“The Bubbles in the Glass of Champagne” – A Year Full of Pots

Sarah Raven has given us another wonderful book, A Year Full of Pots, the third in this series and a perfect compliment and companion to its forerunners, A Year Full of Flowers and A Year Full of Veg. I'm afraid Sarah Raven is quickly exhausting my store of words of praise for her books. Her …

Grounded in the Garden

This book is a guide, a book of thoughts and considerations, a book of advice and beauty which will lead you through the many considerations one encounters in the creation of the garden. Yet, it goes far beyond being a simple guide as it embraces a life philosophy, is infused with a deep love of …

The Essential Tree Selection Guide

This is a monumental work in breadth, approach and in relevance to today's thinking on environment preservation and general conservation of nature. It is a completely new and pertinent way to select trees for our use and pleasure and has unquestionably set the standard for any future such publications. Some books merit, even demand, a …

The Potato Book

This is one of those little gems of a book that you would be thrilled to come across in a second-hand bookshop. It is both quaint and perfectly relevant to today's gardener. It was first published in Belfast in 1917 as an encouragement to people to grow their own food yet its contents are equally …

The English Gardener’s Garden

After a succinct and informative preface from Tony Musgrave, outlining the history and development of English garden, Tania Compton introduces 63 English Garden in what I might describe as an "improved" glossy magazine style presentation. I describe it as "magazine style" because each entry is short, of necessity, given the ambition of the project This …

Drawn From Nature, The Flowering of Irish Botanical Art – Patricia Butler

Patricia Butler was guest curator of “Drawn from Nature, Irish Botanical Art” at the National Gallery of Ireland in August 2020 and this book was inspired by and drawn from that exhibition and could be considered the first real attempt to chart the history of Irish botanical illustration from around 1730 to the present day …

The Beauty of the Flower

This book gives an excellent overview of the development and history of botanical art over the centuries from the early days of woodcut printing, to the development of lithographic printing in the 19th century with colour added by hand afterwards, on to tales of plant collectors and botanical artists working in the field, through the …

A Year Full of Veg

And much more! If you are going to seek out advice on gardening it makes perfect sense to take it from a person who is actively gardening day in and day out through the year. Forget about the glossy magazine advice columns, more pretty photographs than solid advice, and seek out a constant gardener such …

Making Tough Choices

The gardening beginner must find it disappointing and discouraging when a plant dies and I wonder if it is something which might put one off gardening afterwards. Nothing succeeds like success while failure is disheartening. For the more experienced gardener a certain level of failure is acceptable; indeed, taking a chance with a plant with …

To Walk in Many Gardens

We can't be everywhere but at times we can be taken there while seated in the comfort of our armchairs. These last weeks I have dawdled and drooled over Clive Nicholls' book on English gardens - Brilliant English Gardens - as prolonged a browsing of a book as I've had in ages, a glass of …