Help me spend £100 on gardening books!

[HelloCat]

I've won £100 worth of National Book Tokens!

I've been gardening for most of my life and have taken various courses and so on, and worked a little as a gardener - I do know the basics pretty well.

We've just moved into a house with a small neglected front and back garden and have also taken on an allotment nearby (we've had an allotment for the last 20 years but had to give up the last one due to the move). Our daughters are now older teenagers so we can finally plan a garden that doesn't need room for a trampoline!

I'd love a mixture of information-dense books and more inspirational stuff (wondering about Derek Jarman's Modern Nature?).

What books have really inspired you? I'm open to all suggestions, but we're especially looking for information on:

Growing fruit trees
Garden design
Cut flowers

DW is also getting very into composting, especially vermiculture. If anyone has any suggestions for fairly technical books on this (she's a scientist, and will run a mile from anything woolly here), that would be brilliant.

We'd also really love books written by women... our new allotment is on a very older male dominated site, we are two middle aged women -
would be nice to have a counter to the endless 'advice' and see us reflected a bit more.

Thank you all in advance!

Adam Frost's how to create your garden is really good. I like that he includes some of his own plans and even teaches you how to measure your garden to create your own detailed plan.

The RHS Complete Gardener's manual is hefty. Lots of information and good to dip in and out of.

Alys Fowler sounds like a good fit.

I've got an older version of this one - RHS Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers

and it has every plant/flower listed about what they are and where they like etc and has been invaluable over the years when planning different areas.

I think we need photos on the progress of the two gardens too @HelloCat

I like the Sarah raven year full of flowers, it’s split by month with what to do each month and a focus on best varieties for cutting. If you are on instagram, Zoe Woodward gardening is excellent for cut flower grow alongs.

Jekka’s Complete Herb Book by Jekka McVicar is fascinating and inspirational.
Penelope Lively’s Life in the Garden is part memoir and part celebration of gardening. And it’s delightful.
I will always have room for any gardening book by Monty Don.

It's only available second hand, but Gardening in the Shade by Margery Fish is a wonderful little book, and not expensive - so useful.

Planning a Garden by David Stevens. It's a proper nuts-and-bolts garden design book, not a fluffy one.

Any book by Charles Dowding for your allotment, and you'll soon be doling out your own advice. They really are excellent, informative and bullshit free. He debunks a lot of gardening myths too such as how stringent you need to be on crop rotation and what you can and can't put into compost. He makes most of his own compost so is a bit of an expert on the matter.

I also really enjoyed Homegrown Revolution by James Wong - lots of unusual edibles that are often already grown here as ornamentals, and really inspired me for my new fruit bush area

Cut flowers wise, I did enjoy Floret Farms Cut Flower Garden and A Year in Flowers (though they're American with American seasons and varieties) but what really inspired me was In Bloom by Clare Nolan. She uses the most gorgeous colour combinations and specifies all the varieties she uses in her bouquets.

I bought the RHS What Plant Where Encyclopaedia today. It's huge but very useful. There's only a small entry per plant so doesn't include caring tips you can find in other books but it has extensive lists for particular areas, e.g deep shade, sun baked areas, windswept areas.

What books did you choose @HelloCat?