Stuck for a stocking filler for the gardener in your life?
John Manley leafs through a selection of the past year's gardening books...
Cultivating Garden Style by Rochelle Greayer (Timber Press) RRP £25 IN MY opinion this will rank among the decade's best gardening books and is especially useful if you're starting from scratch or considering a complete garden overhaul - but believe me, thankfully there's no makeover or quick-fix solutions here.
Taking a series of styles such as 'Enchanted Bohemian' and 'Pretty Potager', blogger and Leaf magazine co-editor Rochelle Greayer brings interior design sensibilities to the outdoor room.
Each style theme has an examplar garden with accompanying testimony from an inspired gardener.
This wonderfully-illustrated book works as both a step-by-step manual for transformation and a coffee table accessory.
Clondeglass - Creating a garden paradise by Dermot O'Neill RRP £20 Dermot O'Neill is arguably the best known face in Irish gardening, having presented several gardening shows on RTE as well as being a regular at numerous gardening events north and south. This book from last year (but worth seeking out) tells how O'Neill battles illness, the elements and the banks to sympathetically restore a walled garden in rural Co Laois. It's a story of passion and resilience, liberally peppered with first-class planting and landscaping advice.
RHS Companion to Scented Plants by Stephen Lacey (Frances Linclon)
RRP £25 I'm as guilty as the next neglectful gardener when it comes to garden aromas but even the most cursory leaf through Stephen Lacey's authoritative compendium of scented plants will inspire even the least inclined among us.
Accomplished garden writer Lacey shows us how anyone can add this appealing quality to their space, while sacrificing nothing in terms of looks.
There's 300-plus pages here so expect much more than simply smelly standards like honeysuckle and roses.
The Apple Book by Rosie Sanders (Frances Lincoln) RRP £22.50 Rosie Sanders is billed as 'the best painter of the world's most famous fruit' and she devoted years to researching this book, the first edition of which was published back in 1988.
Most of us can only name a handful of apple varieties - and many those are the modern kinds with little character - but here we are introduced to 144 different varieties by way of Sanders' meticulous watercolours.
This is a book for those who love fruit, gardening and painting - and any one of the above.
How to Grow Winter Vegetables by Charles Dowding (Green Books)
RRP £14.95 If I had a pound for every time somebody asked me to recommend veg for growing over winter I'd easily have enough money to buy several copies of Charles Dowding's excellent book.
The author brings three decades of experience to bear on this step-by-step guide to raising edibles during the coldest part of the year. As you'd expect, brassicas like cabbage and sprouts figure prominently but you'd be surprised by the variety of vegetables that can withstand plummeting temperatures.
Packed with plenty of pictures and easy-to-follow advice, this book will be welcomed by both seasoned and aspiring veg growers.
The Flower Farmer's Year by Georgie Newbery (Green Books) RRP £19.95 Most gardeners grow flowers and many of us bring them indoors to display but few actually set out to grow cut flowers. In this extensive hardback book, artisan flower farmer and florist Georgie Newbery provides comprehensive advice on cultivating a wide variety of cut flowers.
As well as covering the best plants, including bulbs, shrubs and wildflowers, Newbery also draws on her own experience to provide advice on marketing and selling your wares.
* GREEN FINGERS: Author of Cultivating Garden Style, Rochelle Greayer