test your soil, clear weeds and understand crop rotation. There's ... Read review

Advantages: A mine of gardening information.
Disadvantages: Expensive at full price.

...of gardening information. The RHS are famous for their outstanding books and this one justifies their reputation. I found it to be highly readable and includes good advice on any gardening related topic you could think of. Although the cover price is a hefty £29.95, the book can be obtained for as little as £10 if you know where to look. (I bought it from a "Books by Weight" shop in Llandudno and have used it almost endlessly). The ISBN is 1-85833-579-5. ... Read review