What the Experts Loved This Year: Books, Voices and Creators for Your 2025 Gardening Christmas Presents
If you’re pulling together your 2025 Christmas gardening present list, there’s a difference between a book that delights an experienced gardener and one that engages or informs a gardening newbie.
Alongside writing this blog and making videos for The Middlesized Garden, I’m co-chair of the Garden Media Guild. It’s the network of expert gardening writers, photographers, broadcasters and influencers.
Each year, the Garden Media Guild Awards celebrate the work that genuinely moves gardening on. These are the books that clarify tricky ideas, photography that inspires and the programmes, podcasts and influencers that make us more confident gardeners.
Give 2025 Christmas gardening gifts written, edited or broadcast by award-winning garden experts who write from the heart – and from years of experience!
Hundreds of talented people enter, and their work is judged by leading horticultural professionals and media experts. At a time when it’s difficult to know what information is truly reliable, a Garden Media Guild finalist or winner logo means the work is assessed as the best for horticultural accuracy as well as creativity.
So whether you’re shopping for Christmas or simply looking for new inspiration, here are the standout voices shaping gardening this year.
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Indulgent & Gorgeous Gardening Books That Also Make You Think
When you give someone a gardening book, they won’t want a re-run of everything they’ve ever read before.
The GMG Gardening Book of the Year shortlist features books that are gorgeous to look at. But they also have a clear perspective, an interesting story and something to remember.
The winner was Marian Boswall’s The Kindest Garden, a thoughtful, sensitive and genuinely useful guide to regenerative gardening. The judges loved its blend of science, design and clear visuals, calling it both informative and moving. It’s the sort of book that gently changes the way you look at your garden — and possibly the way you garden altogether.
And it has gorgeous photographs by Jason Ingram, one of the most award-winning garden photographers today.
A guide to regenerative gardening, which aims to improve the environment and biodiversity, not just minimise any damage to it. A must for the your 2025 Christmas gardening present list.
When I talked to Joe Swift and James Alexander Sinclair about garden design on YouTube, James highlighted the trend towards gardens that reflect and almost merge into their wider landscape. Another exceptional book on the GMG Gardening Book of the Year shortlist was Pastoral Gardens by Clare Foster.
Pastoral Gardens, she says, are gardens that blur the distinction between cultivated and wild landscapes. She explores gardens around the world which take their surrounding landscape as inspiration, drawing it in with wilder areas within the gardens themselves. It’s a contemporary approach that tackles practical issues such as biodiversity while creating some of today’s most beautiful gardens. It’s a stunningly photographed and produced book, albeit a little more expensive than most (£55).
Pastoral Gardens by Clare Foster brings the landscape and the garden together, featuring beautiful gardens from around the world.
I’m also going to sneak in a book that was published too late for the 2025 Garden Media Guild Awards. What Grows Together by Jamie Butterworth would be a lovely gardening gift choice for either an experienced gardener or a beginner.
Jamie based the book on Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients book, aiming to simplify gardening for busy people in the same way that Oliver made cooking easier. It consists of ‘recipes’ for plant groupings and care, divided into spring, summer and autumn. You can read Jamie’s 6 Easy Planting Tips here, which will give you a flavour of the book.
Grower Jamie Butterworth (of Form Plants) has worked with many of today’s top designers and gardeners, so he knows what planting’s work.
And just one other that wasn’t in the GMG Awards because it’s not strictly about gardening – Jason Ingram’s How to Photograph Gardens.
If you’ve ever wished your photos or phone pix of your garden were more beautiful, this is book is for you. Jason is an award-winning photographer and he also runs photography classes, so he’s an excellent teacher. One of my favourite books this year!
I really recommend this, even if you’re only snapping on a mobile phone, you’ll learn about light, composition and more.
Practical 2025 Christmas Gardening Books That Stand Out.
There’s been a real shift in practical gardening advice over the past few years.
The new generation of professional gardeners have questioned traditional methods and tried out alternatives. Jobs have to win their place on ‘to do’ lists and there’s a move away from ‘one size fits all’ recommendations. If you don’t want neat edges and a stripy lawn, you don’t have to have them.
These garden experts will give you clear, practical and effective explanations. You’ll save time, money or effort by following them. And the books are backed up by real practical experience – they’re not written from an internet round-up!
The Greenhouse Book by Tom Brown
Middlesized Garden viewers and readers will know Tom Brown. He was one of the first top professional gardeners I interviewed (see How to Create Stunning Garden Borders). He combines being head gardener at the beautiful West Dean Gardens with garden writing and TV presenting. Tom’s The Greenhouse Book won the GMG Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year.
The judges praised his work for its depth, accuracy and originality. It’s beautifully researched and full of practical insight on a topic that can feel overwhelming. They described it as a “solid addition to any gardening library,” and they’re right — it’s the book you reach for when you want to demystify everything from ventilation to plant choice.
If you’ve got a greenhouse, then you need this book! See Tom’s tips on greenhouse gardening when he talked to the Middlesized Garden.
Nettles & Petals by Jamie Walton
For gardeners who want something different or who are just starting out, I’d warmly recommend Nettles & Petals by Jamie Walton, short-listed in the practical book category.
Jamie is a head grower, as well as an amazing communicator, emphasising a holistic and ecological approach to vegetable growing and gardening in general.
If I was giving a gardening book to someone just moving in to their first garden or who has just joined an allotment, then this is the one I’d pick. But it would also be interesting to experienced gardeners thinking of growing in a more environmentally friendly way.
Jamie Walton’s Nettles & Petals came out of the hugely successful Nettles & Petals Instagram account. He’s a professional head gardener with a speciality in biodiversity, ecological gardening and sustainability. The perfect 2025 Christmas gardening present for a new generation of gardeners.
Grow Food Anywhere by Lucy Chamberlain
Lucy Chamberlain was short-listed in three awards categories and won Practical Journalist of the Year for her clear, concise and experienced writing. Her latest book is RHS Grow Food Anywhere, which focuses on giving your fruit and veg the best possible chance of success by planting it in the right place.
She defines ‘seven different zones that you can find in your garden, from sunny and sheltered through to shady and dry – as well as using indoor space. Each zone offers a different environment for plants with different growing conditions.’
Lucy’s own garden features in the book, along with an allotment, a larger vegetable garden plus there are instructions for growing food in pots, on balconies and in other challenging spaces.
RHS Grow Food Anywhere by Lucy Chamberlain identifies all the different outdoor spaces and conditions and which crops will grow in them.
The Water-Efficient Gardener by Angela Youngman
If you watering your garden regularly in the summer feels like a chore you could do without, then The Water-Efficient Gardener by Angela Youngman will save you time (and your water bills).
When I interviewed Janet Manning of the RHS about how to save time, money and effort when watering your garden, I realised that we could all probably water less and still have a beautiful garden.
Now Angela Youngman has won The GMG Beth Chatto Environmental Award for a book on water in your garden that was described as ‘both innovative and accessible.’
Angela Youngman’s The Water-Efficient Gardener, published by Bloomsbury, won the Beth Chatto Environmental Award.
Magazines and Online: The Writers Who Took Us Somewhere New
Subscriptions to magazines or organisations can be a brilliant option for 2025 Christmas gardening gifts.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) featured in several awards. If you’re a member of the RHS, you not only get free entry to their gardens but also a copy of this year’s GMG Magazine of the Year- The Garden. A gift subscription for the RHS is currently on offer at £59.95.
The judges praised The Garden Magazine’s ability to speak to both novice and expert, covering everything from vegetables to tricky ornamentals, plant problems, design and gardens to visit. They thought even non-gardeners would find it inspiring — which is quite a feat.
For proper dedicated plant lovers, you can get a year’s subscription of the RHS’s The Plant Review (4 issues) for under £30. It’s a detailed, expert look at plants and the editor, James Armitage was awarded the Roy Lancaster Features Writer of the Year for his work on The Garden Magazine. He was praised for his warm, distinctive tone and rock-solid botanical knowledge. Judges admired how every phrase and detail draws the reader in — the sort of writing that teaches almost without you noticing.
Give a year’s subscription to the RHS – a great 2025 Christmas gardening gift, which also means you get their award-winning Garden Magazine.
For garden design, Charlotte Harris, writing for Gardens Illustrated, won Gardening Columnist of the Year for a series of columns that were singled out as “exquisite.” Her pieces are practical, clear and rooted in real examples, complete with sketches and images that help readers understand why certain choices work.
Gardens Illustrated is considered the ‘Vogue of the gardening world’, filled with beautiful gardens and interviewing many of the UK’s top garden designers. As with other magazines these days, a subscription makes you part of a membership club, with access to online extras and member events. Gift subscriptions start at £29.
And James Alexander-Sinclair, writing for The Garden Collective, winner of the Digital Gardening Writer of the Year, was celebrated for deep historical research presented with humour, quirkiness and a real sense of joy. His work opens up curious corners of horticultural history in a way that feels fresh and surprising. (See James on your biggest garden design mistake here).
James Alexander Sinclair won GMG Digital Garden Writer of the Year for his posts for The Garden Collective.
The Garden Collective is a group of leading garden writers who produce daily posts, podcasts and more. At the time of writing a gift subscription would be £49 for the year.
The Broadcasters Who Made Us Think (and Sometimes Laugh)
You can’t give YouTube videos and podcasts as Christmas gardening gifts, but you may want to enjoy them for yourself.
In television, Monty Don won GMG Gardening TV & Video Documentary Feature of the Year for an episode of Great British Gardens that explored remarkable and often little-seen places. Judges praised his natural authority and easy rapport with garden owners — the sort of presenting that helps viewers understand why these spaces matter.
And I would like to add that the Middlesized Garden’s The Sand Garden video with Tom Brown was also short-listed for this award. I was delighted to be up against a giant like Monty, along with BBC Gardeners World and videos from Gardens Illustrated and Channel 4. (Note- even though I help organise the awards as a whole, I don’t appoint the judges for that particular category!).
For the Gardening TV & Video Short Video of the Year, Charles Dowding’s No Dig Potato Harvest was recognised for broadcasting that combines passion with meticulous detail. His ability to take viewers through every stage of growing — from sowing to storage to replanting — shows what’s possible even in a small space.
If you’re not a veg grower, no dig is just as good for ornamental gardens. See No Dig Flower Borders – Easy, Weed-free & Brilliant.
Winners & short-listed: Our Plant Stories’ Fay’s Yucca Plant, Monty Don’s British Gardens, The Middlesized Garden’s The Sand Garden and The End of Peat from Hortweek.
And the best of the podcasts….
And in the world of horticultural journalism, HortWeek is a subscription-only online magazine for professionals in the horticultural industry – so unless you’re in the business, probably not a candidate for your 2025 Christmas gardening gift list!
But they have a free podcast which covers major issues in horticulture and their End of Peat episode won Radio Broadcast & Podcast of the Year for a standout broadcast, tackling a difficult topic with real professionalism. The judges admired its depth, balance and determination to challenge assumptions while still offering solutions. The topic is one that ‘has bitterly divided’ the horticultural world.
Also short-listed for this award was Fay’s Yucca Plant, an episode of the Our Plant Stories podcast by Sally Flatman. Sally is a former BBC producer, who links the stories of a particular person’s plant to the history and expert care of that plant. Our Plant Stories has also been short-listed in other awards – definitely worth a listen.
And The Tender Shoots ‘Greenfulness’ podcast by Indy Rana was also short-listed. This podcast combines meditation and mindfulness with a gardening or nature theme. So it’s a little bit different.
Pin to remember 2025 Christmas gardening inspiration
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