By Nell Card

Five books to inspire your gardening

by Arthur Parkinson

The Flower Yard

Written by the “plantfluencer” and rosy-cheeked protégé of Sarah Raven, this book is a playful invitation to garden on a truly small scale.

1

It is a calling out against what is small-garden dysmorphia, where gardens with lawns, sheds and even greenhouses are indeed called small

Arthur Parkinson

Arthur Parkinson

by Dave Goulson

Gardening for Bumblebees

Professor Dave Goulson encourages gardeners to create a refuge for all garden pollinators, identifying the best trees, shrubs and flowers to plant and suggesting how to create the perfect breeding sites for these lovable insects.

2

My professional interest in bees sprang from idly watching bumblebees visit comfrey flowers nearly 30 years ago.

Dave Goulson

by Grace Alexander

Grow and Gather: A Gardener’s Guide to a Year of Cut Flowers

From sowing in spring round to seed-collecting in autumn, the author encourages you to nurture your own patch of beauty, guiding you through the seasons with manageable job lists and practical advice.

3

Lyrical journal entries and rich photography of Alexander’s former sheep field emphasise her loose, forgiving approach to gardening and eye for colour, texture and shape.

by Kathryn Bradley-Hole

The Naturally Beautiful Garden

For a book centred on ecologically friendly garden design principles (conserving water, reducing chemicals, supporting wildlife), this book manages to keep it light with sumptuous photography from over 30 gardens across the world.

4

Each project – be it a cactus garden on an ancient estate in Sicily, or the sepia grasses of Norfolk’s Bressingham in winter – demonstrates how their makers have managed to work with, rather than against, nature.

by Jane McMorland Hunter

Bedside Companion for Gardeners

Described as “an anthology of garden writing for every night of the year”, this makes perfect under-the-duvet reading for weary gardeners.

5

It is a free-form mix of fact, fiction, dreams and hard-won experience that combines poetry, prose and advice from (the ghosts of) gardeners past and present.

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