I’m just back from the two events that launch the year for us gardening journos.  On Wednesday it was the launch of this year’s National Gardens Scheme Yellow Book for 2010.  This wonderful organisation raises huge amounts of money for charity by persuading gardeners to open their own gardens to visitors.  There are 600 new gardens this year and 150 returning after taking a break. To order your own copy of the Yellow Book (£8.99) and enjoy a year of wonderful and inspiring garden visits, go to www.ngs.org.uk

Indulge in a bit of nostalgia and learn a thing or two from ‘Dig on for Victory’ a reprint of Mr Middleton’s All Year Round Gardening Guide for 1945. (Aurum Press £9.99)  Looking at his advice for the second week of January, I may follow his advice and sow some peas, two to a pot, for planting out in March.

This is a good time to take a break from practical gardening books and read something really inspiring. I’m currently reading The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift  and cannot recommend it highly enough.  It is a jewel of a book that takes its inspiration from the medieval Book of Hours and tells the story of how Katherine made a garden in a place that had been inhabited and gardened since medieval times. Using historical plants she laid out a series of gardens each reflecting one particular period of the garden’s history.  But this is much more than an academic exercise, it is the tale of one woman’s passion for her garden and the daily struggles to realise her dream.

At last week’s Garden Media Guild Awards The Practical Gardening Book of the Year was deservedly won by Veg Patch by Mark Diacono (£14.99 Bloomsbury).  Part of the River Cottage series, it is well-written and beautifully photographed by the ludicrously talented Mr Diacono.  It is also eminently practical and compact – a prefect reference book to keep in the greenhouse.

The dark evenings and wild weather mean that practical gardening is somewhat limited, so this is the perfect time to pick up a book that can be read for pleasure as well as instruction.  A Countrywoman’s Notes (Frances Lincoln £9.99)* is just such a book.  Written by one of the 20th centuries iconic gardeners, the late Rosemary Verey, this small volume is a reprint of the original which was published in 1989.  The notes follow the year  and are accompanied by attractive contemporary engravings.  It would make a very nice Christmas present.