It's a great shop. And not a bad little garden out the back either...

THE Royal Horticultural Society garden at Harlow Carr, on the edge of Harrogate, is about a lot more than plants - it's turning into one of the region's more interesting shopping venues.

The book shop stocks the biggest collection of gardening books in the north. Worth going for that alone. It also has a pretty good selection of other books too, while next door is the plant centre, of course, and a gift shop that sells things you'd actually want to buy for yourself. Add to that a Bettys café and free parking and you can see the appeal.

And that's before you start on the gardens.

Harlow Carr is the most northerly of the RHS gardens - 58 acres with a shallow valley in the middle, an exposed site, with a lot of rain, extreme temperatures and an acid soil due to the sulphur springs that made Harrogate's fortune as a spa.

Basically, if something will grow at Harlow Carr, it will probably grow anywhere - one of the reasons it is now home to the new Gardeners' Question Time garden in the north.

And when it comes to gardening, the book shop's got it covered.

"We try to have everything from books for people new to gardening to the very technical books on particular plants. You'd be surprised how obsessive people can get sometimes. If they get interested in a particular plant, they really want to know all about it," says Juliet Slimming, book shop supervisor.

So there are books on everything from bamboos and bonsai to Zen gardens and any amount about lawns and roses. Basic books for basic beginners, (Allotted Time - two blokes, one shed, no idea), high tech gardens, low tech gardens, garden design, garden guides, garden history, the pleasure garden, the vegetable garden, women in gardening (Virgins, Weeders and Queens), royal gardens, English gardens and Japanese gardens and even 1001 gardens to see before you die - which probably wouldn't actually leave you much time for reading.

"But our biggest sellers at the moment are anything to do with growing vegetables. Lots more people are getting allotments or starting a vegetable plot," says Juliet.

The rest of the stock seems to follow logically on from gardening - flower arranging, cookery, interior design, natural history, local guides, travel, biography, anything to do with dogs and cats and plenty of light jokey books, though all, of course, in the best possible taste - they are aware of their core customer - and a selection of fiction.

"We tried it as an experiment and it's gone really well, probably because we have lots of visitors who are on holiday and are looking for a light read."

Almost as good as the gardening section is the children's book shop - lots of great titles - especially for tinies - cheerfully and easily displayed.

The books shop itself is a welcoming, light, open space. A huge bay window looks out over the gardens and the cushioned window seats are the perfect place to sample a few pages, a proper place not an afterthought.

"We have late night shopping evenings, with jazz band and Pimms. And local author Diane Setterfield had her book launch here on a lovely September evening. We'll have another book launch when our curator, Matthew Wilson, publishes his book."

The plant centre is everything you'd expect from Harlow Carr, but the other half of the shop is a bit of a revelation. True, it has many of the sort of usual things you can expect from posh garden centres - just about anything you like covered in roses, tulips and other flowers - but it also has a nice quirkiness and individuality.

As well as the fairly predictable Emma Bridgewater china, there's some interesting china and glassware, jewellery, hats, scarves, greetings cards, creams, potions and soaps and local food and products. And helpful assistants.

"We were absolutely packed out at Christmas," says Juliet. "It's such a good place for presents and so easy to shop here." One of the greetings cards features a raddled looking elderly lady, clutching a glass and saying: "You can't expect me to be in perfect shape - I've just had a grandchild".

But actually, these days, visitors at Harlow Carr are getting younger.

They come to shop, they stay for lunch and yes, many of them then go on to discover the gardens.