Have you ever heard of learning by doing? This was the first approach I took to gardening: a sort of trial-and-error epic adventure of many failures and a handful of successes. Then, I figured out that sometimes, it’s way better to turn to expert advice. The truth is, no-one has a natural green thumb. What we do have is access to the best gardening books available, and that’s how I managed to turn both of my thumbs green… with no more failures.
Here’s our list of 20 fabulous gardening books that are ideal for novice and expert gardeners alike.
1. Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening
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This is a beginner’s guide to organic gardening—something that sounds a lot more intimidating than it actually is. It’s only when you don’t know where to begin that the subject seems overwhelming.
That’s why this guidebook is so useful. It’s geared specifically towards beginners, so you don’t have to know technical terms or advanced skills to actually use the methods and tips provided in the text. This book has specific information about gardening techniques and step-by-step instructions. You’ll also find out what you need to know about compost, pest control, and weeds, and how to manage it all using organic methods.
It even has a flower, vegetable, and herb finder that makes it easy to access information about specific plants. The troubleshooting section makes it easy to manage common garden problems, and there are examples of garden layouts to make landscape designing easier.
2. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, 2nd Edition
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Want to experiment with new gardening techniques and unusual vegetable varieties? This book will help you learn more advanced growing tips and tricks, including planting in raised beds and in deep soil. Written to provide tips for high-yield gardening, this book includes profiles of hundreds of different vegetables and information about how to grow them.
While the text covers several advanced growing skills, this book was written for gardeners of all levels. That includes novices who are learning how to plant and grow their own food for the first time.
3. All New Square Foot Gardening II
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This is “The Revolutionary Way to Grow More in Less Space,” according to the subtitle. Every gardener wants more space, but short of buying extra property, all you can do is maximize what you’ve got. This book teaches you how to use all sorts of hacks to get more out of the space you already have. You’ll get tips for vertical gardening, and even suggestions on how to get kids involved in gardening activities. The text is accompanied by full-color images.
4. The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual
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Who says you need an outdoor space to garden? Learn how to grow more than 160 indoor plants with this great manual. This book was written by a master gardener to help you learn the best ways to bring nature indoors. It’s filled with information about many different houseplants, with detailed profiles that provide expert tips about growing needs and troubleshooting.
5. Plants You Can’t Kill
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This is an essential book for newbie gardeners who need to build confidence and convince themselves that yes, they can grow plants. This book has more than 100 easy-to-grow shrubs, flowers, and vegetables that beginners can grow without too much time and trouble. Even if you’re a little neglectful or you’ve been accused of having a black thumb, you’ll find that you can make your garden grow beautifully with the tips and plant recommendations provided in here.
This book is all about tough plants—and only tough plants—so you’ll actually have to do a lot more than skip a few days’ worth of watering to do any damage to them.
6. Epic Tomatoes
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From the most casual to the most extensive home gardens, one plant is almost omnipresent: the tomato. They’re one of the most popular garden plants of all time, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to grow. If you’re tired of wild-looking tomato plants that produce very little fruit, this book just might save your garden. It’ll teach you everything you need to know about growing more than 200 tomato varieties, through every phase of planting and caring for them.
There’s even a comprehensive guide to common tomato pests and diseases, as well as tips on how to avoid them entirely. As a bonus, this book has gorgeous photographs accompanying the text.
7. The Gardener’s Year
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I used to think of gardening as a spring and summer hobby, but expert gardeners know that it’s actually a 12-month activity. This book explains what you should be doing in your garden on a month-by-month basis. It explains that if you aren’t working out there every month, you’re behind the curve. This book will teach you what to do for your lawn, trees, shrubs, climbing plants, flowers, container plants, vegetables, herbs, and fruits, and even provides tips for water gardens and greenhouses. The text is arranged as an easy-to-use reference guide, so you can locate the exact information you need with quick, at-a-glance monthly tables. Along with text, you’ll find color photographs and step-by-step diagrams.
8. Homegrown Pantry
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If you can grow tomatoes and peppers in summertime and a few squashes in fall, why not enjoy the fruits of your labor year-round? Well, with this book, you can. It was written for intermediate gardeners who want to enjoy homemade preserves from their pantry all year. You’ll learn how to grow a variety of edible plants, including beets and beans, and how to grow enough to stock your pantry with food to eat every day of the year. The text provides tips for using specific growing methods, as well as information about which food plant varieties you should grow to suit your family’s needs.
9. The Flower Gardener’s Bible
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Flowers add beauty to any garden, and help make ordinary gardens extraordinary. This book teaches you how to add gorgeous color to your space throughout the growing season, so your yard will truly stand apart. This in-depth book covers everything you ever wanted to know about growing flowers, from choosing the site to getting more life out of your plants. You’ll learn how to battle pests, improve your soil, and get more color out of all your blooms.
Everyone, from beginners to the most seasoned flower gardeners, can learn from the tips provided in this book.
10. Gaia’s Garden
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Permaculture isn’t something that’s only for large-scale farms: it’s a holistic approach that can be used in any outdoor space. This is one of the best gardening books about permaculture techniques, and can teach you how to use them to make your home garden flourish. Using the tips in this book, you won’t just create a backyard garden: you’ll create an entire ecosystem.
Gaia’s Garden offers advice on how to catch and conserve water to make your garden more self-sustaining, as well as how to maintain soil fertility. It has designs for building habitats for beneficial birds, insects, and animals, and even offers tips for growing edible forests. Best of all, it also includes gardening techniques for those who have a limited amount of gardening space.
11. Planting
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Gardens can be used to produce food and flowers for you to enjoy all year, but it’s a garden’sdesign that makes your yard look exceptional. Find out what you need to know about landscape design with this book, which teaches you how to use ecology to create an amazing outdoor space. You’ll get tips about choosing plants based on color, structure, and texture, so you can cultivate a garden masterpiece of your own.
12. Let it Rot!
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This is known as the “Gardener’s Guide to Composting,” and is one of the most informative books for your gardening library. This tome will teach you everything you need to know about turning yard waste and kitchen scraps into nourishment for your garden. You’ll spend a lot less on fertilizer, and keep your garden healthier with the scraps that would otherwise be headed to the dump.
13. Vegetables Love Flowers
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As your gardening skills grow, you’re going to want to start thinking about a more advanced gardening technique: companion planting. Since the earliest days of domestic agriculture, companion planting has been used to enhance food plant yields. This book can teach you how to intermix vegetables and flowers into one thriving garden.
The text breaks down and simplifies companion planting to teach you how to get more from your vegetable plants. In addition, you’ll find specific examples of which species work together symbiotically, and which plants are right for your growing zone.
14. Good Bug Bad Bug
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This book is a virtual who’s-who of garden bugs, helping you to identify the insects you’ll find in your own backyard. Every gardener needs to know that not every bug is a bad bug. Learn how to spot the beneficial insects in your garden, and create an environment that’s more hospitable to them. You don’t need chemicals to manage pests when you have this book as a resource. You’ll be able to make a home for the good bugs, and cultivate a much healthier garden as a result.
15. Container Gardening
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Container gardening allows you to grow plants anywhere: on your deck, on patios, even right on your front porch. You aren’t limited to the amount of yard you have, only to the amount of space that’s available to use. This book even teaches you how to move plants from the ground and into containers, so you can place them anywhere you want. You’ll discover expert tips about which plants grow well together, and how to use container gardening to its greatest potential. Additionally, many of the book’s contributing writers have also been published in “Fine Gardening” magazine.
16. Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales
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Straw bale gardening may be an advanced gardening technique, but it’s also surprisingly easy to do. You’ll be amazed at how much food you can grow in a limited amount of space, and the helpful step-by-step instructions in this book make it easy for you to try straw bale gardening in your own yard. Read it to find out how to grow your own veggies using only a little bit of fertilizer, a bale of straw, and a handful of seeds.
17. The Thoughtful Gardener
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This book was written by a landscape designer, and can teach you how to create a gorgeous garden that’s both beautiful and practical. Having designed more than 250 gardens around the world, the author has countless tips and tricks to share so that anyone can use her strategies to design any type of garden, from calm and romantic, to rustic, or formal, and countless other themes in between.
18. Bees
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Beesis an American Horticulture Society award winner that shows you how you can actually improve the environment by gardening. Aimed at gardeners in the USA, it has extensive advice onwhat to grow to support bee populations in each state. By doing so, you’ll be making the world a better place just by being out in your garden. Futhermore, this book is illustrated with beautiful images that give you step-by-step advice for your bee-friendly garden.
19. The Dry Garden
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Water is becoming more scarce, and the weather just keeps getting hotter. Learn how to make that dry heat work for your garden with the tips in this brilliant book. Gardeners everywhere need to know how to use dry-garden techniques to conserve water and create thriving green spaces, even in low-water conditions.
20. The Fruit Gardener’s Bible
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Intimidated by the thought of growing your own fruit at home? So are a lot of gardeners. No matter how successful you are with vegetables, there’s something daunting about growing fruit in your own backyard. This book will help you take the guesswork and the fear out of what’s actually a pretty simple process. It’ll teach you how to grow your own apples, blueberries, grapes, melons, and more, with guidance on everything from planting and pruning to harvesting.
The Best Gardening Books for Building Your Reference Bookshelf
Did you find this list of gardening books useful? Together, these books can teach you everything you need to know to master multiple gardening techniques. You’ll get the most out of both outdoor and indoor growing spaces, and grow all kinds of bountiful, beautiful plants. Trial and error is all well and good, but with these references, you can devote your time to growing a thriving, abundant garden instead.
