My bumper crop of Christmas books: Our expert picks the best reads of 2024 to give the gardener in your life

RHS THE GARDEN ALMANAC 2025 

Zia Allaway & Guy Barter 

With beautiful illustrations by Angie Lewin, this offers detailed task lists and advice for every month to help you achieve your best gardening year yet (£14.99, Frances Lincoln). 

HORTOBIOGRAPHY 

Carol Klein 

This tale of a life dedicated to gardening follows one of our best loved gardening television presenters from her childhood in Manchester and early career as an art teacher to setting up her plant nursery at Glebe Cottage in Devon, and explores how the natural world brings joy and creativity into our lives (£22, Witness Books).

A FLOWER GARDEN FOR POLLINATORS 

Rachel de Thame 

A familiar face on our television screens, Rachel de Thame offers a personal insight into the flowers she grows in her own garden to encourage much-needed pollinating insects, with hand-painted illustrations by her daughter Lauren Lusk (£25, Greenfinch).

DRAWN TO THE GARDEN 

Caroline Quentin 

In recent years actor Caroline Quentin has built up a following for her Instagram posts @CQgardens. 

This book encapsulates her philosophy that gardening should be fun, telling the story of her life in the garden with her own amusing illustrations (£20, Frances Lincoln). 

A YEAR IN A SMALL GARDEN 

Frances Tophill 

Follows the Gardeners’ World presenter as she creates a new garden in her terraced house in Devon, featuring Frances’s journal, notebooks and photographs from throughout the year. 

There are projects to try at home, with an emphasis on sustainability, and tips and tricks on how to make the best of a small outdoor space (£26, BBC Books).  

COMPOST 

Charles Dowding 

The no-dig guru explains the importance of soil health and explores the alchemy of turning our household waste into compost, creating a valuable free resource. 

It dispels some myths around creating compost and offers practical advice on making your own (£14.99, DK). 

THE MONEY-SAVING GARDEN YEAR 

Anya Lautenbach

In this practical guide Lautenbach, aka @anya_the garden_fairy, has done all the planning, so you don’t have to. 

She provides month-bymonth lists of jobs to do in the garden on a budget, with encouragement to get outside and boost your health and wellbeing, particularly in the colder season (£16.99, DK). 

LOST GARDENS OF THE WORLD 

Sandra Lawrence 

There is a certain romance in a once beautiful garden that has fallen into ruin.

Journalist Sandra Lawrence explores 40 of these lost horticultural paradises from the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall to the Villa d’Este, near Rome, both of which have now been restored to their former glory (£19.99, Frances Lincoln). 

A YEAR IN BLOOM 

Lucy Bellamy & Jason Ingram 

A former editor of Gardens Illustrated takes us through a year in bulbs, from tulips and daffodils to the lesser known dog’s tooth violets and autumn snowflakes. 

With pictures by award-winning photographer Jason Ingram, it features bulbs for containers, borders and naturalising in lawns (£29.95, Phaidon). 

WHAT’S THAT WEED? 

Guy Barter 

This handy guide from the RHS chief horticulturist helps gardeners to identify weeds, understand their life cycles and how they’ll affect the garden. 

It covers 40 common garden weeds, including nettles, dock, dandelions and bindweed, as well as hawksbeard, speedwell, and pennycress (£12.99, DK). 

SPANISH GARDENS 

Monty Don & Derry Moore 

For fans of the BBC TV series, this book follows Monty as he explores the gardens of Spain, from verdant Galicia to Barcelona, and down to the more rugged sub-tropical gardens of Mallorca, Malaga, Andalucia, and Seville. 

Accompanied by Derry Moore’s stunning photography (£39.99, BBC Books). 

THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY GARDEN 

Huw Richards & Sam Cooper 

A guide to home-grown food all year round – saving money into the bargain. 

Offers a simple plan for a 10×12.5m plot and a realistic formula for providing five portions of veg for four people every day of the year (£16.99, DK).