The best gardening books

Chosen by people who know these things

I have a shelf full of gardening books, but I’m somehow incapable of replicating their delights in my own outside space. I think I lack the patience for gardening, and I somehow can’t calibrate the sweet spot between nurturing, tending, planting and pricking out – all the endless doing required of looking after a plot makes me feel overwhelmed and lacking somehow.

Instead, I’m quite content to visit other people’s gardens via the National Garden Scheme; to wander the avenues and rose beds surrounding some stately pile; or simply to enjoy the gardens I pass when I’m out and about, instinctively reaching my fingers to brush scented lavender leaves, or dipping my nose to smell a particularly enticing bloom.

If I could magic up a garden of my own, it would look like one of the impressionistic plots found in Pastoral by Clare Foster, with images by Andrew Montgomery. It would be redolent with the heady scent of roses found in Jo Thompson’s The New Romantic Garden; and each leaf and flower would tell a tale, just like Sandra Lawrence’s Literary Gardens.

So, I don’t know much about gardening, but I have asked people who do to share their favourite gardening reads. I hope they inspire you as much as they have me.

Please note: this post is too long for email so to read all the recommendations, be sure to click on View Entire Message at the end. Or read it in the Substack app.

Jo Thompson, garden designer

Jo and her favourite garden book

Jo doesn’t really need an introduction. Many of you will already know her from her Substack The Gardening Mind. You probably swooned at her glorious The Glasshouse Garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which I wrote about here. And she has recently published her own beautiful book, The New Romantic Garden, which sits on my desk and provides sumptuous, blowsy inspiration as I flip through its pages during my lunch breaks.

This is Jo’s recommendation for a gardening book to search out and add to your bookshelf…

‘The Making of an English Country Garden by Deborah Kellaway isn’t in print any longer, but it truly is a wonderful book: simple, genuine, a good read and inspiring at the same time, and I’d urge you to try to find a copy if you can. Her garden writing has you feeling that you’re reading a novel; it reminds me of when I first read Nigella Lawson’s How To Eat, with its seductive combination of tales and knowledge all wrapped up in one book.

There are Before, During and After maps (don’t you just love a book with a sketched map?), there are plant lists and experiments, there are discussions about roses, all written in a totally engaging way – this is one for beginners and long-timers alike.’

Read Jo’s post about gardening books here.

Debora Robertson, writer, cook and gardener

Debora Robertson remembers the first time

I first met Debora when I was working at Red magazine, when she would contribute beautifully written articles and recipes. We’ve kept in touch over the years – usually when I’ve asked her to share her wonderful tips and know-how on everything from entertaining and hosting, to decluttering, dogs and gardening, for various freelance features I was writing.

Four years ago, Debora decamped from London to Marseillan in Southwest France, where she writes her joyous Substack Lickedspoon, all about the food she is buying, cooking and eating. She also includes updates about the garden she has created in her new home, including a potager, which she is planting up with things to eat. How delicious!

These are Debora’s garden book picks:

‘When I began gardening in my twenties, I was inspired by and devoted to a book called The First-Time Gardener by former fashion journalist, Pattie Barron*. It made gardening seem possible and fun, however imperfectly you did it. It really got me started – you can still pick up precious second-hand copies and I am constantly giving them to friends who are just starting out.

‘Since we moved to the South of France from London, I had to learn to garden in a whole new way and Olivier Filippi's Dry Gardening Handbook: Plants and Practices for a Changing Climate has become my bible. It's inspiring and informative in equal measure. The Filippis have a nursery not far from us on the shore of the Etang de Thau, which is both helpful and dangerous as I can't resist their beautiful, well-tended plants.’

*FYI Pattie Barron was the gardening editor on Ideal Home magazine way back when; I worked there as a sub-editor, my very first job in publishing.

Kathy Slack, gardener and author

A little tenderness with Kathy Slack. Credit: Kirstie Young for Rhino Greenhouses

Rough Patch is Kathy’s tenderly written memoir of burnout from her career in advertising, and resulting anxiety and depression – and how the simple act of growing vegetables, cooking them and creating recipes, were her balm and salvation. (She has previously written a recipe book, From the Veg Patch.)

Of course, Kathy is on Substack, and shares live events, cookery classes and conversations in her publication, Tales from the Veg Patch. Her garden book hero is Nigel Slater, another poised and potent writer on food, life and veg…

‘Tender is a bible. This is everything I want in a book. It's beautifully written, as you would expect of Nigel Slater, but it's also practical. Each vegetable has a chapter all to itself with information on how to grow it, including a diary outlining the life of that vegetable; plus, what to cook with it, whether that's classic flavour pairings or full recipes. It's perfect in every way.’

Sandra Lawrence, author and journalist

The story of Reginald Farrer is all the rage, says Sandra Lawrence

Sandra has written for newspapers and magazines, and is the author of more than 20 books, many of them about gardens. Her latest won’t be published until September but I’ve seen an early pdf of it and I’m obsessed. Called Literary Gardens, it’s a paean to the fictional gardens that are as much-loved and visited (even if only in our imaginations) as any real-life plot. Think Alice’s Wonderland, Mary Lennox’s The Secret Garden and Rebecca’s Manderley – all beautifully illustrated by Lucille Clerc.

Here’s a link to pre-order Literary Gardens, and here is Sandra’s own choice…

‘My favourite garden book is A Rage for Rock Gardening: The story of Reginald Farrer, gardener, writer and plant collector by Nicola Shulman.

‘I do not like Reginald Farrer. I am well aware that the past is a different country and that we should not judge people by the standards of today, but I suspect I wouldn’t have much cared for him in his own times (1880-1920). That isn’t the point. Farrer is one of history’s characters, and to read about his life in any biography would have been entertaining. In the hands of Nicola Shulman, his remarkable life story flips some switch in the horticultural universe from monochrome to Technicolor.

‘I first encountered Farrer in all his bizarre, bitchy glory when investigating a long-running feud between him and my own biographical subject, Ellen Willmott, no strawberries-and-cream delight herself on occasion. The pair hated each other, but I needed at least some idea of which individual might be in the wrong, while of course acknowledging they were probably equally culpable.

‘I adore every second of Nicola Shulman’s tart, analytical and detailed study of a difficult figure, neither lauding nor condemning, just observing. The writing is exquisite, the sentiment cool, the pleasure ongoing – I re-read it on a regular basis.

Lyndsay Kaldor, writer and PR

Lyndsay Kaldor and How to Grow the Flowers

Lyndsay’s soulful Substack, Story & Thread, walks us gently through the seasons as she shares her reflections on creativity, gardens and interiors (you can see why it’s a must-read for me). I love that her book choice is a testimony to transformation – not just in how she gardens, but also to how she feels when she’s engaged with nature, growing and nurturing plants from seed.

‘I bought How to Grow the Flowers by Marianne Mogendorff and Camila Romain, after a morning’s workshop at Wolves Lane Flower Company cutting farm in the summer of 2023, and it has had a profound impact on the way that I garden. Marianne and Camila take a sustainable and seasonal approach to growing that is ultimately rooted in the beauty and joy that flowers bring us, and the important role they play in allowing the wider ecosystem to thrive.

‘Since having the book, I have been empowered to grow the majority of the flowers in my garden from seed, and it has transformed the entire process of gardening for me. There is something very healing, grounding and satisfying in nurturing, tending and taking gentle action in order to grow flowers from seed, not to mention, much cheaper than buying plants from the garden centre.

‘Naturally, the book is arranged by the seasons, starting in autumn as the start of the gardener’s year, something that I hadn’t previously realised previously. Sections are named Soil, Seeds, Tend and Harvest, with details and advice about what to do within each season, including key tasks, what to grow when and creative ideas.

‘It is a book that I return to again and again through the seasons, that has undoubtedly changed the way that I garden, and ultimately live.

Thom Rutter, journalist, gardener and author

Thom Rutter and his much-loved Garden Notebook

Thom is a content editor at homesandgardens.com, writing about gardens – a topic in which he is well-versed, having completed his horticultural traineeship at the Garden Museum, before working for two private estates in Tuscany and managing kitchen gardens and cut-flower gardens. He’s also co-author of The Tree Atlas, and is currently working on another book. I also get to work alongside him every week or so, when I head into the office in my role as editor of Country Homes & Interiors magazine. It’s always a joy to stop by his desk and chat for a while, and pester him for the book recommendation here…

‘Beth Chatto’s Garden Notebook is one book I return to time and again. It’s broken down by months, and I must have read May or June or July many, many times, year after year. Sometimes Beth is gleeful, sometimes downbeat, but she is always honest, I think. Whether talking about her successes and failures, family crises, seed sowing or dessert recipes. It is a book I never tire of.’

Camilla Phelps, writer and nature-based therapist

Delightful and well-tempered Camilla Phelps

When Camilla and I first met, we didn’t have children, were both living in London and working in magazines, and she didn’t (as far as I know) garden. After not seeing each other for years, while living kind of parallel lives (having kids, moving to Sussex, still working in magazines), we met again. In the meantime, Camilla had trained in horticulture and nature-based therapy and had focused on wonderful garden writing. If and when I ever decide to get serious about growing things, I plan to call on Camilla as my garden guide (although she doesn’t know this yet). Here’s her garden read recommendation…

My go-to classic is Christopher Lloyd’s The Well-Tempered Garden. I return to it time and again for his wisdom, irreverent musings and flamboyant style on the page and in the garden.