With autumn comes books, lots of them. Celebrity autobiographies, new novels from top-notch authors and, best of all, a plethora of gardening books.

This year is no exception, so if you're short on inspiration as to what to do with your green space, just step into a book shop or a well-stocked garden centre to check out the new titles which you can buy now or put on your Christmas list.

There's everything from creating a new style to month-by-month guides on what you should be doing at any particular time and how to do it. Here's just a few of the best...

:: Sarah Raven's Cutting Garden Journal (Frances Lincoln, £14.99): An ideal Christmas present for those who like to keep tabs on what's coming up in their garden when. This month-by-month journal of her first book, The Cutting Edge, is reborn with space to make notes of jobs to do, what's in flower and other snippets of information you might need to note down. It features flowers of the month, along with advice on how to sow, grow and cut, establishing helpful monthly checklists. Beautifully presented in hardback, it's not too bulky and ideal as a point of reference.

:: Cultivating Garden Style by Rochelle Greayer (Timber Press, £25): Whether your style is Enchanted Bohemian, Playful Pop, or somewhere in between, this book will help you identify your look, pick furniture and accessories, and create a space that feels definitively yours. Featuring the latest trends and state-of-the-art products, it's for gardeners who want to make their outdoor spaces exciting and innovative.

Gardeners' World: The Veg Growers Almanac: Month By Month Planning And Planting by Martyn Cox (BBC Books, Oct 16, £9.99): With sage advice from old Gardeners' World hands, coupled with tips on the best varieties to grow and timely advice on how best to look after your plot, this attractive collection blends practical advice with evocative writing and fascinating facts. Illustrated throughout with charming drawings and sketches.

:: The Writer's Garden by Jackie Bennett (Frances Lincoln, Oct 2, £25): This glorious tome for gardeners, history buffs and enthusiastic readers alike reveals some of the lesser-known facts about famous authors and their fascination with gardens. Charles Dickens was a keen gardener and loved scarlet pelargoniums, while Roald Dahl loved orchids. Featuring landscapes ranging from Virginia Woolf's rural Sussex idyll to Beatrix Potter's hill-top farm in the Lake District, Bennett examines how the poet, writer or novelist derive a creative spirit from their gardens.

:: The Gardener's Year (Dorling Kindersley, £20): You never have to wonder what you should be doing in the garden month-by-month because this practical, easy-to-use book will give you all the information you need. Packed with timely tips and helpful advice, it's full of planting ideas, reminders and how-tos for every season and area of the garden, including beds, borders and patios, and features an at-a-glance calendar showing each month's jobs, including sowing, planting, watering, feeding, pruning and harvesting, plus illustrated step-by-steps of key techniques flag up handy gardening tips that can make all the difference.

:: The English Country House Garden by George Plumptre (Frances Lincoln, £25): This beautiful book could happily grace any coffee table with its wonderful pictures of English country house gardens of the 21st century. From the famed gardens of Hidcote, Sissinghurst and Great Dixter to the most dynamic modern creations from Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith and Dan Pearson, the author treads a fascinating path through time across 25 of the most charismatic gardens, to show both the history of the landscapes and the idylls of contemporary designers.

BEST OF THE BUNCH - Chrysanthemum

Garden centres are awash with them at this time of year, as chrysanthemums make an ideal fill-in plant for the patio or border before winter sets in. They come in an array of colours, from white to burgundy, and yet in recent years have become less fashionable despite their cheeriness. The pot-grown dwarf varieties make a colourful container display for six to eight weeks. If you have terracotta pots, choose burnt oranges, yellows and deep bronzes to echo other autumn flowers and leaves.

Old-fashioned cottage types prefer well-prepared borders, in plenty of sun, while non-hardy types should be lifted after the first frost and stored in a frost-free place for winter.

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT - Celery

It may be a more challenging veg for the average gardener, but the crisp texture and wonderful flavour of celery you've grown yourself far outweighs any you'll find in a supermarket.

Celery is best grown in a vegetable patch and prefers an open site with a rich, fertile soil that holds moisture well, with plenty of added organic matter. If the soil is acid, you'll need to add lime to raise the pH to 7.0 (neutral).

Grow celery in blocks, with an edging of raised boards to stop the stems being turned green by the light. Sow seeds under heated glass between mid-March and early April. They need light to germinate, so sow them on the surface of the compost and cover them lightly with vermiculite. When they have four to six leaves, thin them out and harden them off after the last frosts.

Keep the plants well watered in dry weather, and with self-blanching celery, tuck straw between the plants which form the outside lines of the bed. Harvesting should begin in August and end before the first frosts.

Good varieties include 'Victoria', 'Lathom Self-Blanching' and 'Pink Champagne', one of the few pink self-blanching varieties.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

:: Cover rows of perpetual (autumn) varieties of strawberries with cloches or horticultural fleece at night to help them ripen.

:: Continue to plant up containers for winter displays, including cyclamen, winter-flowering heathers and pansies for colour.

:: Lift tender perennials such as osteospermums, argyranthemums and fuchsias for over-wintering.

:: Re-pot arum lilies for winter flowering under glass, using John Innes No. 3 potting compost, placing three in a 20-23cm (8-9in) pot. Store them in the greenhouse or indoors.

:: Remove any rubbish that has built up at the base of climbers in the summer to allow winter rain to reach the soil below.

:: Order new trees, bushes or cane fruits now.

:: Plant garlic outdoors in mild areas in light, well-dug soil. In cold areas or where the soil is heavy, start it off in modular trays.

:: Sow grass seed now, which should germinate in two to three weeks.

:: Reduce the watering and feeding of house and conservatory plants, as growth slows down and flowering stops.

:: Take hardwood cuttings from roses.

:: Harvest any remaining runner and broad beans before the first frosts.