But baby, it's cold outside

If you can't bear the thought of venturing out into the garden in January (and with the depressing wastelands that most of our gardens are at this time of the year, who can?), then curl up in front of the fire and get into a good book instead. Here is my pick of the recent crop of gardening books which will inspire and help you to dream of the spring and summer to come. Enjoy.

Urban Sanctuaries by Stephen Anderton (Mitchell Beazley, £18.99) This book is full of ideas for smaller urban gardens and contains a very diverse selection of town spaces to ponder. Don't look here for boring blue decking; find instead lots of brilliantly contemporary ideas.

Colour for Adventurous Gardeners by Christopher Lloyd (BBC Worldwide, £20) Red, white and blue is old fashioned, while pink and silver are the thing? Well, think again. Christopher Lloyd, the maestro, turns up the heat on the colour controversy with this sparkling, not to say startling, collection of colour combinations from his garden in Sussex. He is full of independent ideas and has a habit of being right.

Making Gardens edited by Erica Hunningher (Cassell, £30) We British are not only a nation of gardeners but a nation of garden visitors and this practical and inspiring book from the National Gardens Scheme combines both traditions. Lessons are drawn from gardens open for charity around the country, and from well-known experts, to provide insights that can be amplified by actually going to the gardens and seeing how they've matured, often in difficult circumstances. Read this first.

HOME AND HERBAL

Herbal by Deni Bown (Pavilion, £25) This thoughtful blend of history, folklore, serious herbal medicine and horticulture not only explains how to use the herbs in your garden but reveals the origins of the herbs you take along with your vitamins. It's reassuring, for example, to find that my kava kava, a relation of pepper, has been clinically proved to be as effective as modern pharmacology at reducing anxiety - and without the side effects. Comprehensive, beautifully illustrated, encyclopedic but easy to read.

Hip Hip Houseplants by Orlando Hamilton (Dorling Kindersley, £16,99) This is as far away from WI markets as your grandma's floral sofa is from Philippe Starck: house plants looked at as integral elements of contemporary interior design and not simply as plants in pots on the windowsill. There are masses of ideas for plants and pots with the aim of making them part of your homescape. Lots of advice on keeping you plants happy, too.

ORGANIC IDEAS

The Organic Salad Garden by Joy Larkcom (Frances Lincoln, £16.99) Joy Larkcom more or less invented those little bags of fresh salad pickings you now see in all the supermarkets. Now this succulent, tasty and beautifully photographed book explains how to grow them and other salads for yourself. Bursting with practical advice, there's no airy romanticising, just a great range of easyto-grow tasty things and downto- earth suggestions on growing, derived from years of Larkcom's own experience.

Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening edited by Pauline Pears (Dorling Kindersley, £25) Well, it's all here, perennials to potatoes, vines to violas: 400 pages of up-to-date organic growing advice from one of Britain's leading organic gardening experts - and it's all approved by Europe's largest organic gardening organisation. Accessible and well illustrated, this is probably the most comprehensive book on organic gardening to date.