Weekend Gardening Update: Small offering

'THE big book for small spaces' is how Graham Rice describes his Complete Small Garden (Macmillan, pounds 9.99), a compendium of advice written by a man who tests his theories personally before he passes them on to his readers. The text is broken up into bite-sized pieces and the information is crisp and lucid. Everything a beginner needs to know is here. The book assumes very little horticultural knowledge, and the plant lists carve through mounds of possibilities. There are excellent sections on taking over existing gardens ('If you do nothing else in your first year but cut the grass and weed the borders, you'll have had a very constructive year') and making instant splashes in new ones. This is a worthy successor to Lucas Phillips's classic The Small Garden (Pan pounds 5.99).