Lavender For All Seasons by Paola Legarre

This was such an interesting read as someone who visited the Hunstanton Lavender farm and has some lavender plants in my garden too, I was really happy to read this book and hear about how someone's family has history of growing and nurturing the plant through generations. Learning the history and uses of the plants over the years was really interesting with surprising depth and detail about the plants, with beautiful photo's showing the plants in all their colour glory and detail it was a beautiful book in layout and design the passion the author has for the plants clear to see.

Potted by Annette Goliti Gutierrez & Mary Gray

This book drew me in originally because of the flower image on the cover as well as the subject overall as our house loves plants, flowers etc.

The writing is laid out in paragraphs and columns with large images to view and steps to follow. It utilizes space in the garden by introducing the idea of planters built into the wall not just plain designing pots.

The book is definitely for older readers as the use of saws and drills are required for a lot of the projects. Though there are some more simple plain to amazing design ideas for standard terracotta pots, family can pitch in and help there with supervision I'm sure.

Overall it was an interesting read and I with be trying these ideas with my mum in the future. I was intrigued to find out too that the authors owned between them a Pot shop and it's a unique idea because we can only ever find our pots we need in retail shops that are well known and obviously mass produced too.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me a copy to review!

RHS A Nation In Bloom by Matthew Biggs

In this book we get a great mixture of gorgeous photography and informative text about the history past to present about the RHS from set up to how it plans to do even more in the future.

Showing about gardening being therapeutic and great for everyone it encourages all ages to give it a go and shows how it unites communities and provides a fun way to meet others and tackle loneliness among other things.

I have to say since reading this book I plan to visit RHS Wisely and Rosemoor. I have visited the flower shows which feature in this book in a chapter too and it highlights the importance of expansion to be more inclusive to more areas of the country.
I'm off now to Gardner's World live now to enjoy the flower displays there too!

Plantopedia by Adrienne Barman

I was drawn to this plant guide as despite being a children's non fiction guide, the illustration is very eye-catching, set into colour pages such as all black plants, aquatic plants featuring animals too, dyes from plants, types of trees, fruit and veg, herbs and medicinal healing plants, this guide shares everything across all types of outdoor wildlife flower, tree and plant wise in a perfect way for children.

The guide also warns of the dangers plants like cactus can pose as well as a guide to poisonous plants to be wary of.

Packed with colours popping from the page and simple plant labelling for kids to follow, this book would be a great introduction to learning what plants are safe or not and maybe even get them involved in gardening too.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

How To Train Your Cactus by Tonwen Jones

I was inspired by my local botanical garden's cactus house to get a succulent myself to grow and keep at home. Months later at the end of last summer, I acquired a small succulent which is still with me and healthy to this day!

However I do wish I had this book back then as I would've saved hours researching how to care for it properly!

From discussing types of them available, tools you will need from a simple trowel and pot to gravel, guide to growing from seeds and how to train certain types of succulents to thrive daily.

Each plant type has a simple page of typed instructions on care and upkeep while the second page of the double page layout features a colourful illustration of what the chosen cacti/succulent looks like so you know what to expect it to grow like.

The cover is a simple green with a colourful cactus on the cover centred to stand out for the subject alike the title anyway. The guide is clear and concise for all ages to be able to follow easily and learn from.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Gardenlust by Chris Woods

I am reading this outside under the Spring sunshine which seems a fitting location as Gardenlust is to take me on a tour of the world's best new gardens which have been unearthed or discovered if you prefer, in the more recent of years. Chris Woods evidently has a passion for gardens having his career beginning at the Kew gardens and thriving to go on creating with gardens and produce books leading up to this one now.

Set to a backdrop of gorgeously captured, crisp photographs of various forms of outdoor nature at it's best, from flowers to trees, details in seating arrangements, various statues and beyond, this book is a small sanctuary to those of us whom wish to be out in all weather's in a garden of some form.

The gardens we are introduced to are picturesque with complementing colours displayed and in all areas of countries these little gardens or not so little gardens in many cases can be found to explore. They are all different and have many similar but never the exact same features, from bridges to statues to the rare weird yet wonderful plants on offer in their displays.

I myself may be English, but I have always been drawn to and appreciate Japanese and Chinese gardens after our town centre's park has mini ones of those designs mixed in, the UK also boasts many botanical gardens alike we read about in this book many a time and if this book sends out any kind of message to those of us living in cities or villages, it's to escape into a new bliss, of a garden we have yet to explore and make it a top priority to take time to relax, distress and unwind there.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!