Whether you’re a grow-your-own beginner, or a more experienced enthusiast wanting to try something new, there’s a wealth of inspirational and educational horticultural reads out there this festive season. Here’s a few of the best.

  • Of Rhubarb And Roses: The Telegraph Book Of The Garden, edited by Tim Richardson, hardback (Aurum), £25 Gardening glitterati past and present, including Bunny Guinness, Vita Sackville-West, Gertrude Jekyll and Fred Whitsey, have all featured in the Telegraph’s gardening column since it began in the 1930s. Editor and garden writer Tim Richardson has trawled through the archives to find some splendid anecdotes from many of the plantsmen and women who’ve written for the paper on subjects varying from ‘Conflict among the marrows’ to ‘Problems with the secateurs-in-handbag brigade’.
  • The Allotment Planner, by Matthew Appleby, hardback (Frances Lincoln), £14.99 If you fancy taking on an allotment or have one you’d like to develop, this handy guide will help you plan your planting schemes and give you insights into how to make the most of your plot. Appleby, a blogging garden journalist on Horticulture Week, has written it in a month-by-month format, with bullet point ideas.
  • Clondeglass: Creating A Garden Paradise by Dermot O’Neill, hardback (Kyle), £25 This glorious book with beautiful, inspirational pictures, tells the story of the transformation of the walled garden at Clondeglass in Co. Laois, Ireland, from wasteland to the stunning creation it is today. As the restoration is recorded, the author’s battle with cancer is also charted as he explores the positive, therapeutic role gardening can play in recovering from a serious illness.
  • The New English Garden, by Tim Richardson, hardback (Frances Lincoln), £40 This coffee table tome explores a rich period in English garden design, selecting 25 gardens which have gone through an intense phase of creativity and innovation in the last 20 years. The gardens chosen (most of which are open to the public), cover the wide range of styles in English garden design today, including the Prince of Wales’s garden at Highgrove and Trentham Gardens (a Capability Brown landscape imaginatively reworked for the 20th century by Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith and Dominic Cole). Illustrated with more than 300 photographs.
  • Perfect Patios and Terraces: How to Enhance Outdoor Spaces With Paving, Walls, Fences and Plants, Shown in 100 Photographs by Andrew Mikolajski, hardback (Lorenz Books), £3.99 If your patio needs sprucing up, this ideal stocking-filler may provide you with the inspiration you need.

It offers ideas for paths and paving with bricks, tiles, cobbles, gravel, railway sleepers and mosaics, and how to use walls, fences, plants, furniture, lighting and ornaments on a range of sites.

Which? Choosing Garden Plants Made Easy, paperback, (Which?), £8.99 The Which? gardening guides are well-loved for their practical information, simple layout and easy-to-follow format. This latest edition is no exception and, as well as showing how to gain the best results, offers details on each plant tested by the Which? Gardening experts.

Information: All books available on amazon.co.uk