GARDENING / The Essential Garden Library

The Conran Beginner's Guide to Gardening by Stefan Buczacki (Conran Octopus pounds 8.99), very useful new book. The step-by-step illustrations on these pages were extracted from this book; A Garden for All Seasons (Reader's Digest pounds 24.95), clear, comprehensive and well illustrated; The Complete Manual of Organic Gardening (Headline pounds 25), a common-sense guide for environmentalists; The BBC Gardeners' World Directory (BBC Books pounds 7.99), lists useful organisations and suppliers; The 1993 Gardener's Guide to Britain by Patrick Taylor (Pavilion pounds 10.99), avid garden visitors should not be without it; Unusual Plants by Beth Chatto, from Beth Chatto, Emstead Market, Colchester CO7 7DB ( pounds 2.50 inc p&p), the best compendium of information on plants for difficult places; RHS Gardeners' Enclyclopedia of Plants and Flowers (Dorling Kindersley pounds 29.95), all you need to know; Yellow Book of Gardens of England and Wales, ( pounds 2.50 or from National Gardens Scheme, Hatchlands Park, East Clandon, Guildford GU4 7RT, add 50p p&p); The Plant Finder (Headmain pounds 10.99) lists all the varieties of garden plants and which nurseries stock them; Scotts catalogue, Scotts Nurseries, Merriott, Crewkerne, Somerset ( pounds 1.50 inc p&p), useful source of plant information for beginners; the Expert series by Dr D G Hessayon (PBI, pounds 4.50 to pounds 6.95), invaluable and fiercely practical; Garden Border Book by Mary Keen (Michael Joseph pounds 10.99), planting plans and analyses of successful borders.