Books worth reading, practical composting gear, propagation gifts and useful things for gardeners. We favour things that help you grow more, waste less and avoid buying garden clutter with aspirations.
These books helped inspire subjects in Aletheia Waste to Garden. The Aletheia knowledge library is independently written and fact-checked rather than being a reproduction of either book.
Simon Akeroyd • DK • 2026
75 ideas for turning discarded household objects and materials into useful garden projects. This is the main inspiration for the app's GROW and REUSE directions.
Ken Thompson • DK • 2007
Project Editor: Annelise Evans. A major inspiration for the COMPOST section: ingredients, compost biology, methods, bins, wormeries, troubleshooting and using finished compost.
Current and recent DK / Bookshop gardening bestsellers and closely related titles. Availability and prices change, so the buttons go to live retailer pages rather than freezing a price here.
Simon Akeroyd
40 ways to grow plants from supermarket food and kitchen leftovers. Particularly relevant to the GROW knowledge section.
Simon Akeroyd
More than 100 garden hacks covering low-cost growing, reuse, watering and propagation. Another strong candidate for future Aletheia checking.
Anya Lautenbach
Container gardening, reusing everyday objects, conserving compost and water, and propagating plants for free.
Anya Lautenbach
Month-by-month low-cost gardening ideas. Useful companion territory for seasonal Waste to Garden suggestions.
Anya Lautenbach
Propagation, seed-saving, reusing garden waste and getting more plants without continually buying replacements.
Huw Richards & Sam Cooper
A broader food-growing choice for readers who want to move from kitchen-scrap experiments toward productive home growing.
A deliberately practical list: things that help gardeners compost, propagate or save seed rather than ornaments destined to develop a complicated relationship with the shed.
Composting worms, bedding and starter materials. Good for someone who already owns a wormery or wants to understand vermicomposting hands-on.
A compact worm-based kitchen-waste composting system for gardens, allotments or smaller outdoor spaces.
Seed envelopes, dibber, labels and pencil in a reusable tin. A neat fit with the Waste to Garden principle of saving the next generation rather than buying it again.
A small collection of practical propagation tools including snips, thermometer, labels, twine, gloves and biodegradable pots.
A reusable wooden seed tray with twine, labels and snips. Practical enough to escape the novelty-gift drawer.
A compact buried system for feeding kitchen scraps to composting worms with minimal visible hardware above ground.
These are books where Annelise Evans appears explicitly in the credits. Older editions may be unavailable new, so some links point to current editions or searches.
Credit: Project Editor
Credit: Project Editor
Credit: Senior Editor
Credit: Project Editor
Credit: Editorial help acknowledged by DK
Credit: Additional Editorial Assistance
Credit: Editor, with Jenny Hendy
The RHS is one of the main horticultural sources used when Aletheia checks gardening claims, so it deserves its own useful corner here. These are ordinary links for now; tracked affiliate links can be substituted after an account is approved.
Weekly seasonal advice, horticultural research, practical growing guidance and interviews with RHS experts, scientists, growers and designers.
RHS currently promotes a member refer-a-friend scheme. Its special-offers page advertises a £10 voucher for a successful referral; the scheme is operated using Mention Me and offers can change.
The RHS has a public affiliate programme on Awin (merchant ID 2273). The current programme listing gives a 30-day attribution period, 10% commission on annual Individual and Joint memberships, and 1% on gift membership. Flower-show tickets, garden sales and retail sales are listed as non-commissionable.
The affiliate page on RHS Plants currently points to the Crocus affiliate programme on Awin. Crocus currently lists 10% commission on plants and 7% on products, with a 30-day attribution period. That could suit the practical gift and plant links on this page once approved.
Bookshop.org UK, RHS Membership and Crocus/RHS Plants all provide possible affiliate routes. The links in this build remain ordinary links until Aletheia / Swindon.org.uk is approved for the relevant programmes. Once approved, the resource page can swap in tracked links without changing the recommendations themselves.
Resource links and availability checked September 2026. Retail prices, stock and offers change. Third-party product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.