Best gardening book for total novice with an established garden?

[Uncomplete]

Have recently bought a house which has a large, well planted garden.

However, I know nothing about gardening. Absolutely zilch. I can identify a daffodil and that's about it.

I had a lady round today, about something unrelated to the garden, but she was very knowledgable about the plants that I have and kindly spent a long time telling me what all the different plants are and even showed me how to prune some of them.

As much as I'd like her to be my live-in gardener it's not likely to happen but she has made me realise that I am going to need some help and fast! I have to say I haven't been too interested in the garden as there's so much that needs doing to the house but this lady has sparked an interest really and I'd love to implement some of the suggestions she gave me.

So...what I need, I think, is a very good book. Something that tells me what to prune, how to prune and when to do it. A book that tells me what are weeds and should be got rid of, when to plant new things, how to feed existing plants, when and how. I have some beautiful things in the garden - magnolia, hydrangea, honeysuckle to name just a few and I'm terrified I will kill them as I can't even keep a houseplant alive!

Just everything really!

Hit me with your suggestions :)

I say this through gritted teeth, because I dislike him, but Alan Titchmarsh's 'How to be a Gardener' series on DVD is a good introduction - and you can actually see him doing things, which is easier than reading descriptions in a book.

I find this guide useful to identifying weeds: www.gardenwithoutdoors.org.uk/?q=weed_guide

There are plenty of things on there that I don't consider weeds, or that are welcome in my garden, like bluebells, but it's useful to know what things are without having to wait until they flower if you've inherited a garden.

Websites are good too. If you Google something like 'what should I do in the garden this week', you'll get lots of tips about what you should be doing to keep on top of things.

Uncomplete I kill houseplants just by looking at them but seem to do ok with stuff outside. I find the internet one of the best resources - see a plant, identify it on t'internet and it will tell you all about it. I find 'How to ...' books too much at once. I need a little bit at a time.

What I do love are garden design books and books on colour. I'd say, just get stuck in, things like honeysuckle are really hard to kill :)

Also - just live with the garden for a year, you'll soon work out what is a weed and what isn't. A weed is any plant you don't want.

Go to a good bookshop. Browse the gardening books. Choose one that you like and that seems to cover what you want and what you have.

Monty Don's The Complete Gardener has a good 'holistic' approach and explains how and more importantly why you should do things in the garden. Good bedtime reading...

I'd second alan titchmarsh... I was a gardening novice and found his writing to be clear And easy to understand. The dvd mentioned above is also available as two books

Oh thank you everyone, some really good suggestions here :)

I got impatient last night and ordered 'gardening for dummies' I thought the title seemed quite apt! Will see what it's like when it arrives and in the meantime will seek out the Alan Titchmarsh DVD as I agree it will be easier to actually see what to do rather than just read it.

I've never had any interest in gardening, our old garden was literally all lawn and a hedge but I'm quite excited about our new one as it has plants and trees and everything

We still use the thirty year old version of this:

www.amazon.co.uk/New-Gardening-Year-Month-month/dp/0276421507/ref=dp_ob_image_bk

The how to be a gardener programmes are on you tube

Along with hundreds of episodes of gardeners world

Don't prune anything now, except shrubs that have just flowered, if you have any .

Deadhead any daffodils aftre they have flowered , so they don't make seeds

Soon you will have lots of stuff growing, so you need to identify what's a weed.

The Alan Titchmarsh books are indeed good, even though he is annoying - How to Be a Gardener and The Gardener's Year (I think). Cheap on Amazon or from charity shop!

Gardeners World magazine has helped me quite a lot. A lot of the stuff they do isn't my taste, but the articles are short and simple and cover a variety of topics. I don't watch GW on TV but I have learnt a lot from Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4. Bob Flowerdew is my fave.

You can get small RHS books called things like What Plant When and What Plant Where which are helpful too.

I like Laetitia Maklouf's book The Virgin Gardener. Less about dealing with what you've got and more about simple, creative, fun ideas to help you gain confidence!

This was my first garden book: you can still get it. there is a useful gardening calender for dummies inside.

www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Garden-Percy-Thrower/dp/0600348407/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430166325&sr=1-4&keywords=percy+thrower

this is good based on her newspaper column

www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Garden-Sackville-West-Vita/dp/B00474W5TY/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430166415&sr=1-7&keywords=vita+sackville+west+in+your+garden

the readers digest book is also good.

monty don the complete gardener is also good.

identifying weeds is hard. there is no really good weed book.