Dummies Guide to Gardening

[NoFrump]

In the near future I will become responsible for establishing a large garden. So far I haven't done any gardening whatsoever!

I need some kind of basic book (maybe 2-3 if really necessary) with a good grounding in everything I need to know. Hopefully illustrated.

What basic gardening book do you recommend? Or keep going back to for hints/advice?

Thanks for your suggestions!

Ooh yes me too please.

Alan Titchmarsh How to be a Gardener is very straightforward and friendly. It is now 9 years old, so it would not be up-to-the minute with fashionable plants and techniques, but it would be a good beginner's book IMO.

percy thrower

Alan Titchmarsh's books are very accessible, like Traviata said.

Thanks. It seems Percy Thrower is out of print but the Alan Titchmarsh book looks good.

There's a series by D G Hessayon which are very hard to beat.

Yes the series meditrina mentions is good. I have the Flower Expert and the Tree and Shrub expert.

Also RHS Gardening Through the Year lists jobs month by month (my copy is ancient and I have a feeling the newer version might be called Gardening Month by Month or similar) - that's my most used gardening book.

For garden design I really like John Brookes.

I like all of Geoff Hamilton's books, they have good simple 'how to do' illustrations and pictures in as well.

An old book you can still get at Amazon is Shirley Conran's 'Magic Garden'. She wrote that for people with no gardening knowledge at all, and it's chock full of sound advice. One thing I remember from it was the 80/20 advice, if you have 80% of your garden based on things that look good all year round ( evergreens, box, structures etc) it will look good 80% of the time. The other 20% you can play with and add to seasonally or let go without detriment to the overall look if you are short of time. It's a kind of 'superwoman' guide to gardening!