Gardening Books

I’ve been working on upping my gardening game this past year. First on my list was to rip up some grass in front of our house that just wasn’t happy and expand our flower beds. We did that about a month ago and I’m very happy to report that everything is still alive! I’m considering that a win and moving on to planting some herbs and vegetables. Because we have so many deer in our area, we can only plant anything delicious in a protected area, and the only fence we have on our property is the one that surrounds our pool, so I decided to get some pots and a raised bed and do a mini vegetable garden right by where we keep our grill, which also happens to be a place that get lots of lovely sun. I though I’d share the books that have been helping me in case anyone else is a beginner gardener waiting to get started!

Rodale's Basic Organic Gardening.jpeg — Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening

This has everything that you need to know to get started. They’ll even give you a blueprint for a garden, like The Cook’s Herb Garden, and tell you exactly how to lay it out and how many of each type of plant you’ll need. Plus, they do step by step care instructions for a huge variety of plants and troubleshooting ideas if you run into any problems with straggly plants or pests.

Beginner Gardening.jpeg — Beginner Gardening: Step by Step

This has amazing step by step photo guides for all of their projects from pruning roses to building your own raised bed. The detailed how-to guides are very clear and helpful for everything from planting herbs from seed to making your own compost. It made me want to get out and building my own tomato climbers, plus it has tips for everything from cutting back grasses to picking small trees that are right for your space.

Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening.jpeg — Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening

If you want to get inspired to branch out and plant more exotic flowers, this is definitely the book to try. It has gorgeous photography and shares planting and care suggestions for a wide range of flowers, but I found the section about peonies to be particularly helpful, as I’m trying to expand that area of the garden, but I’m very intimidated by them. It shares very manageable amounts of information and also breaks the blooms down by season, which I loved.

Usborne Gardening for Beginners.jpeg — Gardening for Beginners

Such a cute book for children who want to learn to garden, but it gave me a lot of tips as a novice adult as well. If your kids have any interest in gardening, the ideas in this book from building a Tumbling Tomato Garden to growing Air Plants, will definitely stoke their creative imaginations.