Is the gardening season coming to a close – and you’re left feeling a bit homesick for the growing experience already?
If so, don’t worry – you can still stay connected to your beloved plot by reading one of the best gardening books.
And if you’re a beginner, there’s plenty to love between the pages, too.
Gardening books provide a great introduction to the wide world of organic gardening – meaning it’s easy to learn the ropes even if you haven’t started digging your garden or planting in your raised beds yet.
So without further ado, here are some of the best gardening books you can read – regardless of your skill level or how much time you have to get started!
15 Best Gardening Books to Read ASAP
Ready to start learning?
Here are some of the best gardening books you can buy.
1. Best Gardening Book For Beginners: Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening
If you’re a newbie in the gardening world, then break in your gardening gloves with this book.
It’s published by gardening guru Rodale and is a comprehensive guidebook that all beginners should read.
No matter how simple or complicated your gardening questions might be, Rodale’s can answer them.
This book will give you all the knowledge you need to dive into gardening.
From the best ways to dig to how to plant a seed this time covers all the topics you need to get started – and it does so in easy-to-understand language.
Not only that, but it comes with fun garden layouts and plant projects you can try yourself at home, too. Cool!
2. Best Gardening Book For New Vegetable Gardeners: Vegetable Gardening for Beginners: A Simple Guide to Growing Vegetables At Home
If you’re brand new to vegetable gardening, never fear – Vegetable Gardening for Beginners: A Simple Guide to Growing Vegetables at Home by Jill McSheehy is just the book you need to read.
McSheehy is also the host of the podcast The Beginner’s Garden, so it’s easy to see that she knows what she’s doing!
You will walk away with all the knowledge you need to start your own plot, big or small, from how to build raised garden beds to mix up healthy soil.
3. Best Flower Gardening Book: The Flower Gardener’s Bible
You can probably deduce this just from the name alone but the Flower Gardener’s Bible is one of the best gardening books you can read if you’re interested in learning more about growing vibrant, gorgeous flowering plants.
From how to improve the soil to arranging your garden for the gorgeous display of color imaginable, this book will tell you everything you need to know to make a serious impact.
It’s great for beginners and advanced growers alike, so don’t be afraid to give it a read!
4. Best For Getting All the Knowledge in One Place: The Complete Gardener: A Practical, Imaginative Guide to Every Aspect of Gardening
The Complete Gardener: A Practical, Imaginative Guide to Every Aspect of Gardening by Monty Don is a great book to read if you don’t have time to read multiple volumes on how to garden – and want to get comprehensive knowledge all in one place.
This book will help you become a better gardener in just about every sense of the word. It has photographs to help you on your journey and is written by the lead or partner of the award-winning BBC television show Gardener’s World.
5. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
Best For More Experienced Veggie Gardeners
You won’t find a more comprehensive pick for vegetable gardeners than this book written by Edward C. Smith and available for sale on Amazon.
From how to grow basics like beefsteak tomatoes to more unique, unusual varieties of plants, this book on growing veggies is perfect for both beginners and experts alike.
The entire book is based on the premise of Smith’s one-of-a-kind, a revolutionary system of gardening known as W-O-R-D.
He promises that this system will work in all North American regions, with the acronym standing for wide rows, organic methods raised bed and deep soil.
With growing profiles for hundreds of different popular vegetables, you’ll find everything you need in this book to be successful.
6. Best Gardening Book For Aspiring Florists: Floret Farm’s Discovering Dahlias: A Guide to Growing and Arranging Magnificent Blooms
Despite the book’s title, this title isn’t just for gardeners who want to grow dahlias. It’s also a great choice for flower gardeners in general.
You’ll learn how to grow, cultivate, and arrange fresh dahlias and other plants.
Plus, you’ll learn how to cut and arrange these blooms so that they’re not just beautiful to look at – but you’ll also learn their many colors, varieties, and styles for a diverse arrangement every time.
7. Best For Gardeners With Limited Space: All New Square Foot Gardening II
Not all of us are blessed to have acres upon acres of space in which to grow our gardens. For those of us who are working with limited amounts of acreage, All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is the book to read.
The techniques described in this book aren’t new by any means, but they are just as useful now as they were in the 1980s, when they were first developed. You’ll find that gardening in a limited space is easier than you could ever possibly imagine – there are no complicated tools or methods required!
8. Best For Environmentally Conscious Gardeners: New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden
New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden is a top pick if you’re curious about how you can design a more sustainable garden in your own backyard.
It explores the myriad ways a garden can foster environmental changes while encouraging a diversity of plants and wildlife in your own space.
There’s plenty of advice and ideas here to help you get started, even if you happen to live in an urban setting.
9. The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual
Best For Indoor Growers
If aloe vera and the snake plant are the type of plants you love growing the best then this gardening book is a great pick.
Written by Barbara Pleasant, it gives detailed growing advice on more than 150 different types of houseplants.
As you likely know if you’ve ever tried to grow plants indoors, keeping houseplants alive is a different beast than keeping plants alive outside.
With this book, you won’t have to worry about a thing – it will walk you through everything you need to know to be successful at (finally) cultivating that indoor green thumb.
10. Best For Companion Planting: Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty
If you’ve heard anything about companion planting, you are probably already aware that this technique can work wonders for your garden.
Planting vegetables and flowers alongside one another is a great way to increase your yields while fighting garden pests and diseases – without having to resort to chemicals.
In this book, written by Lisa Mason Ziegler, you’ll learn everything you need to know about this essential organic gardening technique, from how to enhance pollination to how you can take advantage of companion growing to brighten up your space.
11. Best For Vertical Growers: Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening is a great option for growers with limited space as well as those who just don’t want to waste lots of horizontal space on their gardens.
In Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space, by Derek Fell, you will learn all that you need to know to grow many different varieties of climbing plants.
It provides fantastic alternatives to traditional growing methods and makes it easy for any gardener to follow this advice.
It’s one of the best books for beginners who want to take advantage of this novel gardening style!
Whether it’s pergolas for patios, trellises, or skyscraper gardeners, this gardening book will tell you everything you need to know.
12. Grow Cook Nourish
Best For Home Chefs
Many of us start gardening to enhance the time we spend outdoors and the time spent in the kitchen.
This hefty tome comes with more than 500 recipes to teach you how to cook and serve your bountiful harvest.
You’ll also get detailed information on growing conditions, heirloom cultivars, planting seasons, fertilization guides, and much more.
The detailed recipes alone are reason enough to invest in this book!
If you’re interested in creating a deeper connection between growing your own produce and using that product in real life, this long book by Darina Allen is the best gardening book for you.
13. Best For Organic Gardening: Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control
If you’re interested in learning how to prevent pests and diseases without ever having to use any kind of chemicals, this book by Jessica Walliser is the way to go.
It’s a great gardening book for beginners but also has enough information and details to be compelling for more experienced gardeners.
The book won an award from the American Horticultural Society in 2015 for how it detailed how invasive pests could be avoided by encouraging pollinators and insect carnivores in the garden.
You can learn a thing or two about organic gardening and DIY pest control from reading this book!
14. Best For Kids and Parents: Roots, Shoots, Buckets, & Boots: Gardening Together with Children
If you’ve been dreaming of ways you can get your kids just as passionate about gardening as you are, you’ll want to give this read ago.
It contains a detailed guide on how you can teach your children to love the great outdoors just as much as you do.
Not only that, but it also gives readers some fun ideas on how they can implement nature-based projects outdoors, too.
For example, you can grow a wheel-shaped garden, and each separate “slice” of the wheel is used to grow an ingredient that would be an essential component of a pizza – like tomatoes, basil, or garlic.
There are plenty of tips and advice on how to grow plants that are easy for kids to keep alive, too (like lettuce and green beans). You’ll get detailed growing information for these plants and learn new ways to get kids involved.
Who knows – after reading this book, you just might be able to convince your kid to eat a vegetable, too finally!
15. Best For Year-Round Gardeners: The New Organic Grower
Many of us take advantage of the late spring and summer months to grow our own food, but what if a gardening book could teach you how to grow your own organic produce 365 days of the year?
If that’s what you’re searching for, you’ll find it in this top gardening book by Eliot Coleman.
Coleman is a leader in the small-scale organic gardening movement.
This book draws upon his experiences to give insights on how gardeners of all levels of experience can grow and maintain their small farms even during what we used to consider the “off-season.”
Best Gardening Books – Summary
When it comes to gaining gardening experience, most of us think about tasks like planting lots of seeds, mastering your fertilizing regimen, and learning how to build the perfect compost pile with lots of chicken manure as the top things we need to know how to do.
However, you can gain valuable gardening knowledge and experience in another way, too – by reading. Take advantage of the many gardening books that are out there.
By choosing the best gardening books for your goals, you can achieve a backyard garden that is beautiful, bountiful, and above all, perfect for meeting your needs (and filling your belly, too!).
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