what gardening book for an absolute beginner?

[mrsbaldwin]

I've never really done any gardening.

In the past I've:
avoided having one
lived in a block with a communal garden maintained by someone else
hired someone to come round and do mine once a fortnight

However, this year I seem to have crossed the green line a bit, planting some seeds with my DS, 3.

So I was thinking 'hmmm, maybe I could do this a bit'.

My question: if I was going to buy a book (or even DVD set or something) for absolute beginners, what should I get? Needs to have nice photos and simple explanations for gardening thickos.

TIA.

This is my personal favourite basic guide www.amazon.co.uk/RHS-How-Garden-Practical-Introduction/dp/1405328525/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336137595&sr=1-7

Lots of good plants for places advice, nice pictures and info.

Alan Tichmarsh seems to do some good basic guides and I've also got some of the Hessayon gardening expert books like 'Easy Care Gardening Expert' which has lots of info but not many pictures www.amazon.co.uk/The-Easycare-Gardening-Expert-books/dp/0903505444/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1336137745&sr=1-1-catcorr

I have got amongst others an Alan Titchmarsh veggie garden one which is really basic.

Have a look on the bottom shelf of the book section in your local charity shop too - there are always loads of them there to have a mooch through.

My DM bought me How to be a gardener when I got my first garden. It explains everything well without being patronising, useful stuff like how and when to prune, how to grow things from seed etc. I think there's a DVD too.

Thank you so much everyone.

I just went on to Amazon and bought RHS How To and Alan Titchmarsh as suggested.

That's really great, looking forward to reading them.