The Best Gardening Books
Books on Gardening
Must-read Books for Garden Enthusiasts
We have long, cold winters here in Colorado, so I have plenty of time to think about my garden, to plan for the coming year, and to read about gardening. The following lists include the best gardening books for beginners and for knowledgable gardeners. There are top gardening books for growing vegetables, books with step-by-step instructions, memoirs and reflections for inspiration on a snowy day and comprehensive gardening books for urban or rural gardeners. Honestly, there’s a little bit of everything! And all of these authors utilize organic practices, too.
I will confess: there are a lot of British gardeners included here. And frankly, the British gardening culture is rich, complex, and has grappled with climate change, and gardening’s roles both as a contributor to (see peat-free gardening, for example) and as a part of a solution to climate change (see wildlife gardening) far better than we have in North America. So I lean heavily, but not exclusively, on British garden writers.
That said: location is everything in gardening! And while I have gardened in multiple states and zones and climates, I can’t authoritatively recommend good location-specific gardening books for every part of North America. So I will say this: enjoy these books AND invest in a book about gardening in your own area, too. Check with your local botanical gardens for location-specific recommendations.
Gardening Guides with the Basics
No gardener is born knowing everything! And one of the best ways to learn, is to have solid reference books at hand so that when a question or a problem arises, you have a quick, fact-based solution at hand. And you don’t need all of these books. Just one or two will serve you well. The Complete Gardener and The Gardening Book are both great places to start — written by Monty Don, a venerable gardener — flowers and vegetables — and a good writer, too. They are my go-to volumes for the basics. Carol Klein’s book is a fabulous guide to propagating plants — learning to grow from seeds, cuttings, and other means of creating more plants for free. This is a tremendous skill that all gardeners should have which is both sustainable and easier on the wallet. Kate Flood’s excellent book about composting is a fabulous guide to starting or restarting a composting habit. I can’t recommend it enough!
Gardening Books for Growing Vegetables
While I do grow vegetables, that isn’t the primary focus in my garden. But many people only think of gardening as growing vegetables (I disagree, but to each their own). I include books by Charles Dowding and Huw Richards. If you are a vegetable gardener and focused on self-sufficiency, they both have great tools and ideas for that kind of intensive growing. I started vegetable gardening with Square Foot Gardening and still use most of those principles today in my veggie patches.
Garden Design
Garden design is different from landscaping. We sometimes use those words interchangably, but garden design is more thoughtful, intentional, and careful. Adam Frost is a British garden designer whose books have great ideas, advice, and tips for creating beautiful and functional gardens. Kelly Norris’ book, New Naturalism, is very theoretical and full of inspriation, but short on practical tips. Benjamin Vogt’s book, Prairie Up, is much more practical with advice about how to start from scratch and install a naturalistic garden on a large or small scale. I used both in designing the Wildlife Garden, and Adam Frost’s books are my go-to for the rest of our gardens.
Books about Plants
Sometimes you need specifics about a type of plant or a type of planting. These are four of my favorites — filled with inspiration and information. I keep Advolly Richmond’s A Short History of Flowers in my purse. The sections are short and easy to read on the go, but it is rich with stories and information about some of our favorite plants — and some new discoveries, too. Beth Chatto was a British garden designer who coined the phrase “the right plant in the right place.” Her books are fabulous when thinking about planting in hard, dry places. The Nature of Oaks is a fabulous read which will have you running out to plant oak trees immediately. And if you love container gardening, and I absolutely do, Sarah Raven’s book about gardening in pots will have you planning out your next year filled with flowers in no time!
Books about Backyard Orchards & Fruit Trees
A few years ago, I began a huge project: a backyard orchard! It has been a fabulous success due, in part, to these four books. I have planted lots of apples, but also other fruit trees — all kept small using the pruning techniques in Ann Ralph’s book. And I’m even growing two espalier trees — and thinking about where I could grow more!
Gardening Literature
I love memoirs, and memoirs by gardeners are particularly special. These are some of my favorite recent reads. I highly recommend them!
Books about Wildlife Gardening
Gardening has a place in stopping species collapse, sequestering carbon, and supporting biodiversity on a very local level. And frankly, doing so as gardeners is imperative. These four books are great resources that both make the case for why we should change our gardening practices and how to do so, too.
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