1/ Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom (published by Frances Lincoln). If you have only one book, this should be it. What she doesn’t know, they haven’t discovered yet. Easy to read and her planting plans – for cut-and-come again and rotation plans are excellent for all gardeners.

2/ The Vegetable Expert and The Fruit Expert, by Dr D. G. Hessayon, both from the Experts series of paperbacks. Easy to take out into the garden when you’re planting up your new beds. They also have a good section on the troubles you may spot with each plant and prevention.

3/ Tomatoes by Terry Marshall (published in 2006 by Whittet Books). Pages 65 to 124 detail the latest and best of the tomato varieties. The earlier pages tell you everything you could possibly want to know about their production (and perhaps more besides).

4/ The Potato Book by Alan Romans (published by Frances Lincoln). A book on spuds that Delia Smith would be proud to call her own … a 127-page encyclopedia that you’ll be poring over every winter.

5/ Pests, Diseases & Disorders of Garden Plants by Stefan Buczacki & Keith Harris (published by HarperCollins.Third edition). If you think you’re really going to get into gardening, this is for you. Excellent photographs showing you what can go wrong … handy and fascinating, except for the very squeamish.

6/ Weeds: How to Control and Love them by Jo Readman (published by Henry Doubleday Research Association/Search Press). Good photographs to work out exactly what you’ve got. Loads of information of why you have them (buttercups, for instance, are a sign of poor drainage and clover that your soil lacks nitrogen); how they spread themselves; and how to get rid of them. The best of the weed books.

7/ Bob Flowerdew’s Complete Book of Companion Gardening (published by Kyle Cathie). Even if you believe it’s all a lot of mumbo-jumbo, there’s no harm in trying companion planting. Where could you go wrong planting small-flowered marigolds or basil with tomatoes? A clear and instructive book.

8/ Geoff Hamilton’s Organic Garden: Pocket Encyclopedia (published by Dorling Kindersley): Geoff Hamilton, the television gardener who died more than a decade ago, is remembered with great fondness by a generation of gardeners as the man who explained technical matters and complex techniques so well that they seemed within everyone’s reach.

Explore Gardens

• Chelsea Flower Show

• Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

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• Here comes the glass sun – garden honours Beatle
• Gardening tips: 10 things to know about Horny Goat Weed or Epimedium
• Diarmuid Gavin shares tips on how make your garden fun and funky