July book club: The giving garden

Nothing beats growing your own, whether that's on a patio., in a window box or even just a pot, this month inside The Simple Things we give you some tips on how to turn the tiniest of spaces into big harvests, but if you need a little more inspiration here are our top five books on how to get the most from your garden/trolley/tub etc

Teeny Tiny Gardening Emma Hardy

If you can't go out, go up, Emma Hardy shows you how to make herbs, vegetables and salad leaves thrive in pots on balconies and doorsteps, no garden needed.  The book retails at £14.99 but readers of The Simple Things can get a discount call 01256 302699 quote GLR 8BN to purchase a copy at the special price of £12.99 including free P&P!

Good Companions Josie Jeffery

The ancient practice of companion planting is a simple, eco-friendly method of combining species that help each other out. Revived by American back‑to-the-land activist Bolton Hall in the early 20th century and taken up by the Good Lifers of the 1960s and 1970s, it’s perfect for busy modern gardeners too. Good Companions: The Mix & Match Guide to Companion Planting explains the history and benefits of the technique, and offers top combining tips, such as dandelions and fruit trees, or clover and cabbage. Flipbook pages help you to mix and match your chosen plant, whether tomato, peach or plum, with the best partners to nourish its roots, deter pests and enhance flavour – all totally chemical-free. Keen gardeners and novices alike will find much to learn and use in Jeffery’s highly readable guide.

The Speedy Vegetable GardenMark Diacono & Lia Leendertz

Time is of the essence with this bright little book, which promises crops within weeks, days and even hours. The Speedy Vegetable Garden offers tips on how to sow, nurture and harvest 50 quick grows, such as the herb cilantro, which takes 14 days, or fennel, edible after ten. It also offers alternative varieties of traditional slow-growing plants, such as dwarf French beans, which take 60 days, or early potatoes, ready in 75. Perfect for the busy urban gardener, plants can be grown in pots and on windowsills for quick, healthy sustenance.

HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION James Wong

Superfoods are big business, but ironically they can also be tricky to find. With his new book, James Wong shows how simple it is to grow unusual greens, veg and herbs at home. He’s also keen to point out that many of these crops are easier to grow than what he dubs ‘wartime ration book’ allotment crops. He shows how to grow a quirky selection, including cucamelons, Tasmanian mountain pepper, quinoa and red strawberry popcorn. Each ingredient comes with how to grow, harvest and eat them. And, most importantly, a great set of recipes is included too.

Gifts from the Garden Debora Robertson The garden can provide an infinite source of inspiration, and in her book, Debora Robertson takes herbs, flowers, fruit, vegetables and nuts to make special and unusual gifts to give away. You can learn how to make decorated stationery, herbal face wash and even marigold cheese, with flowers and ingredients that you have grown yourself. All the instructions and recipes in the book are beautifully laid out, with great photography and lots of extra tips and suggestions. Plus there are ideas for taking things from your garden and using them as embellishments for when you are wrapping the gifts you’ve made.

June's book club

something something, with something too, we'll have you something for something with something when something.

Zero Waste Home - Bea Johnson

BEA JOHNSON LIVED the consumerist dream: huge house, lavish holidays, Botox – yet she wasn’t happy. She and her family downsized, disposed of everything they didn’t “use, need or love” and rethought their lives. Deeply concerned about the environment, they became committed to reducing waste: buying in bulk, rejecting packaging, and making their own bread, mustard and cheese. They worked out a “Zero Waste” philosophy to aim for, applying the mantra “Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot”.

In this inspiring, thorough book, Johnson explains how you too can do just that too. Sensible rather than preachy, this is an honest, entertaining and campaigning guide to living a more environmentally friendly life.

Stylish Dress Book - Yoshiki Tsukiori

THE COOL LINES of Japanese fashion are explained in this first English translation of celebrated designer Yoshiko Tsukiori’s new book of sewing projects. The photographs of her designs are as tempting as a still cool pool on a hot day, with drawstring tops, loose smocks, peasant dresses and sharp shirts, styled in a palette of soft blues and greys. Basic design patterns are also included, and while the small diagrams may alarm some novices, Tsukiori’s designs are so gorgeous, any fan of DIY fashion will want to get their head down and have a go.

Our Songbirds - Matt Sewell

ARDENT ORNITHOLOGIST Matt Sewell captured bird lovers’ hearts last year with Our Garden Birds and charms again with a collection of warblers for every week of the year. Illustrated with Sewell’s signature watercolours (he has painted murals for the RSPB and a bird hide for Port Eliot festival), this lovely giftbook also includes his idiosyncratic descriptions of the birds, where a Turtle Dove is a “glamorous granny resplendent in lace, doilies and pastel knickerbockers”. The Charlatans’ lead singer Tim Burgess provides a foreword.

Manly Food - Simon Cave

“NO-HOLDS-BARRED, all-action cooking” is promised in Manly Food, an unashamedly blokey cookbook with the motto “Flavour First”. And tasty-looking it is too, with recipes such as Crab with Chilli and Black Bean Sauce and Pea and Ham Hock Soup. Manly Food is ambitiously meaty, with recipes for suckling pig, hare and boar, yet despite the macho tone (salted caramel fudge is perfect for “an extended hiking trip in the wilderness”) Cave is clearly serious about his ingredients, methods and tools. Makes cooking exciting.

All the Birds, Singing - Evie Wyld

APPREHENSION TREADS THROUGH the pages of Evie Wyld’s second novel, which is the follow-up to her much-lauded debut offering, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice. Jake (no, she’s a woman) Whyte lives in a farmhouse deep in an unspecified part of the wind-lashed British countryside. Solitary apart from a semi-feral dog, Whyte tries to concentrate on raising her flock of sheep – but someone, or something, is leaving them “mangled”. Jake’s hardscrabble past in Australia is revealed in alternate chapters as we slowly learn what it is that she’s so afraid of. Tough, capable, vulnerable, Whyte is a compelling character, and Wyld’s writing – particularly her descriptions of the Australian bush, oven-hot and roving with spiders – is exquisite. An unusual novel that should win its author even more prizes.

Tomorrow there will be Apricots - Jessica Soffer

SELF-HARMING TEENAGER Lorca wants to win her neglectful mother’s attention with a perfect dish of Middle-Eastern speciality masgouf – and chooses as her teacher Victoria, an Iraqi widow who still mourns the daughter she gave away. The healing power of making and eating food is almost a literary cliché, but 25-year-old New Yorker Jessica Soffer’s debut novel combines a fresh twist with a warmly told narrative.

Mouse the Cossacks - Paul Wilson

AFTER A FAMILY TRAGEDY, eight-year-old Mouse lost the ability to speak, communicating only via emails and notes, and sending forlorn texts to made-up numbers in the hope of a reply. Mouse and her mother move into a farmhouse in the Pennines once occupied by a lonely old man, William Caxton, whose mysterious unsent letters still clutter the rooms. As Mouse investigates Caxton’s past, she begins to find a way through her own sadness.

Sketcher - Roland Watson-Grant

SKID BEAUMONT IS GROWING UP on the outskirts of New Orleans in an alligator-patrolled swamp where “nothin’ moved except for maybe a dragonfly testin’ the water with its toes”. His father has had a drunken premonition that the swamps will make them rich, and Skid believes that his brother Frico, the “sketcher” of the title, can influence events by drawing. A beautiful and funny coming-of-age story.

May's book club

We've got some absolute corkers in this month's book club, from chilling fairytales to chasing the red-eyed damselfly we've got a good read for all interests.

Cook with Love - Pete Evans

   "Cook with love and laughter" is Aussie chef and outdoors enthusiast Pete Evans' mantra, and he applies it liberally to his new book. There are 150 recipes to choose from, with chapters on breakfast, lunch, seafood, vegetables, canapes, desserts, dinner parties and 'family feasts'. Highlights include the crispy prawn and tapioca betel leaf recipe for posh parties, and yoghurt panna cotta with blueberries as an easy pud, while French toast with figs makes a naturally sweet start to the day.

Patisserie at Home - Will Torrent

  Torrent expertly explains the basics, from choux pastry to ganache, then guides would-be chefs through the delicate step-by-steps. The instructions are in-depth, but there's nothing intimidating about this book. Soon you will be whipping up chocolate coffee eclairs, classic millefeuille and show-stopping gateaux.

Where to See Wildlife in Britain and Ireland - Christopher Somerville

  This treasury of the creatures, plants and landscapes of Britain and Ireland is both a practical guide and a hymn to nature. More than 800 of the British Isles' best wildlife spots are carefully documented, including travel tips and snippets of ecology, history and myth.

The Man Who Plants Trees - Jim Robbins

  Jim Robbins' account of the passions and pitfalls of David Milarch's mission to clone the best tree specimens he could find to save the planet is both sobering and inspiring.

Homecoming - Susie Steiner

  The Archers meets Anne Enright in former Guardian journalist Susie Steiner's involving debut novel, set on the Yorkshire moors. Steiner's novel skilfully captures Yorkshire in all its ordinay beauty - lonesome fells and pastel twilights, swirly-carpeted pubs and rusting tractors and her plot is satisfyingly complex. Homecoming is readable, heart-breaking and true.

The Deception Artist - Fayette Fox

  Eight-year-old Ivy loves to daydream and make up stories, but in reality her brother's ill, her parents squabble and she's lost her best friend. Then she begins to suspect her father of having an affair. Ivy is an appealing narrator, an innocent in a world that wants children to grow up. Although her naivety in the face of adult dilemmas is at times frustrating, The Deception Artist reminds us that the real truths are in how we love each other.

Cooking with Bones - Jess Richards

Sisters Amber and Maya are on the run. They've found refuge in an empty cottage, where Amber discovers a forgotten cookbook and learns how to bake magical cakes. A mix of unsettling fairytale, female power games and helter-skelter dialect with which it's worth perserving.

Was She Pretty? - Leanne Shapton

  The pains, peculiarities and pleasures of modern relationships are gently skewered in Canadian artist and graphic novelist Leanne Shapton's new book. Was She Pretty? is a sequence of wry observations about that most haunting of creatures - the ex.

The Simple Things Book Club: April

Refreshing reads to help you pause, plan, and make an early night essential.

Turned Out Nice Again - Richard Mabey

Why we love it: Mabey explores our weather obsession in a fascinating mix of the scientific, historial, literary and mythological.

Hand Quilted With Love - Sarah Fielke

Why we love it: Fielke gives a whislte-stop yet informative tour of everything novice and advanced stitchers need to know, including guides to fabrics, equipment and sewing techniques.

A Good Egg - Genevieve Taylor

Why we love it: after realising her dream of keeping back-garden chickens, Taylor shares advice on how a garden and 'the girls' moods changes throughout the year, this lovely book is also packed full of tempting recipes which will leave you earning for a coop too.

Supergrains - Chrissy Freer

Why we love it: Chrissy introduces 12 ancient 'supergrains' with historical background and nutritional values. With over 100 recipes to bring these forgotten grains back to life in the kitchen.

Amity & Sorrow - Peggy Riley

An explosive tale of faith, sex and power.

Petite Mort - Beatrice Hitchman

Fans of silent films and historical fiction will delight in this chocolate box of a novel, which mixes love, lust, amd scandel with the stardust of 1900s Paris.

Frances and Bernard Carlene Bauer

Inspired by the relationship between Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell, Frances and Bernard is warm, intelligent and addictive.

The Banner of the Passing Clouds - Anthea Nicholson

Nicholson brings to life the drab, oppressive towerblock landscape of a crumbling state of USSR-ruled Georgia, but also the songs, humour and passions of its people in this tense, gritty novel.

Have you read any of these books? Join the conversation in the comments below.