Second-hand but first-rate

Newly published, gift-worthy gardening books are ever harder to find but 'pre-loved' works by the great names of the past can offer a thoughtful alternative

- By Ursula Buchan

The reasons are not far to seek. The arrival of YouTube, Instagram and TikTok has ensured that a vast mass of information about gardening is readily available online – and it’s mostly free. It is difficult to see how richly illustrated, expensive-to-produce gardening books can compete with all that, even though the finished product will almost certainly be of higher quality and have a more enduring value. After all, a YouTube demo you watch today will have vanished from your memory as quickly as dew disappears from the lawn on a sunny morning. Despite all that, how we take instruction about gardening has changed and there’s no going back.