Melanie McDonagh in the great outdoors

Speed reading

It’s hard to think that a book about hedgelaying could be captivating, but I promise, Of Thorn and Briar: A Year with the West Country Hedgelayer (Simon and Schuster, £20; Tablet price £18) is pure delight, augmented by Robin Mackenzie’s evocative prints. By the end of it, you see the hedgelayer as a romantic being – at least, Paul Lamb is. He moves from farm to farm in the West Country, laying and maintaining hedges the old way: pleaching branches growing out of the ground, laying them diagonally, one over the other, and binding them together with smooth hazel rods. It’s skilled labour, and it’s rare in modern farming. After describing his bucolic existence – though he does the job in winter – he says he’d like to settle down and teach others the skill. He should.

Poppy Okotcha’s A Wilder Way (Bloomsbury, £18.99; Tablet price £17.09) is another lyrical account of relationship with the soil, but it’s nature experienced in a garden in Devon. It’s a magical place with old apple trees and a chicken run, where she practises regenerative gardening, returning as much as possible to the soil, and working with it. You read it and want to rush out and compost. She’s a bit of a pagan – Nick Groom’s The Seasons might usefully remind her of the Christian cycle of the seasons – but inspirational with it.

For those who simply want a beautiful garden, Jo Thompson’s The New Romantic Garden (Rizzoli, £38.95; Tablet price £35.05) is a good place to start. It’s a look at 30 lovely ones she’s designed with an eye to beauty and sustainability. Plenty of ideas here for planting schemes for more modest spaces. Garden porn.