Book suggestions for Christmas please.

[triplets]

Every year I buy my dh a new gardening book, he does have about 60! He has an allotment which is his pride and joy, plus a wildlife pond there he built. He has years of gardening experience so its hard buying him a book thats going to teach him something new. He likes projects for the garden too. Ant ideas please? Thanks.

Have you tried Christopher Lloyd? His books are for people who really love plants.

If you want a serious vegetable growing book, does he have 'Growing Green' by Jenny Hall & Iain Tollhurst and/or 'The New Organic Gardener' by Eliot Coleman? Both are really aimed at small scale commercial growers, but I think any really interested allotment gardener would get a lot from either of them.

Growing Green is actually a vegan-organic manual, but don't be put off by that. I'm not vegan (or even vegetarian) but there is vast amounts of info in there for anyone who doesn't have ready access to lots of animal manure, ie most people who don't have their own herd of cows!

Does he save his own seed? If not, what about Back Garden Seedsaving by Sue Stickland, a fun thing to do and obviously saves money to. If he already keeps his own seed, then one step further is 'Breed Your Own Vegetable Gardeners' by Carol Deppe.

If he's interested in growing less common crops, then Oriental Vegetables by Joy Larkcom is a beautiful book & loads of good ideas, or if you want even more exotic then Lost Crops of the Incas is out of print but available through Abebooks & has inspired a lot of gardeners to grow weird & wonderful stuff.

If you don't fancy any of them I am only a fraction of the way through my bookshelf

No, he doesn`t have either of those, will look at them, thank you:-)

Woops...........clicked to soon! Golly you know your stuff, love the sound of those books, I take it you are a keen gardener?

Obsessive, me . . . ?

I'd probably pick the New Organic Grower for an xmas gift. Its American, but it doesn't matter because its principles not particulars IYSWIM (ie how to design the best rotation, rather than what date to plant your cabbages).