As autumn draws in and the garden’s demanding tasks – raking leaves, trimming hedges, mulching borders – are completed, it’s time to relax with a good book.
An autumn gardening title can provide fresh inspiration for the seasons ahead.
From innovative planting combinations and delicious recipes using home-grown produce to creating a vintage paradise, there is a book for every interest.
These titles stand out as the pick of the crop for browsing this autumn and beyond.
1. The Essential Guide To Bulbs by Jenny Rose Carey
(Timber Press, £25, out Oct 16)
It’s not too late to plant your bulbs this autumn for a riot of colour in spring, but if you’re not sure what you want or how to do it, this book is for you.
A beautifully photographed, comprehensive resource, longtime gardener Carey offers deep knowledge and encouragement to choose, plant and care for your bulbs.
She also offers ideas way beyond daffodils and tulips, demonstrating how bulbs can provide three-season colour economically, how they can be used in pots and where they can be changed out to bring seasonal drama.
2. Down To Earth by Monty Don
(DK, £16.99, out Nov 16)
A new edition of this classic favourite from the Gardeners’ World presenter, with a new foreword from the man himself, offers a wealth of advice taken from 50 years of gardening, including his thoughts and garden ideas around nature, seasons, colour, design, pests, flowering shrubs, containers and much more.
You can follow his month-by-month jobs and learn a lot about his garden, some of which isn’t captured by the TV cameras.
3. What Grows Together: Fail-Safe Plant Combinations for Every Garden by Jamie Butterworth
(DK, £22)
He’s been described as Monty Don’s protégé, helped the TV gardener create his garden for dogs at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show and has also found time to squeeze in a book about plant combinations.
It’s inspired by Jamie Oliver’s ‘5 Ingredients’ and features plant combinations throughout the year of three plants, ideal for those who don’t know how to combine plants, or even for people who get overwhelmed in the garden centre and come home with fantastic plants, but in the wrong combinations.
4. Simply Raymond Kitchen Garden by Raymond Blanc
(Headline Home, £26)
Anyone who has ever been lucky enough to visit Raymond Blanc’s hotel and restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside, and tour his garden, will recognise how passionate he is about seasonal ingredients grown by his own team of gardeners and served in his restaurant.
This celebratory tome invites you to enjoy his expansive kitchen garden from the comfort of your own home, with highlights including the potager, the medicinal herb garden, mushroom garden, vast orchard and beehives which provide honey for the hotel guests.
And of course there are his mouthwatering recipes, from an easy Garden Veg Omelette to Beetroot-Marinated Salmon Tartare, but also wise words about sowing and planting, prepping and cooking.
5. The Secret Gardeners by Victoria Summerley & Hugo Rittson Thomas
(Frances Lincoln, £35)
If you’re one of those gardeners who likes to look through the keyhole at the gardens of the rich and famous, this one should give you a good peek.
Featuring the private gardens of more than 25 well-known figures from British culture – actors, artists, writers and designers – the updated edition includes four new gardens including those of Dame Prue Leith, Jeremy Clarkson and Dominic West, and each chapter looks at what gardening means to them and how their garden reflects their personality.
6. The Vintage Farmhouse Garden by Rhonda Kaiser
(Cool Springs Press, £22)
Vintage is very much in, from fashion to furniture, but it’s also making its way into the garden as people scour reclamation yards and charity shops for ephemera to make their garden a little bit unique and retro chic.
Garden and design influencer Kaiser goes one further, offing this guide to creating a vintage-inspired farmhouse garden – although she says it could suit any outdoor space.
She offers ideas including a stunning tablescape and a welcoming front porch, as well as how to display your collection of seasonal plants and pollinator-friendly choices and make the most of vintage accessories.
7. Lasting Impressions: A Guide To Dried Floral Design by Tennessee Jane
(Artisan, £25)
If you don’t have a garden, or you have cut a lot of flowers over the summer for drying, this step-by-step guide to the hottest trends in floral design may give you some great ideas on how to create modern arrangements using dried florals and other materials.
Out go the shabby chic wreaths and bouquets, in come minimalist and striking dried designs as floral designer Tennessee Jane offers easy-to-follow guides to more than 50 attractive and affordable displays to suit every budget and style.
Each chapter evokes a mood, from Calm – featuring the natural colours of dried grasses – to Bold, which experiments with funky forms and vibrant spray-painted pieces.
