Design Your Garden for £20!

Ok, not literally (!). BUT while everything seems to go up in price, for a mere £20 you can buy 3 fantastic used design & gardening books from eBay (other 2nd hand dealers are available!). We highly recommend these especially to the student or amateur alike as great learning & reference resources.

Garden History by Tom Turner - a clear & concise reference to historic gardening styles with great plans & visuals. A timeline of the philosophy & subsequent design from 2000BC-today incorporating asian, middle-eastern and European styles. Styles & concepts from cultures past are still relevant today. Take the climate change challenges such as cooling shade & irrigation in dry summers! The book also has a front cover pic taken from Greenwich Park!

That tree looks familiar...

Love Your Plot by The Rich Brothers - particularly in paperback form this is a handy, easy read of garden design examples and the principles that underpin them. Particularly with a naturalistic theme it's full of lovely pencil sketches & well shot supporting pictures. It covers the design process including some basic structural diagrams & thematic planting schemes. Showing how less is more, the concepts & designs are cleverly presented without the need for CAD or AI. Shock, Horror!!!

Don't let the Garden Rescue tag put you off..

Perfect Plant, Perfect Place by Roy Lancaster - I used this book the most in our early days, and still today too! While probably dated in style, its a great, down-to-earth (literally) reference for a variety of plants suited to differing situations. There's not sexy, soft focus planting schemes but rather tried & trusted examples from a leading plantsman. It includes indoor plants too. Currently you can buy one on Ebay for £2.94 (free delivery!), thats the same a tube of Pringles!

Pretty much !