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13 Must-Have Books for Your Gardening Library

I love gardening books. Over the years my gardening library has grown to epic proportions and many of the books I reviewed for Big Blog of Gardening have become indispensable references season after season. Some have profoundly changed the way I think about gardening, soil, and plants, and the interdependence of all of the species that live in our communities.

Below are 13 of the most important books on gardening I’ve reviewed that now have a permanent place in my gardening library. By important, I mean that the book is either an essential reference or one that changed the way I think about my garden and the species (besides me) that depend on it. In any case, all of these books should be on your essential reading list. They’re in no particular order, as each gardening book has its unique merits.

Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy

also, The Living Landscape

Doug Tallamy and Rick Darke’s 2015 book, The Living Landscape, was a seminal work on the importance of restoring biodiversity to our local landscapes. In it, they called on homeowners to create larger gardens with native species, remove invasive species, and reduce the size of their lawns. In Nature’s Best Hope, Tallamy continued his argument that America’s obsession with clear-cut lawns and non-native plants is destroying the regional ecosystems that plants, insects, animals, and humans depend on. Read our reviews: Nature’s Best Hope, The Living Landscape.

living landscape doug tallamy

Growing Perennial Foods, A field guide to raising resilient herbs, fruits, and vegetables by Acadia Tucker

Growing Perennial Foods is squarely aimed at the beginning gardener with the basics on how to grow the most common perennial vegetables, fruits and herbs like raspberries, strawberries, beans, rhubarb, sage, sweet potato, tomato, peppers, lemon balm, and more. Many of these plants are thought of as annuals, but if you know how to overwinter them, they can be grown year after year, which defines them as perennials. Read our review.

Related Post:  How to Make Leaf Mold (Leaf Mulch)
growing perennial foods book review

Teaming With Nutrients by Jeff Lowenfels

also: Teaming With Microbes and Teaming with Fungi

The “Teaming” triad of books from Jeff Lowenfels are required reading for any gardener. Lowenfels’ impressive research reveals the breathtaking amount of life that occurs in your garden soil and how plants depend on us to maintain that ecological balance. These books will change your entire perspective on soil and plants. Read our reviews: Teaming With Nutrients, Teaming With Microbes, Teaming With Fungi.

teaming with nutrients jeff lowenfels

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

Pollan, one of America’s great writers on the intersection of food, plants, and social policy, explores how and why humans domesticated four plants: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. And how this domestication was at times less intentional and more of a co-evolution. While not a gardening book, per se, it will definitely help you understand the journey plants took from the wilds of jungles and forests and the top of the Andes, to your backyard. Read our review.

michael pollan botany of desire book

The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Ed Smith

Ed Smith’s classic gardening book provides step-by-step instructions for building your raised garden beds, ideas on garden design, interplanting tips, crop rotation, cold frame gardening, soil conditioning, dealing with pest problems, and growing the most common garden vegetables. Read our review.

vegetable gardener's bible

Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon

Talk about illuminating. Capon, a professor of botany, breaks down complex plant processes into easy-to-understand concepts. Honestly, this book took my understanding of plants to an entirely new level without paying for a college course. Botany For Gardeners will help you understand why plants do what they do in your garden. Read our review.

botany for gardeners brian capon book

Backyard Berry Book / Backyard Orchardist by Stella Otto

Stella Otto is a professional horticulturist and former orchard and farm market owner who’s grown just about every fruit possible. In The Backyard Berry Book and The Backyard Orchardist, she shares her expertise in simple, clear terms that the novice gardener will understand and the intermediate gardener will appreciate. Each book is full of illustrations, charts, and specific instructions for growing the most common fruits in North America. Read our reviews.

Related Post:  Organic Gardening's Physical Health, Mental Health, Financial, and Environmental Benefits
backyard berry book review

Gardening For The Birds by George Adams

Gardening For The Birds opened my eyes to why and how I need to invite birds into my garden and backyard and not chase them away. It’s a great reference book with general guidelines for attracting birds to your garden, the best native plants for attracting birds, and a substantial bird directory with how best to attract specific species to your backyard. It’s also loaded with tons of photographs to make identification of visiting birds quick and simple. Read our review.

gardening for the birds book

Fresh From The Garden by John Whitman

John Whitman has been a professional grower and backyard vegetable gardener for better than fifty years, and it shows. In Fresh From The GardenAn Organic Guide to Growing Vegetables, Berries, and Herbs in Cold Climates, he shares his vast knowledge in a tome that could hold a tarp down in a hurricane. It’s packed with all you need to know for gardening anywhere in the U.S., where winters have freezing temperatures. Read our review.

fresh from the garden by john whitman
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