Tips on some of the best books to admire and inspire gardeners this Christmas - plus, find out what else needs doing in the garden this week.

By Hannah Stephenson


Think of the festive season and you probably think of being snuggled up inside by a roaring fire - but put a new gardening book on your Christmas wish-list, and you could be thinking of your spring planting too.

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.


Here's a few of the best...

:: Of Rhubarb And Roses: The Telegraph Book Of The Garden, edited by Tim Richardson is published in hardback by Aurum, priced £25

The 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'. This book is perfect for a gentle read, with a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine.

:: The Allotment Planner, by Matthew Appleby is published in hardback by Frances Lincoln, priced £14.99

If you fancy taking on an allotment in the new year, or already have one you'd like to develop further, this handy guide will help you plan your planting schemes and give you insights into how to make the most of your plot - bt that simply growing something new to eat or making money from your produce. Appleby, a blogging garden journalist on Horticulture Week, has written it in a month-by-month format, with bullet point ideas in many sections and practical advice throughout, along with blank pages within each month for your own notes. It's an easy-to-follow guide with both modern and traditional ideas.

:: Clondeglass: Creating A Garden Paradise by Dermot O'Neill is published in hardback by Kyle, priced £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 derelict, neglected wasteland to the stunning creation it is today. As the restoration is lovingly recorded, the author's own personal 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 is published in hardback by Frances Lincoln, priced £40

This coffee table tome will definitely impress visitors coming for Christmas drinks. It explores an exceptionally 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 flourishing in English garden design today, including the Prince of Wales's garden at Highgrove, Trentham Gardens (a Capability Brown landscape imaginatively reworked for the 20th century by Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith and Dominic Cole), Arabella Lennox-Boyd's own garden, and Christopher Bradley-Hole's Modernist garden at Crockmore House. Illustrated with more than 300 fantastic photographs.

:: RHS What To Plant Where Encyclopaedia is published in hardback by Dorling Kindersley, priced £25

Knowing where to plant is just as important as choosing what to plant when planning the perfect garden. In this new encyclopaedia, RHS experts make both factors easy with details on more than 3,000 shrubs, perennials, trees, flowers and bulbs, and the best sites to plant them. The book is divided into two sections: locations and plants for effect, which suggests planting for different uses. It will be the plant bible for newcomers and experienced gardeners alike.

:: Perfect Patios and Terraces: How to Enhance Outdoor Spaces With Paving, Walls, Fences and Plants, Shown in 100 Photographs by Andrew Mikolajski is published in hardback by Lorenz Books, priced £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 including sunny, shady and windy, as well as structures suitable for children and pets.

:: Which? Choosing Garden Plants Made Easy is published in paperback, by Which?, priced £8.99

Thee 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 how each plant tested in trials by the Which? Gardening experts.

:: Information: All books available on amazon.co.uk


Best of the bunch - Holly (Ilex)

Many holly bushes have been bearing berries since the autumn, their brilliant red hue appearing above deep green spiked foliage. Indeed, holly is the benchmark of Christmas and, as well as feeding the birds, provides fantastic material for door wreaths and indoor decorations. A wonderful variegated type is Ilex aquifolium 'Handsworth New Silver', which bears glossy dark green leaves with spiny cream margins all year and vivid red berries in winter. Hollies need full sun to produce the best results. They can be grown in any fertile, well drained soil and pruned to shape if necessary in early spring.


Good enough to eat - Parsnips

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without parsnips on the festive table, either drenched in maple syrup or coated in a Parmesan and flour before being roasted alongside the turkey. They do best on deeply dug, fertile, slightly acid soil and are better following a previous crop which has been well manured, rather than adding compost now. Seeds should be sown directly into the ground in April in drills 1cm deep and 30cm apart, sowing a couple of seeds at 15cm intervals. Thin out so that one plant is left in each position and water well until the young plants are established. They can be harvested in late summer, when the top of the root is between 2.5cm and 5cm wide. For parsnips sown later, once the tops have died down, the roots can be lifted for storing or left in the ground, to be dug up as required. It is said that the longer you leave them in the ground, the better they taste, although it may be wise to lift them before the ground becomes too hard. Good varieties include 'Gladiator' and 'Lancer'.


Top buy - The Hogitat Hedgehog House

The RSPB is selling three times the amount of wildlife products compared to this time last year, according to latest figures, and one of the bestsellers is its homes for hedgehogs. The Hogitat hedgehog house is a sturdy, lightweight, waterproof shelter for hedgehogs which allows them to dig deeper into the soil if they wish. Buy one and all the profits go to helping save birds and wildlife. (£25.49, rspb.org.uk/shop)


What to do this week

:: If you live in a cold area, protect cordylines from freezing temperatures by bringing them under cover or tying up the leaves and wrapping the plant in fleece until the cold snap is over.

:: Shorten tall stems of rose bushes to reduce wind-rock in winter.

:: Dig over cleared areas in the kitchen garden, forking in garden compost as you go.

:: Lift and divide old rhubarb plants.

:: Continue to move shrubs which have outgrown their current position, if the ground is not frozen or waterlogged.

:: Sow crops of hardy peas and broad beans.

:: Winter prune climbers and shrubs like passiflora and bougainvillea in the greenhouse.

:: Wrap sacking or bubble wrap around terracotta and ceramic containers to stop them freezing and cracking.

:: Complete winter pruning of fruit trees.

:: Check greenhouse heaters are working and make sure the levels are high enough to last the night.

:: Sow seeds of slow-maturing half-hardy summer bedding plants in heated propagators in the greenhouse, including pelargoniums, verbenas and begonias.

:: Bring potted bulbs into the home to flower.

:: Take winter hanging baskets under cover, either into the greenhouse or porch, before the hard frosts arrive.

:: Lag and protect outdoor pipes.

:: Keep an area of your pond ice-free if you have fish.

:: In good weather, continue to plant hardy deciduous trees and shrubs, especially bare-rooted ones.