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Gardening book recommendations

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slimmy0 Sun 18-Jan-26 23:05:08

As I’m a beginner gardener, with some basic knowledge of plants and how to grow things, I still feel a bit unconfident about growing things. What I mean is wha types of flowers to plain in a particular soil, time of planting, conditions, if it’s trees or bushes, when and how to cut branches. I thought a good book might have most of some basic answers. Perhaps anyone can recommend a book with tips about soil, planting and replanting, fertilisers, etc.?

My mum is very knowledgeable and I always ask her for advice, but she’s in Ukraine, where I grew up, and the climate there and in the UK is different so the time of planting things into the ground can be different, so even she can’t give me a good advice sometimes regarding when I should start preparing my garden for summer.

So if you can recommend any manuals or some good fundamental gardening books, I’ll be very grateful!

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Graphite Sun 18-Jan-26 23:30:55

Books by Dr D.G. Hessayon were very popular. There are lots of different titles. I don’t know if they are still published to buy new but your library should have copies and they can be bought quite cheaply on used book sites.

Try the Complete Garden Expert, The Flower Expert and The Tree and Shrub Expert.

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merlotgran Mon 19-Jan-26 00:29:21

The Gardening Book by Monty Don should be helpful and any book that gives a month by month guide to gardening your plot.
Library books are great for inspiration as well.

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fancyflowers Mon 19-Jan-26 02:01:27

Books by Dr D.G. Hessayon. I don't know if you can still get them - try eBay. I found them invaluable.

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Whitewavemark2 Mon 19-Jan-26 07:04:09

RHS month by month gardening.

But do go on line as well, all the information is there.

The one I turn to was my grandfathers - published just after the First World War. It is falling to pieces. That is a week by week.

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Astitchintime Mon 19-Jan-26 07:11:41

A good place to start is to analyse your soil and the geographic position of your own garden - north facing, south facing, potential hotspots, permanent shade. Do all that before you start buying any plants, it will save you lots of money in the long run.

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Lollin Mon 19-Jan-26 07:42:13

Have you tried the library (their online and physical books)? If you find a really helpful one you can then buy it having tried it first. I have not found a particular one that fits all my needs but they do often have sections of relevant information that is useful in my garden.

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J52 Mon 19-Jan-26 07:45:44

Some time ago Alan Tichmarsh wrote a book for a BBC series, The Complete How To Be A Gardener.
I bought it for my DS when he got his first garden. ( He’s a very good veg grower on his allotment now)
You can get it second hand, cheaply on line or might come across it in a charity shop. Charity shops are a good source of gardening books.

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