What's your favourite gardening book?

[PritiPatelsMaker]

I've got an RHS one that takes you through each month and I've gone to it time and time again.

This year the garden got fairly neglected due to some pretty serious health issues but things are looking brighter now and I might treat myself to a new book to read this winter.

So what's your favourite?

Is it general gardening you are after or a more specific topic eg, fruit, veg, flowers, no dig etc?

I love gardening books!

Monty Don’s The Weekend Gardener had been my bible for many years.

by. Something broad possibly?

Cat. That sounds good, I'll have a look thank you

I've just ordered the Weekend Gardener for £3.66. Just hoping the pages aren't stuck together with jam when it gets here

@PritiPatelsMaker I hope you love it as much as I do and the pages are not stuck together with jam!

Thank you @CatChant

As a very general guide I love Gardening in Your Nightie by Helen Yemm, it has lots of good advice and is a fun read too.

My current favourite is a bit niche...

Literati Style Penjing - Chinese Bonsai Masterworks by Zhao Qingquan.

That's a lovely book by Helen Yemm, @TonTonMacoute it's one of my faves. And I don't know about you, but I often nip out into the garden early on a mild sunny Spring morning and potter around with a cuppa in hand in my PJs 😊

my other fave book to leaf through in the winter to plan for the year ahead is Monty Don "The Complete Gardener".

My RHS book is a go-to - it's more of a reference manual with all the Latin names in and lists all different varieties of plants and shrubs.

Did Helen Yemm write a different book called Gardening in My Nightie? I've just checked the cover of mine and it's Gardening in Pyjamas.

If so, I'll buy it online as I love her writing style. I like her column in the Telegraph.

@daisychain01

I'm pretty sure it's the same book, it could be the publisher thought men would be put off?

I have many, many gardening books, and refer to them all regularly, but that is the one I sit down and read through every year, and then I feel ready for the coming year!

Just checked and mine is definitely called ...in my Nightie.

This is the contents page, if that's any help.

Thank you @TonTonMacoute I wonder if mine was the sequel to yours

I think I'll treat myself. HY is quite a character!

Sorry just seen your previous post that it might be the same book with different title. I will use the contents page you've kindly posted as you may be onto something there, that the title was the Publisher's idea

Not sure if you’ve got a RHS garden near you but I use the library of the one near me. The staff are really knowledgeable and advise on books, I usually buy them after a loan or two.

@daisychain01

Mystery solved! Looks like it's me who will have to update my library!

Nightie/Pyjamas conundrum

That's fascinating, @TonTonMacoute and those dates are significant. 2013, the year Pyjamas was published, was the year we moved to where we now live.

I wrote to Helen as I loved her witty observational humour and gardening knowledge in her Thorny Problems column, to ask if she would mind giving us some tips for our rural garden. She came over and spent the day with us, spending lots of time and care looking at our garden and giving us very practical advice. We invited her to stay for a bowl of homemade leak and potato soup (which she mentioned in her write up in the Telegraph!). It was a day we will always remember.

A week later the Pyjamas book turned up in the post . Like you, the book is a firm favourite that I never tire of reading. I've added some photos for you - the Dedication is to her mother and son ❤️

Sorry the photo quality is awful, I need to check my iPad settings, we have hardly had any daylight today and I'm in the Southwest so not even an excuse that we live in Scotland

What an extremely kind thing for her to do

HY really is a lovely person, @PritiPatelsMaker with a heart of gold ❤️

That's a great story @daisychain01

I have just ordered 'Pyjamas' and also her book on growing flowers. I've got my eye on the two books of Thorny Problems but will wait a bit, otherwise we will be swamped with parcels.

I like old Monty, and his programmes are gorgeous, but I just don't really identify closely with his gardening. His huge garden with his new greenhouse that probably cost more than my house, and army of staff.

HY seems much more practical and approachable - as your story bears out - and her advice is much more relatable to my gardening.

Absolutely agree with you @TonTonMacoute re: HY approach to gardening being really practical.

One of her little tips was to assist me with spot-weeding our rockery which can become overrun with weeds. She showed me how to cut out an opening into the bottom and top of a clean 4 pinter plastic milk bottle leaving the sides and handle intact.

Place the bottom opening over the weeds and using a filled washing up bottle of vinegar squirt it inside the milk bottle through the opening at the top straight onto the weeds, which kills them but protects the rockery plants from getting sprayed. It's also a money-saver and better for the environment than using weed killer 👍

@CatChant the book arrived today and no jam in sight!

Hooray for no jam! I do hope you’re enjoying it.

I was given my copy when we had just acquired a small town garden that was a mess of weeds and scrap, and we had very little spare time, not much money for plants and not that much knowledge.

The Weekend Gardener felt like my own private, friendly, chatty guide, breaking tasks into manageable chunks, and passing on useful and interesting information and inspiration. It turned me into a gardener and it is still my first port of call for advice.

@daisychain01 that milk bottle trick is absolutely brilliant! It will definitely feature in my garden this year.