We all have our own favourite gardening reference books - but each year a new batch of them tempts us into bookstores in the autumn, just in time for Christmas. I don't know about you, but I usually end up referring back to my old favourites.

The Expert series by Dr DG Hessayon (Expert Books) is always a good bet, providing down-to-earth guides to plants, lawns, roses etc, plus tips for best results and pictures of perfect examples.

Other mainstays include the late but great Geoff Hamilton, the down-to-earth hands-on gardening man who never let fame go to his head during his Gardeners' World days and remains the best of the bunch.

His memory continues with the publication of Geoff Hamilton: The Complete Gardener (Headline, £20) by his twin brother, Tony Hamilton, a tribute which brings his ideas and philosophies into sharp focus.

Listeners to BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time are likely to enjoy a book detailing the show's 400 most-asked questions, although reading about the problems isn't quite as interesting as listening to them. But it's a nice gift for fans (Orion, £16.99).

A variety of persistent pests may be squashed if you read Plant Problems by another celebrity gardener, Stefan Buczacki (David & Charles, £20), who answers all pest-related dilemmas from blackspot to weevils and weeds, how to prevent them and if there are any ways to conquer the problems once they have set in.

Any book which encourages birds, butterflies, bees, hedgehogs, frogs and newts into their garden must be a welcome addition, bearing in mind that scientists have warned that we could be facing eco-disaster as 400 species of insects have disappeared during the last century and many more are under threat.

Back in 1985 environmental campaigner Chris Baines gave us How To Make A Wildlife Garden (Frances Lincoln, £14.99) and the new edition includes changes that have taken place in the past 15 years. For me, Gardeners' World Practical Gardening Course from Geoff Hamilton (BBC Worldwide, £12.99) is the definitive guide to gardening for the beginner, covering everything from which tools you need to compost-making, rockery-building and border success.

Alan Titchmarsh's Complete Book Of Gardening (BBC Worldwide, £19.99) is also a good bet as it includes an A-Z of all manner of shrubs, trees, roses and other plants, categorising them into season, plus a section on location gardening, showing how to succeed with problem soils or extremes of climate.

Most of these all-purpose gardening books include diary sections on jobs you should be doing month by month, but none is as all-encompassing or informative as Reader's Digest New Gardening Year (£19.95), which is the most detailed gardeners' diary I have read to date. It is listed in month-by-month order, highlighting the jobs that won't wait, particular chores for individual plants depending on the month, sections on vegetables, garden maintenance, cuttings and containers among many other things. If you want to keep track of all the things you need to do to your garden during the year, this must be the best time to buy.

Reader's Digest also has a new practical guide to low-maintenance gardening called Short Cuts To Great Gardens (£24.99), an excellent, easy-to-follow read with useful sidebars detailing things like top perennials for containers, easy-care herbs and successful colour schemes. It also has some useful problem solvers and tips for quick results, which even the most experienced gardener might find useful.

However, this book is really for people who don't have as much time as they would like to tend their garden but want good results. I have found it extremely useful. There are, of course, what I call coffee table gardening books - those full of pictures of amazing gardens, many of them illustrating minimalist, contemporary, state-of-the-art designs, all steel and glass gravel with the odd agave thrown in for good measure.

As a practical gardener who prefers greenery to glass, I tend to steer clear of these as their use when you are busy getting your hands dirty is limited. Other books which concentrate on specific plants such as roses tend to be more suitable for the enthusiast. Whatever you choose, have a good read over the festive season.

GARDENING CHORES

Cover vulnerable plants outdoors with cloches or fleece if frost is forecast.

Clean and take in pots and troughs which are not frost-hardy.

Sow broad beans in sheltered conditions and free-draining soil.

Bring lilies for forcing into the heat around 13 weeks before flower is required.

Lift and divide herbaceous plants.

Divide chives where they have been growing for three years.

Feed winter cherries with liquid manure.

Line your greenhouse with bubble

polythene to reduce heat loss.

Remove dead or diseased branches of trees and check fences and trellis are secure enough to withstand high winds.