Last week I shared my favourite cookery book list so this week it’s time to focus on the gardening books in my collection. I have a slight obsession with beautiful gardening books, I love looking at photographs of allotments and crops, so to me a good book has to have lots of photographs as well as helpful information too. When I first got my allotment I treated myself to ‘The Allotment Source Book’ by Caroline Foley, it’s jammed packed with everything you ever need to know about owning an allotment and it’s the perfect starter book, it’s the one book I will always go to first if I’m stuck. The rest of the books have been collected over the past year but I just couldn’t resist them, you can never have too many books after all!
- The Observer’s book of Vegetables
- The Observers book of Garden Flowers
- Gardening and Outdoor Work – Household Reference Library
- River Cottage Handbook Fruit
- River Cottage Handbook Veg Patch
- River Cottage Handbook Herbs
- The Gardeners Enquire Within
- Moleskine Passions Garden Journal
- Free-range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom (reviewed in a previous blog post!)
- Abundance by Alys Fowler
- The Thrifty Gardener by Alys Fowler
- The Edible Garden by Alys Fowler
- The Allotment Source Book by Caroline Foley
- Gardening at Longmeadow by Monty Don
- Fork to Fork by Monty Don
There are two gardening books in particular which I hold very dear to my heart, they both once belonged to my Granddad and I love the fact that he once flicked through the same pages looking for help or inspiration in his garden. I do find however, that old books still prove to be very useful today. It’s worth looking through your local charity shops for vintage books, not only for the beautiful drawings and photos but for the invaluable information inside too. Plus, you always get some bargains too!
3 thoughts on “My Gardening Book List”
This looks a lovely collection of books. Which is the book open, with the onions pictured on the harvest page? Please.
The pictures from your walk with your Mom and the blue bells are so wonderful as are the hedgerows along the lonely country lane. From your collection of books I obtained a copy of the Allotment Source Book but it raised an interesting question. Wonder if you might shed light on the use of the expression ” In season ” listed for every month of the year. All items listed thereunder are for Canada mainly late spring and summer items – never ” In season ” during the bitter cold months of January and February – for an example. Planting nearly done now in May and in your honour I planted lavenders [ fully grown from nursery in pots ] and leaks by the method proposed by your Dad in a raised bed. Regards from Canada – Les
Orderedthe allotment source book today thanks for the tip and while on amazon saw another book that looked interesting called the perfect plot looking forward to them arriving now happy gardening katie